Day 4

Where we go Today - over the mountains again from California back to Nevada to visit Yosemite National Park before we descend through an amazing mountain pass so we can cross the Nevada desert to Utah over the coming days. And we have our first crisis!

But first a little fun.

On the way into Jackson City I spotted a garden "furniture centre" that looked very interesting. So before we set off  over the mountains again we thought we would pay a visit.

 

So we met the guy behind this strange collection!

Bob being philosophical

What a good start to the day!

Now we head off to Yosemite National Park. It covers an area of over3,000 square kilometers. We leave Jackson City and approach from the western side of the Sierra Nevadas. It was designated as a World Heritage Site in 1984 and is internationally recognized for its spectacular granite cliffs, waterfalls,  and Giant Sequoia groves. Almost 95% of the park is just a beautiful wilderness.

It seems quite a short trip -just 76 miles but it is up and down a very high peak.  Tioga  Pass   (el. 9,943 ft. / 3,031 m.) is named after the Tioga Mine, whose name originated from a Mohawk term meaning "where it forks". This pass, like many other passes in the Sierra Nevada, has a gradual approach from the west and drops off to the east dramatically, losing more than 3,000 ft (914 m) by the time the road reaches U.S. Route 395. 

This is the first video unedited - about 5 minutes using the camera mounted on the bike - it was uploaded from the phone using HD resolution - if you have a slow connection - you can choose a lower resolution by clicking the cog on the lower right hand side  of the screen.

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The pass normally closes due to high snowfall, from around the end of October until the end of May .The weather was beautiful as we set out - but it gets very cold in the evening - as we were to find out later.

As we were going down the far side of the pass - I was going quite slow and Bob was having difficulty breathing due to lack of oxygen at the high altitude 10,000 feet. So Bob had to speed on down. I had no idea of the distance and it began to get cold and the light was fading - and the I ran out of petrol at 9,000 feet!! A mild panic set in - I did have a reserve tank - but no idea of its mileage -how cold does it get up here? etc. I saw the lights of a car approaching from below and stopped the bike -stood in the middle of the road and flagged it down. The young couple stopped and i explained my situation and they told me it was only 4 miles down to the town - which was actually at 8,000 feet. When I got down Bob was waiting at the crossroads and hadss secured the last motel room in town. The next motel was 50 miles on - whew!

Just before the crisis - I stopped and took this photo - amazing how on can traverse from bliss to blasted trouble.

Total distance to Date 489 miles