It’s been more than 6 months since I went for a mountain
bike ride. So I decided to break the
hiatus with a proper ride. Of the peaks
higher than 14,000 (4,200 m) in California only one has a 4x4 track to the
summit. I have never thought to hike up
White Mountain Peak. Who wants to hike
up a sketchy dirt road? Yeah it’s a
fourteener, but hiking a 4x4 road just doesn’t seem very much fun. Now, mountain biking that same road does seem
like a really good idea. So on Friday I
drove up to the Bristlecone Pine forest.
I love that place. The vegetation
is minimal, the colors subtle, it’s a very special place full of trees that
predate the time of Abraham - by more than 1,000 years. Think about that for a moment. The
trailhead is above timberline, at 11,600 ft.
I spent the night sleeping on the ground without a tent. The moon set early, about 23:30. Being at elevation and waking frequently I
was treated to a sky alight with stars.
It’s easy to forget just how bright a cloudless night can be when you live
in the city. 
Saturday morning I woke and heated up some lentil soup and
made a mug of espresso. There were a
dozen or so hikers that began before I got on the trail. The ride uphill was as much walking my bike
as it was riding. Pushing a bike is much
slower than hiking. But I didn’t
mind. I was looking forward to the
descent. The White Mountains are a
beautiful place so it is a beautiful hike, despite the 4x4 track. I finally locked up my bike when I had to
leave the dirt road close to the summit.
There are still a few large snow drifts blocking the path. When I reached the weather station at the top
there was only one other person there and he departed before I did. It is always a bit magical to be alone on the
summit of a mountain. That is probably
one of my happiest places to be, alone on a mountain top. 
Making my way back to my bike I was looking at a 7 mile ride
dropping 4,400 ft. The path is rocky,
some of it loose, some patches of sand, some serious exposure in spots. As I mentioned it has been a while since I
was on a bike. What is more I have not
ridden hard since I broke my clavicle two years ago on a ride. So this was a chance to relearn a rusty skill
set. Riding down steep rocky terrain can
be a bit unnerving. If you only ride on
roads of rolling terrain then you probably don’t think too much about how you
use the brakes on a bike. But when you
are riding down a steep, fast section, of rocky, loose 4x4 trail how you use
your brakes is suddenly at the forefront of your thoughts. The front brake scrubs speed much faster but
apply it in on a soft section and you can end up in the air in front of the
bike. Too much rear brake and the back
end begins sliding about. Flying through
a rock garden or over drops and it’s best to let go of braking and concentrate
on picking the best line. This takes
faith because it is not what your mind wants.
You look ahead and see a challenging section and your mind is telling
you: slow down! But when you come up on
it quick all you can do is let go of the brakes and aim until you get past the
bumps. It’s fun but also nerve
racking.
Needless to say the return to the truck much faster than the
ascent. What a wonderful way to begin a
Saturday. On my way out of the Whites I
stopped at the Patriarch Grove. This is
the home to the oldest known living Bristlecone Pine. You can’t drive all the way to the normal
parking lot due to snow drifts so I struck out on foot to snap a few
pictures. The slope was steep and rocky
as I moved about snapping pics. At one
point I sat down to change lenses. As I
was removing the telephoto from my Nikon my wide angle zoom rolled out of my
camera bag and I watched it roll slowly down the rocks until it stopped about
10 feet below me. There was nothing I
could to but watch. Retrieving it, I
found it wouldn’t auto focus any longer, but while it does manually focus it
won’t talk to the camera. Oh, then there
is the little rattling sound that now comes from it. Oops.
So it goes.
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