Day 274: Hiking and Biking the Alabama Hills

Out of curiosity, I overlaid the biggest local climb back home, up Perkins drive to the top of Bear Mountain, on top of yesterday’s climb up Whitney Portal.  Perkins climb is to scale and in purple below:

image

This afternoon, after homeschool, we went for a short hike in the Alabama Hills in search of Mobius Arch.  The cactus were blooming:

Day274_01

At last we found the arch:

Day274_02

Day274_03

Day274_04

We found smaller arches as well:

Day274_05

Day274_06

This was the first blooming Cholla we’ve ever seen:

Day274_07

After the hike, we put the knobby tires on the bikes and went for a ride amongst the hills.  Some sections were pretty tough, but we had a great time:

Day274_08

Another beautiful day in the Alabama Hills:

Day274_09

Day274_10

Day274_11

Day 273: Hors Catégorie to Whitney Portal

Wow, what a difference a day makes, it was just beautiful today:

Day273_01

Day273_02

In homeschool, B graphed the results from a poll she did:

Day273_03

Wheat free cookies were baked:

Day273_04

And quilt squares were made from worn out clothing:

Day273_05

After homeschool, I rode my first hors categorie climb – 4,700 feet of vertical over 12 miles to reach the top of Whitney Portal. The climb is #5 in California’s 10 toughest climbs and is said to be more difficult than the Tour De France’s Col du Toumalet.  The last 500 feet of vertical were really tough, and despite being on the edge of multiple muscle cramps I managed to ride non-stop to the top:

Day273_06

I took a couple photos on the way down:

Day273_07

Meanwhile, back at the RV, Trish and the kids worked on some art.  B’s painting is on the left, the other two are Tricia’s:

Day273_08

I think I’ll go to bed early tonight, hopefully I can walk tomorrow.

Day 271: Into the Sierras

Today we drove down to Lone Pine.  Not a bad view from the visitor center parking lot:

Day271_01

After doing a bit of shopping in town, we headed up Whitney Portal road and pulled off into the Alabama Hills were we found a nice dispersed camping spot.  The views from here are incredible:

Day271_02

Day271_03

One of the front landing gear tubes was splitting, so I cut off the last inch or so to stop the split from running all the way up the tube.  Here’s the piece I cut off, notice how the tube is “unzipping” at the corners:

Day271_05

With that piece cut off, the tube looks good where it attaches to the landing gear plate:

Day271_04

Did I mention the amazing views?

Day271_07

Day271_08

B is learning about polls and surveys in math class.  Trish put her survey question on Facebook, and B graphed the results:

Day271_09

We installed the kids’ homemade tables, and also installed the hanging furniture under the bed.  We will be installing a tension rod on the underside so the kids can hang up their clothes there:

Day271_10