Today we started riding in our 13th country of the tour: the USA.  We are heading north up the Sierras and will be riding through some of the most beautiful countryside in the world: Yosemite, Tahoe, Lassen, and Crater Lake to name a few. We are generally following the Adventure Cycling Sierra Cascade route.   The ride today is best summed up in a few pictures.

Janet’s brother, Paul, graciously dropped us off at our starting point in Lake Isabella (thank you Paul).  We packed up our bikes and headed out to the metropolis of Lake Isabella.

We were thrilled to meet at least four sets of Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) through-hikers taking a break in a town before heading up the next long section.  We weren’t able to get pictures with all of them – but we managed to get a few:

Robert – Pacific Crest Trail Through Hiker

We decided to ride away from Lake Isabella as fast as we could  – it wasn’t exactly our ideal landing place for a first night back on the road.  A few kilometers down the road we met our first snake…a California King Snake – apparently harmless and eats rattlesnakes – so I guess as snakes go, he’s a good guy.

Lovely little King snake on the road- 10 minutes into our ride.

We entered the Sequoia National Forest on bright, hot, dry and blustery day.  Luckily, the wind was in our favor – we finally had a tailwind even if it was only for 17 kilometers.

Sequoia National Forest – it was as hot and dry as it looks 🙂

We made it to the absolutely lovely village of Kernville and immediately went for a dip in the Kern River – a fast way to cool off.

Welcome to the blue sky of Kernville

Our watering hole on the Kern River.

Kern River – water level markers.

Guess you should be careful what you ask for – in Tasmania we were wishing for warmth and sunshine – now we have the feeling we might be hoping for a little cooler weather along the way.

Enjoying the ride.