Epic Ebbetts!

Markleeville has got to have some of the best road riding in the World. World class. Sigh. I did bring my camera--unfortunately I didn't check the batteries and they were dead. In any case, there is no way to capture the beauty of this place on film. Even Ansel Adams would be challenged to do that--still, next time we go I will check the batteries first.

After a couple of weeks of building a decent base of "cycling legs", I set out to do both Monitor and Ebbetts today. Just to be safe though, I rode up Ebbett's first, (in case I only did one). The climb begins at about 5000' and tops out at 8730' (where you cross over the Toiyoba Forest and into the Stanislaus Forest. ). Ebbett's is surrounded by two higher mountains, Raymond Peak (11,010') and Highland Peak (10,934') and the road that is carved into the side of the mountain is pristine. The snow is melting and I didn't even see any until I got passed 7500'. There are waterfalls everywhere. The only sound I heard was the rushing water down the mountain and a random bird chirp! It's amazing to go from the high desert to the Alpine climbs.

About 700 feet from the top, there is an Alpine Lake nestled into the mountain rock which is still frozen and has snow on top---but I was riding in shorts and a jersey (of course, climbing uphill keeps your body temperature up) and there were waterfalls of snow melt pouring in. Once I passed the Smokey the Bear sign, I descended a bit to about Pacific Grade Summit, and decided to head back up and then down.

At the bottom of the pass, I saw Mike heading up (he did both sides of Monitor as a warm up). So I figured I had some time and decided to fill up on water and try Monitor. These two passes are so different---yet right next door to each other..Monitor is like a "moon climb" and Ebbett's is Alpine. Monitor may not be as high (8315'), but it is always a tougher climb for me for some reason.

Amazingly, a couple of hours later, Mike and I arrived back at the foot of the pass within seconds of each other. We both just smiled, said "good timing", and followed it up with "this place RULES!". Thoughts begin to pour into our head about buying a Euro-Van so we can come and camp on the passes and ride forever. And of course we're entertaining the thought of buying a house sometime again, somewhere around here! We really like it!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!