Hack-bbatical 2021 Finishing The Business On Horseshoe Meadow

After a tough day on Mineral King, I still had a 4.5 hour drive to my cabin in Lone Pine where I would stage for my ascent on the final climb to be able to claim I had climbed the 10 hardest cycling climbs in California. Since I had no rental place by the afternoon, I found a hotel and used their lobby bathroom to wipe myself down with baby wipes until I felt reasonably fresh and smelled like a happy diaper. It would be a little more pleasurable in the Subaru for the long drive now.

As I rolled into Lone Pine late at night I saw a plume of smoke coming from the mountain in front of my cabin. It was a significant enough plume to put a big question mark on my ride the next day due to a fire I would learn was up Whitney Portal just North of the Horseshoe Meadow route.

Horseshoe Meadow is the #2 hardest climb in California. I attempted this climb in 2018 and had to abort the mission. I was well into the climb when I came to a section where the road was cut into the mountain with the main mountain on the right and some of the rest of the mountain on the left. It was a windy day and that cut into the mountain created the opportunity to become a wind tunnel. The wind came through that section so hard it almost knocked me off my bike. I dismounted, and tried to walk forward but could not. That was how strong the wind was.

As I woke the next morning, the fire was going pretty good. The local radio station said that it was confined to that canyon-ish area that lead up to Whitney Portal. The whole area had been evacuated of campers and no one was being allowed up there. There were 185 fire fighters working on it, 3 helicopters and one fixed wing aircraft.

With smoke in the air, and some tired legs, I decided that chilling in my faux cabin was in order. It was in the high 90’s, it had air conditioning and the view was pretty great from the couch. I think I took not one but two naps that day listening to the local radio station and updates on the fire. A quality rest day indeed.

The next morning, it was my complete intention to ascend Horseshoe Meadow and get my revenge as long as the fire was not spewing smoke in that direction. At daybreak, I was impressed to see that the fire crews had really knocked it down. It was barely a smolder now. Time to ride!

I was ready to go early just in case the air was clear. In 2018 when I attempted this ride and it was hot early and I wanted to avoid another situation similar to Mineral King that would accelerate the draining of my resources.

The majority of the Horseshoe Meadow climb is visible from Highway 395. Giant, legendary switchbacks that have been carved into the mountain. It is a steep, formidable, rocky and East facing beast that heats up quick with the rising sun. It is always windy as well as there is little to shield you from any prevailing Owens Valley gusts that can be very substantial as described before.

The beginning of this climb was literally outside my faux cabin rental. I didn’t have to drive anywhere. Basically, roll out of bed, get on bike and ride uphill. Yes, it is uphill from the beginning much like the majority of these climbs.

The first uphill is a unique trip. The initial section is through a kind of wetland in the middle of the desert. The section after that is on a single lane road with a farm on the left, a farm on the right and a private pheasant club on the right as well. I must admit, I didn’t know pheasants liked hanging out in the desert. I am used to finding them in the Midwest in cornfields where I grew up. I suppose someone from Lone Pine who sees pheasants in Iowa would think the same thing about seeing them flying out of a harvested cornfield in the fall.

This road is called Lubkin Canyon and leads to Horseshoe Meadow Rd.

If you turn right on Horseshoe Meadow you go to Whitney Portal. As the photo shows, that was on fire with fire retardant already laid down by aircraft. Right was not the way to my end goal for sure.

If you go left, you ride it until you run out of road. Easy directions to follow. Can’t get lost. My kind of route.

The next section is kind of a desolate warm up for the switchbacks. It just trolls along the foot of the mountain with a steady incline, but no view. It gives you no love and no reward. Kind of like eating a plain rice cake.

Next, I made a right turn at the end of this and gracefully ride along the perimeter of the De La Cour Lavender Ranch. This is truly where the giant switchbacks begin.

At this point, the wind really kicked in. It was head on. I don’t think it is ever not windy on these switchbacks. Half of them you get the wind with you helping the climb and once you start the other direction, all of that advancement is lost.

Still on the first switchback, the first view of the Owens Valley from some sort of elevation presents itself. A very tragic view unfortunately.

If you didn’t know, since 1913 the city of Los Angeles has purchased the great majority of property in the Owens Valley. They use it to acquire water for the City of Los Angeles and send it through an aqueduct to the city. In other words, they steal it from the residents of this valley and use it in Los Angeles.

They basically have drained the 62 mile long Owens Lake which then creates dust storms full of toxic chemicals left behind for the residents of the area to inhale and deplete their health. I am sure I was getting my share that day as well.

Here is a photo of what the lake used to look like.

Here is the photo I took of the dry, toxic Owens Lake of today.

An interesting engineering note about the aqueduct is that once the water enters it, gravity takes it all the way to Los Angeles. There are no pumps. Pretty amazing while at the same time a very sad situation for those who live in the Owens Valley. You can read about the history of the fight for water in the Owens Valley if you click here.

From this point it is grind, grind, grind up Horseshoe Meadow Rd fighting the wind one way and loving the wind the other.

Finally, I came around this corner to see some life. A tree line! That must mean I am done with these switchbacks right? Wrong. It was cruel and deceiving. I could see miles more of these ahead of me. That being said, the temperature had now dropped about 15 degrees or more since I started the climb thanks to wind and elevation.

After a few of these turns, I came to the point of my aborted mission a few years back. It is marked by a large rock dedicated to a man named Walter G. Millet.

The following story appeared in the San Luis Obispo Tribune in 2012 by Larry Green:

Walter Millet was an employee of the contractor, Oberg Construction Co. of Northridge, on the first phase of the road. His job was to fuel the pioneering equipment (bulldozers, air compressors, etc.).

Walt was in his 60s, a very personable and friendly guy and perhaps the favorite of all the men on the project. That day, at about the 9,000-foot elevation, he stepped down off a bulldozer and fell to the ground, dead of a heart attack. This was before cellphones.

The foreman at the top had a radio, and I manned the base station at the bottom of the mountain. From the base station, I could communicate with another station in Lone Pine via an old U.S. Forest Service land line. An ambulance along with Dr. Donald Christenson was dispatched from Lone Pine. The road was not completed to Walt’s Point at that time. We had to pull the vehicle up the hill by chaining it to a bulldozer. Of course by this time nothing could help Walt.

This was the only fatality on the project, and it was the contractor that named it Walt’s Point and installed the brass memorial.

As I passed Walt’s Point, I was bracing for wind impact. Again, the last time I got to this point the wind was so strong I could not walk forward and continue the ride. With each stroke of the pedal I was waiting to be hit the same way I was then.

It was an interesting anticipation because you can see the other side through the cut in the mountain and you can see you are basically almost there. Almost to the final piece of the climb. In fact, there is some downhill immediately past the cut. It’s just baiting you in there.

To my surprise, there was virtually no wind back here. I sailed right through to the other side and caught the first piece of downhill since I started the climb hours before. At this point, I knew I was only a few minutes from checking the box on the last mountain to get me to that nice round number 10!

Sure enough, I rolled past the various small streams, Sequoia trees and even some Bristle Cones as well until I reached the end of the road. The end included parking for hikes, tired hikers, some definite van life folk and a walk-in campground.

As I stopped to bathe in in the moment of completing the 10 hardest cycling climbs in California, a few guys parked near me and congratulated me on the climb. They asked if I was doing any other climbs and I said I had been working on the ten hardest in California. They asked how many I had done. I announced to them that this was number 10 and they were there to witness the moment! They had a good laugh at that one.

I guess making Horseshoe Meadow number 10 was particularly sweet for me since I had a DNF originally and came back to get my revenge. It was originally only my second attempt at climbing any of the top 10 and I am proud I was not deterred. I kept my head down, kept moving forward, kept checking boxes and eventually came back to where it all started to finish that unfinished business.

There was no medal, no finish line with supporters, no announcer yelling myu name and no slices of pizza waiting for me at the finishers tent. Just the sound and smells of the mountain air. It was plenty of a reward to take in the accomplishment in peace with the natural surroundings that made the journey what it was and allowed me to challenge myself.

On the way back down, Horseshoe Meadow does provide some of the most amazing views in the top 10. Initially, the tree covered slopes give comfort which then give way to the long expanse of the Owens Valley. I always think that these views of the Owens Valley are like something that an animator would create for a film. It just doesn’t seem real.

Back on the valley floor, I turned right onto Lubkin Canyon again which signaled the final couple of miles to go. I was back onto the single lane farm road which led me back to the two farms.

This time, there were some furry spectators out to congratulate the conqueror of the 10 hardest cycling climbs in California.

I arrived shortly afterwards back at my cabin where I had already pre-loaded the Subaru with all my gear so I could make a quick exit up to Mammoth Lakes where I would be staying that evening. I wasn’t sure if I would be down by the time I was supposed to check out of the faux cabin so I prepared as if I would not meet the time deadline. That was a good prediction.

I had already had my immediate food reward set on Copper Top BBQ in Big Pine on the way up to Mammoth Lakes. It is legendary. However, I ate there last year and was not impressed. I thought I would give it a second shot. Unfortunately, I found they are open only Thursday through Sunday and it was Wednesday.

They had also moved to a new location down the street. The good news is that someone had taken their old location and continued to serve BBQ. I potentially could still get my BBQ fix!

It was now called Hugo’s BBQ! I stepped up to the window to order and I am pretty sure the guy inside wearing the cowboy hat with a friendly smile was Hugo.

Hugo was a smart man. He got this location and was totally playing off the former tenant. No need to replace that sign over the window where you order. That is needless overhead for the start-up Hugo’s. Let’s make some coin and then get to that later. One sign should be plenty!

I was pretty tired and hungry when I stepped up to the window. I think I basically said “ribs.” Hugo understood the need, didn’t ask too many questions, but offered plenty of smiles.

I took a picnic table out front and waited for my name to be called. It was easy to hear my name over the others since I was the only one who hadn’t been served yet.

Apparently, when you grunt “ribs” that means you are getting a rib plat with sides. I was ok with that. Hugo knows best. To my pleasurable surprise the rib meat immediately fell off the bone. The dinner roll was dense. The beans were tangy. And, the potato salad had some egg in it which we Midwesterners like and rarely find in California. I wasn’t missing the dry Copper Top BBQ ribs at all. It was a perfect 10 for finishing the 10 hardest cycling climbs in California.