Still it seems to keep rebuilding that thick web coming out of the fork after daily damage from riding so it seems to be surviving well enough. But I’ll be a little sad when the day comes that the web stops getting rebuilt. 😢

I was so happy to be back in the #desert that I took an extra unnecessary rest day camped out on this bit of BLM land just enjoying the quiet isolation.
#BikeSky #BicycleTravel #Mojave

Continuing north on CA14 brought me through Red Rock Canyon State Park and its beautiful layered red rock cliffs.
#BikeSky #BicycleTravel #California #Mojave #Desert

My first time in the #Mojave was around Joshua Tree and crossing the #desert to Arizona, & that was rather different: rockier & with less vegetation. This part is much more about wide valleys full of brush and occasional salt flats or sand dunes (or both, as Death Valley will show)
#BikeSky

Tehachapi is in a high desert bowl at the top of the southern end of the Sierra Nevada. There are wind farms, railroads, and scrub vegetation. Down the west side goes back to San Joaquin Valley. Down the east side leads to the Mojave Desert.
#BikeSky #BicycleTravel #California

Did have to educate a cop that despite being a freeway, bicycles ARE allowed there. I was able to use CycleOSM.org to show him exactly where bicycles were allowed vs not allowed on that road.

First time I’ve been pulled over on this trip.😁
2/2
#BikeSky #BicycleTravel

I skirted around Bakersfield to the north making my way towards Kern River Campground in Lake Ming County Park. The area wasn’t really desert; just dry from lack of rain and it being autumn and all.
#BikeSky #BicycleTravel #California

I like how its color scheme makes finding bike routes at a glance easier, and I like that its offline maps are truly offline. I can be in the middle of mountains with no signal for days and still route plan and navigate.

I just wish they’d improve this aspect. 5/5
#BikeSky #BicycleTravel #Mapy

…or maybe even that Mapy, being a Czech company, doesn’t have good data on what roads in the US are unpaved or bicycles allowed. Regardless, it’s annoying to have to fight this when route planning and navigating.

DESPITE this, #Mapy still remains my favorite #bicycle navigation app. 4/5
#BikeSky

…my phone mounted on my handlebars and see how far to my next waypoint or real turn only to be shown nonsense routes that override that info. I don’t know if it’s a bug in the app (I’ve submitted feedback) or if it’s just overly aggressive at avoiding high traffic roads…3/5
#BikeSky #BicycleTravel

You can clearly see in the image above that #Mapy kept trying to route me off the main road and into the unpaved private property. This despite my routing being set to “road bike”. Obviously I’m smart enough to ignore the suggestions but it’s frustrating when I want to glance at…2/5
#BikeSky

Indeed! I definitely let them stay on for too long. I’d actually bought replacements a few days before heading towards Yosemite but I just kept putting off doing the replacing. Finally, in the wet weather, it was so bad it was actively dangerous trying to brake on the downhills.😅

At this point I was getting tired of spending most of my days walking up mountains & riding down rough dangerous narrow backroads on the other side. So I decided to skip Sequoia National Park & head down the San Joaquin Valley to cross the Sierra Nevada at Tehachapi. 3/3
#BikeSky #BicycleTravel

…they asked the if I wanted any help, so I asked for a ride to the top. They went beyond that & took me out for lunch & let me stay at their place which was a welcome break. Super cool of them! That kind of stranger kindness isn’t uncommon in my #BicycleTravel but precious all the same. 2/3
#BikeSky

*rest of the DAY

Sigh. Getting really sick of autocorrect swapping in a different word when I already have the correct word written. Stop thinking/calculating you know better than me! 😡