Bob on Pedal the Peaks 2007

Better Food

Please visit October 19 slideshow.

Steve Whelan drove Jim Duncan, Rick Campbell and me to Bakersfield on October 18. We got to the Bakersfield Best Western Crystal Palace around 8:00 PM. Steve and I shared a room here and for the next three nights. We decided to go to the Lengthwise Brewing Company for dinner. It was a good choice for a creamy nitro port and spicy fish tacos.

Getting Ready to Ride


The Peloton


The Day's Elevation Profile

The next morning we got up before 6:30 and made it over to the motel's restaurant for its free breakfast. Anticipating a hard day's riding, I had oatmeal and toast with my coffee. We got a kick out of a couple of signs at the restaurant. We were glad that its food is better than that at the bowling alley, but we wondered about the pork vegetarian soup.

We got on the road (or at least, the sidewalk) at 9:00, pedaled to the bike path and got lost when the bike path turned to dirt. It was interesting that 14 experienced cyclists couldn't decide which way to go. So we asked directions from an Hispanic laborer who was delivering port-a-potties. He, of course, got us back on route. We missed the first sag stop, but the sags caught up to us after awhile.

The ride after the bike path took us past several oil fields. The weather was clear and sunny but slightly cool. We warmed up as we went over lots of rollers. The general direction was east, north and up. We had lunch on the side of the road at the intersection of Granite Rd and Woody Granite Rd. Dennis had all of the sandwich supplies, chips, dips, fruit and drinks set up on a long table. This repeated itself for the next three days.

After lunch, we left the oil fields behind and began to climb more steadily. We wandered through several canyons. At Glenville, we began our major ascent to Greenhorn Summit at 6100 feet. After that was done, we had a screaming descent through Wofford Hts to Lake Isabella. From there it was an easy stroll into Kernville and the Kernville Inn. My ride statistics were 70 miles and 8000 feet of climbing. This differs from other riders because of the times we drove one of the sags.

I shared a room with Steve. It had two bedrooms and a kitchen. I slept comfortably in the second small bedroom which had two queen-sized beds wedged into it.

Kernville is an interesting town. It is on the Kern River which is a world-class kayaking river. It is next to Lake Isabella which is a destination for Southern California windsurfers. There is nearby hiking, fly fishing and mountain biking. Lots of sports activities. The woman that co-owns the Kern River Brewing Company is a silver medalist in kayaking in the 2004 Olympics. We all had dinner tonight in That's Italian. It has good pasta and tasty chianti.

The map of our route is below. To see it in Google Earth, follow this link.