Day 5: Johannesburg, CA to Olancha, CA

Today's mileage: 70
Total mileage: 319

The ride out of Johannesburg started with a huge, fun descent for several miles. And like all huge, fun descents, it was followed by a brutal (2 mile) climb.

The rest of the day was a series of rolling hills through desert terrain much like the day before. What made everything better were the slightly cooler temperatures and the promise of water ahead.

Once again, Wesley took off like a bat out of hell and left Alpine and me in his dust. This day, we were lucky to find a really shady resting spot under a bridge, where the water of a now-dry river had washed the ground into a smooth comfortable place to stretch out for a few minutes.

The next stop was for lunch in Coso Junction, which was full of flies. Wesley had given up waiting for us after the first hour or so, and continued on to Olancha. As we were pulling out of Coso Junction, Wesley called to give us the option of pushing ahead an extra 25 miles to Lone Pine, because the only campground in Olancha was "just a patch of dirt"... but that sounded like crazy talk to me, especially because my butt was getting really sore by that point.

When we arrived at the campground in Olancha, we were very pleasantly surprised. The "patch of dirt" had a pool, showers, and laundry, as well as a store stocked with cold beer.

After a deliciously cool and refreshing dip in the pool and some much-needed bathing, we sat around and talked about aliens and other creatures that might come for us in the dark. We even saw some stars!