Independence, CA
After loading
Sophia early in the AM I headed down to the local café/Lounge for
breakfast. There were only 6 folks in
there, and two of them were the waitress and cook. Everyone kinda gave me the once-look-over as
I picked a booth at the window giving me an unobstructed view of Sophia and all
my gear, With the CA and NV maps laid out on the table top, I began tracing the
route for today’s run from Caliente to Mammoth Lakes.
The waitress
came over and welcomed me to their restaurant with a smile, greeting, and
menu. Without looking at the menu I
ordered my favorite breakfast. I asked
for coffee, water, 2 eggs over medium, ham and hash browns with sourdough
toast. I was hungry from only eating a chicken
sandwich for dinner last night. The
waitress was a real sweetheart….the water and coffee appeared within 60 seconds
My original
plan was to depart Caliente for Tonopah via US-93 then head west on NV-375 to
Warm Springs where I connect onto US-6 towards Tonopah. From Tonopah I’ll continue on US-6 to Mammoth
Lakes where I will visit the Devil’s Postpile for another stamp on my CA Parks
Adventure Passport. This will be Nat’l
Park #7 for me with the goal to visit all 24 NPs in CA to meet the SCMA’s requirements. Then, after spending the night at Mammoth, I
would head south on US-395 to Manzanar NHS (location of the infamous Japanese
Internment) then further south and east into Death Valley NP. If time permitted I would then retrace my
route to Mammoth and spend another night there or camp the night in Death
Valley and head for San Jose the next day via Tioga Pass through Yosemite. It seemed like a good plan, but I was not
completely sold on it. Curiosity of an
alternate route was nagging me in the back of my pea brain.
