Bakersfield or bust!

Made it to Bakersfield, in a longer day than intended.

Flagstaff was still snow and ice when we left, and travel was slowed on I-40 till Seligman or beyond. Then it gradually began to warm up as we got lower in elevation, the highway cleared and we were able to move along. By the time we had lunch in Needles, the temperature was in the 50s and it was shirt-sleeve weather. 

Then we hit the mountains east of Tehachapi ... in a few miles and minutes, the temp was down to 34 degrees, the wind was cold and there was a frosting of snow on the hills around us. The view above, with windmills on the crest of the hills, shows the weird, shifting patterns of clouds and sunlight we saw till we were out of Tehachapi and on to Bakersfield. Beautiful, rosy sunset colors painting the clouds and showing through in spotlighted areas where there were holes in the clouds.

We saw a billboard advertising a good price for a new La Quinta Inn in Tehachapi. We must have spent 45 minutes wandering around Tehachapi, asking people where it was, getting sent to the wrong places ... even folks at the post office knew nothing about it. Never saw a directional sign, never saw a big sign that you could see from a distance. We finally gave up and went on to Bakersfield and, after we got in the room and checked the La Quinta Web site; found them listing a location that must be in the only part of Tehachapi we did NOT search! 

Anyway, the snow and light and clouds were fascinating to see and that was a good part of our journey. It looks bright, clear and sunny this morning, so the rest of our journey to Stockton should be lovely. Sandy has suggested taking 99 instead of I-5 and, being in no hurry, that sounds like a more interesting route.

Good/bad news ... We got word from Mancos that now we have SO MUCH snow that the avalanche danger on a part of the Mush course is high enough that we will have to cancel the 40-mile run we were planning each of the two days ... just two 30-mile runs for a total race of 60 miles. That cuts down the variety of challenge a bit, but it raises the prizes for the mushers and, for spectators, it should have the effect of compressing the finish times ... more teams coming in closer together.

Of course, the implication for those of us who live in the Mancos Valley and rely on snowpack for our water is that, if the snow continues through February and March (usually our period of greatest snowfall), we will be in good shape water-wise next summer. For those who aren't familiar with the Mancos Valley, the Town of Mancos, Mesa Verde National Park and all of us domestic and agricultural users in the valley depend for our water on the rain and snowmelt that runs off the La Plata Mountains. TV