Father / Daughter dual sport ride to Mineral King

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My how time flys when you are having fun! It seems like just a few days ago when in reality it's been a little over 2 years that my then 18 year old son and I took a father/son dual sport ride to Mineral King. http://www.pashnit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17554
Fast forward 2 years and now my 17 year old daughter and I have the opportunity to make a similar father/daughter ride.

She's been riding dirt bikes for several years already when our family has make numerous camping trips to the desert near Ridgecrest to ride with other families with similar interests. The time has come to intoduce her to what the "dual" means in dual-sport so she recently added her motorcycle permit to her 1 1/2 year old drivers license. She is also signed up to start the MSF course in a couple of weeks, so the timing was perfect to impart a little of my 30+ years of riding experience to her.

We got our gear on and launched about mid morning hoping to get back home before the real heat of the early July day set in.


We took 2 lane country roads until getting onto hwy 198 and starting up the hills.


Shortly past Three Rivers is the turn off toward Mineral King.


Along the way we stopped to look at the old flume from many years ago.

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Shortly after stopping at the flume we came to the old bridge over the Kaweah river. Another prime place to stop and look around.




My how my little girl has grown up to become a beautiful young lady!

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Lots of water coming down the river into Kaweah lake.


Time to keep rolling up the hill.


A couple more stops before we get into the higher elevations.

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The snow covered peaks start coming into view.


It was about 11:30 so we stopped at Silver City for a break and some lunch.




Since it was the 4th of July the tables were decorated with U.S. flags.

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After a leisurly lunch we mounted back up and continued the last few miles to the end of the road. Everything was lush with green from the abundant spring rains that we had this year.






Sawtooth peak

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At the end of the road is the main valley with a beautiful stream running thru it. Very few people other than a few die hard campers and backpackers make the trek up here because the rough and narrow road. For those that do, the drive is definitely worth it!

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Along the stream there is a small cabin from around 1900 that is open to look at. Inside there are tools and utensils from the era along with numerous pictures. One such picture tells the story of how Walt Disney had a dream to purchase and create a beautiful ski resort here in the area. If that dream would have come into reality, thousands of people would have been able to enjoy the area instead of only the few that make the journey today. The idea was eventually snuffed out with the final note being when the area was added into the national park system.




Time to get back on the bikes and head for home.


Going down the hill the same way we came up.

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A couple of stops along the way down.




We had to stop a couple of places in Three Rivers to see the local sights.

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A couple of last stops along Kaweah Lake.




With the lake at near capacity the roads going "to" the boat ramps became the ramps themselves. Being that it was reaching the mid 90's by now jumping into the water would have felt pretty good


All in all it was a great day with my daughter! Just like the ride with my oldest son was. Need to slow down and spend more of these while I still have the opportunity. One more younger son to go. We'll have our ride to Mineral King in a couple years from now. In the mean time he loves riding his dirt bike.

[rachit]

vow.. beautiful trip there..!!!
hats off to you & your 'courageous' daughter..!! thanks for sharing