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Eastern Sierra Double Century

Eastern Sierra Double Century

June 01 2024
Bishop California USA
Date Confirmed
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Distances: 200 miles,10,100 feet
Difficulty: Extreme terrain with frequent steep hills and long sustained climb
Limited to: 500 or less Participants

The start/finish location of this double century takes place at the La Quinta Inn in Bishop, which is on the eastern side of the Sierra. The course covers 200 miles with 10,200 feet of elevation gain; the first half is front loaded with climbing, leaving the second half of the double with only 3000' of ascent. The time limit for this event is 18 hours.

A mass start through the city streets of Bishop will quickly head out of town. After a fast, flat warm up through the Owens River region, you’ll head north through the cattle ranches of Round Valley. Climbing up from Round Valley to Crowley Lake, the Old Sherwin Grade ascends through pinion pine and juniper woodlands while following Lower Rock Creek to enter Mono County and the heartland of the Eastern Sierra. After cresting Sherwin Grade, a rider friendly 1800′ climb, you are greeted by the startling views of Mt. Ritter and Mt. Banner, and the serrated ridge of the Minarets in the northern distance. North a few miles further awaits Lake Crowley and the grassy bed of Long Valley. Further north en route to Mammoth Lakes, you pass Hilton and McGee Creeks; the mouths of their canyons filled with huge glacial moraines empty into the valley from the Sierra high country.

Leaving Long Valley, you’ll quickly enter the town of Mammoth Lakes, famous for its world class ski resort. You’ll climb gently, but quickly, around the outskirts of town and head out of town and north via the Mammoth Scenic Drive. After a short climb cresting the 8,041′ summit of Deadman Pass, there’s a short downhill followed by a short easy climb to June Lake. Enjoy magnificent views of June Lake, Carson Peak, and the westward panorama reveals different dimensions with every blink of the eye.

Once you’re back on 395, hang on for a fast 15 miles, passing by June, Gull, Silver, and Grant Lakes as you enter “The Land of Mono”. Ringed by eerie tufa towers, volcanic craters, mountain peaks, and high desert silences, the saline waters of Mono Lake represent a million year old body of water. Mono Lake has no outlet; over the thousands of years of its existence, salts and minerals washed into the lake have become concentrated as waters have evaporated. Though Mono Lake has been called a “dead sea”, it actually abounds with life. No fish live in the lake, but populations of brine shrimp and brine flies adapted to the exceptionally high concentration of salts provide a plentiful food supply for more than seventy species of migratory and nesting birds. The “lunch” checkpoint with Subway sandwiches and all our usual wide variety of drinks and muchies await you at the Mono Lake County Park. At this point, you will have ridden 104 miles and ascended 7,200′.

Leaving Mono Lake, you’ll head south on Hwy 395 to Hwy 120 through the Mono Crater area. Take time to look around as you climb between these craters en route to the high plains at Sage Hen Summit, through red lava canyons into Benton, the Chalfant Valley and back to Bishop. This second half of the ride has only 3,000′ of ascent!

This course has 10,200 feet of elevation gain, more than half of which is between mile 30 and mile 70. As doubles go, it’s not that tough and the views and roads are so incredible, you won’t even notice the climbing that it does have!

Eastern Sierra Double Century

 
Start Located At: Bishop, CA 651 North Main Street Bishop, CA 93514 USA
 
 
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Lights and Gear Drop:
If you leave your lights at the start, your bag will be waiting for you at the Benton checkpoint. We do, however, encourage you to carry your lights yourself. That way if you need them, you’re guaranteed to have them.  If there’s any chance that you’ll be out past sunset, you MUST have both a headlight and a taillight attached to your bicycle, and you MUST wear a reflective ankle band on both legs.

Lunch Bag Drop:
Because we know some folks have special dietary needs (or are very particular about what they want), you may bring ONE lunch-sized brown paper bag (like the ones you took to school in 2nd grade; and absolutely no larger) filled with your special foods. Drop the bag off at the start, and we will deliver it to the lunch stop. These bags will be discarded when the lunch stop closes. So please make sure you pick up your bag, or don’t care that you won’t get it back.

Routing and Navigation:
Planet Ultra route sheets include lots of information to help riders navigate the course. For example, we tell you if a turn is at a stop sign (SS), traffic light (TL) or T-intersection (T-int). We know that riders prefer course markings; however, many of the towns/cities/counties specifically forbid it. Further, your Planet Ultra staff  travels to the event location the day before to make everything happen; so we can’t mark the course in advance. If we have the manpower, we’ll do our best to mark the course (unless it’s forbidden by our permits, otherwise illegal, somewhere that locals would be really upset about it, or the turn is at a place that’s very obvious, like a big green highway sign). Our experience is that riders get lost whether the course is marked or not; and fewer riders get lost when they’re mindful of where they are on the route sheet. Please understand and take responsibility for navigation.

 
Facilities
Parking
 
Support for Participants
Route Card
Emergency Contact No
Roving Mechanical Support
 
Features
Results Within 24 Hours
Downloadable GPS files
 
Nutrition
Feed / Aid Stations
Number of Aid Stations: 5
 
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