02 Yosemite
We left Palo Alto at the crack of dawn (well OK, not quite) to beat the turbulance over the mountains. Our route took us over Yosemite National Park…

03 Sierras
over the Sierras, across Tioga Pass…

04 Eastern Sierra
and down the Owens Valley on the eastern side of the Sierra mountain range.

05 O2
Nerdy pilot toys? It's not pretty, but Patti will take her Aerox O2 system over a handheld GPS any day. Of course one of each would be even better.

06 Bishop Landing
After much discussion we'd chosen Bishop over Mammoth for the first leg (density altitude at Mammoth was questionable - lack of food was also a factor). Bishop turned out to be a great fuel stop for both us and the airplanes. Harry and Marco got there first to document Patti's less-than-perfect landing. (Thanks guys.)

07 Bishop Group
A happy crew after breakfast at the Sierra Wings Restaurant.

08 Bishop Group 2
Snow in the background, but it was already in the 90s by the time we started out on our second leg.

09 Lowest
Furnace Creek is the lowest elevation airport in the continental United States. Navigation through the numerous MOAs and restricted areas between Bishop and Furnace Creek was aided by flight following from Joshua Approach. Fighter jets, KC-10 refuelers, and B1-B bombers were zipping around somewhere above us sporting callsigns like "Nightmare 11." Nick and Jason looked for them but we never saw a single one.

10 116 Degrees
When we arrived at the Furnace Creek Ranch it was 116 degrees in the shade!

11 Chilling
We immediately hit the pool, which was more like a solar heated hot tub. We had all day to do nothing so Nick told us the long version of his inverted-flat-spin-in-the-Yak story.

12 Death Valley
The wildflowers were already gone for the season, but the desolate landscape has its own harsh charm.

13 Wagon
The museum hosts an old wagon once used to haul borax by mule train. We had to take about a dozen pictures here.

14 Death Valley Preflight
Day 2. As the morning temperature rose past 100F we started our preflight. Jason piloted the XP for the return trip.

15 All Packed
Packed up and ready to head home from Death Valley.

16 Jalopy
The flight home included a lunch stop at Kern Valley Airport near Lake Isabella at the mouth of the Kern River, an inspiration for future WVFC trips with camping, rafting and other water sports. We used the Kern Valley Airport "rental car" for a couple hours to get to town and take a quick tour of the lake. This was no Hertz rental, though; more like an old jalopy from the 70s with plenty of rust and legroom and patches of what looked like asbestos fluttering out of the ceiling liner. But this 4-door California cruiser fit Marco just fine for checking out Lake Isabella.

17 The Crew
One last shot of the crew at Lake Isabella before we headed back to Palo Alto. It was such a smooth ride up the valley Patti fell asleep for most of the way while Nick and Jason fiddled with the XP's classic Nav-O-Matic autopilot. We touched down Friday afternoon just in time for the club's weekly BBQ… but that's another story.