After riding the trails in the foothills of Mammoth Mountain the day before, we traveled down the highway a short distance to a town called Bishop. Big E downloaded trail coordinates to his GPS for a loop up a mountain called "Coyote Flats". This was a pretty tame trail until we got up around 8000 ft. up. Going uphill was tough enough, having to scale very large boulders - but downhill proved to be more of a challenge, do to the extremely steep grade. It was so steep that Big E and I were sliding down at an uncomfortable speed even with our engines off and brakes locked. Jon was the exception, who went ahead of us and waited for us at each turn. The views along the way were completely breathtaking. We came upon a pretty serene valley around 9000 ft. up (strange enough) complete with a small lake and winding creek. The strangest part was that as we approached the creek, we noticed a backpack (bakpak) and a New Balance running shoe. Perhaps the hiker couldn't out run a bear?
