Snowkiting, driving home

We had read about "the best breakfast in town" in the Rockfax Staying in Bishop Guide, and on it's recommendation spent twenty minutes wandering around bishop looking for a breakfast place which is apparently not even in business anymore. No matter though, as we went to Schat's Bäkkêrÿ for some asiago bread, fritters, and various other baked goods. I've avoided Schat's for a while because of the gratuituous use of an umlaut over the "Y" as well as the additional "k", despite all the gushing about fantastic breads that I've read. I grew up in Berkeley -- home of Acme bread -- and lived in france for almost four years, so I just assumed that all the praise was relative to other offerings in america and that I would be underwhelmed. To my surprise though, their sourdough was excellent, as was everything else I tried. Interestingly, the original Schat was apparently taught how to make his signature product -- Sheepherders bread -- by Basque shepherds in the early 1900's.

Back at the hotel, we packed up and took a few minutes to watch birds peck at detritus that had blown onto the frozen swimming pool

nothin like a good detritus peck.

We drove back up 395, cursing the lack of snow along the way (there was wind, too!) and stopped to take pictures of Topaz lake.

We also saw some (presumably drunk) fishermen crash their boat into the ice encrusted shore of the lake.

After crossing into the Sierra on route 88, we stopped at what I later discovered was near one of the major snowkiting areas in the Tahoe area: Hope Valley. We were actually at the small cross country area at the intersection of 88 and 89 called Sorensens rather than Hope Valley itself. Despite the weak winds, I managed to move about twenty feet under wind power

but only after a LOT of patience and effort by Chloe -- THANK YOU CHLOE!!! There was so little wind that the kite would drop out of the sky and I wouldn't be able to launch without her!


From Sorensons, it was finally time to go back to berkeley. I can't wait to go back!