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Giulia +20 HP

4K views 13 replies 5 participants last post by  Pelatti 
#1 ·
Enjoy
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#3 ·
Bridgeport, Ca. That is my pasture, which I lease to Rock Creek Pack Outfit. The horses and mules are available for rent.
The pasture is nearly flat and has 2 water sources, the horses and mules appear to be pretty happy there as they can run around and just be horses.

For the record, horses will literally run across the pasture to claim a carrot. A grocery store bag of carrots was not nearly enough to reward the lot of them. Besides, two were very pushy while about half were cautious and would not come up to the fence and got frightened when I tossed a carrot in their direction. Several were more interested getting petted than the carrots.

The previous lessee got married on that exact spot (I have pictures) in hats and boots. Talk about a cow boy wedding...

Giulia is parked on a late 19th century logging road (there is a fairly large stand of Jeffrey Pines to the left of the image). I used a small electric lawn mower to trim the brush and grass down low enough so that Giulia could pass and nothing would catch fire. I was really surprised by how well a light weight electric lawn mower dealt with brush.

FWIW: The Tesla Gigafactory in Sparks is surrounded by wild horses.
 
#10 ·
Complex, easily seen and outstanding condition glacial moraines are found all around Twin Lakes. There is also the side trip to Bodie State Park. Much of that is on a gravel road, but it is well maintained and should be easily passable by Giulia as long as you take the modern turn off from US-395. The Bodie road and the Bodie/Aurora road (starts in Bridgeport) requires some ground clearance.
 
#9 ·
Thanks. Actually the view is much better from higher ground and without the smoke, but then I cannot get the horses next to the car.

Rock Creek has now taken the horses to their (more expensive, smaller) winter pasture now. The temperature dropped to 3F a couple of days ago, perhaps a bit cold for horses without shelter.

IMO US-395 is actually a pretty boring drive from a driving dynamics perspective. The views are good. The many side roads are something entirely different from both a driving and view perspective. A lot of the side roads are poorly graded dirt and require a lot of ground clearance, so not suitable for Giulia. However, the drive up to Virginia Lakes, around June Lake, up to the Bristle Cone Pine forest, and over to Convict Lake all are "must see" destinations, while SR-108 and SR-89 are both "must drive" roads.

I bought the car at Niello Alfa/Maserati in Sacto. They have since closed up shop on the complaint that neither brand was showing them a progressive way forward (hybrid or BEV, for example). My car is out of warranty and I do maintenance and minor work myself. For any heavy-lifting I plan to lean on Alfa Parts Exchange (A.P.E.) in Banta. It is a small one man shop, but the only independent modern Alfa shop that I know. A.P.E. is actually a wrecking yard and used part supplier, but he will work on cars by appointment. The dealers don't like my car much because of a number of mods. LMK if there are others, especially any that might be closer. I am really surprised that there are no dealers in the Reno and/or Carson City area.
 
#11 ·
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I was up here just a couple months ago..Bristle cone..since you mentioned that..but that was pre Giulia days...
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went to whitney portal too...both those roads, i think would be fun in the Giulia...there is just so much to see in the eastern Sierras...
you mentioned Bodie...not sure i am ready to take this car down too many dirt roads yet..i have not been there for 10 years..but give me a little time..i have only had the car a couple of weeks..
 
#12 · (Edited)
I was up here just a couple months ago..Bristle cone..since you mentioned that..but that was pre Giulia days...

went to whitney portal too...both those roads, i think would be fun in the Giulia...there is just so much to see in the eastern Sierras...

you mentioned Bodie...not sure i am ready to take this car down too many dirt roads yet..i have not been there for 10 years..but give me a little time..i have only had the car a couple of weeks..
For those not in the know: the paved road to the Bristle Cone pines goes to about 10,500 feet up a 10% + grade very curvy road (maybe the very last bit is gravel). There is a ranger station, information center, and casual hiking trail with explanatory signs at that point. There is a gravel road that continues up to about 11,500 feet. From there you can hike or bike up to the top (14,100 feet?). One of the reasons why Bristle Cone pines can live to 5000 years is that they don't burn--well they do burn like other trees but there is not enough air to sustain a vigorous fire.

I've never gone to Whitney portal, maybe someday soon.

The main issue with the "new" road to Bodie for Giulia is going to be rock chips. Maybe installing some mud flaps might be a good idea first.

If you hit up Mono Lake at the right time of year there will be clouds of flies like smoke over the lake. The old Bodie road continues through Bodie and heads down a steep slope to Mono Lake. I do not know the condition of said road, but I do know that it is used by the park rangers to get to Bodie in the winter time.

A lot of the side roads are closed in the winter. Some, like SR-108, are open for snow mobiling.

Most of US-395 in the California eastern Sierras is at 6000 feet or higher and it follows the low spots. If you have breathing problems that might be something you need to consider. For example, my wife got altitude sickness after about an hour at the Bristle Cone pine ranger station, so we had to head back down the hill.
 
#13 · (Edited)
Addendum: Bridgeport California in the not-so-good news this week

Two human dead bodies found by a Caltrans snow plow operator, dumped on the road.

Giant Covid-19 outbreak at the nearby Marine base, propelling the entire county to the worst infection rate in the state at about 10x the state wide average. This is worse than it sounds since the Marine Base is only about 10% of the county population, indicating that the infection rate at the base is ~100x the state average. I have warned my neighbors, this information is not well distributed. Note how the latest infection rate map from the CDC shows Mono County as the only Red area in the entire state.
 
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