May 6 – Long Valley Bike Tour

Over the past year, Friends of the Inyo/Keep Long Valley Green have been engaging with Haley Fitzpatrick, a doctoral student of the University of Oslo, to discuss creative approaches to resilience in the Eastern Sierra. We are excited to announce that Haley, as part of her work on Resilient Mountain Futures, is partnering with Keep Long Valley Green to host a FREE, easy, and interactive biking tour of Long Valley, Saturday, May 6, from 10 am to 1 pm!

The roads are plowed and the weather is increasingly warmer, and it will be Cinco de Mayo Weekend! What a great opportunity to get your Cinco on in the healthiest way possible!

This tour will feature some outdoor exploration, mind-body movement, and discussion on local sustainability challenges and strategies for healthier rural/urban connections. We will have plenty of rest breaks full of great opportunities to ask questions, share stories with an interactive booklet, and hear inputs from local experts, including:

• Allison Weber, Keep Long Valley Green Coalition Organizer and Policy Associate with Friends of the Inyo,
• Sally Manning, Environmental Director for the Big Pine Paiute Tribe, and
• International sustainability scientist, Professor Tobias Luthe with ETH Zurich.

And, of course, you will hear from Haley Fitzpatrick, a PhD student in Systems-Oriented Design at The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO) in Norway, supervised by Prof. Dr. Tobias Luthe and Prof. Dr. Birger Sevaldson. She is researching how a systemic design approach can be used to co-create resilient and regenerative futures for mountain communities. Haley is actively engaging across three international communities – Ostana Italy, Hemsedal Norway, and the Eastern Sierra, California, to explore how diverse places, cultures, and worldviews shape sustainability transformations. She also teaches courses on these topics at AHO and is a Design Associate at the real-world alpine laboratory MonViso Institute, where she facilitates outdoor, explorative events that focus on reconnecting humans with nature.

What to bring:

• Bike. Please indicate (when you RSVP per the website link below) if you need assistance renting a bike(s);
• Water, snacks and sunscreen;
• Swim gear for a dip in the hot springs, if you are so inclined; and
• Curiosity and an open mind.

We will meet at 10 am on Saturday, May 6th, at the Green Church (at Benton Crossing Road and US 395, Mammoth Lakes – see map below) and finish at around 1 pm. The bike route will be an easy, flat 11 miles from the Green Church up to Wild Willy’s/ Hilltop Hot Springs, over to the Hot Creek Geological Site and down to the Hot Creek Hatchery. Please note – we may experience some sections of dirt roads, but even city bikes should be fine going on them.

After the tour, we will head to a local eatery to grab lunch. If you are curious to stick around and continue the conversations over a delicious meal, please join us!

Please RSVP by May 3rd using the Website Url below.

Questions? Write to Haley.Fitzpatrick@aho.no, or Allison@friendsoftheinyo.org.