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I had another rest day visiting with my friend Jack in Truckee and then driving over to Reno to visit another friend.
Before meeting with Chris in Reno, I went to Staples and bought another couple of memory cards for my GoPro. Now I have enough video cards to last 8 days between downloading to my hard disk. This should be enough. It better be enough. I also went to REI to exchange my sleeping pad for a new one. The one I had was leaking from somewhere and I could not find the leak. Hopefully the new pad will hold air and I won’t be on a rotisserie trying to ease the pain on my hips by rolling over every hour. I had to go in Reno since this is the last REI before I get to Denver. Continue reading Day 11: Rest Day driving from Truckee to Reno (September 9)
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 Squaw Valley near Truckee, CA I had dinner with Dave from San Jose at the Bar of America in Truckee last night. The pork chops were really good. He asked if I wanted to head up to Idaho to do some backpacking for a week or so. I would have loved to go but I am doing this bicycle trip. If I went off for a week of hiking, I wouldn’t finish the ride before Thanksgiving for sure.
Continue reading Day 10: Rest Day in Truckee, CA (September 8)
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 High alpine pasture just over Carson Pass I started the morning at Woods Lake. It was below freezing when I woke up in the morning. Preview of things to come?
I was eating breakfast at about 05:30 and packed up ready to go at 07:10. I think the chill slowed me down a bit. I know it made it harder to eat my oatmeal. Cold oatmeal is gag inducing in someone who doesn’t like it to begin with. Lucky I had some hot chocolate to wash it down. The sun was up but the west side of the pass was still in the shadows. It was fairly cool ride up to the top. I wore the arms and legs for the first time in addition to a wind breaker while climbing. Continue reading Day 9: Woods Lake, CA to Carson City, NV (September 7)
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 Kirkwood I was going to have a rest day but decided against it. This is partly because there is road work going on at the pass. It is closed to all traffic from 09:30 to 12:30. So if I don’t get over in the morning I have to wait until the afternoon. Rather than have 15 miles or so to travel in the morning before 09:30 I decide something shorter would be nice.
My friend Jack suggested that Woods Lake is nice and only a mile or two from the pass. So tomorrow I have to go two miles and several hundred vertical feet before 09:30. Plus Woods Lake is beautiful. Peaceful, small lake up in the high sierra. I took a walk around the lake and had some snacks when I first arrived. I saw signs for a walk up to another lake higher up, but I did not think my legs would really enjoy the 2.5 mile up and another back. I’d either have to go in my cycling shoes with metal cleats on the bottom or in flip flops. The shoes are stiffer than normal shoes so there is a better energy transfer but that combined with the metal cleats means that traction is very bad and perilous on rocks. Flip flops…well, they just aren’t that good for hiking. Continue reading Day 8: Silver Lake to Woods Lake, CA (September 6)
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 Shot Rock Vista I am now taking a break at the Shot Rock Vista. It is about 19 miles from Cooks Station. I left Cook’s Station at 05:10 this morning after getting up at 04:00. My first hour was tough. I seem to get more into a groove after a couple hours.
I still have to take breaks while going up hill sometimes as often as every tenth of a mile to clear the lactic acid. The title of this post relates to my being thankful for my granny gear. It is my favorite gear for the last few days since Folsom. Certainly within a couple of gears of my granny gear are where I spend probably 80% of my time. I go about 5 mph when in the lowest gear. The guy I met in Vallejo looked my the gearing on my bike and said I should have “no problem going over any mountain”. If only that were the case. In a few weeks I hope to be able to go longer without stopping. My legs are still wimpy. Continue reading Day 7: Cook’s Station to Silver Lake, CA (September 5)
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 Early morning sunlight glimmering through the trees I got up at 04:15 this morning to head up to Cook’s Station. I was on the road by 05:40. Getting going took longer than I wanted. I am not a big breakfast eater so I sort of had to force myself to eat. I had instant ramen, cup of hot chocolate, a Hersey’s almond bar, s’more granola bar, and a clif bar. I think. That comes to about 1100 calories. It was early.
Coming out of Fair Play it was immediately uphill. No warm-up time. As a result I was stopping every 1000 feet or so to catch my breath, let the lactic acid leave my legs, and give some blood to my stomach to finish digesting. It took me an hour to go the three miles back to where I had turned around the day before. As I gained elevation the mountains got more wooded as I went. I was in the shade almost the whole way to Cook’s Station. The day started at about 60 degrees and was 75 in the shade by the time I reached Cooks Station. As usual, the sun was broiling. Continue reading Day 6: Fairplay to Cook’s Station, CA (September 4)
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 Lots of wineries near Fairplay...but no time to sample I got out of Placerville at 06:00 which was good. It is now 10:00 and 90 F. Riding for ten minutes leaves a glistening, thick film of sweat all over. I am now taking a break until the afternoon about 22 miles in. (Two miles after Fair Play) I will be here until 3:30 or so, I think.
My goal for today is Cook’s Station. To get there I have another 15 miles with lots of uphill. I usually feel a bit stronger in the afternoon. First thing in the morning neither I nor my muscles are awake. Continue reading Day 5: Placerville to Fairplay, CA (September 3)
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I could not sleep last night. I was surprised considering I felt exhausted, but could not fall asleep until about 3 AM. There went my plans of waking up at 05:00 and be out by 06:00. Considering I am tired and there was stuff to think about — how to get across Nevada and then to Salt Lake — taking a day to sort things out is ok.
So what’s what am I doing on my day off? Mostly sitting in the library waiting for my files to copy off my memory cards for the Go Pro camera. My friend Kendall originally suggested I buy one to record my ride. I was unsure, but my brother was really excited by the idea and convinced me the extra weigh would be worth it. My brother calculated that at taking a picture at 10 second intervals would allow enough footage for an hour plus long video. I looked at the images from every 10 seconds and decided that every 5 seconds will create a more fluid video. Continue reading Day 4: Placerville, CA (September 2)
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 Beal Point Campground So how was camping out? Hmmm…first it was to hot to get in my sleeping bag. Almost too hot to even lay on top. By about the time it was getting to the right temperature to sleep inside there was a huge crashing noise. I looked outside but didn’t see anything. I figured it was just a dead tree falling near my tent. (Confirmed the next morning with a big tree fallen 50 feet from my tent.) Then I heard some scratching outside. Turned on my flashlight to look. A skunk scurried off. Luckily the light only annoyed it enough to leave. That tricked also worked the next two times it came back. Every time I did worry I’d annoy him and get sprayed. The campground also seemed to be next to a freeway or something. Cars going all night. There might also have been roving bands of turkeys that might have kept me up too although I can’t say for sure. They were certainly coming in and out of my campsite in the morning. Continue reading Day 3: Folsom to Placerville, CA (September 1)
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 A view of downtown Sacramento from Discovery Park I liked the American River Bike Trail. It could use some better signage, but pretty nice. (Map here.) It seemed the river was being well used even though it was the middle of the week. There were lots of people out in the river fishing or going about in boats. Also lots of people out on bicycles riding the trail. A guy on a trike was zooming around. I must be somewhat slow because he must have passed me going in both directions about four or five times. There were three or four cyclists who rode along with me to talk about what I am doing. All gave some useful advice. Continue reading Day 2: Winters to Folsom (August 31)
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