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.
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For someone who was in charge of organizing what were essentially large scale camping expeditions, I am failing at this one person camping. What do I mean? Basically, not eating. Yesterday I was going to head to the county camp ground at $8 a night instead of the expensive B&B, but then I realized I had no butane for my stove. Oh, and no food besides some goo energy packets and a couple clif bars. I figured I would need more. So I went for the B&B and steakhouse dinner.
American River Bike Trail
But today, I went grocery shopping and even bought butane while passing though Davis. However I forgot to buy fat for cooking. I have no butter or oil. Whatever, I was going to try quesadilla anyways. So I had it all set up when I realized I had no way to light the stove. Oh, and I will be ‘treating’ myself to breakfast at a restaurant. Yeah, not enough food for breakfast. I’ll have to do a bit better than this shortly when there are no restaurants.
Right now I am sitting waiting for my time lapse camera batteries to charge. The campground host let me plug into his RV hookup. I wonder what I will do a bit later because the camera goes through three batteries a day. I have four. I guess just ask random stores to plug in for a bit when I go through. And not film some days. Maybe I can get a solar charger or a generator. But probably not until Reno, Salt Lake City, or Denver. Too bad because there is some stunning scenery coming up.
Orchards Near Winters, CA
Today’s ride was very flat. From Winters to Davis was riding through orchards that occasionally provided shade and then the route picks up a bike trail into Davis. Flat, flat flat. The sun was out too. Luckily it was not hot. Someone I met later commented that I managed a good week as it was over 100 F the previous week. In Davis I stopped to get another inner tube since I had shredded one the day before. The map said there there were three bike shops in Davis. I stopped at B&L Bike Shop – the first shop I saw. I wish I had gone just a little further — another 50 feet — and seen Davis Wheelworks.
B&L sells lower end cruiser bikes and looks like it survives by selling accessories not service. I went into B&L to buy the inner tube and inquired about them looking at my rear derailleur as well as asking about a shimmy I was having when going fast. The guy said they could take a look at my bike for $80. I declined but bought the inner tubes.
Downtown Davis, CA
Wheelworks looks like it doesn’t sell a bike that costs less than $3000. They sell Cervelo bikes. Everything is carbon fiber and fast. I decided to stop into Wheelworks where they put my bike up on the stand, checked it out and did some minor adjustments to the derailleur, and made sure there was nothing loose or broken that would be causing the shaking. Their advice for the shaking was get some front panniers to balance the load. They also told me where I could buy some butane for my stove. (The store was one block away, Outdoor Davis, across the street from Davis Freewheeler Bicycle Center, the third bike store in town.)
Deep thought of the day: I can’t sleep in. While this is a vacation and I can really do what I want, to accomplish the goal of going cross country I’ll have to get up early almost every day and ride all day. No lazy days. Well, maybe a few lazy days…
Start point: Winters,CA
End point: Beal Point Campground, Folsom, CA
Today’s mileage: 70.2 miles
Total miles so far: 130 miles
Average speed: 11.68 mph
Max speed: 26.38 mph
Riding time: (08:45 to 17:00) 7.25 hours
Total riding time: 15 hours
Weather: clear, about 75 F
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