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Day 1: Total Miles: 27
Vallejo - Benecio
Ah, nothing like bivying next to t 695 in the middle of a garbage filled floodzone across from a fast food restaurant next to an operating train track … camping!
Today started off slow. We left Tris’ Mom’s house around 1pm. The trip to San Francisco was horrible for me (Jess). Lets just say the Bob trailer isn’t exactly compatible with public transportation - it was an interesting experience trying to bring it on BART, uop and down elevators, etc.
We arrived in San Francisco and began to make our way toward Baker’s Beach to perform a prope ocean dip and be on our way; hills and headwinds the entire way there. Between my experience with the Bob and the exhausting trip to the beach I wasn’t a happy camper.
Things began to turn around at the “official” start of our trip. We had a fantastic ride back to the ferry (the daunting climb up from the pacific wasn’t as bad as we thought). We enjoyed delicious ahi sandwiches and a relaxing ferry ride to Vallejo (gosh, San Francisco is beautiful).
We arrived in Vallejo in time to put in some miles before it got dark. From the city scene to lush green rolling hills with cows galore … Just as it was getting dark we arrived at this fantastic bivy spot - green, groomed grass, right on Lake Herman. I look over and see Arthur on the phone. Tris and I look at each other knowingly. Arthur thought it would be a good idea to call the local police to see if it was okay to bivy at that spot … Arthur isn’t allowed to ask permission of the local authorities anymore. Hence our current spot … I wake up in the middle of the night, hoping we didn’t mistakenly pitch our tent in the train tracks … the train kept some of us up all night …
Day 2: Benecio - Sacramento
Total Miles: 75
Beautiful riding through Winters, Vacaville, etc. Birds chirping, sun shining, flat roads, good winds, peacocks, red winged black birds, herons, lamas, cows, horses … the best strawberries ever (we ate three cartons of strawberries in 5 minutes … biking does wonders for your metabolism … we all hope we can afford these effects).
We stopped for our lunch break around three in Davis. What a bike friendly place … the majority of people there must have been ridding bikes. We had all you can eat Indian food fo lunch. My allergies were terrible. We had a nice nap on UCD campus. The highlight of the day was definitely our awesome bivy spot at Ralph’s in Sac - laundry, showers, beers, pizza and best of all a good nights sleep.
Day 3: Sacramento - a little past Placerville
Total Miles: 62.2, elevation gain: 2500’
It’s crazy how jam packed the days can seem with events, yet how slowly each day passes. It’s hard to believe that just this morning we were fording the flooded bike path out of Sacramento (the Bob trailer floats, wonderful for my computer, the iPOD wasn’t so lucky … ). We hit a spot in the bike path flooded knee deep with water. We sucked it up and continued through, assuming this would only happen once or so. Little did we know that we’d be taking off our shoes and fording a section of the river eight times or so. This made for a very slow morning.
Today was the mental crux (so far …) for me. The trip seemed endless, the climbs steep and perpetual, my trailer was too heavy to pull up hills. The rest of the day would bring 2500’ of climbing, the next day another 6000’ over Carson’s Pass … I was dreading the upcoming activities. 3500 more miles of this seemed unfathomable. In attempt to relieve some weight I sent my computer home (10 lbs down … we’re trying to get rid of anything we can). Allergies, achy knees and muscles … we were hurting. The truth is that this trip is hard … we’re realizing that all to quickly. One step at a time ... this is quite a physically and mentally challenging adventure. Trips like this make you appreciate the necessities; we live for the moments of rest for our achy muscles, each hill is motivated by the reward of a snack at the top. Mac and Cheese and Boca burgers mixed up for dinner never tasted so good.
Day 4: Placerville - vista point past Bear Lake Reservoir
Total Miles: 50, elevation gain: 4500’
Some obviously drunk men just pulled up ranting about having sex with each other … perhaps a highway vista point wasn’t the best idea for a bivy. Last night we were awoken by a police officer. Apparently lots of people use that particular spot on the bike path in Placerville to “load hype and shoot crank.” The officer could tell by the expensive bikes laying around that we weren’t those kind of people. He was impressed by our upcoming journey; he couldn’t stop saying “you’re shitting me.” Despite the midnight awakening we all enjoyed a wonderful nights sleep. We awoke this morning refreshed and began our climb. Ugh, what a climb its been. Muscles I never knew I had hurt, my neck is killing me from looking down, butt sores are not a mere myth that bikers spread to deter others from enjoying the sport. We watched the landscape change from lush deciduous forest to alpine meadow and spring flowers to snow capped mountains. I’ve realized the importance of good eating and drinking habits (a snack and drink every 10 minutes or so, it’s hard to keep up when you’re burning 8000+ calories a day). We enjoyed lunch at a fantastic general store .. one of the three we passed all day.
Day 5: Bear Lake vista point - Carson City, NV
Elevation Gain: 2000’ (total loss about 4000’) Total Miles: 71 miles
The climb has culminated (at least for now … 14 passes to come in Nevada). We had a great day (both climbs and descents, thank goodness) through Carson Pass. The 15 + mile downhill was well deserved. We were in Carson City looking for a bike shop when a girl stopped us on the street asking us if we would like a place to stay. We gladly surrendered the remaining 25 miles of our day to showers, laundry and the promise of a wonderful meal. Here we are at Jodie and Shawne’s enjoying an array of taco varieties, beers, exchanging traveling stories (Jodi has traveled on bike across country twice), showering, laundering … it’s so nice to have such awesome people take us into their home and treat us like old friends. Thanks so much to Jodie and Shawne for your incredible hospitality … this is probably the most cared for evening we’ll have for awhile. Thanks to the loan of Shawn’s laptop for this long post …
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Ansje
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I am proud of you all
Thanks for the update, I was hoping all was well. I wilkl share these travelblogs with the Gouda Godfather's Dad and rest of family. Please keep save. I know you can do this. Love, the godfathers mother.