Bike Friendly

It was another day of mistaken expectations, but in a good way this time. Our route was from Folsom, California, to Fairfield, paralleling Interstate 80 through the Sacramento metro area. We both expected it to be a slog through congested areas with heavy traffic, with the only redeeming quality that it gets us 80 miles closer to the finish line.

In fact, remarkably, it was just the opposite, turning out to be one of the best rides we've had on the trip. What made that possible is that there is a fantastic bike/run trail that runs through the entire Sacramento metro area. We were on that trail for 50 miles, starting right in Folsom and ending a few miles southwest of Davis.

The awesome bike and run trail from Folsom

It being Saturday, the trail was moderately busy with other cyclists, runners, and a few walkers. The convention on the trail is that pedestrians stay to the left (just as when walking on a road). But it means that when riding, you pass other bikes on the left, but runners going the same way on the right. It's a little confusing at first but after 50 miles we finally had it figured out.

The trail follows the American River which runs through Folsom and joins the Sacramento River. It was quite scenic and we saw rowers, pleasure boaters, and fishermen.

I'm not sure if this qualifies as "pleasure boating" or not

Tom got a flat tire, his first in over 2000 miles. How ironic that he rode all those highways full of nasty debris and then got a flat on the little ol' bike path!

After about 30 miles we stopped at a park in the shadow of downtown Sacramento. You would never know you were in the middle of a big city except for the occasional glimpse of the freeways and downtown buildings. As were stopped, a couple Vietnamese guys came up to ask about our bikes. "Carbon Fiber?" one of them asked. "No, titanium," I said. "How much it weigh?" "About 17 pounds (without all this luggage)," I said. "What about that one," he asked, indicating Tom's bike, "carbon fiber?" "Yes," I said, that one's carbon. "How much it weigh?" And so the conversation went. It turns out the were self-proclaimed beginning cyclists, who had apparently been brainwashed by the bike industry's marketing hype that you gotta have the lightest bike possible even at the rank beginner level.

This replica bridge in Sacramento fooled us for a moment. We thought we were done!

Sacramento's answer to the Kemah Boardwalk

Eventually we reached Davis, California, home to UC Davis and one of the most bike-saturated places I've ever seen. There were bikes everywhere, far outnumbering the cars. Even bike parking was scarce. There was a farmer's market going on and it seemed rather festive so we decided to stop for lunch. Just as we did we realized we had stopped right in front of the US Bicycle Hall of Fame. How about that?! We stepped in and snapped a couple pictures but did not look around, since our main priority was lunch.

Three adventure cyclists

I would not want to go cross-country on this

The thriving farmer's market

About 10 miles past Davis the bike path ended but by then we were on quiet back roads that wound through a series of apple orchards and vineyards. We continued to see other cyclists all day; in fact I am certain we saw more cyclists today than the other 37 days combined. We even had another road called Pleasant Valley Road; unlike yesterday, this one lived up to its name.

A pleasant stream in the pleasant valley

California living to up its Golden State moniker 

Heading into Fairfield. We had our own private road alongside the super-busy I-80.

The only downside of today, if you could call it that, was that I was feeling a bit sluggish all day. I am blaming it on not having had my usual fit-for-a-king breakfast. Last night we decided that in the interest of getting an early start, we would pick up breakfast stuff and eat in our room. The only grocery was a discount place that was closing just as we walked in. So I hastily grabbed a box of Cocoa Puffs and some milk. It seems that I chose poorly; I should have got Lucky Charms instead!

In spite of that, it was a great route, and a great day to be on a bicycle. As our last full day, it was a super way to cap off the trip. We got in to Fairfield early, so it's nice to have a bit more of a relaxing afternoon than the past few days. And, we are finally allowing ourselves to admit that we are gonna make it. It's pretty exciting.

Today's ride: 80 miles, Folsom to Fairfield, mostly flat.

Sought... and found

All Downhill?

What a day. On paper it looked pretty straightforward: a long climb up to Kit Carson Pass at 8500 feet, and then a long coast to Folsom at only 220 feet above sea level (that's the lowest we've been since South Carolina). After the climb, nothing to it, right? So how did this turn into one of the longest and hardest days we've had?

The elevation profile from the ACA map. We went right-to-left from Woodfords to Folsom. The downhill part was much more than we bargained for.

First, we got a late start due to lingering at breakfast at the Mad Dog Cafe, a.k.a. Woodfords Station, talking to Jennifer, the owner. She had some suggestions for our route that promised less traffic and would be shorter than the official ACA route. We discussed it and decided that with spotty cell coverage, it would be too risky and we should stick with the ACA route.

It started out pretty much as expected: a 15 mile, 2900 foot climb up to Kit Carson Pass. The weather was cool but not cold. Tom happily decided to forgo the stylish leggings he bought at the Family Dollar in Milford. In a show of support, I decided to not wear my bike tights as well. As we climbed, we quickly warmed up.

Heading up toward the pass

The scenery was amazing. One of the best things about a ride like this is the novelty: each day is different, and everything is new. It's very stimulating and refreshing. The climb started steep, then had a long flattish section though a gorgeous valley, then got steep again. The last stretch was difficult, but very dramatic.

The flattish section

Steep and dramatic toward the end. The road slopes up the middle of that face at about 8%.

Up ahead we saw three other cyclists. There were two young women, and a guy who was separate from the women but just happened to be at the same spot on the road. We caught them quickly (the women were heavily loaded) and I started chatting with the guy. He was on a week-long trip through the Sierras, and had a lot to offer about the area.

At the top we posed for pictures, lingered for awhile, ate some snacks, and talked to the other cyclist (whose name is Niko). Soon the women arrived and we started talking to them. They are definitely doing it the hard way: fully loaded, all camping. The day we almost froze (Milford to the Border Inn), they had five inches of snow in Ely, Nevada. One of their days had been so long they had ridden into the night. One night they camped inside the post office in a little ghost town in Nevada, since it was too cold outside. We had to stop talking to them because we felt kind of wimpy ("uh, yeah, we sleep in motels every night").

The Last Summit ("all downhill from here!")

Hard-core ladies

After having lingered at the top too long already, we started talking to the rangers at the tiny visitor's center at the pass. Two of them were cyclists themselves and asked about our route. "Don't go on Latrobe Road" they said. "It's narrow and full of trucks". We looked at our ACA route and sure enough, it went on Latrobe Road. "I hope you're not going on Shake Ridge Road," one of them said. "I live on that road, and it's closed because of a rockslide." We looked at our ACA route, and sure enough, it went on Shake Ridge Road. So we conferred for awhile with the rangers and decided to go ahead and use the alternate route Jennifer had suggested. In spite of the spotty cell coverage, Google seemed to have a handle on it even in Airplane Mode.

By the time we left Carson Pass, it was after 11 AM, we'd covered only 15 miles, and we had over 80 to go.

The next unexpected thing that happened was that, even though we'd summitted Kit Carson Pass, we were not done climbing. We did not go any higher, but there were two more medium climbs as we wound down though the Sierras. On the profile they show up as tiny little blips, but the first was 200 feet and the second was about 500. It was fun riding, in spite of slightly heavy traffic, because of the fantastic terrain and scenery, but the climbing slowed us down.

Beautiful Silver Lake from above

Beautiful Caples Lake, nestled right below the pass

Kirkwood ski area (our third ski area of the trip)

A particularly significant part of the traffic seemed to be groups of motorcycles. They are everywhere! We probably saw 10 different "packs" of over a dozen riders today.

Lots of these noisy things

Shortly after cresting the second of the two "bonus" climbs, we turned onto the alternate route, on a road called the Mormon Emigrant Trail. It was fantastic, and by far the best part of today's ride. It was amazingly scenic, the surface was good, and there was no traffic. But instead of the long downhill coast that we were hoping for, it was more like a series of distinct descents punctuated by short climbs, just to keep the legs honest, and lengthen the day.

Moss-covered trees along the Mormon Emigrant Trail

That went on for about 25 miles, during which we dropped about 5000 feet. Some of the descents were super fun; I hit 44 mph at one point!

At that point we re-entered civilization. Our alternate route turned onto Pleasant Valley Road, which from a cyclist's point of view was in no way pleasant. It was twisty and narrow, with no shoulders, and had heavy Friday afternoon traffic. And although we continued to trend downhill, there were plenty of uphills to put a damper on things. And cars and cars and cars. Yuck.

Finally we crossed US-50 and things improved a bit. There was a bit less traffic and in some places, a bike lane. We made our way into Folsom and pulled into the Folsom Lodge Motel ($65 for a double room, compared to $179 for the Holiday Inn) shortly after 5 PM.

It was a long day. We spent a lot of time at the pass; we stopped a lot to verify our route-finding since we were off the ACA route; there was a lot of climbing; we spent a lot of time at stoplights and for construction. All that made for a lot of elapsed time.

It was also an eventful day. We had climbing, descending, empty roads, busy roads, good roads, and bad roads. As for our decision to take the alternate route, it's hard to know whether we made the right choice without having tried the alternative. At any rate, the important thing is that we are here.

Tomorrow is our last "real" day: 80ish miles to Fairfield. Then on Sunday it's 30ish to Vallejo, a ferry ride to San Francisco, and a short ceremonial ride to the Golden Gate.

Today's ride: 96 miles, from Woodfords over Carson Pass to Folsom, 5980 feet of climbing, and lots of adventure. After all, that's what we're here for.

California Dreamin'

After four similar days in Nevada we were ready for a change of scenery. Unfortunately for the first 60 miles of today's ride it came in the form of a busy highway through the suburban sprawl of the Fallon-Carson City corridor. The ride to had little to recommend it, with the heavy traffic and series of dusty frontier towns blending into each other. This part of US-50 certainly cannot lay claim to "The Loneliest Road in America."

Not so lonely

We were barely out of Fallon when some guy in a Subaru pulled over, waved us down, and offered us a beer. It being only 8 AM, and with 90 miles to ride, we politely declined. He then offered us water. We thanked him and assured him that we had plenty.

We stopped at a supermarket in Carson City for lunch. While eating in the deli, another friendly guy started talking to us. Rather than ask about our trip, or anything relevant at all, he showed us his sun hat and suggested that we should go get a couple for ourselves, it being of good quality and only $7 at some nearby shop. We thanked him and assured him that we did not need any hats other than our bike helmets.

After lunch, and about 70 miles into the ride, we finally escaped the busy environs of Carson City and headed south on a side road. Once that happened, everything changed. The road was quiet, the surface was good, and there was even a bike lane. The scenery changed as well, from the desert scrub we've had for the last week to a more low-alpine theme as we rode along the base of the Sierra Nevada range. The westernmost basin in Nevada obviously gets the lion's share of the state's precipitation, as evidenced by the fertile green land and residential areas. We even saw several other cyclists out for an afternoon spin.

A big contrast with the wasteland basins of the last few days

Heading south, Sierras ahead and to the right

Even Nevada has fall colors

At mile 88 we crossed into California. The sign was so small we almost missed it. We had to double back so that we could, for the final time, consummate our state line photographic ritual.

Last, and perhaps least (as far as the size of the sign anyway)

After that we began climbing. We are headed up towards Carson Pass, which is where we cross the Sierra Nevadas. We did about 700 feet of it today; first thing tomorrow we tackle the remaining 2900 feet (!).

Our motel is a little lodge tucked along the West Fork of the Carson River. The owner is super nice. He let us use his personal washer and dryer to do our laundry, and even offered to let us use his pickup to drive to a restaurant since there are none here. Unfortunately we had already bought sandwiches at the little cafe/convenience store around the corner, whose owner is also super nice, and has a super nice dog.

The Woodfords Inn: super nice setting, super nice people

The Woodfords Station cafe: super nice people 

...and a super nice dog

This is a nice spot. Maybe we'll stay here instead of climbing the pass tomorrow!

Tomorrow's blog might be about fishing

Today's ride: 94 miles from Fallon NV to Woodfords CA, not much climbing (that happens tomorrow). Just THREE MORE DAYS!

A Long and not-so-Winding Road

Today was another one of those scary on-paper rides: 110 miles from Austin to Fallon through the Nevada desert with almost nothing in between.

Another lonely road. Too bad it's so f-ing rough

Nothing in between Austin and Fallon except these curious onlookers

I had been worried about availability of water in these long empty stretches. Fortunately the cooler temperatures we've had make that less of an issue. On each of the last three days I've used less than 2 liters for the whole ride.

Our daily ritual: dress warm, then a series of roadside stripteases

Our motel last night, while adequate, lacked one essential feature: a coffee maker in the room. So when we awoke I went to the convenience store next door and bought coffee. It was my fourth transaction at the same store since arriving yesterday afternoon. (1. snacks and a toothbrush for bike-washing; 2. beer; 3. items for breakfast and today's ride; 4. coffee)

The ACA maps offer an alternate route on NV-722 for the first half that is 2 miles shorter, and more scenic, but includes a 1200 foot climb over Carroll Summit. After talking to the OATBRAN riders and staff, we decided to go for it. Overall I think it was a good choice, but the crappy road surface very much detracted from it. In fact we spent most of the day (probably 90 miles of the 113 total) on rough chipseal roads. That, combined with the same basin-ridge-repeat scenery of the past 4 days, made for a somewhat utilitarian ride. We got the job done, but it was more function than form.

Cresting Carroll Summit: our second-to-last "real" climb of the trip

Moo

One of the advantages of the alternate route was that the road was almost completely empty. In 60-ish miles we saw fewer than 10 cars.

After that we rejoined the main route on US-50. For a road billed as the "loneliest in America" it's actually pretty busy. I suppose it's one of those self-defeating things: Nevada promotes it for its emptiness, and all the tourists come.

Probably the highlight today was our lunch stop at Middlegate Station, which is a little cafe in the middle of nowhere:

It even says M.O.N.

Many other cyclists have refueled here

Oddly enough, for being so remote, it was pretty busy. While we were there a group of classic British cars rolled in. This is maybe the third or fourth rally of this kind that we've seen. We started talking to one of the drivers, named Sam. He had a 1960 Morgan that had been in his family since it was new. I learned that Morgan is the only remaining British-owned car company, and the oldest privately held car company in the world.

I couldn't find the start button, otherwise I'd have been outta here

Some of these cars have 400HP engines

There were also other forms of classic transportation in evidence:

The other highlight of our ride, if you could call it that, is that we were both fairly strong all the way. In particular, we crushed the last 30 miles, even in spite of a slight headwind. We rotated 2-mile pulls and kept a good pace. Often on a ride this long I fade badly toward the end and have to limp home, so it was nice to finish feeling good.

The Sand Mountain Recreation Area near Fallon

Our Holiday Inn Express  tonight is the polar opposite of last night's Pony Canyon Inn with its 10 rooms. The hotel gave us coupons for a 10% discount at the restaurant in the casino next door. We had a huge meal, with onion rings, salad, entree, baked potatoes, beer, and wine. When we went to pay, the clerks could not figure out how to apply the coupon (as if they'd never seen a coupon from the Holiday Inn next door). So they just applied some random discount, after which Tom's bill came to $1.05 and mine to $4 (because of the onion rings). Another jackpot!

Today's ride: 113 miles, 1 "real" climb and 2 mini climbs, and way too much chipseal. Tomorrow: California!

Keeping Austin Weird

Sunny skies: check. Cool but not cold: check. Mostly flat or downhill: check. Tailwind: check. Even Lisa would have enjoyed the riding on this day.

The route today from Eureka to Austin, Nevada, was pretty straightforward. A 500 foot descent, then 40 miles of flat, a 1900 foot climb, and a 1000 foot descent. We had a great tailwind for most of it so we flew along at 20+ mph. After a few of the days we've had it felt like cheating. But as Tom said, "we deserve it." I'm happy to report that my Garmin came back to life so I was back in the numbers today.

It was nice to cut through a range rather than climb over

The climbs in Nevada are nothing like Utah (come to think of it, nothing in Nevada is like Utah), having reasonably gentle gradients of 4-6%. It suits my climbing style well and makes even the uphills fun in a way.

The weather and the terrain were more of the same. Clear, cold in the morning, and warming steadily. Ridges and vast basins.

This range reminded me of the Wilsons near Telluride. Do you agree?

An impressively vast expanse of nothing

US-50 is called "The Loneliest Road in America"

After the last climb there were a series of switchbacks that descend into Austin. It was vaguely reminiscent of cycling down the road from Haleakala in Maui, which Lisa and I did many years ago.

Switchbacking down into Austin 

At the motel in Eureka there was a group of 5 guys riding Harleys across the USA. They had left from Maryland 9 days ago and were heading for Reno today. We offered to trade bikes, but there were no takers. Last night when they arrived they all whipped out rags and started polishing their bikes. That got me all bothered because my bike was really dirty and I've been too lazy to clean it. So today when we arrived in Austin shortly after 1PM and our room was not ready, I negotiated with the motel owner/clerk/housekeeper to provide a hose, bucket, and soap. Now our bikes shine just like those Hogs.

There is a cycling tour coming through Austin tonight. It's a state-line to state-line trip across Nevada called OATBRAN (One Awesome Tour Bike Ride Across Nevada), put on by Bike the West. They limit registration to 30 riders because there are only 30 hotel rooms here in Austin.

Looks like we'll be sharing the motel with other cyclists

At the one and only open restaurant in Austin: only half the menu was available,  the surly waitress spent most of the time laughing at something on her cell phone, and from the bar in the other room we could hear some guy, presumably the owner, spewing misinformed political invective at the TV. Austin definitely lacks the charm of some of the other stops on the lonliest road.

It does not seem possible that we are only 5 days away from finishing this thing. In a way I am looking forward to it, and in a way I am not.

Today's ride: 70 miles, 2982 feet of climbing, awesome tailwind.

This rolled through town as we were sitting outside our room.
I have no idea what the story is.

The road to Fallon tomorrow: 110 miles