BRATUS 2017: 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.