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P A U L ' S B L O G
 DAILY BLOG: July 13 - August 1
Introduction: My last bicycle tour was four years ago and I was really wanting to do another one during the summer of 2008.
Ted and I had been corresponding via email for several years
and found we are the same age and share similar interests—especially the love of bicycles and bicycle touring.
When I heard of his upcoming tour I expressed an interest
and he invited me to join him. Read more here.You can also view a photo slide show here. |
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DAY ONE: (California) Sacramento to Folsom
After a decent night's sleep and some breakfast I organized my
gear a bit better and selected some items to mail back home
while waiting until 11 AM when the City Bicycle Works expected
their mail and hopefully the USPS would deliver my box with
tent and sleeping pad, etc. and I can get underway. Read more here.
Miles: 44.5 • Ride Time: 4:50 • AVG MPH: 8.8 • MAX MPH: 26.2 • Climbing: 1007 ft.
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DAY TWO: Placerville
Breakfast consisted of the other half of yesterday's sub and
a 2nd chocolate milk I had bought at Subway.
Roll out was 7:20 AM with very nice temps in the low 60's.
Two miles up the road I stopped at a Circle K store to fill up the
CamelBak with fresh water and picked up a bottle of V-8 and
Glacier Vitamin Water to assure I had plenty of liquids. I think I
shorted myself on that count yesterday in the heat. Read more here.
Miles: 28.32 • Ride Time: 4:16 • AVG MPH: 6.6 • MAX MPH: 32.2 • climbing: 2518 ft.
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DAY THREE: Pollock Pines
Even with a decent nights sleep it was 7 AM when I rolled out the door. With Bob's (from Placerville Bike Shop) good directions I found the bike trail leading out of town.
Temps again were in the low 60's and it felt great. There was a bit of fog out early.
I passed by the entrance to Folsom Prison but could not see
anything but the entrance so I took a picture of that and thought
of Johnny Cash. Read more here.
Miles: 23 • Ride Time: 4:12 • AVG MPH: 5.4 • MAX MPH: 29.5 • climbing: 2700 ft.
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DAY FOUR: Silver Lake
Today I got up at 4:45 AM in an attempt to get underway earlier and beat some of the heat of the day. Even at that it was 6:20 AM when I rolled out. When you have more stuff it takes more time to pack it and I am still trying to tweak the load for good front balance. Sooner or later it will sink in to carry less stuff.
At a nearby service station I loaded up with cold water and retraced the 2 miles back to the local Safeway where the road turns off to go down to Jenkinson Lake and the Mormon Emigrant Trail. By the time I stopped at Safeway and had some yogurt and proceeded toward the lake it was 7 PM. Read more here.
Miles: 26 • Ride Time: 5:03 • AVG MPH: 5.1 • MAX MPH: 28.3 • climbing: 3613 ft.
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DAY FIVE: Woodfords
A gaggle of geese began honking and flying back and forth to different spots on the lake about 5AM and kept it up for around 30 minutes or so. At 5:45 I went ahead and got up and it was a bit nippy at 40 degrees. My sleeping bag did it's job but I was glad for the cool temps. What a nice relief from the heat.
Breakfast was a can of garbanzo beans I had picked up earlier as well as some of the Dr. Kracker's crackers, string cheese and supplements.
After packing I rolled my bike up to the office parking lot and encountered a couple in a pick up about to head uphill to Hwy 88. Read more here.
Miles: 29 • Ride Time: 3:35 • AVG MPH: 8.0 • MAX MPH: 31.0 • climbing: 1866 ft.
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DAY SIX: (Nevada) Dayton State Park
After arising at 5:30 AM I rolled out at 6:34AM
with a pleasant temp reading of 59 degrees. I stayed on Hwy 88 rather than the alternate Adventure Cycling route on a less traveled Emigrant Trail.
Since it was early with little Saturday morning traffic with cooler temps but mainly a 2 to 3 per cent decline I made my best time of the trip so for. Occasionally there were some slight 1 or 2 per cent inclines. Read more here.
Miles: 47 • Ride Time: 4:40 • AVG MPH: 10 • MAX MPH: 37 • climbing: 827 ft.
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DAY SEVEN: Fallon
My sleep was not great as I tossed and turned and awoke about every hour.
Sleeping pad has a slow leak that takes about 3 or so hours to deflate to the
point I can feel the ground. A sprinkle of rain woke me once but in the hot, dry
conditions the tent was not wet in the morning when I got up at 4:30 AM. I wanted to get an early start to intersect with Ted at Silver Springs
and I had further to go to get there. Also any early mileage beats the considerable
heat of the day. Read more here.
Miles: 50 • Ride Time: 4:17 • AVG MPH: 11.6 • MAX MPH: 25.9 • climbing: 692 ft.
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DAY EIGHT: Fallon
Today was a pretty leisurely day.
We road over to the local library on unloaded bikes
and checked email.
The bike sure feels different without the loaded panniers.
We stopped at the local Wal-Mart as well and I picked up some
fuel alcohol for my Trangia stove and split a box of Emergen-C
vitamin C & electrolyte powder with Ted. I highly recommend this
stuff and much prefer it to the too sweet gatorade and similar drinks. Read more here.
Miles: 8 • Start elevation: 3900 ft. • Max. elevation: 3900 ft. • Temp. 92F
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DAY NINE: Middlegate Station
Ted and I were able to roll out pretty early at 7:02 AM
after arising around 5:30AM. Any early miles before the temps get
too hot are a plus for me.
About 10 or 11 miles out of town we stopped at a nice rest stop called
Grimes Point Archaeological Area at which you can take a self guided interpretative hike to view some
petroglyph carvings and learn some interesting facts about very early inhabitants of this area.
We did not take the hike but talked with some folks who had just returned from it and they said the carvings
have been diminished by the elements since they viewed them in the past.
While we were resting there we could see some Navy jets taking off a mile or so away at the Navy's training
center for their 'Top Gun' pilots. Cool. Read more here.
Miles: 48 • Ride Time: 4:48 • AVG MPH: 10.0 • MAX MPH: 33.1 • climbing: 1404 ft.
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DAY TEN: Austin
Well today we got off to a bit later start time of 7:40AM
Brenden, Daniel & Nathan were up having breakfast and we said our goodbyes
and bid them safe travels for the remaining few days of their trip.
We of course had to stop a mile or so down the road at the famous 'Shoe Tree'.
(http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/932).
This cottonwood tree is quite the unusual and remarkable site out here in the middle of nowhere in which
people have flung hundreds of shoes into it's branches for some reason or the other. Read more here.
Miles: 64 • Ride Time: 7:31 • AVG MPH: 8.4 • MAX MPH: 35.8 • climbing: 3126 ft.
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DAY ELEVEN: Eureka
We went back to the International Cafe this morning to fuel up for the day on
oatmeal, scrambled eggs and whole wheat toast. Delicious.
Austin is situated about half way up on a mountain side and of course we ended yesterday's
ride with the climb up into town.
When we took off at 7:45 AM this morning I was immediately shifting to my low gears as we
begin climbing out of town without much of an opportunity to warm up.
However before too long I made Austin Summit at an elevation of 7484' and Ted was there
waiting for me. Read more here.
Miles: 71 • Ride Time: 6:50 • AVG MPH: 10.3 • MAX MPH: 35.6 • climbing: 2823 ft.
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DAY TWELVE: Eureka
A trip such as ours isn't so much about the destination, but the journey. So, we decided to spend the day here in Eureka, exploring the history, visiting the library (for internet access), and just plain relaxing.
The Regional Little League Tournament has taken most of the available motel rooms in town, and we were fortunate to find one at all. Now, the Sundown Motel offeres the best value in town and was full yesterday. Read more here.
Miles: 0 (485) • Start elevation: 6500 ft. • Ending elevation: 6500 ft. • Temp. 96F
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DAY THIRTEEN: Ely
Having enjoyed a very pleasant day off, strolling the steets of historic Eureka and topping it off with a hearty dinner, compliments of the Senior Center, we were poised to return to the road and make our way to Ely. Paul managed to head out the door at about 7:30 a.m., but I found a way to take about 15 minutes longer before bidding "good-bye" to Eureka. Although we were pretty well rested, we both knew that we were in for a pretty challenging day . . . Read more here.
Miles: 79 (564) • Start elevation: 6500 ft. • Max. elevation: 7607 ft. • Temp. 98F
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DAY FOURTEEN: Major's Station
OK, you're probably looking at today's mileage and mumbling something about "these guys are wimps and aren't going anywhere"—or something to that affect. Well, there's more to it than meets the eye. At the start of the day we received a plea or mandate from the home front that it would be greatly appreciated if we would consider cutting our trip short. Read more here.
Miles: 28 (592) • Start elevation: 6400 ft. • Max. elevation: 7723 ft. • Temp. 88F
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DAY FIFTEEN: (Utah) Border
Like I said, I slept really well on the back porch of Major's Place. Paul and I both got up around 6:00 and took down our tents and were packed up in no time. Kathy had promised us a nice breakfast, so we pulled up a stool at the bar and ordered up some oatmeal, fruit, bagels and jam. Excellent! And she only charged me $4.00. It was just what we needed to get us down the road.
We said our good-byes and took off across the valley. Read more here.
Miles: 38 (630) • Start elevation: 6000 ft. • Max. elevation: 7154 ft. • Temp. 96F
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DAY SIXTEEN: Delta and Springville
Breakfast consisted of trail mix and a Cliff Bar, but we wanted to get a decent start on the day. As we pulled away from the Utah/Nevada border we rode past the sign: "NO SERVICES NEXT 83 MILES"—a stark reminder of today's challenge. The weather forecast was calling for 105F degree temperatures, adding to the reality of our task. After just five miles or so—before we were really warmed up—a couple of guys in a work truck stopped. Read more here.
Miles: 88 (718) • Start elevation: 3900 ft. • Ending elevation: 5500 ft. • Temp. 104F
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DAY SEVENTEEN/EIGHTEEN: Springville
The bicycling portion of our trip is officially over. It's with sadness that this is the reality. I had, at least, wanted to go to Denver, but I'll accept that our journey has concluded after just 2-1/2 weeks. Meanwhile, if we had to call it short I'm glad that I have the opportunity to be with precious friends. Read more here.
Miles: 0 (718) • Start elevation: 5500 ft. • Ending elevation: 5500 ft. • Temp. 92F
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DAY NINETEEN: Amtrak (UT, NV, CA)
The train was several hours late and didn't arrive until after 1:00 a.m. I had no problem finding a nice seat where I could sprawl out and get comfortable. Amtrak may have a terrible track record for being late, but once on board I find it a very relaxing experience. The seating area is generous, with plenty of leg room, and the wide chairs recline nicely. My favorite place is the observation car. Read more here.
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DAY TWENTY: (California) Home in the Central Valley
Finally back home, I look forward to reviewing the many photographs taken of this little journey, and replay them in my mind for weeks and months to come. The daily rigors of biking have definitely helped me to feel better—certainly better than I've felt since returning from Africa. Read more here.
Miles: 0 (718) • Ending elevation: 50 ft. • Temp. 90F
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