Made it!

Alllllmmmost there!

So close! I definitely could have finished off the trip today, but I've got a schedule to keep. I'm a little over 30 miles away :)

Went through Wine Country: Napa and Sonoma valleys. Lots of vinyards and wineries. It was hilly, but not too bad. There were three passes through mountains that were about 300' climbs and not very steep.

I'm doing my own routing to get into SF. Overall it wasn't too bad but there was one iffy section in high traffic where the shoulder went away in the middle of construction. Got yelled at by two cars but didn't have any close calls. Having "Share the Road" signs up in work areas is quite nice.

I did 52 miles, though a few of those were because I routed around route 37 to minimize my time on it, which turned out to be a mistake because for the short time I was on it I had a 10' shoulder. Ahh well.

I also changed my destination midway because the cheap motels in Petaluma are too out of the way. I'm in Novato: a little north of San Fran. I keep looking for ocean but there's too many mountains in the way!

I can't believe the trip is almost over! During Nevada I was totally ready to be done because it was just day after day of really hard riding ever since Colorado, but now I'm definitely going to miss it.

The only problem now is how cold it is. I start in the 50s and the max is in the low 70s. San Fran is even colder. Tomorrow's high is 56!

The winds suck too, but I'm quite used to that by now.

Stay on target!

Getting there! Another 50 easy miles today to Fairfield.

Met a guy called Joe who used to be 4 days behind me back in Utah/Colorado. We rode together for over half the day but he's going all the way to San Fran today. I'm actually only 30 biking miles from the end if I took the maps :). He's faster than me and was pushing me pretty hard. My legs are actually pretty tired for such a short day.

Two more days and under 100 miles. Woohoo.

It's getting colder out.

Stay on target!

Easy day. Wahoo!

I did 60 easy miles today though a few of those were off route since I took a wrong turn at some point. 2,000' downhill then flat to Sacramento with a few bumps inbetween.

Half the day was on a bike path from Folsom to Sacramento which was quite nice. I rode with one guy who was interested in the trip for around 15 miles (Dave) so it was nice to have some company. And yup, I was right next to the prison from the Johnny Cash song but never got to see it (just some fencing with barbed wire on the top).

I didn't see the couple from Indiana. Goodbye!!

I did, however, see a group of 8 just starting their eastbound trip to DC. They're a group calling themselves Bike4Peace (you can google it). One's actually a former 6 term congresswoman who's now running under the Green Party. They're intending to join some sort of bicycling rally in late September in DC.

They're not going to make it. There's no way. I don't think they quite grok what it is they signed up for. I haven't seen a single person on the Western Express who wasn't in very good shape and in their 20s or early 30s. They're mostly older and mostly overweight. I've seen other older people and other overweight people, but never two in one and never on the Western Express. On top of that they were carrying too much stuff... especially the congresswoman. On top of that, they've got a very aggressive time table. *Maybe* they could handle the TransAm on a more flexible schedule.

Their website is also treating their trip a bit nonchallantly. It doesn't seem like they know what they're in for (it's just like going for a 20 mile ride inbetween meals! Anyone can do it!). They've got to respect the physical and mental challenge that lays ahead of them.

Good luck to them though. I hope I'm wrong. They were going to get a taste of their first actual climb today. Hopefully it opens their eyes a bit.

Saw a rattlesnake on the path! It got into the bushes before I could get a good shot of it. Another biker almost swerved into me to avoid it then apologized explaining it was a "rattler" at which point I exclaimed, "Really?", looked, then "That's so cool!" and stopped for a picture. Ahh well.

It's all gravy from here

Those were the words of the last eastbounder I saw, and now that I'm finally done with all these mountains, I'm looking forward to some easy days.

Today was hard though: almost the hardest of the trip. I think it was about 5,000' total of climbing. The initial climb to get over Carson Pass was just the beginning as there were two more big hills ahead of me and the entire 6,500' descent was punctuated with small hills every few miles.

I didn't get much relief from the downhills either. For the first half, the road quality was really bad (lots of cracks and potholes) and there was lots of traffic. For the second, the route took a turn and I got on the backroads: road quality got worse, it got more winding, and gone were the turn-specific speed limit signs which are very useful. During the fast parts I had to constantly scan for potholes directly ahead, turns in the distance, my current speed, and cars behind me in the mirror. It took a lot of concentration.

However, during the second half the traffic was almost all gone, and I went through a national forest with very big trees right up the shoulder. It was actually very nice, just me and the trees. It was slightly depressing because there were so many dying trees, but overall very enjoyable (mild winters and early springs are leaving way too many pine bark beetles alive which is killing huge swaths of trees and turning the pacific northwest into a tinder box).

I reran into the Indiana couple last night when they rolled into the campgrounds past 8pm. I also ran into them at my destination in Placerville. Hopefully we'll ride a little tomorrow. I didn't see them last week in Austin because they got a motel and took a rest day.

Speaking of camping, it was really windy last night and I got very little sleep. I'm very tired, especially considering how hard the day was.

It was really hot again. I took an hour rest mid-day because it was getting to me.

I'm at 2,000' elevation. I haven't been this low since Kansas. Tomorrow I'll be at almost sea-level. I haven't been *that* low since Albany.

I did 86 miles. Last long day of the trip :)

Today I bathed in a river

I think when most cyclists are confronted with this situation, they simply opt to go without, but not me... especially not me with this horrible backne problem.

It's the West Fork Carson River and it was so cold... so very very cold. I think it was cold enough that if you stayed in much more than a few minutes, you might get in trouble with hypothermia. It took my breath away when I dipped all the way in. It felt great afterwards though!

Speaking of great, today was awesome! I got a very early start, my body was extremely well rested, the terrain was easy, there weren't any winds, it wasn't too hot, I was back in civilization, and I'm nearing the end! I felt good throughout the 95 miles I rode: 2nd longest day of the trip.

Two things weren't so great though: I flatted in the morning because I didn't see a big rock in the road (it was a pinched flat) and the place I was going to stay at didn't have lodging, so here I am camping without water. The food situation isn't so great either, but I'll get enough calories.

I'm camping 1.5 miles west of Woodfords, CA about 1,000' up the Sierra Nevadas. I'm in California! It's so nice to be back around people and services. The desert was really tough.

FYI: a pinched flat is when you flat from your wheel striking something (like a pot hole or big rock). The inner tube gets stuck between the tire and the rim on both sides and you get two small holes: also called a snake bite. I've had just about every type of cycling flat tire this trip: two punctures, a slow flat, a blowout, and a pinched flat.

Getting no reception right now so I'll post this tomorrow morning as soon as I find some.

Last rest day!

Only 385 miles left: 64.2 mi/day to San Fran (28th). I plan on 2 long days to get over the Sierra Nevadas then 4 short days in CA so I can enjoy it a bit more and not have to race to the end.

Almost there!

Civilization at last!

I finally entered the more densely populated part of Nevada today. Fallon is quite nice since before you hit downtown there's lots of trees, grass, and farms: things I haven't really seen since Colorado.

It's a little strange because 20 miles before Fallon is the most desert-like environment I've seen: no vegetation, just dirt, sand, and salt (I think the area was called Sand Springs). There was even a giant sand dune called Sand Mountain. The picture shows some of the salt part. I got off my bike, walked to the salt and tasted some: it was salty... and sandy.

I ended up taking a half mile detour to try and get a better picture of Sand Mountain. It was off the highway on a very bumpy dirt road. I decided I had enough and stopped to take a picture. First, though, I had to wait for a couple of cars to pass the other way to get out of my shot. The first car stopped and asked if I was alright. "Yup. I'm fine." Then out of nowhere I got the question: "You crazy?" That was awesome. I've never been asked if I was sane before. I think it was the spine sitting on top of my tent because after I told them that I was indeed all there they asked what type of skeleton it was. I told them I didn't know, I just got it off the side of the road, but given their line of questioning I should have immediately responded with "human" and stared. Ahh well.

I only did 48 miles today because Silver Springs doesn't have lodging. I'm going to try to make it up over the next two cycling days. The second day's gonna be *tough*. Rest day first though :)

I was right about the military base. I rode by a bunch of naval air stations an saw a whole bunch of jets. The main base is right next to Fallon. It's actually bigger than the town if the maps are right.