Day 3
Day 3 began like any other, on a construction site in a rural suburb of a far out town. We packed up camp as it was our first night under the stars, then tucked into a hearty breakfast of bread, jam and peanut butter.
On our previous blog we missed out a crucial bit about a cycling companion we picked up along the way. We met Peter while having lunch in Folsom and rode with him for a couple of days. He taught us a lot about touring cycling, not least how to rough camp. However, it was his relaxed way of life that rubbed off on most I think.
Now back to the story...
We left before the builders turned up and headed along the highway. It was at this point we began to climb. We started the day at 1100ft and the climbs were fairly steep to start with with good twisty roads through heavily wooded valleys. There were a few quick, hair raising fast descents but these were followed always by a lot more climbing. We then we told by a local chap to go via a road called 'Slug Gulch', he said it attracted many cyclists to it so we thought we must give it a go. The reason for its popularity was the fact that it was two miles of road I believe to average about 12% (brutally steep!) This took us about 30-40 minutes to power over but when we got to the top to an extremely strange selection of houses on this ridge with incredible views, and we had lunch.
Next came the magnificent Eldorado Forest, with an insanely huge expanse of coniferous trees going for many many miles. By now, we were so far from the beaten track that it was peaceful and relaxing for all of us. Bearing in mind we are still climbing on a much gentler gradient if about 4-6% (still uphill, but slot easier than the 12% from the morning). The best moment of the day was arriving at a sign just before Cooks Station that told us we had just passed 5000ft. Another great achievement for us and we were on course for celebrations but bad news arrived in the form of a shut shop, no food being served and getting charged $15 a pitch for our tents. We had a mad rush in our panniers to lump all the food together we had that came to a couple of packets of rasins, some penut butter and 1 slice of bread, and a slice of salami left over from lunch. We settled in for a long hungry night but as soon as we had finished our 'light supper' the owner of the shop turned up and let us run riot, buying what felt like the whole shop out of food. So in the end we weren't too hungry but it's fair to say its lesson learnt.
FAA
However, it wasn't the lack of food wasn't the most of our problems that night. Here are Sams thoughts of what wasn't his best nights sleep:
We are on the undercover eating area outside, no tents just camped together with Peter outside at the rest stop, it's going well. I woke up at 2 and haven't got back to sleep yet it's 4, when hearing this loud banging in the bins just down the hill at 330. We had be forewarned of the bears around these parts but to hear it was bloody terrifying as we were offered the option of camping anywhere down the hill where this bear now was. I am still sat here sat two hours later and anxious about the thought of this bear getting onto the veranda, but no worries people Sale is the closest to the entrance, sound asleep so I should hear his scream and be able to scarper. - Sam
Day 4
Woke up at 630 in Cooks Station for breakfast that was called 'the monster lumberjack', a vast amount of eggs, bacon, ham, hash brown, toast and sausages. Having fuelled up we began to climb and climb and climb. We were covering about 1100 feet vertically an hour which was a lot with 20-25kg on the panniers. It was made much worse with the fog that made the views disappear so quite unfortunate but still getting to Carson's Pass was an unbelievable feeling as it's the highest point in the Sierra Nevada's.
The decent off the top was fast with Sale clocking 48 mph (76 kph) without pedalling. We didn't touch the breaks for the whole way down as it was such an open road. Although lorries passing at 70mph was fairly nerve racking.
The views were spectacular as seen from the photos just incredibly large spaces. The pass over to the Tahoe Basin was awesome and the six miles downhill made the day worth it completely.
We went to a music festival in the evening which was great as the sunset down over the mountains. The got some beers and headed to the beach where we slept for the night. Just another unbelievable experience waking up to the sun over a lake and on the beach.
Today we relax, running errands to prepare for the real mountains which begin shortly.
Day 4
Woke up at 630 in Cooks Station for breakfast that was called 'the monster lumberjack', a vast amount of eggs, bacon, ham, hash brown, toast and sausages. Having fuelled up we began to climb and climb and climb. We were covering about 1100 feet vertically an hour which was a lot with 20-25kg on the panniers. It was made much worse with the fog, rain, wind and sub 5 degree temperatures. Moreover, the views were non existent in the fog which was a shame as we climbed over Carson's Pass at 8700 feet. Nonetheless, it was an unbelievable feeling as it's the highest point in the Sierra Nevada's.
The decent off the top was fast and VERY COLD with Sale clocking 52 mph without pedalling. We didn't touch the breaks for the whole way down as it was such an open road. Although lorries passing at 70mph+ was fairly nerve racking.
The views were spectacular as seen from the photos just incredibly large spaces. The pass over to the Tahoe Basin was awesome and the six miles downhill made the day completely worthwhile.
With a day off tomorrow, We grabbed some beers and went to a sundowner music festival by the side of the lake. As the festival finished, we realized that we didn't have a place tof stsy for the night so decided to crash on the beach for the night. Just another unbelievable experience waking up to the sun over a lake and on the beach.
Today we relax, running errands to prepare for the real mountains which begin shortly.
Day 5
This morning waking up on South Lake Tahoe beach to a look at the millpond in front if us with the sun coming up over the hills was just spectacular. We lay there for an hour or so just taking it all in and realising how awesome the last few days had been.
Getting up we ventured into a breakfast place called The Big Bear which was great again having an great avocado, bacon and mushroom omelette topped off with some real English tea, which has taken me so long to find. The Americans love to drink weak teas which just doesn't cut it at all. So back the Bear we were just sat for a couple of hours eating, drinking tea/ coffee for the others. Sale was very keen to plan the route for the eight days ahead as the profile looks pretty horrific and services than we have had to this point so far.
After that we went and bought a cooker as hot meals are a very appealing thing to look forward to each day when camping. It was then off to the beach where we spent the rest of the afternoon in the sun with a 'lake recovery session' in the middle. It's been about 25C today which was just ideal for all of us, back now a our hosts house trying to work the washing machine which has confused us all, google saved us and we now have fresh kit for tomorrow.
We are probably out of signal for eight days but may get the odd hotspot about the place so the posts will become fairly scarce.
Day 6:
We rolled out of Tahoe at 6am today and hit highway 50, known as the longest road in America and our home for the next 1000 miles or so and as soon as we did that we the California/Nevada border...1 state down, 8 to go!
We said goodbye to Lake Tahoe and climbed gently out of the bowl that we had descended into two days beforehand and down into Carson city and intot the desert! We had expected it to hot but the realization of how hot was extremely daunting so we found the closest diner and demolished a plate a pancakes each.
Into the desert we went, sun creamed up to the eyeballs and laden with water. We rode hard for a couple of hours before swinging into a pizza place and demolishing a rather large pizza before sitting out the hottest part of ther day trying to plan Sams future amongst other things.
Out we went again at 4 and by now it was really really hot! The mirage of the road was almost hollywoodesque, as were the dried out lakes we cycled past. However after a long snd rather slow 25 miles we arrived at our hosts for the evening, (another courtesy of warm showers) brad and Stacy were very freindly indeed with a welcome beer before taking us off to the rodeo for the evening. Unfortunately, there was no rodeo but it was a good fun none the less. A couple more beers back at brads house with bob his buddy sent to us to sleep well before things get basic for the next 7 days or so living out our panniers. Also wifi won't be too freely available in the middle of the desert so it's over and out for a couple more days.
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