day20 57miles ? 11,000ft/climing kirkwood,ca

Ended up paying $28 DOLLARS for that crappy campsite last night. I should have just kept on riding down the road and slept somewhere else. Stopped at somerset and had a croissant and some chai tea. Talked to the waitress a bit about my trip and then rode off. Had dido running through my head for some reason as I was climbing all morning. I think its because that is always what I listen to before hiking and it reminded me of driving up for a hike. Had lunch about 1/4 mile before the junction to 88. Stopped at cooks station and had a twix and a sierra nevada. I just sat there zoned out and I kind of wanted to just curl up and go to sleep and not face the rest of the climbing I had to do today. I was climbing around 1000ft/hr according to the elevation markers 4000ft, 5000ft, 6000ft, I should get to my campsite real soon. man, this long. I'm so sick of climbing. Why did I bring so much stuff? 7000ft my hand s are getting really cold. I stopped and sat in a snowbank and drank 1 of the sodas I had saved from john. I put on some gloves and figured that I would climb and then descend into kirkwood and get a hotel because my feet were going numb and my fingers were getting really cold. The last 3 miles to kirkwood felt like 10. I finally get to kirkwood about 7ish. I don't know what time it is because my watch broke a while ago and my bike computer decided to stop working this morning. Finally got to kirkwood and turned into the all season resort and it was deserted. No cars and no lights, so I just kept going down that main road and an suv that had passed me a bunch of times earlier in the day started honking at me. They had a bike rack on the back so I knew they were good people. I roll up to the driver side window and they tell me to follow them. They got a room and nothing is open. The whole resort closes may 1. I follow them dump my bike in their room and then I take a shower while they make reservations for dinner 15 miles down the road. There was another guy named shawne that the couple, frank and melody, met at a bed and breakfast the night before. We ate at a place in woodfords and we demolished some huge plates of pasta. We even had dessert too. It started raining while we were eating and we were all so glad that we weren't huddled in our sleeping bags trying to stay out of the wind and rain. We drove through snow to get back to our room and me and shawne sat around and talked for a bit. He had called his girlfriend earlier and gotten the weather for tomorrow. gusts up to 50m.p.h. 36' in the morning and a coule of inches of snow! Linda called a number left on a door and reached a lady who was leaving for carson city in a couple of minutes. She eneded up giving us a room and they saw me rolling by as they were looking for someplace to eat. The timing of all of that was amazing. We have anice fire going right now and I broke a spoke today climbing somewhere. I will repalce it tomorrow. We only have about 500ft before the summit of carson pass. This is the highest I have ever been on my bike and I still have 500ft to go. My legs are stiffening up and they feel soo tired. My achilles felt o.k. today and I will get into Nevada tomorrow.

day19 112km ? somerset,ca

Woke up and it was raining on and off.ls jersey, raincoat, booties, knickers, no gloves. Started to rain kind of hard when I rode through sac st. to the american river bike trail. It was wierd because I ran in the american river half-marathon a year ago and I remember water stops and certain points along the course. They must have had it on saturday because there were still some barriers and a bunch of porta-potties by the start/finish line. Saw a lot of cyclists and runners. It was raining on and off, but it wasn't cold. It felt like june to me. The trail is nice, but there were some big puddles that covered the whole trail. It took you all the way into fulsom and was probably 25-30 miles long. I passed some type of collegiate crew competition they were having on a lake or something. I climbed about 1000ft total to get to placerville and then sort of stair-stepped after that. My right rear pannier bolt came out agian and I had tostop and replace it. Chucked my rear fender. They have been nothing but problems. My front fender I threw in the trash in san fransisco. A policeman stopped his suv and asked if I was o.k. while I was replacing the bolt. Decided to camp at sly campground which was 6 miles out of the way and I regret it. 6 miles of climbing!!! I was climbing for 50 minutes. I finally get to the campsite and there are pit toilets and no showers. A guy, john, and his dog were there and when he went to start up his truck it wouldn't start. He used my phone and made a couple of phone calls to try and get a jump. A van was passing by a while later which he flagged down and got a jump from. A couple was driving the vand and the husband, ed, had done some touring along the coast of oregon last year. He was great and offered to help me out If I ran into trouble over carson pass. John was awesome too. He gave me 2 sodas and some leftover chow mein he wasn't going to eat. A truck stopped by sometime after dark and drove around before asking me where the guy was who needed the jump. I told him that he had gotten a jump earlier and he left.

day18 0 km sacramento,ca

Woke up to rain today and I really, really didn't feel like getting on the bike. I know, I know. I'm losing my hardman, i'll ride in anything status. But it gives me another day to rest and ice my achilles and hang out withthe wonderful funny family that is the thorne's. Tara, Miles and I wnet to IKEA around noon and then stopped by his new condo that he bought. Rode to the bike shop and bought a rear light for carson pass. It was Art's birthday today and we had some good food and great wine to celebrate. I have definitely got my fill of antioxidants while staying here. I bought some optygen at r.e.i. so will see how that goes. Art used to ride a long time ago before everything started getting developed and we talked about riding for a bit.

day17 0 km sacramento,ca

Tara had an interview this morning. Miles and I went to r.e.i. to pick up some stuff and then swung back and picked up Tara after she was done. The bike shop called and said my bike was done, so I had Miles drop me off at the shop. I had broken a driveside spoke and they replaced it. They also gave me some extras and showed me how to replace them. Rode it back to the house and started reading 'the rider' which I picked up at r.e.i and iced my achilles.

day16 85km 4:14

got an early start today (7:30) and it turns out I was 12 miles away from the campsite. No way I would have made it with the light I had left. There was a bike path going into davis,ca and I got turned around and rode through the campus. There were bikes everywhere. I mean everywhere. Everyone was riding. Stopped and ate at crepeville, it was yummy. Got back on the bike and took some flat farm roads and then the yolo causeway, which paralells 50 going into sacramento. I was tryiing to find the biekt rail again after crossing over the river in sac and a policeman on a bike told me 'you have to walk it through the tunnel.' I said I was from out of town and just trying to find a friends house and he gave me some good directions to miles parents place. I showed up to their house at about noon and rang the doorbell, nothing. So I called thier phone and just after his mom, debbie, picked up my phone died. I tried the doorbell again to no answer and was rolling my bike out to ride off to a pay phone when she called out from thier side gate area. I quickly went over and explained who I was so she wouldn't be alarmed. She told me of a bike shop down the street and I rode down to get my bike a new chain put on. I walked back to the house and took a nice hot shower. She left to pick up miles and tara from the airport and I iced my achilles for a while and read. We had an awesome pasta salad for dinner that was suprisingly simple but delicious. Slept on a futon and not in my sleeping bag:)

day15 125km 6:33 fairfield

Had an early start this morning. Got going around 8a.m. and my fingers were really cold. The stretch of road leaving the state park was bad, ruts and changing pavement and patches. There was a nice bike path coming into san fransisco and I saw a lot of cool little shops. Made a detour up some hill because I couldn't read my map correctly. Saw a lot of cyclists, 2-3 groups, solo riders, women riders. Everyone seemed to be wearing some type of kit. Don't any of these people have jobs. Just before the bridge I crested a hill and caught up to a land rover on the descent because it was kind of twisty and went through a speed trap at 38m.p.h. Rode over the golden gate bridge and it was nice. Got a couple of pictures of the bridge and then was starting down to the bike path and my front fender got caught in my fork. I put my fenders on backwards because I am an idiot and never changed them around. My front tire locked up and my back tire lifted up and I almost went over the bars before I coul unclip. I rode around the waterfront and ate at a restaurant called nonna rose's. The host spoke italian, french, spanish and english trying to entice people to come into the restaurant. I almost got t-boned by a bus while making a left turn. I got off the ferry, which was an hour, and tried to make it to the campsite for the night. I got a little turned around when I couldn't read a street sign for some reason. It was getting late and I was still over 12 miles away. I stopped in the town of fairfield at an iced craem cream shop and asked about any campgrounds. A man with his family suggested a day park about 5 miles away. I followed his directions which was the way I was heading anyways and found the park by a lake. It was pretty big and I just hung out under a picnic awning until everyone left and I had a couple of energy bars for dinner. I used my bike as a wind shield with my cover over it. Set up my pad and sleeping bag on top of a picnic table because I saw 2 snakes in the road today and was worried about them however irrational that is.

day14 79km 3:37 lagunitas

Did my clothes at a laundromat and met a a couple of people who traveled around the country in their r.v. He was a vietnam vet and his wife told me about a hot springs called mystic run by the guy who made the gratefull dead 'dancing bear' stickers. Its out by reno somewhere. Saw a couple of cyclists and rode on a nice bike path to samuel p taylor state park. I rode up to the store to grab dinner and ran into the cyclists I saw earlier. They were from vancouver and were on vacation. He was riding a pinarello! Met a larger rider who was starting from san francisco to seattle. I don't envy him with those headwinds. He came over and talked a bit, he is going pretty minimal. He doesn't have rain gear or front panniers. Finished the school humor book. achilles feels the same.