Month: August 2017

Folsom, CA >FairPlay, CA

Miles Ridden – 47.5

Mileage to date – 156.3

This screenshot from my phone at 830 in the morning pretty much sums up the day –

It was pretty hot out today. We had hoped to make it up to Cooks Station,Ca. Our starting elevation was about 200 ft above sea level and Cooks Station is 60 miles away and at 5000 ft. Our plan was to make the final decision on a stopping point in Plymouth, CA which is about half way to Cooks Station. After an early lunch we decided to try to make it to Cooks Station but about 7 miles outside of Plymouth the heat really started to get to me. We decided to find a place to stay for the night given and we managed to find a wonderful B&B called Lucinda’s Country Inn in FairPlay, CA about 10 miles up the road.

I think it was a wise decision give the heat. The hosts were really great to us. They allowed us to do a load of laundry. They provided us some breakfast food tonight since we plan to leave so early. They also offered to drive us to the next town to get supplies if we needed anything for our trip. We meet some guests who very interested in our trip and nice to talk with.

It was a tough day to ride. Johns GPS app says we did about 3900 feet of climbing. On the way to the B&B I lost a significant amount of braking capacity in the my rear wheel. Which is probably not a problem tomorrow since we still will be climbing, but definitely an issue when we come down Carson Pass. There are no bike shops available until we reach Nevada in 2 days. I called Andrew from my home bike shop Earls Cycles and he gave me enough info so that I think I have it fixed now! Thanks Andrew!

It was overall beautiful ride but traffic was heavy in spots. We did not take a lot of photos give the heat.

Fairfield, CA > Folsom, CA  89.8 miles

Yesterday on the ferry we met an interesting guy from San Francisco.  John him called the Keith Richards of bicycling.  When he heard we were riding just 15 miles and staying at a hotel he said “oh you are doing a tour de la Visa” as in Visa card.  We are staying tonight at a nice Inn on Lake Natoma in Folsom so I guess guilty as charged so far.

The original plan was to ride about 70 miles and stay around Sacramento.  We had an early breakfast and saw the weather was going to be over 100 degrees tomorrow in Sacramento.  We started riding promptly at 7 am.  It was very cool and we made good time.  At some point we decided that maybe we should push on past Sacramento if we felt strong after lunch.  The temperatures today in the afternoon were in the 90’s – hot but bearable.

We rode through some beautiful agricultural areas around Fairfield.  We had lunch in Davis which is great college town and probably one of the best places to ride a bike. There are just an amazing number of bike paths there.  To get to Sacramento we had to endure about 3 miles on a bike path that runs parallel to I-80 – quite a contrast to the bucolic scenery earlier.  We also got to experience West Sacramento which is pretty sketchy.  I saw what I thought was another touring cyclist approaching us, but it turned out to be a homeless guy towing his stuff in a trailer.  In Sacramento, we decided to ride on to Folsom which is about 30 miles north.  We booked a hotel with my phone and almost immediately after that John got a flat tire!

The ride up to Folsom was entirely on a bike path which was very nice.  It was flat and easy riding.  We were starting to fade about 10 miles from the finish when a fellow rode up beside us.  He had the exact same bike as us and lives in Folsom.  It turns out he is a high school teacher in Sacramento area and commutes by bike 45 miles round trip pretty much every day for the past 20 years.  He road with us all the way to Folsom and showed us where our Inn was.  He gave us some dinner ideas and was just a really interesting guy.  The last 10 miles flew by!

Tomorrow we will be heading into the Sierra Nevada foothills and will start to do some climbing.   We will see how we are progressing and then decide where to stay.  We may have limited internet access for the next 2 days and will update as much as we can.

Today was a long day, but things went very smoothly.  We flew from Boston and our flight left at 8 am.  John and I were anxious to get going and were at the airport at 6:15.  Cindy drove me down the night before and we stayed in a hotel near the airport.  John and I had enough time to have a nice breakfast before we boarded the plane.

The flight was very smoothly and we landed a few minutes early.  Our luggage came out quickly and were were able to get an Uber driver to take us to REI in San Francisco in no time.  Our bikes were ready as promised.  We loaded the bikes up with gear and changed into riding attire.   We rode down the street to a UPS store to ship our duffel bags back home and then rode to the ferry.  We caught the 2:30 ferry and we arrived in Vallejo at 3:30.  We rode about 16 miles up to our hotel in Fairfield.  We had to make a couple minor adjustments to the bikes, but overall it was very smooth.

We are tired and will sleep well tonight.  Tomorrow we plan to ride about 70 miles up to Sacramento.

Some photos from today –

I am using a cool app called IFTTT to help with my blog. I am using it to automatically cross post my blog entries on Facebook. I am also using it to post links to our location by pressing a button on my phone. I told you this was a nerdy post!

We fly from Boston tomorrow morning.  I am definitely a bit anxious, but eager to get started.   The Powerball lottery is up to $700 million and the drawing is tonight.  Cindy and I bought a couple of tickets.  If we win, I probably will ride all the  entire way back to Boston with John.  We will stay in hotels instead of camping out!

Given the lack of services on our route through Nevada and Utah, access to water is a huge concern for us. There are some long stretches with minimal to no access to water. I remember running out of water for a few hours on a bike tour when I was in high school on a hot day and it is not a pleasant memory. I have 3 water bottle cages on my bicycle and I can carry 3 bottle with a total volume of 2.7 liters of water. Water is very essential, but very heavy. One liter of water weighs about 2.2 pounds. So 10 liters of water which is about 2.6 gallons weighs 22 pounds!

After much debate, we decided to bring collapsible water bags from MSR. I am bringing two 2 L DromLite bags.  I plan to carry one in each rear pannier when I need extra water. I wanted to keep the water as low as possible on my bike to improve handling. This means when carrying extra water I probably will need to store some gear on top of my rear rack. I plan to use an extra stuff sack to hold the gear.

John only has room for 2 water bottles due to fenders on his bike so he opted for the 10 L Dromedary bag from MSR. He has a sturdier rear rack on his bike and he plans to carry extra water on top of the rack. The Dromedary bag is more rugged than the Dromlite.  I think the Dromedary bag is a good choice especially since John will be touring for 2 months. I also think the bags will be very useful when camping to supplement the water bottles.

I worked on packing most of my gear yesterday. Here is a photo of pretty much everything I am taking less my helmet and bike shoes –

Luckily it all fits in one duffel bag which I will plan to mail back home once I reach San Francisco.

Cindy helped me make some dinners for the trip yesterday.  We made them out of freeze dried ingredients that I ordered from Amazon.  You can buy pre-made meals from pretty much any outdoor store, but they tend to be quite salty and I liked the idea and flexibility of making my own.  I got the recipes from a site called The Yummy Life.

Here is a photo of the work in progress –

And the final product –