day 6

we awoke, packed up camp, sun screened up, and started climbing up more mountains. it was a bit of a struggle but i kept reminding myself to "just keep spinning" and taking quick 10 second breaks to catch my breath and keep going. we climbed for most of the afternoon and there was a decent amount of snow on the sides of the road, covering cabins almost to the roofs! luckily the roads were clear, but it was cold and the wind started to pick up a bit and bring some rain clouds our way. evan and i got a little separated for a bit at the top and it started raining a good amount so we covered our sleeping bags, tent, and sleeping pads with trash bags and put on our rain jackets. we made it to the top of the pass and started heading down to lake tahoe which is a 4-5 mile downhill grade. it was scary and super cold since it was raining and the shoulder was very small and traffic would be waiting behind you and you would be going almost 40 mph! nuts stuff but we made it down safely. we then stopped at our favorite grocery store, Raleys, and got some chocolate milk and asked where a good local restaurant was. we also met and talked to a guy who was biking from carson city heading back to california on a mountain bike, helpful and crazy guy though. a few miles down the road was the burger lounge where we shared a plate of pesto fries and each got a burger to refuel. wi-fi was next on our list, we went to mcdonalds to see if they had free wi-fi but they didn't, but luckily down the street, pizza hut did. we camped out there for a couple of hours sending out warmshowers and couchsurfing requests for a place to stay or throw up our tent. after watching nascar and car auctions we had enough and no luck with the requests on short notice, we decided to bike around the lake towards hwy 50 to throw our tent up. as we were riding, a car passed me and honked and waved, so i flashed the peace sign to them and kept riding. later down the road a suv was parked and waving us down; they asked where we were staying and what we were up to so we told them. we met up with ann and her husband (sadly both evan and i can't remember his name :( sorry) at a little pub; we talked for awhile as they ate some dinner and we headed up to their casa. a wonderful house up on the side of a mountain! on our ride up we saw a momma black bear and her cubs! it was dark so no picture, sorry folks. that night we showered off all the gunk collected on us from the rain in a japanese shower/tub and soaked our tire/sore bodies in a hot tub. after many laughs and storytelling, evan and i decided to head to bed and we zonked out right away.