day 9

yes we skipped 8 cause that was a rest day and i wrote a little blurb about it. today we packed up our stuff and left our wonderful host, kathy, to head down highway 95 as an alternative route to get to cedar city, utah. we grabbed some breakfast from cock n bull casino/restaurant, reminded me of windbreak back home in alaska. we got waffles topped with whipped cream and fruits and a huge piece of ham, seriously it was as big as evan's face. after chatting with the cook and waitress about our trip, we sunscreened up, layered, and got on our way. biked out of town with semi's flying past us as we kept a consistent speed even though we had a head wind a good amount of the time. saw some wonderful desert mountains, went through an indian reservation, and biked along a lake. it was a chilly ride, but a good one. when we stopped at the indian reservation, we saw their "fair", which was literally one ride and three game booths. i think we saw a guy selling tickets (but not really selling tickets), 2 guys sitting on the ride (but not ridding it), and 3 people talking (not playing) by the game booths. we were tempted to go, but it was $15 a ticket, we stopped at their store where we met an guy who claimed to be an artist and we just chitchated for a bit. got our pictures taken by a lady who couldn't believe what we were doing and we kept biking. we biked 73 miles to hawthorne, nevada; we stopped at their safeway, got some chocolate milk, and found out where the local hotspots were located. we made our way to maggies, to get all you can eat soup and salad with a polish hotdog thingy. we did enjoy the free wifi there. after checking the weather and talking about our next move we rode around town looking for places to camp/stay warm/out of the rain/etc. so after going up and down streets we were headed out of town and saw a motel and we went in and got a room since it might snow tonight and tomorrow. did our laundry in the sink, showered, and updated the blog; going to catch up on lost and finish uploading all the pictures to their blog posts and read. evan is going to go wander the town.

pictures to come

updated the last 3 days but we are at a library and the pictures seem to take f-o-r-e-v-e-r to upload so i'll try to figure something else out. we decided to take a rest day here in Fallon since there isn't much of anything past here for awhile. enjoyed a great breakfast with kathy at a casino and am spending the day in the library reading, updating the blog, sending e-mails, and checking out a possible alternate route.

as i said, pictures to come. there are some gooooood ones.

peace & patience.

day 7

we awoke thinking we might stay an extra day in tahoe since it was really nice out but after a wonderful breakfast of eggs, toast, and fruits we saw that some bad weather was heading this way, so we packed up our bikes to head to carson city. evan lost a screw at sandy & mike's place in placervile that went to one of his panniers, but luckily after a little bit of tinkering, evan and ann's husband, made it work. we said our goodbyes and rode along the coast to hwy 50. there was a sweet spot we stopped at to take pictures of the lake before we went through a little tunnel. evan and i both promised we'd return to spend more time in this great place. after talking to some guys fishing, we decided to keep trekking. it was just a picture-perfect day out, not a cloud in the sky; we were blessed for some wonderful weather since we got rained on the day before. there was a nice gradual climb a thousand or so feet from the lake to the top of the pass where we stopped to take some more pictures and to soak it all in. once at the top, we bombed it down another long downgrade to carson city. i know we both hit 45 mph! we were booking it. it warmed up 10 to 15 degrees down in carson city after dropping some good elevation. you could definitely tell you were in nevada, more desert and some beautiful mountains in the background. stopped once again at a Raleys for some grub and to sunscreen up. we weaved through the city, getting detoured once trying to get onto 50, but we found our way. we decided to keep biking and felt like we get get all the way to fallon, 50+ miles away. it was a great ride from carson city to fallon! hit 45 mph again and stayed at a consistent 20+ mph for long stretches. the landscape reminded me a lot of southwest idaho, it felt nice. not much for traffic once you get farther out of carson city and not much to see; there was a nice dam and lake that we joked was lake lowell. at this point in the trip we were farther apart cause evan's knee was giving him grief so we were jamming out to music and riding. when we were a ways back from fallon, i called up my friend ron, rodney to others, to see if he could set us up with a place to stay in fallon and he hooked it all up so we could stay with a family friend of him and his family, kathy. once we got to fallon, evan and i were so hungry we stopped in at Jerry's to get unlimited pancakes, some eggs, bacon, and sausage; it was so tasty. we then found our way to kathy's home; she opened up her house even though her pipes burst not too long ago and flooded her guestroom and she's in the middle of getting it all fixed. she took us in like we were her own and had a mattress for us to sleep on, on the floor which was super comfortable. we chatted with her for a bit before heading to bed. 93 miles that day, a new record for us. tired and sore legs and the next leg of the route is extremely desolate and mountainous.

today's ride, was really wonderful for myself and a time to thank God for the blessings and beauty He has bestowed upon us recently. yes tough times are ahead but we need to take it day by day and soak up the surroundings and stay hydrated/warm. sorry for the long gap of not updating, but it will probably be the same for the next couple of days since we'll be in the middle of nowhere! thanks for all the prayers.

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.

day 5

we left the comforts of placerville with mike, sandy, & tristan to head up to south lake tahoe. biked on a nice bike path through town and out to pollock pines where we loaded up on fruits, vegetables, protein drinks and bagels! we turned onto highway 50 and had a great ride down for a bit. stopped and saw a nice waterfall on the side of the road and chatted with some people. we then started hitting some mountains which was a little slow going. we got to a gas station and asked the japanese man, who was on the phone the entire time, where the nearest campground was up the road and he said they are all still closed, so we head back a mile or two to the last campground we saw. we picked our spot, paid a reduce fee, and setup camp. we built a small fire which didn't last real long, we needed andrew, master fire builder, but it was nice for the handful of hours we had it going (it was still wet up there from the storm that passed). we prepared some dinner, mountain house chicken and rice, ate some raisins and whatever else we could scrounge up and read for the remainder of the evening. i am finishing up "3 Cups of Tea" (thanks lia), which is an amazing book and i would recommend it to everyone, super inspirational and just a great story; evan is reading "dharma bums" by mr. kerouac and i hope to read that at some point on the trip too. i then went around taking pictures of the river and trees in the area before we read some more by headlamps :) it was a nice peaceful evening and the ground was nice and soft to sleep on. we ended up going 37.5 miles

day 4

rest day today since there is a storm in the mountains; its raining down here in placerville. we are still staying with our wonderful hosts, mike and sandy. mike made some great waffles this morning and eggs, just what we needed! we read for a bit and chatted with them before we figured out an alternative route to take to lake tahoe. our original route was 100+ miles through some very steep mountains but this one is only 60+ miles with more gradual climbs. we had another alternative route but the road is still closed due to snow, so glad there is another way. we then drove part of the bike route so we could have a better understanding of it and where it goes; then we grabbed some awesome mexican food from a place in camino. the inside has palm trees, "sand beach" floor, a big salt water fish tank, and then thatched roofed seating area. we then drove over to the site where gold was first discovered in california to start the california gold rush! saw a cool old town and church. we then drove over to a huge farm that has every fruit imaginable and they were giving tons of oranges and grapefruits away for free! we got a handful each for the road. today has been a good resting day to wait out the storm before we head over the mountains. enjoy the pics from today.