2021: Death Valley and beyond

on the road by 7am.  i was excited, nearing the finish.  i would likely make fortuna by noon, suzi around 7.  i still had some residual anxiousness regarding the bike.  the tires had held air overnight but i topped them off just to be sure. quiet morning communing with the giants. the eel river.  you could see how it got the name.  the river has been prone to flooding, 1964 being the mega flood.  i believe it requires considerable snow melt, of which there is very little these last years. and into fortuna and, yes, you guessed it, a beer at the eel river brewery

slept late today, muscles were sore from the last two days.  enjoyed just lying there.  didn't get up till i heard the other cyclists stirring.   the slow leak i had on the rear tire was getting worse.  sound familiar? so i finally took the time to change that tube.  then packed up.  i checked on suzi, she had boarded her flight to portland.  our vectors were converging. said goodby to the others, who were all heading south, and rolled out onto rte 101, now joined by rte 1, the coastal highway.  and that's when i realized my front brake was gone, the cable frayed.  one more thing on the list.  after putzing with it, i realized i couldn't fix it.  with no bike shop along the way till after i meet suzi, i was just going to have to survive on the rear brake alone.  doable, just needed to be cautious on the downhills.  at least the tires were holding air.  80 miles and 2 days to go before meeting up with suzi. i followed rock creek and the eel river into the redwoods.

a strange thing happened today:  it got cloudy.  i started out the morning with a 20 min or so kyack paddle in the lake.  early, before 7.  one other person was up, but no one on the water.  other than a couple of mallards and a bunch of grebes.  it was quiet, except for the grebes of course, and relatively calm.  i almost didnt go, but mike, the park owner, sort of shamed me into it.  glad he did. next up was to change the front tire tube.  my patch worked for a little while, then it was leaking worse than before.  so i bit the bullet and changed it out.  so far so good, seems to be working fine. then it was down to the duncan donuts for chai and an egg and cheese on bagel.  didn't see any local coffee shop, nice doesn't really seem to have a downtown.  i started out up through the hills, looking a little familiar, like east tennessee.  a baby ospry was yakking away, wanting food, i guess, as i rode up past the blue lakes. then i hit some fa

word has it the valley is going to heat up this week.  i need to get up into lake county and the coastal ranges before that happens.  i'll be on the right side of timing for a change.  except for the wind, i'll still have a headwind no matter what.   in the sutter community park, in the middle of the night, i felt a wash of water drops.  it stopped, i rolled over.  sometime later i was awoken again by another wash.  the third time, i woke up enough to realize it was lawn sprinklers.  by the fourth time i was up and moving all my stuff.  i relocated over to a pavilion, got out my air matress and dry down blanket (thank you again, linda), hung everything up to dry and went back to sleep.   i was up early, things were still wet, but packed them up to dry out later.  so, first past the remnants of the volcano (i think).  they refer to it as a messa and a butte.  the road was called butte pass, but it was barely a blip. into calusa for breakfast and to change

in the morning, i continued down out of the sierras toward the sacremento valley.  two things:  1) it's nice to be up among the pine trees still, but 2) it's obviously dry up here.  the grass is yellow everywhere you look.  the elevation continues to drop.  out of tahoe national forest and the sierras and into the rolling hills.   i almost missed it.  up to this point rte 20 has been a 2 lane country highway.  suddenly, on the downhill it changes form, switches to 4 lanes and has an exit.  i see the sign for 'historic downtown', remember i'm touring and am supposed to be taking time to experience the new, so i exit.  turns out to be nevada city where i had hoped to find breakfast.  and i not only find breakfast, but much more i wasn't expecting.  i was reminded it was saturday. a few miles later there's grass valley struggling go compete and the terrain takes on new characteristics.  tall pines disa