Day 65

7/19/16 San Francisco, CA, about 10 miles.  This will be the last blog post about a riding day.  I had already made it to San Francisco on Day 64, but being tired, and with the lack of fun going through urban areas with a loaded bike, I didn't ride across the city to the Pacific.  I did that on Day 65.  I spent most of the day visiting sights with my mostly unloaded bike.  In the afternoon, I rode my bike through Golden Gate Park and down to Ocean Beach.  There, I put my feet in the Pacific and washed my face with its water.  I proceeded to go back to my friend Devin's apartment and slept for 14 hours.

Fin.

Day 64

7/18/16 Davis, CA to San Francisco, CA via Vallejo Ferry, about 67 miles.  Riding out of Davis through endless orchards and fruit farms was beautiful.  I saw many other cyclists on the way, and there is a town called Winters about 15 miles west of Davis with a coffee shop frequented by Davis cyclists doing a 30 mile out and back.  The day continued nicely as I began hitting the San Francisco suburbs around mile 30.  Continuing on, a headwind began to pick up and by mile 45 I was heading straight into a strong wind.  I eventually reached Vallejo, where the housing developments and later urban development blocked the wind.  I got to the ferry dock at 3:20, in time for the 4:00 ferry across San Francisco Bay into San Francisco.  I'd have liked to bike all the way to Oakland for the shorter ferry ride, but I heard that the Vallejo Ferry is a beautiful ride, and I'll be living in the area for 5 years, so I can always go back and bike Vallejo to Oakland.  Made it to San Francisco and met up with my friend Devin for dinner.  Devin worked at the Federal Reserve during my first year there and is now working in San Francisco.  He was the first familiar face from before the trip that I have seen since leaving Virginia.  I dipped my feet in San Francisco Bay after dinner.  We got ice cream at Ghirardelli Square before heading back to his house in the Mission District.

In some respect, the trip is now over.  But I still need to bike across the Golden Gate Bridge, bike to the Pacific, and bike back to Berkeley (this time via the Oakland Ferry).  So there will be a Day 65 and probably a day 66, depending on when I do all that.

Day 63

7/17/16 Folsom, CA to Davis, CA, about 42 miles.  Started the day riding along the American River Bike Trail, a heavily used bike trail connecting Folsom and Sacramento.  In Sacramento, I saw Sac State, the California Capitol Building, and the California Museum.  Afterward, I left for Davis, the self proclaimed best city for biking.  Davis is also the first city since leaving northern Virginia on Day 5 that was familiar to me, having visited UC Davis while touring grad programs.  In Davis, I stayed with Robb and Nancy.  Robb is the mayor of Davis.

Day 62

7/16/16 Kirkwood, CA to Folsom, CA, about 84 miles.  Woke up this morning in the Sierra Nevada, a beautiful place to wake up, with a huge descent ahead of me.  I had spent most of Kansas and eastern Colorado climbing up to over 4,000 feet of elevation, and the day prior climbing another 4,000 feet to over 8,000 feet of elevation, only to lose almost all of it and return to near sea level in a single descent from the Sierra Nevada.  Then, about two miles into my ride, my rear derailleur cable snapped.  This means that my rear gear was forced into the highest gear, rendering my bike basically useless.  I was fortunate to have bought spare cables back in Damascus, VA on someone's advice, but I had never replaced a cable before.  I spent the next hour and a half trying to figure out how to switch a cable by trying new things and unscrewing all kinds of parts, as lack of cell service in the mountains removed the lifeline of phoning a friend or using Google.  Finally I figured out how to replace the cable, and it worked!  My bike was rideable once again.  I continued my way down the mountain, flying past breathtaking vistas on my way into California's San Joaquin Valley.  Finally, at about 70 miles into my ride, just outside of a town called El Dorado Hills a suburb of Sacramento, I ran into a wonderful strip mall with a Peet's coffee shop.  I had an excellent iced latte there and celebrated the success of making it to the urban parts of California.  I continued on down beautiful roads towards Folsom, where I'm being hosted by a family, the mom and dad having ridden across the country back in 1994.

Day 61

7/15/16 Dayton, NV to Kirkwood, CA, about 64 miles.  I've made it to California and to the top of the Sierra Nevada!  No more mountains, no more state borders.  I'm planning to get to the Pacific in four days from now.  This morning I went through Carson City, Nevada's state capital.  I didn't stop since there didn't seem to be much going on except people commuting to work.  The last town I got to in Nevada was Genoa, where I stopped for breakfast, but not before stopping for a picture in the town park right as the sprinklers went on, leaving me soaked.

I crossed the California border on a small side road that had more local road cyclists than cars, riding right alongside the Sierra Nevada mountains which surround Lake Tahoe.  I crossed the California border on that side road, meaning I only got a small post for a California sign, but it's better than no sign (such as in Maryland, Virginia, and Illinois..).  Right after crossing the border, I began the climb over Carson Pass through the Sierra Nevada.  The climb was about 4,000 feet from bottom to top, bringing me to an elevation of around 8,600 feet, the last time I'll even be at over 1,000 feet of elevation after I descend tomorrow.

At the top of Carson Pass, the road intersects the Pacific Crest Trail.  I got to meet some hikers and was offered some food by trail angels at the top.  Trail angels are people who help long distance hikers with food and water, and the ones here help cyclists too.

I intended to go to a campsite, but after finding a campground that was full, I decided it would be more fun to camp across the street right beside a lake surrounded by mountains.  This wasn't before being offered by two people at the campsite interested in my trip to share their site, but as it's my last night that I plan to camp, I thought doing so beside beautiful Caples Lake at the top of the Sierra Nevada would be too good to pass up.

Day 60

7/14/16 Middlegate, NV to Dayton, NV, about 96 miles.  Got an early 6am start today and the riding conditions were great.  I passed by Fallon Naval Air Station, where Navy pilots are trained, and got to see many military jets flying around.  Just before Fallon, I met two cyclists Amrit and Ajit from Nepal who are cycling around the world.  They have been through India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, and are now following a similar route across the United States as myself.  I got to Fallon, about 46 miles in, at around 10am, just in time for breakfast.  Fallon is where the population of Nevada starts to increase as I approach Reno and Carson City.  Fallon is also where the Adventure Cycling Association's Western Express route changes from Section 1 to Section 2.  This is the route that I have been following since Pueblo, and it means that I am now on the final section, Section 1 (the maps go West to East, so Section 1 is last for me).  Another accomplishment: by longitude, Fallon is west of Los Angeles. 

About 20 miles past Fallon, I came over a hill with a view of the Sierra Nevada, the mountain range sitting on the border of Nevada and California.  I saw a few peaks which could be on the California side, which means that I might have seen California (after consulting with maps for a while, I think there is fairly high probability that at least one peak is in CA).

As usual, the headwinds picked up again.  My pace slowed and I barely thought I could make it to Dayton.  The final 15 miles took almost 3 hours, on flat terrain.  I got a flat tire at one point (first since eastern Colorado) and while fixing it, a driver pulled over to help.  He's a mountain biker and explained the wind to me.  Apparently as the sun warms up the air in California's central valley, the air rises causing higher air pressure in California than Nevada.  This causes air to get sucked over the Sierra Nevada and blow strongly to the east.  I'm now glad to have an explanation as to why I've spent every afternoon in Nevada with hot air blowing in my face.  The good news is that I've been breathing California air.

Day 59

7/13/16 Austin, NV to Middlegate, NV, about 63 miles.  Today would have been an easy day if not for headwinds.  Nonetheless, I made it to my destination of Middlegate.  I met two eastbound cyclists on the way, Noah, who is riding from Portland, Oregon to Maine, and another from France, who is riding from San Diego to Montreal.  Middlegate is a town of 17 people, but it has a highway stop with a small restaurant and motel, and I'm camping outside.

Back when I was further east, I used to comment on which major Midwestern cities I had gotten west of by lines of longitude as a marker of progress.  Today, I can do the same for major West Coast cities.  By longitude, I am now west of San Diego, California.