July 9, 2015
Bassetts-Truckee, CA: I gave it all I had to beat the rain!
Inn at Truckee, 11506 Deerfield 888-773-6888 $110. Queen. Very basic room in a very expensive town. Roomy enough for our bikes. Fridge/mico. Lots of TV stations on an old TV. medium wi-fi.
We made it with mere seconds to spare. Crazy! Thunder and rolling black clouds but no rain until we were under the motel carport.
Bob offered to fix us breakfast whatever time we wanted. He did seem a little taken aback by our 5:30 AM request. We settled on 6 AM, with a request for eggs. Bob had been party to our long discussion about the weather and had certainly witnessed our wet arrival yesterday. He understood why we wanted to get out and try and beat the rain.
Breakfast was lovely. A mixed fruit plate with cream cheese, a crustless quiche with nice veggie garnishes of home grown tomatoes and peppers. Bran muffins and coffee.
We had the bikes loaded and ready to roll as soon as breakfast was done. Even Jacinto was up. I was wheeling the bike out and gave the tires the good morning squeeze. Shoot! Remember that low tire that Jim pumped up for me yesterday? It appears that it is actually a flat. A very slow flat. In the interest of beating the rain, I decided to take the chance of just topping the air off. In the meanwhile my rear brake lever now depresses completely. It engages, but doesn't stop the bike. Hmmm, I had noticed that yesterday, but thought it had to do with my cold hands and numb fingers. But it seems I now don't have a full rear brake. Or a full rear tire. Hmmm, how long is that big descent this morning? Nope, no time to fiddle. Oren used a make up wipe (excellent) to clean the rim on my back wheel.
I had on leggings, my heavy shirt, and my raincoat. Can you tell it was cold and I was expecting the worst?
I made the first turn out of the drive way. The wrong direction. Oren had to correct me one last time this tour. What a sad thing to say. As we rolled down the road, I told him this would be the last time I follow him out. Sigh. It has indeed been a good trip.
The granny gear climb started at the end of the drive way. No warm up at all today. Get right to work! The top of the first climb/pass was in seven miles and 1,600 feet of climbing. Another day in the saddle.
The sky was blue. Lots of fog around. This is a very pretty area, sure wish we had had better weather. But we couldn't say much, it's the only bad weather we've had the entire trip and California needs the moisture.
I tried to keep a slightly faster than normal pace. Jacinto was right behind me. Or so he said. I did the entire climb with just one pee stop. Hmmm, no Jacinto. Am I that fast? Or he was cold and didn't leave? I think he would have left because he certainly was cold yesterday in the hail.
Keep riding. Drink Spiz. Mix more Spiz. That's it - no more Spiz. All done. Is that Oren ahead? I see his flag just going around the corner of the second big climb. I was most of the way up the third climb when Jacinto showed up. I told him to meet me at the top in 300 feet.
We pretty much kept moving, watching the clouds. Moving, moving. Darn, it's pretty here. But we want to be dry more than we want to enjoy the view. We need to come back and experience the area fully.
Jacinto and I never did see Oren. That flicker of the flag was it.
We had one pretty good downhill followed by a little up in the last ten miles. It looks like we were going to make it without getting drenched. I didn't think Jacinto was going to wait for me, but there he was at the first round about to Donner Pass Road. Later he told me that three different vehicles had stopped to give him the report on how far back I was. I think the people must have identified us as being together because we have the same Dinotte tail lights. Maybe because we both have panniers, but since I ride a recumbent and Jacinto a diamond frame, I think the lights are the identifying factor. It was nice that people cared enough to tell him. At that point the sky was very black and we could hear thunder regularly. We were so close to town. Could we make it?
It looked like we had three miles left. I saw the Truckee city limits sign, without a building of any sort in sight. Truckee has 16,000 people. Where were the buildings?
I stayed right with Jacinto into town. He was using ridewithgps to navigate. Jacinto and I both remember taking Donner Pass Road almost directly to the motel. Jacinto was listening to the directions, turn here, turn there. Wait a minute. This is not correct, we aren't supposed to be on Bridge Street. I pulled out my iPhone and looked at google maps. Hmmm, let's get on West River to 89 to Deerfield. Later Oren says that is exactly how he went following his ridewithgps directions. Maybe Jacinto and I didn't read the directions correctly.
West River was very busy until the turn for the interstate. Then there was construction on 89. Heck, what else can prevent us from beating this storm? Nothing! There's Deerfield. There's our motel. We are here. We both pulled up under the carport. There was Oren's bicycle. I hardly got off of the bike before the sky opened up and rain was bouncing in the parking lot. Whew! What a finish to a great trip.
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Today's ride: 45 miles (72 km)
Total: 1,386 miles (2,231 km)
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