Day 4, Plymouth to Black's Inn: Road Closure Caused Some Alarm

July 26, 2017

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Mileage Today; 24 Total So Far; 171 Remaining; 1,442

Climbing Today; 4,382 Total So Far; 10,459 Remaining; 89,659

Max Grade Today; 15.9% Average Uphill Grade; 4.1%

Average Speed While Riding; 6.3 mph

Mechanical Issues; None

Bud Speaking:

Today was our first early departure; not super early, but good enough to get ahead of the traffic.

We finally got to observe the sunrise as it poked its way through the trees.

It’s apparent that we are now in the foothills.

The small burb of Fiddletown is the only community we passed through today.

We saw the first notice that this was once the Overland Express route. The stagecoach and Pony Express routes will cross our path many times along this journey. It’s simply mind-boggling to think about the difficulty that folks had to endure to travel in those days.

The Overland Express Once Passed This Way (photo credit: Doc)

The sun is out and we continue upward. Most of the time the grade is gentle enough so one doesn’t have to go anaerobic to climb it; but there are occasional steeper spots.

These signs outside Fiddletown just looked interesting.

I realize everything is political these days, but even so I was surprised to see that the horses favor progressive interests?!

Progressive Horsemanship; Even the Horses are Into Politics These Days

Yikes! We need to go that way, but there is a detour. The detour would double (or more) our workload for the day, so we really want to avoid taking it.

Oops! We Need To Go That Way, Now What? (photo credit: Doc)

We traveled about a half mile along the planned route anyway, and I waved at a local exiting his driveway and asked if we would be able to get through despite the detour signs. “No way,” he said, “the road is impassable. There are alternate roads leading your way, but it’s complicated and you would never figure it out. You need to take the detour.” He was not very friendly, and seemed to be upset that I wanted to talk to him. OK then, I thought, if we can’t get through we need to just take the detour. I rode ahead to catch Doc and Sis, and yelled so that Doc turned around and came back.

I explained the bad news to him, and we were about to accept our fate when a pickup passed by and Doc flagged the driver down. This guy was much more helpful and gave us some general directions regarding which roads to take to work our way around the closed section – but he didn’t know the names of most of the roads, and it was indeed complicated. Fortunately, GPS came to the rescue and we wrote down the series of twists and turns necessary to get through the maze of roads that would connect us to Highway 88. As we reached the turnoff to the first road, Doc saw a couple exiting their home and went to ask them just to reinforce our directions. You see, our alternate route had us descending into a deep valley and then having to climb back out, and there were a lot of turns that had to be executed to keep from ending up at a dead-end somewhere; so we wanted to get it right the first time.

The couple reinforced what we thought was the proper path, and off we went. After the first couple of turns, all the subsequent street signs had arrows saying “this way to Highway 88” so it was easier than we had thought. These roads were privately owned, but we’re private citizens ourselves, right?

Private Roads? We're Private Citizens, the Roads Look Good

We emerged from the maze on Highway 88 at the Almador Station store, and we enjoyed a cold drink and a bite to eat outside in the shade; that would be lunch today. Black’s Inn was only 1 mile away, and as we lounged in the shade Devon rode up.

Devon is Riding the Sierra Cascades Route (photo credit: Doc)

Devon had gotten the proper advice from Folsom Cycles about avoiding Latrobe Road, and had taken an alternate route that had him ascending on Highway 88. He was going to intersect the Sierra Cascades route and travel the mountain path northward for some 700 miles. Best of luck Devon, safe travels. The owner of Black’s Inn saw us at the store and introduced himself, and told us to just go on up and let ourselves in as he had some business to attend to. And so we did. Black’s Inn is situated at about elevation 4,100 feet.

Getting Higher; Black's Inn is at Elevation 4100 Feet (photo credit: Doc)

Glad to Have Made it to Black's Inn Without a Big Detour

It was a tiring day, though not exhausting. The climb hadn’t been that bad and we were encouraged, especially after having negotiated the challenge of the unexpected road closure and detour. Tomorrow is our first rest day, and we are all looking forward to it. Sleep well my friends…

Today's ride: 23 miles (37 km)
Total: 170 miles (274 km)

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