June 17, 2021

Day 2: Rasar State Park -> Colonial Creek Campground

Start: 9:05

Finish: 4:45

Saddle time: 4:33

Miles: 57

Total miles: 104

Highlight: The ride from Newhalem to Diablo. Excellent scenery with step cliffs and gorges. 

Lowlight: The ride from Newhalem to Diablo. Holy crap! It was only about 10 miles but took me almost 2 hours. I stopped a lot for rest and pictures, honestly more rest. 

I didn’t sleep well last night.  I just couldn’t get comfortable, not that any of my gear is uncomfortable, it’s just not a bed.  The tent was warm when I went to bed so I had my Feather Friends down quilt setup as a blanket.  These quilts seem awesome but I’ll leave judgement for a few weeks.  You can completely unzip and use as a blanket since there’s no head covering like a typical mummy sleeping bag.  You can also zip them up and synch the foot end to use like a regular sleeping bag.  By 3:00am I was cold so I converted to the sleeping bag arrangement. I also brought a cotton travel sheet/sleeping bag liner.  It’s more bulky than a thin, close fitting mummy sleeping bag liner and includes a zipper.  I think when the nights gets warm a simple cotton sheet will be my preference so I choose the added bulk and weight for future comfort.

After cooking up my coffee and oatmeal I had a later than expected start at about 9:00, not a problem since today should have been an easy day.  It wasn’t.  Roads were a mix early on of riding on or paralleling route 20.  Both were perfectly fine.  This section of route 20 had wide shoulders while the back roads traveled through some nice country.

I rolled into concrete and was photographing this obviously old bridge when a woman approached asking about my ride.  After filling her in I pumped her for information about Concrete.  Apparently they did make concrete in Concrete, especially for the early 20th century western damn projects.  The bridge I was photographing was the longest spanning concrete bridge at the time of construction in 1918.

Michelle and Julie were making the ride out again to meet me and do some sightseeing.  Just past Concrete seemed like a good place and time to meetup for a picnic lunch at a Miller State Park.  While stopped at a construction site just down the road one of the guys asked me where I was headed.  I said Connecticut.  He said where’s that? I said the state.  He said, oh geez!

I left the park with about 35 miles to go which I figured would take me about 3 hours with water and photography stops. The first part of the ride paralleled route 20 on quite back road which were very nice but had rough chip seal surfaces.  I blamed the chip seal for my slow progress but at the end of the day looking at the elevation profile I see that it was all up hill, gradual but uphill.

I reached Newhalem at 3:00 with 10 miles to go.  Typically this would take about 45 minutes or so but looking at the elevation profile I saw it was uphill, not crazy step but actual climbing, not just a few hills.  The scenery was fantastic with step cliffs and gorges.  I’d like to say I stopped for a lot to take pictures but honestly I was seriously tired on this climb.  Maybe because it was just the second day or that I didn’t sleep last night or that I was completely freaked out about getting run over by an RV.  Eventually the utter fatigue took over and I had to enter zombie mode, just look at the two feet or so in front of me, find the right gear and cadence that I can continue, ignore the possibility of getting hit by an RV or logging truck and just keep going.  Honestly it had me seriously questioning tomorrow, can I do this.  Lots of people do it, often older or in less shape than me.  I kept telling myself I had little sleep last night, it’s day 2 and my east coast legs are not conditioned for west coast climbing.  Climbing like any challenging physical activity is more of a mind game than physical feat. You just need to focus on what’s immediately in front of you and keep going.

I made it to the campground at 4:45, nearly 2 hours after planned.  I looked around for Michelle and Julie but couldn’t find them, they must have gone home.  Just in case I figured I’d wait until 5:30 or so before cooking my own food.  

Long distance hiking trails like the Appalachian trail have the concept of “trail angels”, people that help you out, just because.  Same thing applies to long distance bike routes.  While waiting for Michelle and Julie a guy named Mike came up to me and started asking about my trip and offered me a beer.  My savior! I was seriously thinking about asking the guy at the next picnic table drinking a beer if I could buy one for $5.  The thought of beer and the cheesecake Michelle bought in Concrete kept me going. Just as we started drinking Michelle and Julie  showed up.  Lots of chatting with Mike then another picnic dinner with Michelle and Julie and I was ready to head back to camp which I still had to setup and figure out how to get clean for the evening since the campground didn’t have showers. I need to improve my setting up camp skills because it takes too much time.  I’m actually starting to wonder if I hate camping, not like I haven’t done it before but just rolling into a hotel would be so much easier, and I would carry less weight.  I’ll ponder while I ride.

You will see in the picture above I’m wearing a yellow vest. I brought it with me but didn’t wear on day 1 thinking my roads would be calm. I caught up to a couple college age kids on a miles long straight road. One had a yellow vest, I could see him from maybe a mile away, convinced me anyone riding on the road should be wearing one. Your public safety message for the night.