Live for the Path

To my American followers, Happy 4th of July! To my non-American followers, happy Friday! Either way I hope everyone has a great weekend. We will be back on Monday.

Thanks again for following.

Kyle

18 miles in 1.5 hours – Max Speed 31.5mph

I got up the next morning, I relaxed and took it easy, because I knew that it was going to be a short day, because I had reserved a room in the Motel 6 in Carson City a few days before. I left at around 10 and headed up the road towards Nevada’s capital.

I got there at 11, and went inside to see if they happened to have a room available that early. They did not but told me to come back in an hour. I took advantage of this to head into the city, see the sights, and stop at a bike shop.

There I bought another water bottle ( I lost one several days before), a new water bottle cage (one of mine was broken – related to the lost water bottle), and a pair of shoes (because mine were in tatters). These were much more stiff than my old shoes, which I figured would help because my toes would occasionally get numb if I used my straps on my pedals. They gave me a 15% discount for no reason and installed the cage for free. Thanks to the staff at Bike Smiths for everything!

I went back through down and checked into Motel 6 and took it easy for the rest of the day. At around 5 the two guys that I met (Francis and Brian) stopped by since I said they could use my shower if they wanted. They did this and headed out and I walked and grabbed dinner and went to Starbucks where I quickly updated an entire week of the website! I went home, sad that this Motel 6 didn’t have Spike TV (free fights were on), and went to bed early. I was woken up at around 11 by Tim and Tim calling asking to use my shower. I said okay, and then they never showed. I went back to sleep.

80 miles in 8.75 hours – Max Speed: 48mph (!!)

As the night wore on it became obvious that I wasn’t going to get much sleep, the ex-gang members were incredibly loud, despite being asked by just about everyone, including the ranger, to quiet down. Oh well. I got up at 5:30 having gotten no REM sleep. Tim and Tim were not there either. I packed up and hit the road at around 6:30. I went to a little restaurant and general store at the top of the campgrounds, which did not open until 7:00. I ate some sandwiches that I had and relaxed outside.

Once they opened I stocked up on snacks and drinks, because I knew there were no services for the first 35 miles of my trip. This doesn’t sound like much, but when you are gaining 5000 vertical feet during those 35 miles, it takes a long time to do.

I started out and slowly made progress. I thought I could make the Carson Pass, about 45 miles away by 3pm, which would be an average of just over 5mph. As I grinded along the road, it became clear that I was not going to make it.

This ride was extremely exhausting, and I finally reached the end of the first, road, just 32 miles long, at around 2pm. I rode down a large hill, giving up 1000 of my hard earned vertical feet and stopped for a snack at Silver Lake.

After filling up my water bottles, and eating a bunch of junk food (no restaurant open) I started back up another 1000 foot hill. Once I reached the summit of that (Carson Spur) I rode down another 500 foot hill into a town called Kirkwood.

I sighed, kept going, and at 5pm, finally reached Carson Pass, at 8500 feet.

I then had the greatest ride of my life. I went down 4000 feet over the next 30 miles, which I probably did in just over an hour. I averaged 40 mph for long periods of time, and had I not been following a big rig, would have reached 50. This ride was absolutely amazing and really beautiful.

I made it to the Nevada border in no time.

I rode into the town of Menden, and looked for a place to stealth. Problem is that it was totally flat and all fenced off farmland – not the best for stealthing. I looked around main street, and saw some cheap looking motels. After making some phone calls and checking some reviews on google (in Starbucks, clearly), I got a room in one of them and quickly fell asleep.