75 miles in 6 hours – Max Speed: 21mph
I got up early the next morning, and since traversing the narrow bridge on the 12 once yesterday wasn’t enough, I figured that I should do it a few more times. I went back into Rio Vista and got breakfast, and then went back over the bridge and headed north.
I rode through a bunch of very small towns, several of them with population under 100 on my way towards the Sacramento Metro Area.
This route was great because while there was no shoulder, I probably saw 10 cars on the road for the first two hours that I was riding. It was also very pretty to ride along the river.
I finally got close enough to Sacramento to get to a Starbucks, which I sat at for a few hours. I started riding again, and got to a road which, much like the roads I rode on earlier, had no shoulder, but the traffic situation was much, much different. It was close to rush hour and this road was really busy. This was very poor, but just when I was going to look for another route, a shoulder appeared! I was happy that my karma from the day before evened out.
I got into Sacramento and took the bike path for a while through the city towards Folsom. This was pretty nice, but was not the most direct route that I have ever taken.
As I got closer to Folsom the hills, which had been conspicuously absent for the last day and a half appeared. I don’t know if it was because the day was pretty long or the days off had affected me, but these hills seemed pretty brutal, when I knew that they weren’t.
I got to the campsite at around 7 and bought a site. I paid the $20 (sigh to no more hiker/biker spots) and set up the tent. I showered and sat around for a few hours and then Tim and Tim eventually showed up. They bought a tri-tip earlier in the day from a butcher, and they cooked it up and let me have some. Thanks again guys! I got to bed at around 12.
View Larger Map