Summer tingles my itch to travel afar. It has always been a season to go somewhere for me.
This year, when a bunch of people in my beloved local cycling group decided to sign up to an organized ride event to go around Lake Tahoe, I knew my summer adventure has to be to ride my bike from Tahoe all the way home, San Jose.
600km might not sound like a bike distance to most people, but I have done a longer ride, so I felt this was practical. The challenge with this one was how to map out a safe route, in uninhabited areas that I have zero familiarity with. If I get into a trouble and a nearest town is 20 miles away, I could be in a real bind.
I contacted a Facebook group of Sacramento cyclists about my plan, and they were able to tweak & validate the plan. People in the group must have felt this was a big adventure, and they chose to become a part of it by providing feedback. Cyclists take care of each other, and I love that.
Finding other riders to join this journey turned out to be harder. Most cyclist friends didn’t feel they are capable of this, even when in my eyes they probably can. In my own experience, confidence building takes time and gradual step up, so that’s understandable, but still disappointing. Even among capable riders, time availability was a problem. A whole week is a lot to ask.
But in the end, I managed to sign up one rider, Linda, who was willing to tag along with me all the way. Another rider, Larry, decided to join from Sacramento and onwards.
A 5 day trip across California was committed like that.
Day 0
On Sunday, I joined the “America’s most beautiful ride” event that goes around Lake Tahoe. For the rest of the folks in the group, this was the main event, but for me, this was just a prelude, a warm-up.
When I stepped out of my motel room at 6:15am, the air was bit misty and morning low light was bright. I could already see riders rolling out into chilly morning air of Tahoe. The start line was directly toward the morning sun, so it was as if riders were coming out of the light. That lifted my spirit.
As we joined this stream of riders, I felt the joy of being a part of something bigger. There must have been thousands of riders in this event. I got carried away with excitement. I went fast, wanting to feel the cold air on my body, so I kept calling out “on your left” and passed other riders by a dozen. I also stopped frequently to take pictures. This unusual pattern of riding meant there are some people I kept passing many times. I started recognizing them, and so did they. Spontaneous friendship emerged. Many of them said my voice is a great “radio voice”. I felt good.
Man, there’s no shortage of photo opportunities on this ride. The lake that gradually changes its color from emerald green to deep blue. Remote mountain range that’s still white with snow. Big blue sky. As the day went by, I started seeing people coming out to beach to have good time. I rode past pick-up trucks unloading a cooler box full of beer. A peaceful beautiful weekend. Such a picturesque place.
In hindsight, I wished I went more slowly. There’s no reasons to hurry; I could have made stops for coffee, ice cream, beer, better lunches. I got dropped from my group at this point anyway. But maybe such is life. Somehow you are always in a hurry, when you shouldn’t.
I got reunited with the group at the finish line party. We were all tired, but all happy. We had food and beer. Live music was going. We had some wonderful downtime there.
At the motel, Linda and I sent them off as they drive back home, and we settled in for the night. Tomorrow my real journey begins!
Day 1
This was an easy day with mere 50 miles to Truckee. Half the route was the exact same as yesterday.
I found that the big saddlebag I got to carry stuff changed the handling of the bike considerably, so I took this ride carefully. I didn’t want to stand up and dance on the bike, I didn’t want to go too fast on the downhill. On top of that, I was stopping to take pictures. All in all, I was going pretty slow.
So it was no wonder I got dropped at the first climb of the day. I asked Linda not to go too far ahead, but she wasn’t waiting for me at the top of the climb. As I kept going, I started to get worried. She doesn’t have a bike computer that can navigate her. Her cell phone doesn’t seem to have location tracking feature, and she can’t see my location tracking info, either. If she misses the turn, or if she waits for me but I miss her, then we might have a real trouble regrouping.
In hindsight, my fear was probably overblown. She was an experienced rider, and the road was basically straight. There’s still enough traffic, so if there was any mechanical problem, I could have probably gotten help. Still, it took me a few days to adjust my expectations and get into a proper groove with her.
We eventually rolled into Truckee without a hiccup, spent some wonderful time in a coffee shop and a local bar, settled into a hotel. We were off to a great start.
Day 2
To me, this was the biggest day of the whole journey. We had to cross 50 miles of uninhabited Sierra Nevada highlands forrest, then ride another 30 miles to Auburn. All brand-new route. Uncharted territory.
This route was incredible. We went by Donner Lake in the morning. The lake was calm, and surrounded by expensive looking cottages. I tried to imagine myself renting a vacation home for a few days. I could be sitting by the lake painting.
The road started climbing toward Donner Pass, winding left and right. Sharp, rocky mountains (I guess that’s where the name came from!) started defining the terrain. Snow capped mountain is no longer a backdrop, it’s now right in front of me. The view was spectacular. The top of the climb was the highest point in this whole ride — 7000ft above sea level.
From here, the road took a gentle but steady descent, creating an incredible ride experience. The bulky saddlebag meant I still couldn’t completely trust my bike at the high speed, but I couldn’t resist speeding up. There’s something primordial about going fast. The road kept on, so we kept going. This incredible descent went like this for whopping 35km/20 miles!
We took the shoulder of Interstate Highway 80 for a few miles, then our route diverged from the highway toward Grass Valley. The road started climbing exposed under sun, then another 30km/20 miles descent through the dense pine forest continued. We average 30+km/h (20mph) on this section.
I felt dreamy. I entertained an illusion that this will continue forever. The car traffic was busy, and the shoulder was narrow, though.
The last 50km (30 miles) of the route was very hot, and over rolling hills. I could sense that Linda is tired, and I started to worry about her in a different way from yesterday. I made a crucial routing error that led us to push our bikes through gravel field, which didn’t help at all. I started to wonder if I took on a bigger responsibility than I should have. When you accept somebody into your ride, their safety is your responsibility. In the end, we prevailed. Beer tasted great that night.
Day 3
The air was already hot by the time we rolled out in 7:15am. The forecast said we’ll hit 38C/100F. Luckily, on this day the ride is short, just 80km/50 miles from Auburn to Sacramento, so the idea was to get to Sacramento before noon and spend the afternoon somewhere chilling.
Road from Auburn to Folsom was a nice smooth downhill. We went fast. The riverside trail from there to Sacramento was not that enjoyable for me, though I’m not sure why. It has every reason to like — no car traffic, trees casting shade from time to time, and the road went left and right, up and down. One thing I didn’t appreciate was a mileage marker. It kept reminding me how slow we are going and how far away Sacramento was.
We eventually rolled into the old Sacramento, and found ourselves in an air-conditioned British pub with a friendly bartender. We spent a couple of hours there. I had not only one but two pints from high noon.
I wasn’t quite done for the day, though. I had to go ride out another 10 miles to get to a car I parked, then I needed to drive it back to the hotel in order to swap clothes and resupply. It was a peak heat time out there, but I figured I could do it. I also needed some alone time.
This ride to the northeast of Sacramento went through some of the poorest area. Along the bike trail were various homeless encampments. And despite this life-threatening scorching heat, I saw some homeless people sunbathing! I worried about their psychological well-being, but I was also a little scared, so I went on. It’s always disheartening to see just how bad of a job we do to distribute the wealth, on this richest country in the world.
My basic technique to ride in heat is to apply water liberally over my body and let the air cool me. I spent an entire bottle just to go this 10 miles. A couple of hours later I drove the car back to the parking and then rode back, the same deal. I thought I managed it pretty well, but during the dinner I run out of the energy, so I was probably actually pretty tired and over-confident.
Day 4
Our route this day was almost the exact reverse of my earlier ride from San Jose to Sacramento. So it’s started to feel a little bit like getting close to home. When you know the route, it’s always easier. We went through the golden countryside of California.
The temperature was still high, but as the day went by, the wind became noticeably cool. The pacific ocean is sending help on our way! This is a headwind section, but in this case I actually enjoyed that. There was endless supply of cold air to cool me down. We went through towns, over rolling hills, steadily heading southwest.
We took a couple of big food stops along the way as well, which is my preferred way to go about rides like this. Local restaurants are filled with local people who give me a glimpse of a life in here. Weekday day time is always relaxed. Old ladies having a get-together. Families together where kids were doing one thing while adults were doing another.
I would have loved to take another drink stop, but there was no suitable coffee shop, so we just marched on, and arrived at Walnut Creek to end the day.
Day 5
The last day was another short ride day, so we started late. At the roll out, my legs were tired, but in a few hours it became OK. This is how it always is in multi-day rides. You just need to get going, and it will feel better.
The road down to Sunol was a long straight stretch with little change, but the weather was even better than yesterday. A perfect California summer of warm sun and cool air. We went through many nice towns and communities. The road kept on, so did we.
Near Sunol, Linda had her shifter cable snapped, so we made a stop at a local bike shop in Fremont. This added another hour or two.
By this point, the roads were really starting to feel familiar. As we approach the finish line, the sense of familiarity got stronger almost minute by minute. I could sense that everyone was getting excited. We are near home!
I set our finish line to be at Peet’s that we always go after the end of our Saturday ride. We sat on the same spot we always do, and reflected a bit on this adventure. I wasn’t sure what to think really, but I hugged them tight.
We parted ways with Linda, but Larry came along with me further. I sensed that he didn’t want the day to end just yet, so I suggested that we have a beer stop.
As the bartender was pouring my beer, she remarked that I was riding. So I was able to tell her I just rode back from Tahoe. It took a bit for her to grok that I had just crossed California. This must have been inconceivable to her; She started telling around other staffs that “this guy just rode his bike from Tahoe!” and pretty soon everyone knew it. I felt flattered. I never had any doubt with my ability to finish this ride, but this made me realize just how far I came in my capabilities.
A random dude offered to buy me beer. I blushed and declined, but I kind of wish I took that offer.
I fist-bumped Larry and parted ways, and I rode last one mile back home. I felt a bit emotional rolling into my driveway. That’s how my 725km/450 mile journey came to an end.
Epilogue
The day after, I woke up 6am, biked (yes!) to San Jose train station, and took 8am train back to Sacramento in order to pick up my car I left behind there.
The train slowly went back north, criss-crossing with some of the routes we took a few days ago. I could see the intersections we turned, roads we travelled, and bridges we crossed. I stared at them as they went past the window. I hoped those cut scenes might help make sense of the intense week.
When I set my foot again on Sacramento, it was in a much cooler air, and the weekend atmosphere was a lot more festive. I thought about stopping at the same pub we spent hours a few days ago, to see if that might help me feel something, but I decided my summer vacation is over, and I just drove away.
To this day, even after writing this blog post, I still don’t really know what to make sense of the experience. It feels simultaneously very long and very short, very easy and very hard. What I remember is mostly bits and pieces of cut scenes. Individually they are meaningless, but collectively somehow it seems to represent something much bigger. But I don’t know how to describe that.
I’m just left with the feeling of deep content. I feel rather satisfied. Maybe that’s what drives me to travel like this.
I wonder where my next multi-day ride is.
References
Details of the route if anybody wants to try:
More pictures from the trip:
