Day 23 Murphys to Yosemite National Park. Not much biking at all.

The plan for today was a bus ride to near the park entrance and then a short bike ride into Yosemite Valley to Ahwahnee Cottages where we stayed for two nights.  The reason we needed the bus ride was to get to a safe biking entry into the park, one that was not closed by the fire.  It was a good plan, but the smoke from still active fires and haze from the smoldering ash was too much for us.  As we entered the park we voted unanimously to stay in the bus to our lodging and then do a loop bike ride through the valley.

Before we left Murphys, Larry decided to see how comfortable he might be behind the wheel of a 40-foot bus.

We were glad Larry wasn't driving the smokey, twisty mountain roads to Yosemite.

The fire brought devastation to much of the approach into the park from the west on CA120.

Visibility was minimal in some cases, depending on which way the wind was blowing.

The effects of the fire were haphazard in some cases -- it moved through some areas destroying all the ground cover and in others left it untouched under a forest of charred trees.

The central valley remains as beautiful as ever, even with a hazy view.

North Dome rising up behind Washington Column in the foreground.

Deer often graze on the Ahwahnee Lodge lawn. The day we left, we walked within 10 feet of them.

Before heading out on our loop ride, Patti, Patrice and Mimi posed in their new Bear Valley jerseys.

Our last dinner together -- in the Ahwahnee Lodge -- was lots of fun even though it was our last dinner together.  From top left clockwise: Larry and Roz Gibel, Steve and Patti Sunderman, Alison Stone, Diane Sanchez Costello, Patrice Van Vleet, Loretta Goetsch, Katherine Pigott.

From top left clockwise: Me and Kris, Andy Poggio, Alison and John Stone, Brenda Cole, Carole Nacon, and Lois DuBois.  Missing due to early departure: Beany Wezelman, Craig Deidrick, John McManus, and Mimi Crane.

This had been an amazing trip -- 1240 miles and 74,100 feet of climbing (that's 14 miles of up).  Thanks to my rear engine and partner-in-climb, Kris, for getting us over the tops and many challenging ascents!

In case you think it's time for us to go sit on our butts, I will soon follow up with a collection of photos from our hikes in and around San Francisco with Al and Cheryl Minvielle -- up, down, up, down and up-down some more.

Day 22 Bear Valley to Murphys, CA. 38.4 miles, 1280' climbing.

This was a big downhill day, from a bit over 7000' down to about 2000'.  The big attraction was Calaveras Big Trees State Park with its Giant Sequoias.  On the way there, we came upon a Scenic Vista and felt compelled to stop.

Somewhere at the bottom of the canyon barely visible in this photo is Hell's Kitchen.  Larry hiked down a bit to see it but returned to report that he went as close to the sloping precipice as he felt safe in his cycling shoes but couldn't see much.

This park has a very interesting story behind it.  For more click here and read the story about the stump of the "Discovery Tree" shown below.

 Giant Sequoias are remarkably thick all the way to the top, which can be over 300 feet high.  For more on the massive size of Giant Sequoias, see this story about The President, determined to be the most massive of the Giant Sequoias in North America. The President has been scientifically dated at over 3200 years old.

The trees often sprout next to each other and then grow together further up.

The root system is remarkable shallow (4-14' deep) but expansive.  Roots from one tree can stretch out over 300 feet from the trunk and can occupy up to an acre.  They break off close to the trunk when toppled, most often by wind.

This tree was stripped of its bark and died.

Young Sequoias now grow at Calaveras State Park, allowing us to see their leaf structure without using a huge zoom lens.

This tuning fork tree is used by the Giant Sequoias when they join together to sing arias from Verdi operas.  Unfortunately, they perform only when the park is vacant.

This one died from fire damage -- somewhat unusual as Giant Sequoias usually survive over 100 fires in their lifetimes.

I couldn't resist.  This fire victim still stands on its charred trunk with an unburned section at its top.

Today is an off day and tomorrow is our last riding day, into Yosemite Park.  

This has been an amazing adventure.  We've seen magnificent scenery, formed new friendships and strengthened others.  I am lucky to have shared this experience with an amazingly compatible group of exceptional people.  Thank you Alison for putting this trip together, picking great people to ride and party with, and leading us through 30 days of heaven, despite some hellish climbs!

Day 21 Sorensen's to Bear Valley. 47.9 miles, 5150' climbing.

The ride to Bear Valley took us to our highest elevation of the trip -- 8730' --  and up our steepest climbs.  At one point on the least steep part of a switchback, we registered 17%.  It could have been worse.

The elevation profile shows the big climb, Ebbetts Pass at mile 30, and the shorter steeper one following it, Pacific Grade.  Both descents were on good roads and were beautiful.  Over 50 mph on a few occasions.  We're actually getting somewhat accustomed to that!

On the way up the climb, we saw some beautiful scenery.

Yes,they look like cattle.  But these are privileged cattle living at about 6000', drinking from snow-melt streams, and breathing fresher air (except on days when wildfire smoke blows their direction).

This is from the climb up Ebbetts Pass, named after John Ebbetts.  Here is the story from Wikipedia:

John Ebbetts traversed the pass in April 1851 with a large train of mules. He hoped it would make a suitable route for the transcontinental railroad, as he noted little snow at the time. However, this was likely an anomaly, as the current highway is generally closed from November through May due to snow accumulation.^[6] He later surveyednear the pass for a possible railroad route, but found it unsuitable. He intended to return to the pass itself to survey it for a road but was killed in the explosion of the steamboat Secretary on San Pablo Bay in 1854 before he could do so. While the pass was referred to by his name earlier, it was not until 1893, when the U.S. Geological Survey surveyed the Markleeville quadrangle, that the pass was officially named after him.^[7]

There is a waterfalls hidden in the above photo that shows up better in the photo below. 

We were happy to get here.  But we knew we weren't done with the climbing.

The Pacific Grade was anything but pacific.  But we made it, albeit with a bit of walking.  We enjoyed our drum brake on the descent.  I can control the amount of drag and it's easy to adjust.  Plus once it's set I don't have to keep my hand on it.  And it is quiet.  It works on the rear wheel and I then supplement with braking on the front wheel as needed to help distribute tire wear.  The tires on our bike are Continental Gatorskin 700x32 and they went on the bike around the first of August.  They probably have 1500 miles on them with no flats.  Our ride tomorrow into Yosemite Park will be short so we should make it flat-free.

For some odd reason, we have no pics of our stay at Bear Valley Lodge.  It's a ski resort and was very popular in the early 80s.  They have many photos on the walls of Hollywood celebrities, including Clint Eastwood, Merv Griffin, and Claudine Longet.

Day 20 South Lake Tahoe to Sorensen's. 20.2 miles, 1750' climbing.

Short day.  Up Luther Pass and down to Sorensen's, a historic resort with 33 cabins.  It's been a resort since 1926.  Now it's often tough to book a cabin.  Here's their website.  It mentions WiFi but bandwidth is incapable of handling anything beyond text email.

The descent down Luther Pass was awesome.  A bit over 52 mph on smooth road.  When we got to the bottom, we crossed the West Fork of the Carson River.

Don't know if these guys were catching anything, but what a great place to wet a fly.

Our cabin at Sorenson's -- a cozy shoe box of a cabin.  Full kitchen, bath with shower, queen bed, table rocker, wood stove, gas heater, but no place to put your stuff.  No closet.  No alcove.  Total Sq. footage was probably 250 or less.

Dinner on the deck.  Carol Nacon was the only one paying attention, obviously.  Great job, Carol!

Day 19 Truckee to South Lake Tahoe. 49.6 mi., 2510' climbing.

This was a big day for a bunch of stupid reasons.  It was billed as an easy day -- 46 miles, two moderate climbs.  Well, the the two moderate climbs were long and 8%+.  We saw 11% at one point on our computer.  Katherine had a flat at a significant place for Kris and I -- in front of River Ranch where we celebrated Kris's 40th birthday. We had stopped to help with the tube change before we noticed where we were, then it was memory lane.

RiverRanch, quite a place when the river is roaring with spring melt.

Next came lunch at Sunnyside Lodge -- a favorite spot of our friends Marc and Susie Mumby.

Please forget you saw this pic cuz it just might turn into a Holiday card.

This is the ferocious guard dog someone assigned to protect our bike during lunch.  What a sweetie!

Before lunch, we visited the Olympic Bike Shop in Tahoe City -- great shop!  Best of all, it had the exact saddle I needed.  WTB Laser V old version.  I've had about 5 of these over the years and came on this ride with the WTB Laser V new version, which is a bad saddle for me.

 The saddle went right from the case in the store to our bike.  And I'm a happy guy.  Hopefully, my butt will be happy, too.

Tomorrow, we go a short distance to Sorensens, a resort of sorts up the mountain at about 7 some-thousand feet.  Then the next day we have the MEGA ride up Ebbett's Pass followed by Pacific Grade with its 24% grade switchbacks.  This should be our biggest day of climbing.  Then only 2 days of riding left!

Day 18 Quincy to Truckee 71.4 miles, 6271' climbing.

Today started quietly.  We had breakfast at The Courthhouse Cafe in Quincy.  We were soon joined by about 15 fire fighters.  It was a great spot.  I had eggs, oats, cottage fries, and a beef patty!  Half the patty and most of the taters went to the fire fighters.

We knew this would be a tough day but we didn't know it would be the wind chewing us up. Headwinds can make a flat road feel like a hill and a hill feel like a wall, and side winds can cause cramping in places that never cramp on a ride.  Lean, lean!! At one point it felt like we were leaning 25 degrees to the right to keep from getting flattened.  We figure the winds were 25 gusting to 35 or 40.  That was before we hit the 8-mile climb up to an unnamed pass at 6410'.  We decided to name it Mt. Davidson after Chris Davidson because it was "a bit of a climb."  Then came a little descent and another climb to 6462' at Little Truckee Summit.

The reason we don't have a lot of photos is, the guy on the front of the bike was focused on this, which was attached to hi handlebars. 

There is our elevation profile for the day.  Start low; finish high and climb a bunch in between.  When we got the C-store shown in the picture below, we were at mile 47+.  We had just finished with the nasty side winds that threatened to blow us off the road.  It was a welcome spot because it had FOOD.  We shared a huge tuna salad sandwich and bag of chips.  Plus I had a 30-ounce Coke/Diet Coke mix.  And while we were figuring out what to eat, we went through a small bag of trail mix containing nuts, raisins, M&Ms,  etc.

While we were riding, Kris used her iPhone to take some pics of the scenery.

We finished the day with Patrice and soon the others arrived.  Well, 3 others.  The rest had had enough of the winds, traffic, and miles and took the van in from about mile 50.  John McManus will have a shot of the 6 finishers on his blog.

Tomorrow, we poke along down to South Lake Tahoe, our 9th day in a row on the bike.  We're ready for a rest day the day after!

Day 17 Childs Meadow to Quincy. 62.6 miles, 2754' climbing.

The best parts of today's ride started with our first steps out the door in the morning.  The meadow across the road was covered with a layer of fog.

We had breakfast at Childs Meadow Resort.  It was simple and yummy. Scrambled eggs, hash browns and toast.  We quickly hit the road and steadied ourselves for the onslaught of logging trucks.

Having logging trucks fly by on a straight road with a shoulder is disconcerting.  Having them zoom down on you on a narrow, twisty canyon descent with no shoulder is another matter. You don't want to be on the road when they come by.  We learned how to get off the road quickly -- brake hard and dive to the rubble.  We did that more than once and stayed upright every time.  I've ridden a lot of high traffic roads and today was no picnic.  We later learned that local drivers also pull off the road when possible to stay out of the way of the logging trucks.  Despite that, there were some great opportunities to see beautiful country.

We stopped by the reservoir named Almanor Lake.  The reservoir has a capacity of 1,308,000 acre feet (1.613×10⁹ m³) and a maximum depth of about 90 feet. It is formed by Canyon Dam on the North Fork of the Feather River, as well as Benner and Last Chance Creeks, Hamilton Branch, and various natural springs.  So says Wikipedia.

Our next stop was Anna's in Greenville for lunch.  

After a half sandwich with potato salad, Kris added a slice of peach pie.  To see the mural across the street from the cafe, see John McManus's blog.  John also features profiles of our fellow riders -- very interesting stuff!

We stopped on the bridge over the Spanish River to photograph the river about 150-200' feet below.  Little did we know the river flowed to our our destination - Quincy.  A float trip would have been easier had the water level been high enough.  

The vista was nice, and a reminder of where the logging trucks were getting their logs.  We later learned that Quincy has a big lumber mill and that's where the trucks were headed.

Tomorrow will feature fewer trucks and wider shoulders but more miles (72) and more climbing (5250').  Destination:  Truckee.  I've been there a few times before; it will be fun to see how it has changed.