74.4 mi / 6:55:58 time / 10.6 mph avg. / 6729 ft. climbing
Staying at Chris Flat National Forest Campground

Now this is why I came to the mountains!

After an “easy” day yesterday, I was up early again. On my way south out of Tahoe I stopped for real breakfast at Burt’s Cafe shortly after their 6:45 opening. Shame on them, they had neither WiFi nor electric outlets, but at least their French Toast was good and their milk nice and frothy. I tried finding batteries for my new cyclometer at a few places (which has intermittently stopped operating), but it seems if you need any kind of coin cell in this area you need to drive 100 miles to some big city.

Ten miles in I began the first big climb of the day, 1300 ft. of 6% to Luther Pass. So not a whole lot of work, and it had the unusual feature of a perfectly flat top for a few miles before the descent appeared, as the road passed along a beautiful alpine meadow.

Then came the big one, Monitor Pass, 2500 ft. of 7%. I had read some people who called it the toughest climb on the route, even though tomorrow’s climb into Yosemite is taller. In the tiny but busy hamlet of Markleeville, between the two passes, I overheard a few local women determining that the sirens and helicopter from last night were a medivac operation for a couple of motorcyclists who had gone off the edge up there. “Usually there’s no medivac when that happens because no one survives.” Gulp.

My plan was to break it into 600 foot sections, with breaks in between. Unfortunately the road designers threw in a section of 10-12% right near my first stopping point, so there was no way I could stop there, though continuing on was extremely difficult too. That put some serious fear into me.

Once I restarted it flattened a bit, but I kept the speed at 4-5mph, in my lowest gear, always waiting for the next section where I would need to give it my all to maintain forward momentum. But luckily, it never really came, and the top came before I was even expecting it. What a great feeling that is.

Usually on a climb like this, I need to constantly give myself fuel at every stop to maintain my energy output, but somehow on this one I got through it with only a Clif Bar and a fruit cup. Perhaps my spirit was being fueled by non-food sources, such as:

– The two young bald eagles crying out in their nest, as their parents, white heads and tails sharp against the clear blue sky, wheeled above them.
– The single bright yellow aspen leaf that fluttered down from above, tracking my 4mph movement before settling on the black road just in front of me.
– The mountains. Oh my god, the mountains. The climb is quite exposed, which means that once I got up there, I could see dramatic peaks all around me. Some of those giant peaks even seemed to be of a similar height as my vantage point, which is a feeling so powerful it led to trumpets playing in my head.
– The cute blonde girl with delicious calves and a British accent saying “thank you for inspiring us!” as she and her boyfriend cranked ahead of me on their road bikes. If there are more like her in that tribe, I may reconsider joining!

I actually met them again at the summit (they said I was only 10 minutes behind, which was probably a bit generous), and we had a nice chat after they took my photo with the impressive summit marker.

The dozen or so cyclists I saw today climbing the mountains seemed generally friendlier and more independent than the sub-tribe around Tahoe, though I’m yet to see another loaded tourist since leaving the coast. I’ve been on Adventure Cycling’s Sierra Cascades route for the last four days now, so I figured I’d have seen at least one, but no luck. The few people I’ve asked (like campground hosts) haven’t seen any either. So I was happy to meet these two, and as a bonus, have them lower my prejudices of my two-wheeled brethren!

We parted ways down the mountain with them going back the way they came, and me continuing onward; that’s part of what inspired them, they’d like to tour sometime because that means never having to turn back from where you came.

The descent was a thing of equal grandeur, but quite different character. 10 miles long, it got me a top speed of 45mph, way above my normal max. This is now the dry side of the range, so the view down from the top was limitless and breathtaking. Seeing the valley below from so high made it feel as I was flying above in an airplane. Or more appropriately, perhaps E.T. had taken a seat in my handlebar bag and we were flying through the sky together.

The bottom then was nearly desert, and reminded me of Arizona, but with bigger mountains. The next services were in the small town of Walker, where I stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at Walker Burger, a place that far outclassed the town it was in with its cool, shaded outdoor garden eating area.

The burger and fries and big Pepsi and big chocolate shake were really good, but they made the final 10 miles pretty tough as all that stuff was busy getting reorganized in my stomach. Oh, I guess it was also another 1200 feet to climb. But by that point the once-wide arid valley had become quite narrow as it went up the Walker River, making for more dramatic scenery, as well as an ever-present sunshade. The river- and road-side campground isn’t that great (especially for $20!) but I was happy to arrive with all my body parts still working after one of the toughest but best days so far.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 17th, 2012 at 10:43 am and is filed under 2012 Bike Tour, bike. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.