I crossed the border into Nevada on my sixth day of the trip. At that point, I had gone one night without the company of my good friend Doyle Ryan. A saddle sore developed during the ride from Chris Flat Campground to Carson City so I took Tuesday off to let it heal. On Wednesday, I made up my mind to push hard to make up for lost time. That meant a 110 mile ride from Cedar City to Middlegate Station! At the midway point in Fallon, I stopped by a Wal-Mart to grab some supplies. I saw another loaded bicycle at the bike rack and met Gus shortly thereafter. Gus was riding east as well but taking a more northerly route once he got to Utah. He wasn’t going further than Fallon that day but we exchanged numbers and have stayed in touch. I’ve always been a day’s ride ahead but it has been nice to exchange information and see how the other is faring.
The Sunny-Side Up Adventure: One Week In
Well, I’ve been on the road for one week now and I know I haven’t been very active with the blog. It’s been a little hard to sit down and compose any posts since the ranch but I have been as active on Twitter as AT&T’s coverage has allowed. My Twitter is the place to go if you want to get a feel for the trip as it happens. Short text updates and pictures get posted right from the road. I will still be doing digest posts every day or two if you want the updates to come right to your inbox. The first digest is here. Continue reading to see a good chunk of pictures from the first week. I will post some initial thoughts on the trip so far later this week while on the loneliest road (Highway 50).
1 Day
Whirlwind day today as I scrambled to get everything loaded into panniers and on the bike. My buddy Jonathan works at an engineering firm in Madera and was gracious enough to let me use one of the on-site scales to weigh my gear. I rode into town to see just how much I would hauling all the way cross-country. Total with food for a couple days and about 4 liters of water: 67 lbs! The bike and racks came in at about 35 lbs so grand total is 100 lbs give or take. I am really looking forward to climbing over Tioga Pass this weekend. My mom whipped up a delicious blueberry peach pie for dessert to put a cap on a great three months at the ranch. I am ready to do this thing! Departure is 9am tomorrow morning. Next stop: Coarsegold.
Departure Forecast
Above is the current 7-day forecast for Tioga Pass (elevation 9,945 feet) via the National Weather Service. I’ve been keeping a close eye on it because Highway 120 (aka Tioga Road) is still closed to through traffic. The National Park Service has been working to the clear the road of snow and debris for the past two weeks. The tentative opening date is set for May 11th but the stormy weather could delay work this week. I want to hit the road as soon as Tioga is opened but there is a good possibility this storm could bump me back a few days. Toby got a final tune-up yesterday so he is good to go. I just need the weather to cooperate!
Only One Keeper
This past Saturday, my brother Isaac and I jumped at the chance to go bass fishing with our dad’s good friend Flint. He picked us up from the ranch before sunrise and we received a schooling in large-mouth bass behavior on the drive to Eastman Lake. Flint believed the conditions were perfect to catch a few large bass (full moon, warm surface temperatures and breeding season) as they sat on their spawning grounds. As the morning wore on, we were pulling in a lot of small bass along the shoreline but nothing over the 22 inch limit required for a keeper. Isaac got lucky when we motored over to a submerged island in the middle of lake and reeled in a whopper of a Rainbow Trout (19.5 inches!). It turned out to be the lone keeper for the day so Isaac was the only real fisherman! Flint helped us fillet him when we returned to the ranch and we barbecued her 1 with Crazy Jane’s, lemon and an herb blend. I even got Isaac to eat the eyeballs with me! We made plans to return to the lake with Flint at the end of April. Hopefully we can catch at least one big bass then!
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We discovered roe while filleting her. ↩
