The World is Not Flat

It's been two days since we last posted an update, so we have quite a bit to report. We are writing now from the marvelous Plaza Hotel, situated in the center of Carson City, Nevada, on our day off before we start the ride across the loneliest road in America, highway 50.

We left off last time at Mark and Dawn's abode in Rescue, California. We still reminisce about the generous hospitality they gave us. They fueled us with a wonderful dinner, drinks, and good company. In addition, Mark spoke with some of his cycling buddies (not the elite cyclists ,aka 'roadies') and found us a route through the Sierras that would be "more scenic", more shady, and with less car traffic. As we learned, the route definitely was all of those things, but it certainly wasn't easy. But hey, it's hard to make a 5000 foot climb easy. We parted ways after Mark supplied us with a fuel canister for future hot dinners (none yet!), clean clothes, inspiration and best wishes.

Our early start out of Rescue began with a nice climb passing many farms, one of which gave us some delicious cold blueberries to keep us pedaling. We stopped at Sly Park for a nice picnic lunch that was much deserved and met Joel, another generous Californian. We then reached a road that we would get to know very well over the next two days, the Mormon Emigrant Trail. It is hard to describe in words the amazing beauty and strenuous difficulty of this road. After every steep climb, we were rewarded by gorgeous views. We continued our climb towards the top of the Sierras and right when we thought we couldn't go any farther, there was Joel with water, granola bars, dogs, and good company, which pushed us an additional 5 miles up the mountains to our campsite. Our campsite was just a spot we picked out on the side of the road that had a beautiful view of the Sierras. For most of us this was the first time we actually 'camped". There was no campground, no running water, no bathrooms, but lots of wild animals. Luckily our hanging bear bag remained intact in the morning as did we.

We woke up early the next morning after having had no difficulty falling asleep due to our state of exhaustion. We road up to Kirkwood where we stopped at Kirkwood Inn for some delicious food, that even Dan joined in on. We also had the additional company of Pat, Jeff, and Jim who brought good conversation to our table. We then geared up and pushed through the final 6 miles to the top of the Sierra Mountains known as Carson Pass (Elevation 8,574ft). After much celebration we began our descent. We cruised down (well, Russ sped down) the mountain to Woodfords which we planned as our camping destination. However, we came to find that Woodfords has a population of 150 and after a pow wow decided to push forward another 30+ miles to Carson City, Nevada! This turned out to be a bit ambitious as we did not roll into Carson City until 8pm. Along the journey, we passed the California/Nevada state line (1 state down, 10 to go)!

Our first night in Carson City was in a motel donated by a nice gentleman named Matthew. After a tough first 5 days we decided a day off was in order, so here we are in Carson City writing to you from the Plaza Hotel with the nicest Staff (If you ever find yourself in Carson City give a thank you to Mike, Shawn, and Colleen). They generously donated a beautiful suite and are helping us raise some additional funds for Lea's Foundation. (Which is a great segue to remind you that if you have not yet donated but would like to you can go to http://www.leasfoundation.org/ and click on coast to coast and then the donate button). Wishing you the best from the road, Sarah, Dan, Jen, Alex, and Russ. With miles of desert in the near future and few sparsely populated towns, you will probably not hear from us until Utah.

Three of the riders with Mike and Shawn at the Plaza Hotel (www.carsoncityplaza.com)