The Winds Will Change

Stats Thurs, Aug 5 – Cooks Station to Carson City, NV; day distance 80.5; ride time 7 h 25 min (10 h 40 m); ave. speed 10.84; total Climbing 7,855; total distance 268. (elevation at Cooks Station 5000’ / elevation at Carson Pass 8,573’ / elevation at Carson City 5000’)

We had a huge breakfast – pancakes, eggs, potatoes. Very inexpensive. Are appetites are returning.

Scenic highlight of today’s section was Caples Lake just before Carson Pass. Absolutely beautiful. Climbing from Cooks Station (a stop on the Pony Express Route) took us mostly up. Occasionally we would have downgrades. I prefer just going up. Not the up and down. My legs scream after having been dormant from spinning. It takes a couple of minutes to work the acid out of them.

We met three people who are touring. Ryan and Ryan from Chicago going to Oakland. Dan from England who had started in Yorktown, VA and finishing in San Francisco. It’s fun to meet other cyclists. We compare notes on locations and conditions.

We are wanting to eat more and more. The first two days we had to make ourselves eat. But now we are hungry. Today at a little after 3:15 we stopped at Woodford. The map said that food was available. But the “deli” closed at 3:00. We had to make do with what was on the shelves. I downed three cans of V8, a bag of potato chips and a can of olives. Drank the olive juice and everything. We crave salt. We are drinking about twelve bottles of water or water and Gatorade a day.

This afternoon the last 25 miles to Carson City took us on country roads that were elevated from the valley looking down and across the valley at Hwy 395. Beautiful. However, it got windy. Side /head winds. I did not feel like pressing on to Carson City. I wanted to stop. I was tired. I thought it may be easier to pedal this section in the morning when the wind might be less. But we pressed on. Then the road turned and we had the wind to our backs with a gradual descent and a newly surfaced road. It was great. Press on through the head wind. The wind or the road (circumstances) will change. It will get better.

We are out of CA and now in NV.