14: Racing the rain, part two

Again, we feared a drenching on the road, and again, we dodged it.  While we had a short shower that caused us to pull out our rain jackets, we mostly rode through cool and moist air while watching the clouds over our shoulder, or on the horizon.

We started our day on the American River Bike Trail, which goes between Sacramento and Folsom.  It was a beautiful trail, not always near the river but scenic nonetheless. Our Warm Showers host Larry rode out to Folsom with us, on the most amazing bike ever! This over-size cruiser with 36 inch wheels cannot help but make you smile! Larry delivered us to Karen's Bakery and Cafe, renowned in these parts and deservedly so.

American River

From there, we took the Folsom-Auburn Road (also scenic) and then wound our way up to Colfax.  Along the way, we ground our way up some way-too-steep little climbs, dodged the showers, and got lost two or three times. We had some bike issues, and we were tired, and hungry, and fearful that we'd be caught in a storm.

Larry had sent an email asking if we'd gotten to Colfax, and my reply will give you a sense of our day.

Larry,

We made it! Got here about 4.30. 

There was a variation at the end of the trail but as you say we found the road easily.

We had a little more trouble staying on the route from the end of Auburn Road.

We were trying to stay with Placer Hills Road all the way into Colfax and somehow missed a turn and ended up on T-something Road, which climbed more than we wanted to!

Then we began to have a little problem with the shifting, and had to do some repairs.

Finally, the chain got caught behind the cluster, which stopped us altogether.  We had to take the packs off to wrestle the chain back into place. When Roger looked down he was covered with ants! 

We finally limped into Colfax in the granny gear due to the shifting problem.

But, we had very little problem with the weather! Other than a brief shower, we stayed dry today.

Thanks for the ride out of town! That was absolutely the high point of the day.

Still watching the clouds

Swatting the ants off of Roger, I felt like I was in some horrible monster movie. There must have been hundreds. They were not very quick to bite, or he'd have been in trouble.  I am still finding one here and there among the packs in our hotel room. 

Larry has a few bikes in the garage!

Oh well, as Roger said, "It could have been worse.  It could have been raining!"

And to close, my thoughts as we finally arrived at our hotel:

I am utterly exhausted.

Tired to the point of my muscles pinging and sproinging in my legs. Exhausted from the tension of riding on the bike when I'm afraid it is not sound. Concerned about making the ride tomorrow over the pass.
Tired of being lost, tired of fearing the rain.
At least the rain did not come today. We managed to outrun it again.

When we got to the hotel, since we had a big bath with the walk-in shower, Roger decided to give the bike a shower also!

Tomorrow he will attempt to fix the shifting issue, which means we will not ride into Truckee as planned.  That's okay - weather is supposed to clear up by Sunday, and that will make it much nicer.

I guess I would call this race a draw, also.

The day's report:  Sacramento to Colfax, 54.7 miles/753 miles to date.