Sept. 11 – Getting my Mojo back!

Dan told me that the road I had struggled on from Placerville to South Lake Tahoe was, in his opinion, the toughest stretch in his journey cross country. Even if he was lying to make me feel better…it worked. Now I had one final challenge before descending down out of the Sierra Nevadas. Dagget Summitt. After coffee and roll, Dan headed off to work and I headed off to climb the Summitt. It was just as brutal as all the rest, so I fell into my routine – cycle 1/2 mile, rest, repeat. Soon I saw this wonderful sign that signaled the end of my suffering.

That was it – the road turned to the valley far below and I bombed down, stopping a few times to let my brakes cool off. I started braking at 40 mph. Who knows how fast I would have gone otherwise! At some point I crossed from CA to NV, but never saw a sign announcing the event. I wasn’t sure where I was until I saw this sign:

Genoa was a nice little stop on the road. They had a general store with a patio where I had a sandwich and some ice cream. Then it was time to get serious and figure out where I would ride to. I was considering Silver Spring – but it was over 50 miles away and I had already ridden 25 or so. But I went for it, and once I turned west at Carson City I caught a nice tail wind for most of the way and I was cranking out the miles – felt like I got my mojo back. It was pretty late by the time I reached Silver Springs, and then I realized that the campground was 7 miles off of the route. Bummer – but there was no other option so off I went. It was close to being dark when I reached the State Park campground. It was looking very threatening, with gusts of wind and intermittent rain as I rode in – but in the end it was all show as thankfully the storm dissipated. Made for a nice sunset though.

The campground was a disappointment as it was pretty broken down and there was no water available. It was just all sand with concrete picnic tables and a decent sized lake. There were 3 or 4 groups camped around, so I chose my spot and set up right at dark. No shower and no cooking so I was feeling pretty grimy as I ate a cold dinner in my tent. It was probably due to lakes water level being low, but the whole place smelled of dead fish. I don’t know which was worst – my B.O. or the fish smell. Probably a tie.