First - a quick Congratulations and Thank you to all my friends with Team in Training. They just completed a fund raising ride around Lake Tahoe on Sunday and raised thousands of dollars for Leukemia research. As many of you know, I trained with them when I first started distance riding in 2005, and Tahoe was my first Century. Tomorrow I'll be thinking of them as we go into Truckee - part of the Tahoe Century course - and then around the north part of the lake the day after. They were so great in answering all my dumb questions and encouraging me. And they continue to offer that opportunity to others every year. TNT changes lives ... Really. So big congratulations to all the first time TNTers, and a thank you to everyone from that program I've ridden with over the last few years and let me ride with them again this year to help train.
Today was another beautiful day. The ride was fairly short - around 50 miles. This is probably good because tomorrow will be a beast of a ride ... 70+ miles and over 8000 feet of climbing. Everyone is a little freaked out about it - especially the Floridians who don't have anything but overpasses to train on. For perspective, it will be the equivalent of a 55 mile hill. Ok but more on that tomorrow ...
Today the first 30 miles were on a great bike trail that hugged the American River between Sacramento and Folsom Dam/Lake/Prison. Trail was in great shape ... If only the Burke was so well maintained (hint if any of my city of Seattle employee friends are reading ...). It meandered by the river and then started to roll as we entered the foothills. Lovely country. We stopped by Folsom lake with the prison in the background ... I wanted to hear some Johnny Cash - got to get him on my blackberry ...
The ride into Auburn was basically one long climb ... A wake up climb for tomorrow. We were entering the foothills of the Sierras. We followed a highway that was dotted by McMansions, horses and dog breeding farms, subdivided 3 acre lots ... You know the type of place. When you are climbing long distances you are moving pretty slowly so there is lots of time to observe what's around you. I thought it was hysterical and pretty indicative that the most common road debris were golf balls - counted at least 5.
Auburn is a really great little town. Tons of history. The first gold in CA that kicked off the Gold Rush was discovered 20 miles from there. It was the first capital of the state, the railway came through there and claims the oldest post office in the West. Very cute with old buildings still intact. We had lunch at a little place and chatted a while with the owner who came over after we told her we were doing the xcountry ride. Turns out she (Alex) runs a lot of endurance events in town - including a killer bike ride in September. Auburncentury.com or wildestride.com. They rival RAMROD in length/elevation -if anyone's interested. She offered to find housing with locals ... I guess Auburn is know for it's endurance events. One of the premier ultra marathons - 100 miles from Tahoe to Auburn - is in June. They apparently have the hardest half iron man in the country. Anyway ... If anyone's interested I would be up for having a little vacation/biking/hiking time down here - it's gorgeous.
Then we wandered up to the old capital and found a county history museum in the basement. Interesting arrest warrants, the women's jail, actual gold in it's unrefined form that was found in the area and other stuff. And funnily there was a couple with the last name of Pate who have an amazing Indian basket artifact collection - they were doctors and took goods in the place of payment and were big advocates for Native Americans at the time. Distant relatives ? Gotta research it ...
OK - we're riding out at 5:15 tomorrow ... Going to be a long day
Goodbye 2015, Hello 2016!!
10 years ago
