Project VELAIA

San Francisco – what a wonderful time I’ve had there! All the action that was going on, all the alternative lifestyles I got to know and the community in Station 40 – that’s what will stay in my memory. Many really nice people living there!

 

So I cycled a last time through Market Street down to the ferry terminal. $12.50 was the ticket price to cross the Bay to Vallejo and that’s probably been the best way to get away from the city centre, avoiding traffic and suburban sprawl.

As of a sudden the ferry stopped! The captain explained there was a whale in front of the ferry and many passengers looked excitedly. I got to see the whale emitting his air in a big geysir like emission. Wonderful! That would have cost me NZ $150 in the country I’ve cycled in last and here I got it for free

In Vallejo I started cycling – after almost a whole week without! Through the countryside I made my way to Suisun Bay where the US keeps a big reserve fleet of Navy ships. I followed FreeWay 680 towards Cordelia and pitched my tent close to the town, only 45 feet away from the country road that followed it. I was tired and exhausted and that’s why I could sleep even with the noise of the cars beside me.

The tent’s been shaken heavily all through the night by ferocious winds. I got up at 8:30am and started to cycle through Cordelia, Rockville, then following a side road, the Suisun Valley Rd. through rural areas and vineyards to Fairfield and Vacaville.

 

Further I continued on the Pleasant Vallej Road to Winters. In this valley I got to see my first snake in the States, and it turned out to be a quite dangerous brown rat snake, taking its sun bath beside the road. A small basket of fresh strawberries filled my tummy and gave me energy for the way in the hot burning midday sun to Davis, “The cycling capital of the world”, as they call it in my Adventure Cycling Association map.

 

 

 

I thought it’d be a good idea to check out the University of California Davis (UC Davis) campus and took a right turn. On one of the lawns I met Michael and Chris, who had just done a information project about cycling and special bikes on the campus. Michael had been carfree for over 40 years and cycled 68 countries in his life.

 

Together with Michael I went to a historical bicycle exhibition with free food, later on to a cafe where we met a lot of his friends and he played the guitar.Then he also played the guitar on the street in the city center – that’s the way he finances his travels and in some way his job. This evening he got only 10$, playing and singing for more than an hour. But he told me the Saturday before was much better: $106 a evening – not bad!

It was here that I met Tracy who was wandering through the street with a friend. They invited me for and ice cream and later on she said I could meet her tomorrow morning in the student dormitories and she’d invite me for breakfast – wow! That should happen more often to me – beautiful and nice girls inviting me for breakfast

Together with Michael I slept beside a community garden and met Tracy at 8:30am for breakfast (after a short breaky with Michael). I could eat whatever  and as much as I wanted (all you can eat) and had a great time with Tracy and her friend who joined us after a volleyball session in the workout center afterwards for lunch. Thank you a lot, Tracy!

 

Just after noon I left Davis and cycled through a pretty flat area, following a freeway and railway line to Sacramento. I got to see a recumbent rider while I was checking the map beside the road and continued along a wonderful cycling path through the city. The cycling path went through beautiful recreational forests and I ddin’t get to see a lot of the city itself at all – and that was fine so!

 

 

On the Green Valley Road I continued towards the Sierra Nevada through neighborhoods that reminded me a lot to the Mediterranean Sea settlements in Spain, Italy and Greece … just that the houses here seem to be much bigger. And the climate fit, too. The riding that day was tough and therefore I was falling asleep immediately after pitching my tent on 400m altitude, not far from Placerville.

I woke up in the middle of the night, shivering, as I had forgotten to slip into my sleeping bag. At least I’ve had my hat on that kept the head warm and therefore I didn’t suffer severe consequences the next morning.

Instead I had the best cycling weather to start climbing the Sierra Nevada mountain range. But first I changed my chain as the current one started jumping when I left the saddle in a steep climb and that’s really dangerous. I’d bought one the day before in Folsom, Bike Plus was the name of the shop I think.

And with the new chain the propulsion system the drive mechanism purred like a cat! And what a great feeling it was to cycle with a properly working system again.

 

In Placerville I got some disinfection solution for my first aid kit and some food reserves for the long climb up Carson Pass. I also lost my VISA credit card trying to get money from an ATM but was lucky to have a Master card that didn’t quit its job. Lucky me!

 

Continuing through Somerset, Fiar Play, the Omo Ranch and Cooks Station I cycled up and up and up all the time. A short stop and a great blueberry muffin gave me enough energy to continue on to a spot near the Bear River Reservoir. Pitching the tent beside the highway again the night was a lot quieter this time as almost no cars passed during the night.

 

And I’ve had a wonderful view on the snow covered peaks of the Sierra Nevada this evening and got a few first snowflakes falling down gently on the outer layer of my tent. The temperature fell down below 0°C this night.

The weather had changed a lot over the night and I found myself waking up within grey clouds and wet snow showers. All the way up to Kirkwood I wished for warm handshoes but as I didn’t have any I had no option to put them on. In Kirkwood I had a warm lunch, a vegetarian burger with fries, and continued the climb up to the Carson Pass afterwards. Up there I met  John, Dvaid and Nancy who had also just arrived on the pass from the other side with their road touring bikes and with Nancy in the support vehicle.

 

The pass itself was 2613m high, about 8,600 ft. The downhill along the Carson River started and I felt like losing my fingers due to the cold temperatures, the cold snow/rain mix and the wind chill. Several times I stopped, put the Windstopper jacket over my hands and started out again. My fingers were swollen ’cause of my cold urticaria, an allergy resulting my exposure of the skin to cold (and wet).

But finally, arriving in the wide Carson River valley after breaking a new speed record (81km/h, about 50mph), the temperatures felt comfortable again. And that’s the point where I crossed the state border to Nevada, leaving California behind.

I cycled along the HW395 to Carson City, stopping at a RV park with giant RVs parked everywhere, and went on the internet shortly in Carson City. Starting on the HW50 Carson City got smaller and smaller as I continued on to Moundhouse. Just before this small village I pitched the tent near a huge water tank … dark clouds blocked my way.

 

In general the vehicles here are a lot bigger than in any other country I’ve cycled so far – that’s true for the campers and caravans attached to quite some of them, too. A big Mercedes M class or Rangerover might seem like a massive vehicle in other countries but it’s only mid-size over here! But even though the engines and cars are giant the drivers behave way better than in Australia for example; they are more like cruising, often not in a hurry and generally give you a lot of space. And the streets I’ve been cycling on so far often had a shoulder or were empty enough that I haven’t felt the presence of the cars too negatively.

19.05.2008: 30,3km; 1:51h; 16,3km/h; 305hm

20.05.2008: 91,5km; 4;47h; 19,1km/h; 400hm

21.05.2008: 108km; 6:16h; 17,2km/h; 812hm

22.05.2008: 96,8km; 7:26h; 13,0km/h; 2793hm

23.05.2008: 121,5km; 6:13h; 19,5km/h; 1148hm