This whole blogging while traveling is a blessing & a curse: so much to see & do = so little time to catch up! 5 days behind, aaaahhhh! Dinner plans in 30 mins, here goes.
Day 5: We didn’t get great sleep in Fox Grove Park: I’m irrationally afraid of animals, Ben afraid of getting caught & in trouble. We’ll both have to get over that quickly! Oatmeal & coffee for breakfast then on the road to Merced Falls. Another beautiful day. Biking was nice. Some rolling hills & long country stretches.We biked through miles & miles of almond & walnut trees as well as vineyards. It was so quiet, peaceful & beautiful. We stopped at a roadside market for produce with the hopes of filling up our water as well but no luck. No worries, we just stopped at a big farm/ranch up the road & asked to use their hose. They were happy to help & even gave us ice! We stopped for lunch in the middle of an almond field, under a shade tree. While we were eating another biker was coming up the hill & stopped when he saw us. We chatted a bit about our trip, his training rides & he gave us some tips about the roads ahead of us. Sweet! Thanks, stranger.
Next stop was Snelling,CA for water fill-up at a gas station & a drink at a small town bar, called Buds. 1st thing the bartender said when we walked in was “you’re not who I usually see in here”. She’s used to a different kind of biker: leather-clad, not lycra lovers 🙂 We were the only ones there & chatted with her a bit. She used to work in banking & mentioned how much has changed from when she first started. She recalled a time the new computers went down & she was the only one who knew the old system, which came in handy. New can be good but old doesn’t have to mean useless. We played some cards, she gave us tips on road closures ahead & we were on our way again.
Last stop of the day was Merced Falls. The ride there was littered with plenty of roadkill, baking in the hot sun. Yum 🙁 Our final destination for the day was Lake McSwain Park, where we rented a campsite on the water. This place was absolutely perfect to me. The weather was gorgeous, our site was right on the water, it was quiet, the view around the lake was breathtaking. It looked like Switzerland or Austria with rolling hills scattered with rocks, trees & cows. I felt like I should run up the hill singing songs from The Sound of Music (if my legs weren’t tired, I might have!). This place was so relaxing; exactly what we needed after a hot day of biking. We jumped in the water to cool off & ooohhh it was chilly but refreshing. We set up camp, got things charging on the solar charger, quick shower, did some laundry in the scrubba wash bag using lake water, took a nap, made dinner & went to bed early. What a day. We felt like kings in this place. My favorite day so far.
Reflections:
1. Have we just been lucky or is the weather always this nice?
2. Water conservation here isn’t what I would expect in a state of drought. Most of the sinks, toilets & showerheads are high-use & waste a lot 🙁
3. Recycling is also hard to come by. Either they do it differently here or it’s only in big cities. Again, not what I expected for CA.
4. My new twist on a common phrase is bikers can’t be choosers 🙂 Being on the road, at the mercy of others (be it water, food, a place to sleep, a shower, safety on the road) we’re so thankful for anything. Things I normally take for granted are now luxuries. A sink? A flushing toilet? Ice? Wow!
Well, I’m still 4 days behind but my sleeping bag & pad in the Lower Pines campground of Yosemite are calling me. More on that later! Two-tired to continue, until next time.
Whitney