Wheels North Day 4

Weaverville to Yreka

Breakfast held a little adventure. I saved some of my previous night's pizza for breakfast because I knew I couldn't do another day of hard cycling on breakfast cereal and coffee. Before going to bed the night before, I noticed a microwave in the equipment room of the high school gym we were staying in, and I went to sleep to thoughts of not just pizza for breakfast...but WARM pizza!

So in the morning I go into the equip room (which was already open mind you) to look for an outlet to plug the nuker in. No luck. I spied a long extension but had to do a little scrambling over equipment to get to it. Got it. Plugged in the micro. Fired it up. Mmmmm, warm brekkie!

Kevin found some other cold pizza and I mentioned the microwave. After I told him what he'd have to do to use it (Mama always said put things back as I found them...) he kinda looked half at me, half off into space and said, "eh, cold is good".

We had a none too complicated course. 1 turn only. And we missed it of course. Greg didn't, and he sprinted ahead to clue us in. Safe on our way and gaining altitude from the gun. Not 2 miles and stopping for the first flat. Who needs a warm up anyway?

After a time our big climb of the day loomed. The climb I mentioned from day 2 would soon be relegated to the second hardest ever. This one had to be like 5 or 6 miles long with an average grade of 10 percent or more. In a word...ouch. In a more descriptive word...F@#*!

Our excellent crew had hot Cup O Noodles waiting on top, along with all the other usual goodies. So yeah, it was the shits going up, but it was phenomenally beautiful, and the descent was better. Warren and I have been matching well on the descents, and it's good to have someone nearby. We flew by the fixie guys like they were standing still. More to the point, they were not standing so much as sitting, the downgrade pumping their legs within moments of catastrophic cramping. Ah, but they are a special breed no?

I used to think the Napa valley was spectacular, then I rode through the Alexander valley and it became tops. This ride took us through an expanse every bit as beautiful and picturesque as that, but bigger. It was a picture perfect moment around every bend.

Thai food for dinner hit the spot. The next days route looked confusing, but at least it was short.

Next!