Day 2 Picking up where we left yesterday

As mentioned we went in a nice straight line from Folsom to Placerville. We thought our GPS had told us to cross Route 50, which is the shortest route to South Lake Tahoe, but at this point it is too much freeway to allow bicycles on it. It was our impression that we should stay close and then when 50 would let us in, we would take this road. After our pancakes, however, we were advised to take another route leading and suddenly we found ourselves far away from 50 at a at a small recreational area Sly Park at a lake called Jenkinson lake. We did not think that we had done enough for the day and we started to look for hotels, which could become Saturday’s goal. It was hard to find anything, so we were luckythat the Sierra Inn in Kyburz had a room. We booked a room and started riding on a beautiful road called “Mormon Emigrant Trail”. We thought that we had 1000 m as total ascent (I am not sure about the terminology here, but we will use “Total Ascent” as the number of vertical meters you have gone up on a day’s ride and “Climb” as the number of meters you have elevated yourself on a ride. If it goes up down and up on a ride, total ascent will be higher than the climb) but must have mistaken total ascent and climb. After only a few miles, Troels began to suffer from some serious muscle cramps and though he was brave it quickly became clear that he needed to rest, slow down and get more energy. After another while it became clear, that we were probably not going to make it to Kyburz before dusk, so what to do? Split up or just hope for some downhill stretches, where we could advance faster and at least get to our hotel not too late? We developed the cunning plan, that I should ride to the hotel and see what Troels had ahead of him and possibly get some rescue. I climbed to 2300 meters, but after 10 kilometers I should turn left on a Silver Fork Road which happened to be downhill down to Kyburz in 1250 meters. Good for Troels I thought, he would only have to endure the first 10 kilometers to Silver Fork Road, turn left and go mostly downhill. Bad for our itinerary, as the loss of more than 1000 meters of elevation hurt my heart, because we will just have to recover those meters tomorrow. The agreement was that I should call Troels, when I got to the hotel. I missed his call by a few minutes, while checking in and asking whether, I could borrow or rent a pick-up truck. When I tried to call back, there was no cell phone service and when Alfonso from the Sierra Inn offered to take me with him up Silver Fork Road to meet Troels, I just quickly accepted and went with Alfonso in his Toyota. No Troels even though we went all the way till where I had left him. Alfonso and I quickly agreed that he had been picked up and I felt sorry that I had taken more than an hour of his time and 75 kilometers in his truck.. Kyburz is just three four houses along Route 50, and Alfonso even took me to a gas station to buy a little liquid and some food. I did not get his last name, but for the rest of this story he is just Alfonso Goodheart, with the middle name “Patience”.

Troels was not at the Inn. He had called the hotel and told that he stood somewhere on route 88 with a lady, who had been so kind to stop. So Troels had missed the Silver Fork Road and gone much too far and was 45 miles from South Lake Tahoe just like I was in Kyburz, just down in the valley. We saw no other option than to bother Alfonso Patience Goodheart once again. It was clear from the first up and down that the headlights of his car was not ready to pass any test, and neither was Alfonso’s night vision, so I offered to borrow his truck, but he was not comfortable with a stranger just taking off in his only mode of transportation. Luckily we compromised and I could drive and he could be the passenger. After all I had transformed myself into a guy with good local knowledge of Silver Fork Road after once down on the bicycle and an up and down in the truck. We found Troels who had run out of water and food. He had managed to entertain Tania almost two hours after several hours just standing at the road side. We turned off the lights at 2 am after a day not according to plan. Troels was in good spirit despite the trouble and already able to declare this another thing to remember and laugh about – some day!

In the heat of the hectic afternoon and evening we did not take a lot of (any) photographs. But as prophesized yesterday, we would meet the American River again. I have a strange preference for rivers versus rocks and trees. Probably my religion is 5-10% animism. When I see a creek or a river, I always start to speculate and investigate where it comes from and where it is going. It is going somewhere. A large part of Silver Fork road followed the river and this morning I went out to cool my feet and enjoy the atmosphere outside Sierra Inn.

The statistics

We rode 131 km today with 2842 m total ascent. If we had managed to stay closer to Route 50 we could have advanced the same distance with 91 km, so 40 km on top to get in shape. Swell.