20th June 2018 Wednesday – A2B with nothing in between

Hello Everybody!

Route: Milford to Baker

For the non-mathematicians out there:

Distance: 83 miles (Total 2,970)	Average speed: 12.8 mph
Calories: 1,976	Cycling time: 6h 27min
Average cadence: 74 rpm	Climb: 4,078ft, Descent: 3,688ft
Heart (yes I have one): Max 137 Aver 110	Aver Temp: 27C, Max temp 43C
Temperament: Another state and another time zone

Three climbs today but I am mostly concerned about the 83 miles. The first sign I saw upon leaving the Travelogue this morning was this. I did gulp. I was also worried that I would not be able to keep my weewee in for such a long distance.

There was meant to be some wind from the north – not much but I could not find where it was. Still, I’m not complaining. The first climb was easy to be fair, 14-miles but nothing above 5% gradient. At the top of the first summit the SD card in my camera did a wobbly so I replaced it with a new one - I'm glad I noticed that it had messed up before taking lots of photos that would never see the light of day or dark of night - photos below. The second was similar but the last 2 miles kicked up to 7%-9%. I approached the second summit but was stopped by a man with a STOP sign. This could also be described as a “GO” sign but I never saw that side. There were roadworks and they were tarring the road and given the wind direction (at the top there was some) it was blowing across the road and would cover me in wet tar or so they said. There was a chicken farm at the bottom of the climb so if I was to fall off at the bottom then I would be the only USA coast to coast cyclist that was tarred and feathered enroute. They said that they could not take the risk.

So we placed Blossom on the back of their flatbed truck and I was taken 2 miles down the road to clear the tarring truck. Technically I have now failed in my attempt to cycles across Merica. However in my defence I have already travelled by public transport - ferry (New York) and will travel by ferry (San Francisco) as part of the official ACA route, Now a roadworks truck is actually a public transport vehicle so I will get the ACA to add a roadworks truck to this part of the route. I also think it slowed me down as we could only travel at 20mph, which I could have easily beaten in a fair race. Also, remember when I cycled 7 miles uphill and then back down again – see Montrose blog. On this basis, I will “give up” 2 miles of that wasted mileage. I also think they were having a bit of elf and safety gone maddddddddd!!!!! syndrome.

The third climb was again OK, nothing above 7% and just steady. From the summit, I was now going to cycle quickly downhill for 5miles and then steady cycling for the remaining 26-miles.

The one thing about each of these up and downs was that when at the top you could easily see the road you were about to follow. At first, I had no idea what the distances were and anything you saw took an age to get to you and about the same time for me to get to it. I’d estimate that something was 3-miles away and then after 40 minutes cycling it would be 3-miles away. I really liked this scenery as I could see where to go and the views were fantastic in my view – no pun intended.

This was another day when I took extra water, filling my expandable 8-pint water carrier. I also took about 6 litres of water/ice and this ended up being about 2 litres too much but better this, than the other way.

Given I moved into the Pacific time zone, 8 hours behind the UK now, I even got to Baker at 13.30 so I had a reasonable about of the day to complete. The things I did were, yes list time.

Things Alan did after, and not before, he arrived at Baker:

had a shower
bought some food and horrible beer
drank some milk, after first checking, there were no cows nearby
had a look at Kerouac’s restaurant and met 2 guys, They gave me a beer and I had my first taste of beef jerky. Yes it was absolutely delicious and I am as surprised at you may be
got dressed for dinner and then had an evening meal at Kerouac’s restaurant – a very nice place but a little out of place given how small Baker is
Came back to the motel and chatted to next door couple – Bob & Marilyn who were really nice people – he was ex-Peace Corp and they were going down to Death Valley to clear up litter.
Walked over to someone with a telescope as in a $2,000 version of one. Fully automated etc. etc. I should have mentioned but Baker is a major stargazing area but tonight the Moon was very bright. Still, I saw Jupiter and 3 of its moons, the Moon in great detail – I saw one of the coke cans than Armstrong left there, Saturn and its wavey rings. I gave my horrible beer to a very nice man, who gave me a Blue Moon beer which is very nice. He was with his family – 2 daughters, Sydney, Jessie and son Luke. He is called John and his wife was Kristen.
I went to bed and slept very well as I was very happy to have achieved a safe and comfortable journey today and I feel a bit better about the next few days but we’ll see.
Gosh, what a long and too detailed list of things.