We packed up quickly, said a few fond words for our departed squirrel friend and hit the road. A few miles up the road was the town of Three Rivers. It looked large enough on our map that we expected to be able to restock groceries and spend some time at a coffee shop with wifi to do some communication catch up.
With our extended ride yesterday, it was only a few miles to town and we arrived quickly. A bit too quickly as it turned out. We were about twenty minutes early for the grocery store opening and about an hour early for the coffee shop.
We killed some time outside a local motel where we were able to connect to the wifi enough to check the upcoming weather. It was not looking good for the next few days with rain and chances of snow at the higher elevations. Our route was taking us to higher elevations.
Once we left town we would have to travel through Sequoia and King's Canyon National Parks before getting to another town. This early in the year, not everything is open in the parks and we weren't sure about being able to get groceries for a while. With this and the possibility of getting stuck for a day by the weather, we decided to stock up on 5 days of food. By far our largest load of the trip.
The climb to the high point in the park would mean ascending just under 7000ft.
With the location of campgrounds we decided to split the climb into two days and stay at a campground about halfway up. This would mean a short mileage day so we would be able to spend some time catching up at the coffee shop.
We pulled into Anne Lang's Emporium just after opening and settled into warm coffee and wifi. With our loaded bikes parked outside we started to draw some attention from the local coffee crowd. Some of them had seen us on the road earlier.
We chatted with several folks who were interested in where we had been and where we are going. Apparently we have gotten far enough from San Diego now that folks are surprised when we say that is our starting point.
We chatted with a really nice fellow named Arthur who was curious about our trip. He was wearing a Kachemak Bay t-shirt so I asked him about Homer. He was surprised that I knew it. He has a place near Homer and he spends the summers there. He has towed his camper up the Alaskan highway every summer for 44 years. Quite a feat.
After he left, he came back into ask if we could carry a book. He was concerned it might be too heavy (good thought). It turned out that he had written the book about the local flora and that found through the parks and he wanted us to have one. We left with very generously autographed copy. Later we found his book in the gift shops in the park.
The local guide to all the flora
About this time, his coffee buddy (whom we had talked with earlier) returned to ask where we were staying. He lived just a mile or so up the road and wanted us to know we could stay there if we needed to. We explained our plan to get into the park but we took his address in case the weather forced us back. Such great people to meet on this trip.
The nicest fellows in town
After about three hours and lunch, it was finally time to get back on the road. The sky was starting to look a bit angry and we still had a few thousand feet to climb before our campground.
Hmmm...maybe not so good
On our way to the park entrance it started to rain. The first we have seen this trip. And not a small amount of rain. We had to stop to drag out the rain gear. It was super fun waiting in a line of cars in the rain to pay our entrance fee.
Somehow this is worse than riding in it
We had finally made it to a National Park. It should be the first of five or six that we will visit before we are done. All that work and all we had to show for it was a tiny ranger booth in the rain. I wanted to see a big sign for taking cheesy tourist photos as we entered.
Fortunately, just up the road a mile or so that is exactly what I found.
Wet and touristy
Only a few more miles up the road was the first visitors center. This is an all important stop at a National Park, for that is where the highly prized stamp for your National Park Passport is kept. If you have read from the beginning of this trip, you will know that getting new stamps figured prominently in the decision to join this trip.
The stamp to make it worthwhile
As we climbed the road to our campground it was interesting to note all if the extra sights that were available from the bike that you just wouldn't see from a car driving by. Being so close to the edge of the road and moving pretty slowly yields some great views down into steep river valleys and canyons. A nice thing in exchange for climbing in the rain.
Nice views hidden from cars
By this point, clouds were really starting to sock in and the rain was still coming. Still a few miles to go but feeling really good about the decision to not camp at higher altitude tonight.
We have to go up there tomorrow
We found the turnoff to the tents only campground and headed that way eager to set up the tents and get out of the rain.
A campground friend
After we arrived and picked out a site, we took a brief tour of the small campground to get the layout. It was then that we saw another first for this trip. Another person touring by bike. His name was Randy and he is also doing the Sierra Cascades route. He had actually seen us a few times over the last week or so but our paths had not crossed until today.
After setting up camp, I spent some time tracking down and patching another leak in my thermarest. Hopefully that is the end of them.
Unlike the rest of our evenings, typically full of black tie dinners and string quartets, this evening was spent hunkered down in the tent out of the rain reading.
Evening entertainment
With no appealing dry places to prepare dinner, dinner was served in the tent as well.
Glamorous and gourmet
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