Day 17: Up into the clouds

Today was another flat mattress morning.  It seems to be taking longer to go flat so I think I am making some headway against the leaks.  I'll have another go this evening.

Today our goal is to get the rest of the way up the hill and see what is going on with the weather.  

Glamorous Sierra Cascade cyclists

Our early climbing is in much better conditions than yesterday.  There are even a few bits if blue sky poking through here and there.  It is not yet clear whether the blue sky or the clouds will dominate but I'll enjoy it while I can.

Blue sky hopes ahead

Today we'll get very close to 7000 ft so I thought it would be nice to collect the signs I missed the other day descending into Springville.

Up...

And up...

I never saw the 5000 ft sign and then I was hoping I wouldn't because I was sure that I had climbed far past 5000ft at that point.  It turns out I had and there were no 5000 or 6000 ft signs.  I'll have to fill in the gaps with signs from climbs still ahead.

The long and twisty climb

Starting to look a little rough around the edges

We were well into the bug forest by this point and surrounded by huge trees.  They really are amazing to see.

Just beautiful

A few miles short of the visitors center we stopped at the Giant Forest Museum.  It was interesting to learn a bit about the big Sequoias and the relatively narrow band in which conditions allows them to exist.  Many of the largest are very close to the museum. I also found another stamp for my book!

The trees keep getting bigger

We also picked up some great safety tips for the rest of our stay in the park.  The sixth one will really come in handy.

Don't overdraft yourself...whatever

Between the museum and the visitor center we found the remains of yesterday's snow and again felt good about the decision to camp at lower elevation.  We made one last stop to visit the General Sherman Tree.  With a trunk diameter of over 40 ft it is the largest (by volume) tree in the world and around 3500 years old.  Amazing to contemplate all that has changed in the lifetime of one tree.  By now the clouds had really started to sock in and it was getting difficult to see through the cloud/fog.

Glad we missed yesterday's snow

There it is indeed...in the middle of a cloud

Crazy big!

After arriving at the visitor center (one more stamp) and having lunch at the market next door, the talk was all about the weather.  Visibility had gotten pretty bad and the temperature has fallen into the thirties.  The next few campgrounds up the road were not yet open for the season and no roadside cling was allowed.  That would mean we would need to do about 40 more miles before we might find another place to stay.  There would be a lot of downhill in there but also another 1000 ft or so of climbing.

The concern was whether it would rain tomorrow.  Sarah had big concerns about descending in the rain.  I had big concerns about another 40 miles in little visibility and no place to bail if conditions got worse.  We went to find the rangers to get the most current weather update.

The weather tomorrow looks a bit better than today, especially in the morning.  We make the decision to stay at the campground here and get an early start tomorrow.

I spent the afternoon taking advantage of the facilities to take a warm shower, do some laundry (mmm...all the riding clothes are clean and smelling good again) and catch up on the blog. I made an office out of the eating area in the camp market and enjoyed a bunch of snacks and drinks that I didn't have to haul up the hill.

Warm, dry, and full of snacks...perfect

Randy has caught up with us and made the same weather decision as us so we all decided to share a campsite for the night. He has done quite a bit of touring over many years back and forth a cross the country.  It made me feel a little better  to hear him say that he thinks this Sierra Cascades route is the toughest he has done.

Dinner was pasta and sauce cooked under the overhang of the visitor center post office to have a dry place to sit.

After swapping a few more stories with Randy it was off to my tent to find a thermarest hole to patch.  I found one and put a patch on it.  My mattress is now starting to look like one of Sarah's "new" tubes.

With hope of holding air through the night I was off to sleep.