Last night was a good night's sleep. I think I have finally won the battle against Thermarest leaks (for now anyway) and I remembered that somewhere in my bags I had packed some ear plugs. These were super handy to deal with the sound of the generator from the next camp over where the couple was powering their large CRT television and a satellite television system. Different experiences for different folks. They came on handy later in the night when a lightning storm rolled through. Fortunately it didn't drop much rain and everything was dry in the morning.
Today would be mostly a utility day moving us on down the road. No major climbs and no major descents. We would be leaving Piedra and heading for Auberry.
Poisonous or not, I prefer them this way
Along the way we would see the lake on the backside of the dam seen late yesterday. From the look of the high water line, it must be years since the lake has been at that level.
Lake looking for water
The adveneture cycling maps go to great lengths to find roads off the beaten track. After making our way around the lake, we headed off up a valley with a huge two way superhighway (well, maybe not that big). Pretty much the only folks seen on the road there for many miles were a few touring dual sport motorcycles. They were so surprised themselves to find others on that road that most of them stopped to ask if everything was okay. Funny and actually pretty nice. Not the sort of place you want to have a problem.
Enjoying the super highways
After a while we made it to the town of Auberry. It looked like a larger town on our map and we had high hopes for finding a grocery store and a coffee shop or library to connect our wifi communications (so far much more reliable than phone service).
Alas, there was no coffee shop and the library was closed. We have yet to hit a town with an open library. New to me, but many of the small town libraries are only open a couple days each week. Unfortunate on several levels.
We did find a market that was reasonably well stocked. Even better than that the market had the nicest manager who was eager to chat with us about our trip and let us connect to the store's wifi connection. We hung out there for several hours to try to evade some of the worst of the early afternoon heat before heading to the campground.
It's not always fancy, but it works
I made what seemed like ten trips into the store to get cold drinks and some snacks. Lunch ended up being a couple cans of tasty Italian vegetable soup I found inside (of course it was straight form the can). There is nothing like all day pedaling to make anything taste great.
Randy caught up with us at the store and we all hung out for a while. Eventually he left to find the campground while we finished up.
Lunch break
As we were leaving I asked the store manager if I could use the rest room to fill water bottles since the faucet outside had no handle. She didn't like that idea and immediately went and found a gallon jug o spring water and insisted that I take that, no charge. She said she thought people should just be good to each other. A great sentiment and greatly appreciated gift. I'm looking forward to my next opportunity to repay her generosity to someone else.
The ride to the campground covered another 10 miles and finished with a really nice downhill stretch into the bottom of a river valley. We camped alongside the San Joaquin river.
Those boots aren't for walking anymore
I had a brief dip in the river. It was super cold. It felt good after a but but it was an effort to get everything in the water.
Waiting for the lumps in my throat to descend again
Tomorrow we hope to find better groceries and facilities in North Fork, a few miles of climbing out of this valley down the road.
Tonight I am enjoying the company of our little band of bike travelers and looking forward to a restful night (the Thermarest leaks are finally overcome).
Traveling vagabond camp
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