Day 9: Tour of California

This morning the temperature was back in the comfortable mid 50's for finishing our climb to Wrightwood.  It was good that we stopped when we did, we would not have made it yesterday.  With half the climb behind us, we still had a long trudge to finish it off.  It was the steepest and one of the longest climbs so far.

My sinus congestion of the last couple days now seems to be developing into a full blown chest cold.  When we got to Wrightwood, I stopped at the grocery for some cold medicine and after I took it we headed for the local coffee shop to check email, get coffee, and see if I felt better once the cold medicine kicked in.

Once we left Wrightwood we would be in the boondocks for at least two days.  If I kept getting worse, it might be better to hole up in town for a while.

After my coffee was  finished, the cold medicine started to kick in and I was feeling good enough that we decided to press on.  We hit the grocery store to stock up and we were on our way.

At the coffee shop, the owner mentioned that the Tour of California would be coming to connect weekend.  The ToC is by far the largest pro bike race in California and attracts several teams for Europe as well as the top US teams.  As we rode out of town, we passed what will be the finish line for Friday's stage 6. It turns out that the race

 I caught on the television in Big Bear Lake was the finish of stage 1.  We will be riding most of stage 6 in reverse today.

Nice spot for a finish line

Look out for the bikes...they'll be faster than us

We will be winding through the middle of nowhere for the next day and a half so we are paying close attention to our water.  Never leave a spot with water until all bottles are full.  I was able to call a ranger station from Wrightwood and confirm that out  target campground is open but it was unclear whether we would find potable water.

No straight and narrow around here

The morning climb continued and became the early afternoon climb until we reached Dawson Saddle at 7901 ft.  Not quite what we had at Onyx Summit but it was worth a picture.

Way more impressive than 7900ft

From here would would descend almost the entire way to the campground (good for us, tough for the racers on Friday).  Normally this would be great but with my head now full of cold medicine, the level of focus available for a high speed descent was lacking.  Fortunately there were no incidents.

Want to race up those hills on Friday?

We arrived at the campground and found it open at the road but closed part way in.  Being.  Bike traveler means being committed to a stopping point so we went in anyway.  That meant private camping amongst the tall trees and gigantic falling pine cones.  I was pretty beat by this point and  struggling with the cold so it was an early dinner a  bit more cold medicine and off to bed for me.

Home for the night

Once tucked away for the night I was reminded of what tomorrow would bring.

I am out here...waiting