We got on the road early today to try to beat some of the afternoon heat. The temperature was expected to be in the upper 90s along parts of our route. We also were shooting for an early arrival in the town of Mt. Shasta as we would be meeting Ron at a KOA campground there. Ron was our host in Palmdale in the early part of our trip. He is scouting potential retirement locations and is in our area again. He brought his road bike along so he can ride with us a bit tomorrow and see how slow we go.
Today's ride would be short by the standards of the last few days. We should have less than 60 miles and we plan to cut out a couple of side road detours and just stay on highway 89 all day. The shoulders are pretty good, the traffic hasn't been bad and we should be able to go a bit faster. The goal was a 2 o'clock finish in order to have some time at a coffee shop or go for a swim or something. The long days are catching up and some extra rest is needed.
The riding day was pretty uneventful today. Our route didn't pass through many towns at all and was mostly flat. This made for a pretty quick day. We started to get some nice peeks at Mt. Shasta along the way.
Pretty spectacular scenery still ahead
We kept riding along and by the time we were in the town of Mcloud for lunch, we were well on track to finish ahead of our 2 o'clock target.
Just keep cruising along
It was good that we had been making good time because it was getting really hot. It was already around 90 degrees and getting warmer. This had a bit of a negative impact on my judgement at lunch. For the 20 miles or so before Mcloud, as the temperature warmed up I began to think of getting a cold drink when we got to the town. I had 20 miles to think about that and it was considerably hotter at the end of that thinking than at the beginning. The result was that when we did arrive, my thoughts were limited to cold drink, cold drink, cold drink. There was a store and so I got a cold drink and another and another and a snack. While sitting in the shade across the street, I quickly consumed them all (and they were not small). It felt great at the time. Unfortunately when it shortly became time to get back on the bike, my stomach felt like I had eaten a cinder block.
Worse was that between us and Mt. Shasta was the longest climb of the day. It wasn't huge by the standards we have seen earlier but it was large enough that we would be taking a picture at the top.
For a bit more than the next hour I slowly mashed the pedals up the hill happy to not be puking on the side of the road. Eventually the top came as it always does and as I positioned my bike for the obligatory picture, my intestines were making all kinds if noise. I quickly dug through my bag and grabbed a roll of toilet paper and ran off into the woods while Sarah tried to figure out what was going on.
Shortly (or a bit longer) I returned feeling much better. Sarah was laughing and pointing across the highway to where a forest service toilet was located. Oh well, sometimes you don't have time to look around and you just need a plan.
Lesson learned: no more binge drinking while biking.
The scene of the crime
More notes for Randy
We soon arrived in the town of Mt. Shasta and, being quite early, decided we would find a coffee shop for a bit and do the grocery shopping before heading to the campground.
The city, not the mountain
The mountain, not the city
Since we had a nice wifi connection last night, we were atypically caught up on blogs and emails so we had coffee and read the news for a bit and spent some time with the maps.
After a quick grocery stop we headed to the campground. We didn't stick up too much since we expect to be in Ashland tomorrow.
When we found the campsite, Ron was already there and we started chatting immediately. He has become very curious/interested in bike touring since our first meeting and had lots of questions about our trip. It was really fun to see him again. He is the first person we have met twice on this trip and it was like running into an old friend again.
Our group camp for the night
Eventually I broke off to set up my tent and grab a shower. We never made it swimming but I did get to finish another book and have dinner. After that it was early to bed. We would be getting an early start and trying to put in a long day to get to Ashland tomorrow where we will meet Sarah's friend Ferrit and his sister. They will be traveling with us for a few days by car (better cooking) as we head to crater lake.
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