Thursday, August 8th, 2024
Fallon, NV -> South Lake Tahoe, CA
109 Miles , 5722 ft elevation
Every time we wake up in a hotel, we have a slow start to the day. The beds are way too comfortable, we have AC, and we’re not on anybody else’s time. They sometimes even have a continental breakfast. Waking up in the Fallon Youth Center was like this, but an order of magnitude worse. After camping for much of Nevada, Fallon was like an oasis in the middle of the desert. However, after a breakfast of avocado bagels and protein powder, packing up the rest of our gear, and applying a liberal amount of sunscreen, our procrastination could continue no longer. It was already past 8am, when the Nevada DOT opened and we could call to ask for more information about the road work on the US-50. Unfortunately, they gave no more useful information than what was on the website. Resigned, we decided to take the +15 mile detour to be safe.
Today was going to be one of the hardest days we’ve done yet. The mileage or heat wasn’t going to be the death of us today, but rather the Carson Mountain Range at the end of our route, after nearly a century, that would take us from an elevation of 4,700 ft to over 7,100 ft in only a couple of miles.
The ride started as most Nevadan rides start: hot, with headwinds, and desert scenery. The only notable part about the start of the ride was when I stopped in a gas station and a man had a bearded dragon with him. The bearded dragon was named Rachel, and I got to give her a little pet.
Along the ride, there were plenty of small towns on Route 50. I stopped at quite a few for water, and every time I’d see a fast food restaurant, I’d get a little more tempted to grab a quick bite to eat. It sure would beat my normal biking diet of Clif Bars, Nature’s Bakery brownies, and Fig Newtons.
About 2 miles from the lunch stop for the day, I could handle the temptation no longer and stopped at a McDonald's. As I was taking a bite of my Quarter Pounder BLT burger, I got a text that Amulya had gotten a flat, and Sophia, our support driver for the day, would need to go help her out, so she’d be late to the lunch stop. This informed my next comically compulsive decision two blocks down the street from McDonald's to go to Taco Bell. The Baja Blast absolutely hits different during a bike ride.
I continued riding past the lunch stop and into Carson City. This was the perfect time to check out the State Capitol Building and the monuments around it.
Some of the monuments referenced the slogan “Battle Born,” which appears on the Nevada State Flag, and I thought that this was the coolest state slogan in all of the Union. It turns out that officially the state slogan is “All for Our Country,” and “Battle Born” just references that it was the second state to be added to the Union during the Civil War. I personally think they should change their state slogan!
After this little detour, it was time to face the final boss of the day: the Carson Mountains. I decided to go a little off course and take the slightly shorter, but more trafficked route along US-50. I never expected the endgame of Spokes to be easy, but this was going to be a hard climb! Nevada was not going to let us go without one final ass-whooping.
The first thing I noticed climbing the mountain along Route 50 was the drastic change of scenery. In less than half a mile, I went from the Nevadan desert to a mountain with trees on it! It sure was nice to finally see some green.
The climb to the top was one of the hardest I've encountered in Spokes so far. The uphill grade was relentless, causing me to take frequent breaks to stretch out my already tired legs from the century leading up to this climb.
The ride down from the summit was fun, but a little stressful due to the lack of a shoulder. I never got a good view of the lake due to wildfire smoke.
Lake Tahoe STEM Academy booked us a resort to stay in for the night, so I finished my ride biking there in South Lake Tahoe. Most of the time when we cross state borders, we make a big deal about it and take plenty of pictures. However, when I biked into California, I was disappointed that there was no state line sign. Rebecca said that there was a small green road sign, but I must have missed it.
I arrived to find Sophia preparing our meal for the night. After a quick shower, I helped out by making a watermelon salad. Meanwhile, the rest of the team, who had either stopped for lunch or gotten a flat, was still on the road. Most of them summited after sunset and descended into California in the dark. Unfortunately, Amulya's backlight stopped working, so it wasn't safe for her to finish the downhill on the shoulderless section of the US-50 around Lake Tahoe. Hank drove to pick her up while Sophia and I finished dinner.
After the rest of the team trickled in, we ate and talked about logistics for our learning festival tomorrow. We also talked about how crazy it is that we are now in California! Back in Virginia, making it this far was hard to conceptualize, but here we were, sitting around the dining table.
I remembered back to one of our hosts in Illinois, Brad and Sherry. They also went on a cross-country bike tour, and they said that in the last week, reality starts to set in. Your goal is in sight, and after this, you have to go back to your normal life. Crossing the California border made me realize this. Every day in Spokes is an adventure, and I'm not sure if I'm ready to go back to college and leave my teammates that I've grown close to over the summer. All that I can really do is cherish these last few rides and laughs with my teammates. How does the cliché go? "All good things must come to an end."
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