Day4: Plymouth to Ham’s

Oh my, what a day today. Instead of showing you a map of our ride ( which would show almost nothing) I’m showing our elevation profile.  It was a beautiful day and we started early, around 6:30 but the best we could do was get 34 miles up the road by 12:30. 

The morning showed so much promise… our legs never got the memo though.  


An interesting road sign. We made sure not to worry the livestock just in case. 

I finely found my chocolate milk at our first break about 10 miles up the mountain. 

We were definitely climbing up into the hinterlands.  A week ago they had a foot of snow. 

Lots of time to take pictures of my parked bike today.  6 to 9% grades were very common and some occasional double digits. My cardio was okay but the legs were just not in their best form for the long climbs on an 85 pound bike. 

I should never complain after meeting Dan and his dog Bowie (named after David Bowie).  It’s his 10th day on the road and he’s hauling Bowie and his gear in the trailer with an old mountain bike.  He’s on his way to Ft. Collins to couch surf and make some more money to make it to Toledo where he’ll take care of his mom with dementia.  Bowie was at least 50 lbs and Dan was having to push the bike up the hills while making Bowie walk. He was a sweet dog but I think he should be named Dead-Weight.  Feel free to Venmo funds to venmo@happy-dano. He was a very happy guy too. 

Determined Len keeps grinding, grinding, grinding. 

Lots of logging in the area that we road through today but no one has taken down this big boy yet.  I think it might be a Sequoia. Probably 5’ in diameter.  

It took us 30 miles and 5 hours to get off this cursed steep road and one of its cousins.  We decided it should be named “Oh-no Road” forever more!  

We could never see where it was we were climbing too because we were always on a ridge.  We had some nice views to the left and right though.  

At 12:30, 30 miles under our belt we stopped at Cooks Station for a long, resting lunch. Amber offered to let us sleep on their deck for the night but we wanted to see if we could climb some more.  She said the only likely place between them and Kirkwood was Ham’s Station about 4 miles up the road.  As a fall back, she connected us with Nancy if needed.  

At Ham’s place our legs decided we were done.  I called Nancy and told her we’d sleep on her deck or in a cabin. They’re really not open then summer yet so Len is sleeping in his tent just behind the deck and I’m under the awning in my bag and bivy. 

Gary and Nancy were gracious hosts and we sat and talked over a beer and wine on them.  Nancy used to be a cheerleader for the Oakland Raiders in the 70’s (a lot of fun she said) and Gary’s heavily involved with lumber and fire mitigation with CalFire and the US Forest Seevice. Wonderful people.

And they mentioned we’d have a full moon tonight as seen from my sleeping bag on the deck. We’ll figure out our new plan tomorrow. Good night.