Bike Ride to Oakhurst

Yosemite to Oakhurst: 71.9 miles

Total mileage: 3801.7 miles

This morning got started early, very early due to something that could be likened to a chain saw. A little before 3 am this noise started out of nowhere ... A snore which reveled any allergy, head cold or back sleeper. After a few minutes David hopped off the stage and circled the laundry pile a few times which was where the sound was coming from. Here I thought that he was going to shake the person, but instead he just left the auditorium and went to the bathroom. As he came back he did another loop of the laundry pile and then hopped back on the stage and went back to bed.

I was hoping that I would be able to turn over and go back to bed, but the snoring was just too loud. I could hear people starting to talk and giggle about the noise, but no one was getting up so I decided to take things into my own hands. I hopped off the stage, did a loop around the laundry pile (a little hard because the room was only illuminated by an exit sign), and found the guilty party on the tarp. After a few shakes I was able to get Hannah to turn over just enough

"Patience is a virtue. I am already virtuous enough and do not need patients." Quote of the morning as I was waiting for people to roll out because I was sweep again. 

Trent and I had a leisurely ride through the rest of the park until we hit a bomb descent. The first thirty miles were mainly down hill and we reached some pretty good coasting speeds as we were hugging the corners of the road.

Lunch was at mike thirty and thanks to Becka, Jack's fiancée, we had sandwiches with real lunch meat. We all left very full and regretted it as soon as we hit our first major climb of the day. After several miles in the heat, and stopping twice along the way, we reached a group changing a flat. Trent and I laid down to take a power nap and when we woke up twenty minutes later they were gone. A little later we found them at a gas station where we hung out for 90 minutes until everyone was ready to get on the road again. While we were waiting for everyone we talked with a few people who informed us that we would have to climb three very large hills before our descent into Oakhurst.

They definitely were not kidding. After three hard days of climbing we had to climb another 5300 feet before reaching out final destination. The third hill was probably the word because both Trent and I thought we had climbed it and as we descended the hill we could see this monster of a hill in the distance. As we made our way up the hill, there was a group stopped to fix a flat. Because I had already had three naps that afternoon I decided to whip out my phone and start taking notes for my blog - as my faithful readers know I am VERY behind. The good news about what would be our final stop was the fact that Alicia had found, nay smelled, blackberries on the side of the road. Trent and I killed some blackberries while we gave the other group time to get up the hill and get ahead of us.

Once we hit the top there was a great downhill section and we were hitting some great speeds. Unfortunately people forgot to mention that the last ten miles was extremely hilly. Because lunch was so early I had. It eaten anything since 10 besides blackberries and a clif bar which meant I was seriously bonking ... Not good when major hills stand between you and the host.

All in all, it was a 10.5 hour day from host to host, 7 hours to go 40 miles post lunch, and we made 11 stops. 30 miles down hill and then 40 miles of climbing.

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