Day 3 (5/25/09)

Today was a milestone day. Today was the 16th anniversary of Tim's kidney transplant. He celebrated his new lease on life by spending 6 hours climbing a total of 13,000'! We all stuck together during the climb, misery likes company. The significant amount of the traffic was heading home from the holiday weekend and down the mountain from the mountain lakes and recreation areas. We congratulated ourselves on our forethought not to leave earlier in the holiday weekend and fight with the hoards heading to the hills for the holiday weekend. We left Placerville, Ca. and finished 103 miles and 7:42 hours (ride time, not total time) later in Genoa, Nevada, just over the hill from Tahoe. We learned from a local at breakfast that Placerville was called Hangtown because of its hanging judge during the gold rush days. At some point the locals figured the name was not good for tourism and changed it. We celebrated the end of the day by drinking at the oldest, continuously operating bar in Nevada. Figuring the place had a history of people being thrown out through the saloon doors, we opted to change out of our Spandex before heading inside. The support team found us a hotel in Carson City about 10 miles away. Tomorrow, we will start where we finished, outside the bar in Genoa. No more gaps in the route. Still no dogs. No shouts from idiots, but a horn blow in Nevada and a redneck who buzzed us with inches to spare as we were climbing up the mountain. Weather still great, sunny, ideal cycling temperature. After cresting the mountain pass at 8,574'(Carson Pass, named after Kit Carson) we had a terrific decent into Nevada. Given my weight, I quickly blew past the lighter guys, topping out at 51 mph! On our accent we passed through Eldorado National Forest and saw evidence the area had seen its share of wildfires. The higher elevations still had snow. Due to technical difficulties, my GPS wasn't charged for Day 2, so no download. Although my GPS worked today (almost ran out of juice because we were on the road so long), I can't get Internet on my computer, so Day 3's GPS download showing the epic climb will have to wait. I took lots of pictures, and will download them to the blog soon too. Tommorrow's goal is Falon, Nev., until then ...