On July 31 I wrote that after I left the laundromat I went looking for School Road which I knew had a direct route to the hotel. I stopped at Target on the way. I bought power bars, snacks and a few other things. The customers were more helpful than the employees. School Road was easy and I decided to stay away from Bidwell so took the Johnny Cash Trail. Some lady said “you’re welcome” to me on the road to the trail and I interpreted that as the lady lived nearby and hated cyclists.
When I got to the hotel quiet time was halfway over. We split the harmony and I took it easy while my friend got a coffee on Sutter. I met her there a little later and we got ice cream. We went to the pool as my sisters were returning from the aquatic center. My younger sister came down but my older sister and her husband were getting ready to go home to Reno - they were leaving late.
After their departure my younger sister and I went to our own rooms with our parties to get ready to meet back at the pizza place. The dinner was good but we only ate two of the three pizzas. However, I grabbed the leftovers on the way to the ice cream shop. I took a bite of someone’s ice cream there and then the cart got pushed noisily to the hotel. We called it quits for the night a short while later.
On Monday, July 30 I had intended on quietly leaving the room without my friend but she had gotten up by 6:30. We were too early for the nearby café so we went to the Sutter Grill again. We ordered a small amount of food and then returned to the room to begin checking out. My sister texted and I noisily locked the bikes up outside before we traded places and I got ready to go.
At this point my younger sister was ready to go. She was heading to Reno for an extra day before having to return to work in SF. when I got downstairs they told me they would be back after a quick trip to the chocolate shop. I was done packing when she returned and they said goodbye.
This was when our idylic ride to Sacramento began. We had checked that our bags were strapped in correctly and then rode under Auburn Road. Then we rode along the River Path. The ride through the Mississippi Bar area was new and different. My friend was really enjoying herself. I remember stopping to catch my breath and saw a kayak float by. The piles of rocks made from hydraulic mining were really striking.
We crossed a little bridge and headed towards another one nearby. We were on our way to the Nimbus dam on Lake Natomas. The freeway was much closer there. I had spent a lot of time looking at the route and had determined that the dam was our first option for getting on the light rail. However, we were very much enjoying the ride. So, we continued onward.
I took a picture of Nimbus in the background and then we passed under the Hazel Bridge and we considered stopping for a swim. I wanted to accommodate her so I started looking. We passed the hatchery and there were a lot of parking lots that I remember seeing. People had a lot of access to drive. I noted that it was the islands/bars in the river that prompted us to imagine going for a swim.
We settled in at a Lower Sunrise for a picnic. There was a Ranger there. He gave us a frisbee. He said that the county was placing rangers at regular intervals along the trail. I got some water from him and quietly washed up. It was really nice. I took a breather. Later we rode through marvelous oaks and passed picnic tables on the sandy riverside. We stopped at Rossmoor Bar to adjust our trailer and at Riverbend to have water, which was a really nice park. We crossed the bridge into William Pond recreation area and my friend was really impressed with the beauty of the place. We could see the various meanders as we rolled along.
When we passed the water treatment plant we begin to see a levy on her right when my friend looked similar to a rail right of way. That was when I felt like we were entering the city. However, we were only in Arden Arcade at that point. The defining features from then until Sac State were the river on the left and the levy on the right. We saw the park rangers in SUVs rolling by.
At this point I was thinking about the train because we were near our second potential LRV escape point. My friend wanted to roll all the way to the station at this point so when we went under and passed guy West Ridge we started rolling like the end of the ride was near.
I started checking my watch when we passed mile markers to determine how long the last 7 miles would take. However I was also trying to find a shorter route. We settled on the Sacramento Northern Bikeway. We had no trouble climbing to the top of the bridge. When we got to the other side I led us to an neighborhood isolated by local rail infrastructure.
I got us into the city street grid by taking us under the tracks on a sidewalk and we stopped to rest at Muir Park. A short while later we rode to G Street and saw some bike camping people on our way into the station. They complicated the train for us because there was only one bike car and it was crowded.
My friend quietly went upstairs and I hung the bikes and broke the trailer down. We had traveled through Davis by the time I had finished. When I finally got to our table we sat talking. The light was slanting in through the window so we quietly treated seats. We also walked around the train to quiet our nerves and I had a couple of beers.
This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.
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