Claire Tappan Fed Me

On July 3 I wrote that I had had trouble sleeping the night before but only because I was sleeping on the ground. I woke to a chipmunk at 6:30. It was really angry at me.

I boiled my iodine preparation and made pour over coffee using a pour over kit I had gotten at my hotel the day before. I also ate a Cliff bar and my apple.

I packed up and returned the table I had found on the top deck of the Bradley Hut. I brushed and eventually had the bike sitting waiting while I enjoyed the air in the meadow.

I rode up to the saddle and was passed by two different dog walkers. The incline wasn’t great for cycling. At the top I saw the car that had passed me the night before at Bradley Hut. A man on an ATV Mule passed me going up as well.

That was around when the car went back down Pole Creek. I saw no one as I made my way to the saddle below Tinker Knob. I noted that Deep Creek is serene and quiet.

I found the guy on the ATV Mule near the top. I stashed the bike and climbed to the Pacific Crest Trail. I saw eight or nine people – mostly through hikers. I took some pictures and returned to the saddle after eating all of my food and water.

From the crest I grabbed my bike and descended the Cold Stream Trail. I fell twice and had to walk a lot. The ride was really hard and steep. When I got to Cold Stream road there were a bunch of people on motorcycles.

Thankfully Lost Lodge, at the bottom of my decent, offered me water. The lady that ran the place told me that they generally will rent rooms when they are not busy.

I quickly got to the railroad tracks a short ride later but there was no cell coverage. So I couldn’t tell my lodge I was late.

I found the road up Emigrant Canyon and it was nearly as bad as portions of Pole Creek the day before. I had to climb and push the bike a bunch of places and really suffered. However, I made it to Eder where I saw an Amtrak train and that really picked up my mood.

I took nearly a dozen photos of the Donner Tunnel then and continued along historic transcontinental railroad right away until I was able to enter the tunnels. I had brought a bunch of flashlights for the venture. The gravel is terrible but the tunnels were fun.

Once I had made it through the tunnels, it was a short ride to the end of the days’ excursion. Claire Tappan fed me dinner and offered me beer for sale. I did laundry for free. I took time to myself. I met some interesting people.

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.