Excited about The Trip

On July 9, 2023, I wrote that the night before I had had a hard time packing for my bike trip from Reno to Placer County because my boys’ birthday party was a lot of work.I went to bed pretty late but still woke at six. I brought my bags down with my bike and rode away. I later had to re-pack a bit and felt like I still had forgotten a few things but the issues were minor.

At Civic Center I was dismayed to discover BART had 30 minute headways. it didn’t occur to me that we can schedules were not very good. I did the math and found I still had time to check my bike – however, it was going to be close.

At MacArthur the margin was even closer. Needless to say, I was really frustrated when I found there was a line to check bags at the station. However, I was able to do everything, even get coffee, just fine. I had to buy it from the Station Cafe because Polaris was closed for the holiday. The bike went to baggage and I didn’t use straps on my panniers so I was overburdened.

I got an OK seat and then sat in the observation car with my computer to catch-up on work. I also chatted with a cyclist on his way to Reno. By the time I had arrived at Baxter I was listing out some locations along my prospective route and noting their relative elevations.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t noted any locations in the Truckee RIver Canyon but it did include half of my travels through the Tahoe National Forest. For instance I had noted that the drop from Donner to Soda Springs was not huge but the drop from Soda Springs to The Cedars was 1000 feet. Likewise, the climb from The Cedars to Wabena Creek was around 500. After that there seemed to be a big climb to Red Star Ridge on Foresthill Divide.

I was clearly excited about the trip.

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.