Alive and Healing

I have moved from the coast of California to the "valley floor" of Yosemite, specifically Mariposa, CA. I spent two and a half days in Monterey, CA letting my various maladies heal. Unfortunately I was not back to 100% health or even 75%, but I was good enough to put in some easy miles and avoid putting up another zero mile day. Monday was an easy 100 mile day, and yesterday was a tougher 65 mile day. It was tough enough for my troubled tendons to make themselves known, but I listened to them carefully and ended the day early in Mariposa after some modest climbs.

Then disaster struck. While barely pedaling home from dinner in Mariposa, I experienced a disastrous collision between my rear derailleur, the chain, and the rear wheel spokes. The derailleur and the derailleur hanger broke, though the spokes are fine. I have a replacement derailleur on the way, hopefully the hanger is on the way, and I should be able to head out to El Portal (entrance of Yosemite) on Friday afternoon sometime.

Given that I am still nursing some sore tendons (right knee, below the outside of the left knee, left achilles), I am viewing this mechanical issue as a blessing in disguise as it will force me to take another couple days off the bike and get closer to 100%. Riding to and through Yosemite will be challenging as the peak elevation in Yosemite is 9500ft, over 7500ft higher than Mariposa's elevation.

The past couple days of riding have been a big shift from the hilly, windy Route 1. I ran into the California jetstream that runs in a southerly direction. Winds were probably in the 30mph range and were particularly demoralizing as I was a bit banged up physically and struggling to keep the speed in the double digits as I was getting pummelled by the constant wind. After fighting the wind for a bit, I then ran into the Route 1 hill. The hills would have been enjoyable, but again I was distracted with some sore tendons. The views were striking as much of the road is carved into the side of either steep hills or a cliff. The road is either straight up (6-10% grade) or straight down. On a bike this translates into constant climbing as the downhills barely last for a couple of minutes, if that.
There is scarcely any room for a shoulder to the road, let alone a bike lane, so I was sharing the road with cars and trucks though all went well. Rest stops and lodging are scarce as there is not much real estate for either. I camped on a cliff overlooking a sandy beach and a clear sky, complete with shooting stars.
The next day (Thursday) I struggled with more hills and limped into Carmel-by-the-Sea and got in some much needed rest for my legs. I then took three days (Fri/Sat/Sun) off in Monterey, spending a bit of time icing my legs and watching the Olympics.
Monday I headed out across the hot plains, taking advantage of the flat terrain and favorable winds to put in 100 miles with barely any effort. There was a single climb during the day which was rewarded heavily with a long, fast (50+mph) downhill overlooking the San Luis Reservoir.