Day 2…Patterson to Lake Commanche
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Okay, today was supposed to flat and easy…not!
The morning was great…nice, traffic free roads for the most part. The Central Valley can be beautiful with all the nut trees, vineyards and yes, even the stinky cows.
We hammered out the first 45 miles of the trip easily. We had mild tailwinds at times to make the work easier. The temperatures were mild and the landscape shaded. We had lunch in Oakdale, did some grocery shopping and headed into a moderate headwind.
We didn’t see a tree for about 30 miles. I found the sun to be relentless! The road was great, with little traffic. We anticipated about 750′ of climbing; it actually ended up to be almost 1200′…all in rollers, one after the other. I ticked off the miles one at a time, the headwinds actually got lighter, and we started to move into the oak woodlands between Highways 26 and 12. The shade was a nice change.
We stopped in Burson for some groceries and got to our campsite at Commanche about 5 pm. The lake was very full, but the campground was empty. We had a nice family next to us that; the little boy was in third grade and everytime he rode his bike by us he would yell “hey guys”, like he was one of us. He was impressed with our ride and gave me a polished pebble to take to Colorado. He said we could mix it in with any other rocks I saw…I promise to use my best discretion.
Total mileage today was 85 flat, easy miles…not! We start heading into the Sierra tomorrow.
Rick