Day 4…PiPi Valley to Woodford
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I won’t waste your time with our 1,200′ ascent from PiPi…you read about my gripe yesterday!
We turned onto Hwy 88 and cranked up to 6,000 feet altitude with little or no shoulder…traffic was less than we expected on the start of a holiday weekend. We found our first snow on the roadside there. Somewhere along the way a bumblebee found it’s way between my base layer and my skin…Normally they are fairly docile, but not in this case! It was one whollop of a sting!
At 7,000′ the shoulder widened and riding became much easier. I ran into trucker and bicyclist Ed Carlson at one vista. He complimented us on our bright, visible colors and asked about our destination. Ed makes trucking runs between Placerville and Southern Cal, but I think he would rather be riding with us!
We passed beautiful Alpine Scenery, with half-frozen lakes. At Kirkwood, I saw gas was $4.689 and a small Gatorade was $2.00! Avoid that stop at all cost, no matter if you are feeding your car or your body!
Here the wind really started to whip up, making the edge of the flags snap. When I used to sail boats, that is the time to start to think about heading in. But we still had Carson Pass to ascend. At 8,600 feet, it is way up there! Jerry logged 41 degrees at the summit.
The wind was gusting at 40 mph as we decended, and blowing us around quite a bit. We got into Woodford Inn, grabbed some sandwiches and a couple beers and watched the forcast for Saturday…snow in the mountains!
We covered 58 miles and 6,650 vertical feet today.
-Rick