Flapping Nostrils

Rides # 121 and 122

November 2nd and 3rd
26 miles in three counties: El Dorado, Sacramento, and Placer

My overnight hammock/recumbent trike expedition.

Why did I do this little trip? I've always wanted to tour by bicycle and my splendid machine is made for touring.

Beals Point campground (Folsom Lake SRA) is about 13 miles from my house, quite useful for my first human powered vehicle overnight.

It took me an hour and a half of actual rolling time to get to the campground and two and a half to get back. My average on the way out was 9 mph, and back was just over 5 mph. Yes, you saw that right. 5.2 mph. Oy.

Take a look at this little diagram for the reason:

At noon I rolled out of the garage, down the driveway, shifted to my most grannyiest gear, and slogged up the STUPID hill in front of the house. Every from-the-door-tour will start this way so I ought to get used to it.

Then I got to fly down the first hill on the main road and attained 37.3 mph! That's the fastest yet I've coasted on this bike. Or any bike. Ever.
My nostrils flapped in the wind. Weird feeling.

I traveled primarily on roads (usually no bike lane but with a shoulder of varying quality) but used a bikepath over Folsom Crossing (the road/bridge replacing the old dam road across the American River just below Folsom Lake).

There are multiple construction projects all around Folsom Lake.

Look for the guy to the right of the middle two machines.

My own personal lane! (closed to divert traffic from Folsom Crossing)

Sometimes Folsom Crossing is closed around noon for blasting or other exciting things. I timed it just right to have a nice break in the shade of the construction company's office parking lot. No blasting was audible.

OK, so this is a boring pic. The construction folks were cool. So there.

After Folsom Crossing, although I could have continued on the bike path to the campground, I chose instead to take Folsom Auburn Road, since I needed to pay my camping fee at the kiosk. $25 for the off season, no biker discount.

I chose Site #1 since I was tired and wanted to set up camp and there were two trees Right There for my hammock and I'd have plenty of 'campground TV' to watch since I was right off the main drag.


I loafed around and read and people-watched. Had some tea.

I critter-watched.

Loafed some more and ate dinner (sandwich from the deli I'd stopped at on my way through Folsom).

Gathered some HUGE pinecones (sorry, forgot a pic of those) which helped my twig and small branch fire look Much Bigger than it was.

Finally crawled into my hammock (this is what I use for backpacking - it has insulated quilts above and below: toasty) and read or listened to some podcasts until about midnight.

Got up multiple times in the night (why did I have two cups of tea with dinner? I KNOW better!)

Woke up for good at 6:30am and wandered around the lake shore for a while, then packed up and headed back.

Back over Folsom Crossing, then up all the hills I'd gleefully sailed down less than 24 hours before.

I whined a lot climbing up the hills, but I also had a chance to stop and admire the landscape.

Look! More hills!

Remember the 37.3 mph hill? Well, I had to go back up that. Ugh.

Arrived home 23 hours after I'd left, with way too many pics and video to process.

If you have not had enough of this tall tale, here's a link to a Youtube video I did.

Sonoma Skeddaddle II

Ride #111

Monday September 26th 

8.5 miles around some vineyards in Sonoma County, California

We set out just before lunch, a picnic distributed among the various riders (I was in charge of the bread), toddler in tow, to visit as many wineries as we could before the inevitable 3.5 year old meltdown. We hoped for 3 winerys and would have settled for 1, so the 2 we visited was the perfect number.

Fappiono's was the first where they had both whites and reds to taste.

I surprised myself by choosing a rosé to take home. I am normally a red red red person.

We had a nice self-catered lunch accompanied by a bottle from the tasting room.

I successfully packed a bottle in one of my rear bags, and Mrs. Host's Mom's (the happy person toasting the camera) bottle in the other. The extra weight was noticeable, especially slogging up the hills to the next winery.

Our second visit was on Limerick Road, to Collins Vineyard, with a very talkative counterman who waived our tasting fees since we had arrived on bicycles.

Now with three bottles in my bags, the effect that had on my suspension, the realization that the toddler DID NOT want to leave the shade of a tree, AND the uphill dirt roads to the next two possible wineries, we made a wise decision and headed back.

I need a stiffer spring or some adjustment to my rear suspension for heavier loads than I usually carry (like for touring), and I also want to get a 22 tooth ring in front instead of my 26. The trike handled wonderfully  with the load, rolling down hills like it was on a greased track.

Tomorrow I head back to my usual life of local bike rides, and to getting ready for Foxy's in mid- October.