Shake down days 2 and 3

Thursday morning (May 28) found us in the beautiful little mountain town of Markleeville, CA. The skies were clear and by the time we left for Virginia City at 8:45 it was relatively warm. We started the day with a 2.5 mile climb to Turtle Rock Park, the start of the famous Death Ride (5 passes, 129 miles and about 13500 feet of climbing in one day). We didn't do that :).

We retraced the route of the prior day back to the south side of Carson City. Along the way received a call from friend Pat Class who wanted to meet us in Carson City and enjoy our ordeal as we climed up to Virginia City on route 341.

We found Pat at a Mexican restaurant on Hwy 50 east of Carson City stuffing himself with burritos and the like - what else. The stories of Pat's cast iron stomach are legend among his swimming friends. I'll say no more.

Having satisfied our hunger, we turned to the task of climbing 2600 feet up to Virginia City. Although it was fairly hot, mid to high eightys, the heat was partially mitigated by occasional guts of wind from nearby thunder storms. Fortunately, we encountered only a few rain drops as most of the storm activity remained south of us. The climb went well. In fact, it was surprisingly easy given that our bikes with panniers, water, etc. weighed about 70 pounds.

Virginia City is a mere shadow of its heyday when the Comstock silver mine was at the peak of its production and Mark Twain stalked the streets. Nonetheless, things are slowly improving. We elected to stay in a new Ramada. Doesn't have the charm of the local B&Bs but was half the price.

We returned to Reno on Friday morning. Following a 500 foot climb to Geiger Summit, we enjoyed the 8 mile descent on the Geiger Grade. Our return path took us through the now developed Double Diamond Ranch and its marshlands in the southeast part of Reno and finally into the Sierra foothills in the southwest.

It was a great ride. We learned a lot, mostly about the small things we will need for the cross country trip. Most importantly, we have the confidence that we will be able to carry our load up any grade we will encounter on the big trip.