Day 1 Reno to Gray Eagle Lodge, 68 miles

The day began at Jim’s place in Reno.  Toby and I rode an easy 2.5 miles to the Java Jungle where we met Pat and swim coach Steve for coffee and conversation.  By the time we left the temperature warmed to a comfortable 70 degrees and it was a beautiful ride out of Reno via Rancho San Rafael Park.  Toby is a big man, 6’5”, 240 and the hills are not his best friend.  We climbed about 1500 feet to the high desert plateau and the south end of Long Valley.  I know this area well, having driven routes 395 and 70 north and west to Quincy, Greenville and Chester on the shore of Lake Almanor for nearly 25 years.  Along the way, construction reveals the history of the land, sandy soil from an inland sea that evaporated at the end of the last ice age.  After climbing a long hill on the shoulder of 395, we see the dry lake of Cold Springs Valley.  Further on, we enter California and Lassen County, named for Peter Lassen who became famous for finding an easier route through the Sierra than that which marooned the infamous Donner Party in the winter of 1850.  Already, I feel the freedom that accompanies long distance bike riding.  I can’t explain it, but when you ride this way, you discover that while slower, you can go almost anywhere under your own power and that you experience your surroundings in a way that just isn’t available from any motorized means of travel.

We switch riders at the bug station (California Agricultural Inspection Station) on 395 and Len and Toby ride while I drive.  Beckworth Pass, 5221 feet, gives a spectacular view of Sierra Valley, a 20 by 15 mile meadow, the largest in the Sierra.  We are now on route 70.  While Long Valley focused the wind, making it appear to come from the north, route 70, running east/west shows its true direction, out of the west.  There’s no such thing as a tail wind when you’re on a long bike ride.  Red Winged Black Birds sing to me from their perches on fence posts as I drive through Sierra Valley.  Areas of irrigation make it amazingly green - there’s little rain on the east slope of the Sierras.  I wait for Len and Toby at a rest stop where cattle graze in an adjacent field and we begin to leave the desert behind.  Plaques tell the stories of the aboriginal American settlers and the more recent European settlers, in particular, the story of James Pearson Beckworth, for whom the pass we traversed is named.  I missed seeing the Golden and Bald Eagles that frequent the telephone poles in Sierra Valley, but am rewarded by a Western Tanager as Len and I begin the day’s final leg along the middle fork of the Feather River.

The final 23 mile leg ends with a grueling 5.1 mile climb on Gold Lakes Road.  The temperature remains a comfortable 75 degrees and the dreaded headwind cools us.  Toby is relaxed in a well-padded chair and reading in front of Gray Eagle Lodge.  The lodge is a wonderful log building with a tall beamed ceiling in the lobby area.  Toby arrived well before Len and I and must have charmed the very friendly Sarah at the front desk who upgraded us to a funky little cabin with a corrugated metal roof (turned out most of the cabins were like that).  We had a little private deck with Adirondack chairs - a location where several beers were consumed prior to dinner in the lodge.  After dinner we explored the property along a happy little creek and found a small waterfall.  A power failure at about 8:30 sent us to bed early, although, truth be told, we would have gone to sleep early anyway.