We woke up at 4:00 to begin our climb up and out. It was a fairly quick morning with a true bike and build-esk breakfast as our food stock was low having been in Death Valley and people made a hodgepodge of breakfasts. However, we had our route meeting, did our ABCs and headed out.
I was riding with Jenna and as yesterday's ride ended up 100 or so feet of a much larger hill our day started where we left off. The first 15 miles of the day were a climb, but we knew that was coming. Rather than riding at different paces and alone as may be easier physically at times, we appreciated the company and the ride went by in a flash. Before we knew it we'd climbed six miles up and met up with Margaret. She had started alone but decided to join us and we kept climbing up. The day was beautiful as always so were our surroundings.
12 miles in we hit first lunch the earliest one in the day and in mileage we've had all trip. However, the bulk of the climb was behind us and it had been a hard start for many.
While at lunch can a group congregated to help Emily with a flash mob plan she's assembled. Tomorrow is B&B prom for us and she had drawn Kalli's name so to be creative she wanted our help. It was hilarious though because as is the B&B way, technical difficulties paused the song and Kalli though the flash mob was a game so she just joined in, not knowing it was for her. she said yes though as did both Alize and Dave when I asked them through chalk and rock art, yeah I'm taking two dates.
From there Margaret, Jenna, and I hit the road again and continued for a good bit. After mile 15 we had some flat lands then some nice down hill as we entered Owen Valley and the Sierra Mountains, including Mount Whitney came into view. It's crazy to have gone from the lowest point in North America two days ago to being somewhere that we are at the base of the highest point in the lower 48.
We had a quick break at a cool old gas station, where we finally had service. At this point my day turned a bit as I am once again looking for housing in DC, so once again if anyone knows of anything please let me know. However I rode the last 15 into Lone Pine, did a few errand a and headed to the camp grounds.
We are camping at a campground & RV site tonight, but there are showers, a pool, wifi, and a nice indoor living room-esk space. We all relaxed, cleaned up, and had a few nice luxuries of being in a town. We had laundry done, received mail, and well just were out of Death Valley. I have to thank my mom and grandma for the Goode Company Pecan Pie and the Montana Monster Munchies. They were enjoyed by all, as were everyone else's treats so thanks to the other parents who sent some goodies to us.
We then continued to feast over a true top 5 meal of the trip. The campsite staff had made vegan, vegetarian, and carnivorous meals for all of us. Most had seconds and then we enjoyed dessert, followed by our own mail drop second desserts. The eating made most people quite lethargic which worked great as we needed to sit and review our grant applications. Our route received 18 grant applications which have $50,000 to be distributed.
We will also have our own personal rider grants to provide later, host grants (where our hosts get to select organizations to contribute $50-$100 to), and prearranged grants (that go towards predetermined builds). The $50,000 though is divided up between applicants and as a group we presented all the application today. Tomorrow before prom we may begin to allocate funds, sadly we can't fund all the grant requests so we will have to make some hard decisions.
The night then ended with some people in the pool or jacuzzi, others checking emails, brad and I searching for housing, and a variety of other activities. It is nice to be free of some of the heat and I can't wait to ride along the Sierras some more tomorrow.