14 October 1997 (perfect; cool yet sunny and clear; mileage = 76; Lee
Vining [over THE pass!]) -- X - I didn't sleep too well again last night. I
think it was my bear fear. I got up at daybreak and packed up and had some
Pop Tarts. I hit the road and slogged out many difficult miles (8.5) to the
entrance of Yosemite. The guy I met yesterday gave me his still valid
receipt, so I saved $10. I talked to the information woman about the 2
possible routes. One was the old road that's now a hiking trail. No cars --
perfect. But between her bad directions and them hiding it, I missed it. I
was riding really badly and I stopped from some calories. As I was leaving
this pull over area, I heard a new ticking noise. I checked and it was a
tack in my tire. Grr. I fixed that and pressed on. I was only at 15 miles
when I got to the Tioga cut off. I was really dragging. I made the mistake
of not getting H2O here. I had 2.5 liters and thought that would be OK.
Once on the pass road, the scenery got better and so did my riding. I
realized that if I was to climb ALL day, I had to really take it easy. I
used 1-4 and 1-5 most of the day. I also realized that I needed about 4
times as much food. I was stopping every 2-4 miles and I tried to eat a
cookie or two each time. At first, there was a bunch of 100-meter downs and
ups. Grr. Finally, the scenery was so awesome, I didn't care. This place is
like a kid played with mountain-sized blobs of clay and they were turned to
granite. When I was down to « bottle, I got nervous and took some creek
H2O. I didn't drink it, but it looked great, and it was a good back up. All
of the camps that I thought would have H2O didn't or were closed or were
off the road. By 15 miles to the pass, I knew both that I'd make it and
that I'd be out of "good" H2O. The last stretch was very well-behaved with
spectacular scenery and easy grades that didn't vacillate. I was so excited
that I rode about 6 miles in a row before stopping to not kill myself only
2 miles from the top. A ranger drove up and was nice and gave me just
enough H2O and I was on my way. The summit! At the pass, I put on my winter
clothes and zoomed down. This had the same feel as the Mt. Goat descent on
the Alcan, but the scale here was times 10 or times 20! I just kept yelling
wow! Wow! I was doing 38 mph all the way down for about 10 miles! Wow! What
a crazy road! Once in Lee Vining, I checked accommodations and went to the
restaurant. I had not-so-great food and when I got back to register at the
campsite (which is behind a hotel), I had some yucky ???. I tried to take a
shower in the mens, but it didn't work. Grr. The manager suggested the
womens. It was great. A 4-quarter shower. Ahh ... to be unsalty (my shorts
kept crinkling like paper, because of the salt in the fabric). Now I'm in
my bodybag ready for a good rest.
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