Day Three - Tuesday June 19

Today would be a much shorter day than the previous two as I only needed to make it about 250 miles to Groveland where the parents of my friend Chris have a cabin up in the mountains. I headed out in the morning through the wine vineyards of Napa Valley. Its always so nice to ride in the mornings when there is no traffic and you can just cruise along with little hassle. Eventually I left the wine country for the open flat central California valley. I had such a wicked crosswind that I actually had to lean the bike a good 5-10 degrees to the side just to stay in a straight line. A few strong gusts of wind almost blew me into oncoming traffic, not cool. Now I know why they have so many of those windmill electric farms out there.

The winds died down as I made it into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It was really surprising just how heavy the traffic was even out in the middle of nowhere. I was able to maintain a reasonable pace, but with so many cars traveling in both directions it made it difficult to make any real good time. There are too many damn people in California. Finally I made my way into Groveland and up to my friends cabin. Hard to call it a cabin really, that place is nicer than my house. Anyway, after three days of riding I was ready to crash on the couch and just do some nothing for an afternoon.

After a nap and some lunch I jumped back on the bike and rode the 30 miles up to the entrance to Yosemite. This was easily the best riding of the day as there was very little traffic and it was all high speed sweeping turns through the mountains. At one point I was haulin ass through a right hand corner when a CHP came along the road going the other direction. Fortunately for me he didn't turn around and I was able to keep on going. I made it up to the entrance, took a couple pictures and headed back for the night.

Day Three Route

Pictures