We continue our detour. After a very adventurous day yesterday, where we had to cycle and walk through icy water, we would not give up and faced a forest road again. But first came repacking and bike maintenance. Little did we know, that this trip would be our longest and hardest to date.
At the elevation of around 6500 ft, we wanted to cross over to Highway 88 using forest roads again. We turned into the tree-lined path and were followed by our support vehicle. But only a few minutes after moving away from the highway, the narrow asphalt road was covered with snow - again.
With some effort, we could push the electric bikes through but the van got stuck. We spend two hours trying to dig it out before we went back to the main road to stop a car that could pull us out.
The first car that stopped, did not have the “guts” for this kind of job, but the driver left us a tow-rope to help us out. Ehm, well, thanks... A more powerful looking car passed and I waved him to stop. Just then did I see that it was the Highway Patrol. While leaving me questioning if I had done the right thing, the officer turned around and came back. He was not only ready to try but truly helpful and pulled the car out successfully.
While our support vehicle obviously decided to head back to the snow free road, Michael and me continued to cross the snow field with the pedelecs again, which was already exhausting. Once through, we soon found ourselves in front of another, much bigger snow field that covered the road as far as we could look. The e-bike tour might be called Sand to Snow but that was a little too much of the latter. Mind you, we are actually en route to desert sand of the Death Valley but not there yet.
We decided to turn around and find another way. The result: we ended up on the main road ourselves, following Highway 4 down to Avery.
At a shops parking lot we saw - you guess...
Our support crew! Andy and Sue had found a coffee shop with internet, which Micha and I used as a good excuse for a coffee break.
I felt tired and was thankful for Sue’s ambition to use my bike and ride the remaining 100 km over small asphalt country roads up and to the camp ground which was quite a bit further up the Highway. So for the first time on this trip I handed over my e-bike to someone else.
It was 6 pm already, so they rode most of the way in the dark. Andy and I set up the tents, cooked and were glad when they arrived around midnight as we were already getting worried.
Travel tip of the day:
Touring is truly a team effort at times, pedelecs or not.