Both Jack and I woke up with our fillings still rattling in our teeth from yesterday’s NorthStar adventure. Jack’s knee is still a little bothersome too. He was gimping around this morning as we got breakfast. I was supposed do a fartlek workout this morning, but decided to give my legs a little bit of a break. The wind picked up early. At 11:00 PM last night, it was still howling. This morning at 7:00o am there were whitecaps. I woke up and reserved a campsite at Zion National Park, which took some doing, given our cell reception up here.
After breakfast, we decided not to ride. Take it easy, go for a hike in the park and then drive down to Carmel. We went to town to get a rake and a broom for the cabin. We also stopped at Pacos. We asked them if we were the only hardtails at NorthStar yesterday. The salesman reflected and said, “Yeah, probably.” The vast majority of their sales are full suspension. After riding trails around there, I can totally see why.
After that, we drove to the museum at the park. We walked along the path by the river and noted the whitecaps on the lake. Jack saw some. holders and considered the problems they offered. We looked out at the summit and took some pictures. The hike back was along the interior of the park. We went through the campground, and continued further. Turns out there are multiple campsites that either I didn’t know or didn’t remember. Looks like a fun place to stay … if you didn’t have a nice cabin to stay in. I did point point out to Jack that originally I thought about camping on our adventure. Given the wind, however, I was glad to have a cabin last night.
We ended up at the site of the Murphy cabin with the list of survivors and those who parished. Interestingly, the site is also a burial ground as well, although that shouldn’t have been surprising. We thought about our first day’s ride at Alder Creek, where the Donners camped. Interesting that they stayed so far away from the Murphys and the Reeds. We arrived at the Monument and saw the plaque that Dad always thought was a bit weird. Jack noticed that there almost seemed to be more punctuation than words. He’s got a point. Still the base of the monument 22 feet in the air, is really tall. That’s a lot of snow. Definitely an El Nino season.
After getting back to the car, we couldn’t help but stop at Little Truckee Creamery one last time. Jack ended our stay with a triple, and I had my ususual double. We went back to the cabin, cleaned up, packed up, and headed out to Carmel, listening to podcasts most of the way. We got back in time for dinner. It was wonderful to see Sarah, the ninth best versatility rider in the whole flippin’ world. The trip was a good one, although there were a couple of blips along the way. Hope to keep riding throughout the summer.
Pushing hard today ... 