Cool morning to start the day. Today I would be heading over the Sonora Pass (9500 feet)
I realised why I had been seeing so many push bike riders yesterday - today is America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride. One of the loops will do over 1500m of climbing.
I came across my first deer on the road this morning - it was well ahead of me and caused no drama.
The climb to Sonoma pass is incredibly steep and twisty and takes me back into the snowline. I could nearly have done with having the thermal liner in my pants. After the initial steepness of the climb, it evens out and becomes incredibly beautiful scenery. I wished I'd had a GoPro as it would've been the best way to capture the scenery - as it was I didn't take any photos at all today. I end up riding along some quite bare rocky mountains which transform into heavily forested terrain. At one stage I follow a river which was pretty cool.
I passed a group of 5 or 6 Austin Healy 3000's (I think?) heading in the opposite direction. I saw the same group yesterday. They would have loved the section they were on now, but I"m not sure about the steep declines they were about to face.
The weather started to improve around lunch as the terrain flattened out, and before long I'm riding through quite open and undulating country that is not too different from back home. There's not greenery at all, with all the paddocks looking like they've already been through a long summer. Suddenly I'm surrounded by huge olive and vine plantations.
By the time I arrive in Merced it's 33 degC and ends up hitting 38 before the day ends. I can't say I've gone from snow to 33 in one day, but there you go. They're expecting 40 tomorrow morning, but only 24 in Yosemite where I'm headed. As much as I didn't really enjoy the hot weather when I was fully suited up in my riding gear, it was unreal to walk outside the hotel at 9pm and for it still to be in the low 30's.
Miles today - 220 miles
Total miles - 1509 miles
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