Thursday, July 22
“We’ve been on the run, driving in the sun, looking out for #1, California here we come, right back where we started from”
The day into Tahoe was probably the most exciting days of the trip thus far. Not only were we biking out of the desert and into the beautiful green mountains surrounding Lake Tahoe, but we were about to cross into the last state of our journey: CALIFORNIA! The morning wake up music consisted of “Californiacation” and “Dani California” by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, the opening song to the OC, “California Love” by Tupac and my personal favorite “Hotel California” by the Eagles.
It was a very hot morning but Pooja and Erica were awesome and managed to get us free Slurpies from 7-eleven at one of our water stops in Carson City. I was on team California that morning and we were determined to get our hands on a juicy In and Out burger so we decided to take a little detour from the 2nd water stop and went half a mile out of the way just to satisfy our craving. It was well worth it!!!! Dan, Charlie, Terence and I were very happy and immediately after our lunch started our first and only climb of the day. On the way up we spotted the first ever “Bear Crossing” sign of the day. That definitely made me pedal a little faster up that mountain!
The whole team waited at the top of Spooner Summit until everyone completed the climb because we all wanted to reach the California state sign at relatively the same time. The descent into Tahoe was absolutely breathtaking. Right as we turned the corner we saw nothing but blue and green. It was unbelievable. It was perhaps one of the most beautiful descents of the trip. Finally we reached the California-Nevada state line… I’m not going to lie, it was a bit anti-climactic… and small… but we were all filled with excitement either way. We took various team photos and hung out at a busy intersection for about half an hour.
That night and the next night we stayed at a lovely church across the street from restaurants and an art fair in the city of South Lake Tahoe. Everyone enjoyed their day off by going to the beach, shopping, watching movies and of course… eating!
-Adali Martinez
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