Day 3: Sacramento to Auburn

Today’s Highlights:
I’ve already lost track of what day of the week it is. It’s just “day 3” of the adventure. We had a nice easy ride today. Only 50 miles, mostly flat with a good climb at the end, and beautiful comfortable weather. We left Sacramento at 7:00 and got right on the American River trail. It meandered along the river in the shade of the trees for about 25 miles, then continued above the dam and a little more open for another 10 or so. There were open fields along the way, and I saw turkey, quail, lots of birds and squirrels. One squirrel tried an attempted suicide under my front wheel. I went over it with both wheels, and the biker behind me winged it also. It kept running, and I’m sure it’s pretty sore right now. I was glad it didn’t go through my front spokes, because the outcome (for me) might have been bad.

I rode with Diego for most of the river trail. Along the way, I started chatting with a local rider to make sure we were headed in the right direction, as there were many intersections in the trail. It turned out that her husband was born in Poughkeepsie and worked for IBM there for many years before transferring to San Jose. They had visited Poughkeepsie just a few months ago and visited the Walkway, FDR, Westpoint and other sites. Small world.

We had a rest stop at Beal Point, Lake Folsom. From there, I rode alone to Auburn and enjoyed a nice hill climb. I met up with Mark at the edge of town, and we stopped for lunch there around 11am. We reached the hotel around noon. It’s nice that we have more rest time this afternoon, because tomorrow will be a killer day. The schedule calls for breakfast at 5:00 and on the bike by 6:00 am. Awesome!

Pictures Of The Day:

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Statistics:
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