The Tour of Three Parks

Days Three and Four

Day Three:

Pine Flats Lake to Kings Canyon

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...And he said "up yours and your buddy too" then I shot his horse and my buddy

shot his cow"

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 Otto's joke (we have not been able to figure out the punch line)

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Ride Stats:

Start time 8:10 am
Distance covered 76 miles
Total ascent 10460 feet
Ride time 6 hours 45 minutes
Total time 8 hours 53 minutes
Arrival time 5:03 pm

As far as riding is concerned, a wake up call at 5:45 in the morning is not a nice thing to do to your riding buddies after 223 miles in the saddle, however, Hans doesn't seem to think so.

The stars were shining bright and the cool air hugged our tired muscles. We had a pancake and pato egg breakfast, with coffee served by Natasha, our trusted MVP. We ate using purple utensils provided by Nexium, these guys really came through for this trip.
A hot shower at the campsite was a nice perk before the hard day ahead. We worked our way out of the lake and after some navigation glitches we found all the climbing that we needed to do.

Just as our previous two days, the countryside was beautiful around every corner; we have managed to stay in the back roads thanks to our navigation crew. After our breakfast climb we started our lunch climb, a 23 mile ascent to Kings Canyon National Park. We powered our way up the climb (keep in mind that Otto is in the van, again), non stop climbing with a support vehicle feed station along the way. At Kings Canyon we had an 11 mile downhill (Otto came on this one), it made all our climbing worth it. Kings Canyon was another amazing sight, we descended into an incredibly deep canyon surrounded by big cliffs and rock formations. At the bottom, we meandered along the river and climbed for another 15 miles to our destination (Otto's fresh legs led most of this climb)

Sheep Trail camp. After setting up camp we baptized Julio in the ice cold river, what a blast. Dinner consisted of steaks, chicken, salad, avocados, corn, water and beer.
Today's campsite meeting debated about the upcoming mileage and climbs.

Today, the climbs kept coming and the pain was all around us, but we are still having a great time. We don't know how far our muscles are going to take us, but one thing is for sure, we have come very far from that chilly morning in Mammoth, any additional turn of the cranks is a victory already.

We'll be on bear watch tonight...

Day Four: 

Kings Canyon to Sequoia

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"...we did not use our radios yesterday, why would we need them today? "

Julio Jaramillo

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Ride Stats:
Start time: 8:32 am
Distance: 45 miles
Ascent: 4120 feet
Ride time: 3 hours 20 minutes
Total time: 5 hours 28 minutes
Arrival time: 2:00 pm

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This morning Hans and Andres surprised our riding partners and support team with a new morning call: "breakfast is ready". Pato eggs , banana pancakes, and coffee were served at the table when the team rolled off their warm beds. Today is considered a recovery day,our plan is to ride 45 miles and then hike around the giant sequoias next to our camp in Sequoia National Park. We rolled downhill our first 10 miles of the ride where we met Natasha, who brought us out of Kings Canyon and into Sequoia National Forest. Our climbing started once again, our legs are tired and our pace is not the same, but we keep a nice pace line most of the time. Sequoia National Forest and Otto's secret back roads were breathtaking, we were cold most of the time due to the elevation, but there were some warm spots along the way.

We climbed most our time today, we encountered some steady up hills and even some fast downhills; however our destination is at 7000 feet of elevation, which means more climbing to get there. Since we have a short day today, Otto is leading the way, into the coffee shops that is. We had some nice scenic spots along the way, and enjoyed rolling hills into our final destination, Lodgepole campground; in the heart of Sequoia National Park. After cooking a fast lunch with veggie burgers and chicken breasts, we left to do our hike to the Sequoia groves.

We visited the General Sherman and other interesting sequoias. We hiked around 3 to 4 miles in addition to our ride, it was a nice addition to the epic riding that we have been doing. After collecting some firewood off the highway we came back to camp, took a freezing bath in the river, baptized Shawn, and started grilling two Costco whole chickens, along with pasta , beans and gatorade.

We have been sharing true stories along the way and around the campfire. Each day we learn something new about each other, for example, Julio does not know how to cook but loves to clean up, Otto is a party animal and loves drafting and sleeping in, Shawn is a downhill maniac when it comes time to filming with one hand on the handlebars at 40 mph, and Hans, well you know Hans, he's the President of OTB , he has a daughter named Natasha, and he looooves sleeping in too. We think he has a pancake eating disorder.

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Day Five