I created a new twitter account that sounds obnoxious but it’s been on my mind for a while: Carson City Bad Drivers (or https://twitter.com/CCNV_BadDrivers). Since I’ve started street biking nearly every day, I’ve been amazed at the courtesy and kindness from the folks who share the road. More the ninety percent of them will give me plenty of room and wait patiently at intersections when they often have plenty of time to pull out in front of me.

Then there is the subset of drivers who are obsessed with their cellphones, and they don’t realize their cell and hand are blocking their left-side peripheral vision. The first time I nearly got creamed was a teenager on a cell in the Fifth Street traffic Circle. This makes me a big fan of California’s hands-free laws.

There are the very few drivers, though, that should be recognized for their wholesale stupidity like the malicious idiots who attacked Jeff Moser’s bike gang last year. And the s**theads that cut folks off, tailgate, or do a whole bunch of other things that would get them a maxed-out traffic ticket and a long lecture from a judge.

So if you’re in the Carson City area and see something out there on the road that should get some special attention, drop me a line and I’ll get it up on the Twitter. Who knows? Maybe something good will come of it.

Today’s ride

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Had planned to go to Virginia City this morning but my front brake sounded really nasty and I didn’t want to do crazy descents if there was something seriously wrong (there wasn’t). Did a right turn at Deer Run Road and meandered to the Bike Habitat on Topsy Lane. Denis took the polish off the front hub with some belt sandpaper and the brakes are a lot quieter now. He patiently answered my dumb questions and showed me how to adjust the front brakes for future reference (thanks, Denis!).

I struggled through this ride from beginning to end and was stumped because there was no heat or wind, and I’d had my usual pre-ride three-pancakes-and-coffee breakfast. Solved the mystery at home: I was starved. I was fine once I got some lunch in me.

Tomorrow, The Bride and I are going to throw the bikes on the car and drive over to Bowers Mansion to do the Franktown Road Loop together. (Memo to self: wash bike clothes and stop attracting bugs.)

Ride stats:
24.16 miles
1 hour 49:16 minutes
1,313 calories

300 Bike Miles in July:

Today was my first state-law-mandated, no-work-no-pay day so I used it to take a long ride out to Davis Creek and Bowers Mansion. Gonna let the pictures speak for themselves because I’m bushed.

This is that famous hill up to Lakeview that I’m always b***hing about. Not much of a problem today (ho-hum).

Found this little knick-knack in someone’s front lawn. The rich folks in this neighborhood play with full-scale trains.

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This is going to be one of those boring posts with lots of pictures. You’ve been warned.

After I did last week’s Bowers Mansion Ride, I got to thinking about maybe doing a “Four Counties” tour. The city and county of Carson City is bordered by Washoe County to the north, Douglas to the south. and Lyon to the east. North of Lyon County is Storey County, the smallest Nevada county and home to Virginia City and the historic Comstock Lode. Since I’ve biked to three of those four destinations recently, I got Kash the Kona out of the garage and headed east to scout out the roads.

It was a pretty good ride in the beginning. I ascended the hill to Moundhouse and broke a good sweat but nothing too bad. A few minutes later, I was heading up State Route 341 to Silver City. Unlike the Bowers Mansion Ride, I stopped a lot of times to take pictures.

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One summertime resolution: Ride to Bowers Mansion and back.

Done.

Let’s set aside the usual kavetching about aches and pains and focus on the ride. With water in the Camelbak, a bellyful of pancakes, and not much in the way of planning, I headed north to Bowers Mansion. The first and largest obstacle were the Combs Canyon hills which were near impassible to me last time. Today, I didn’t stop once going up the hill. I tend to speed up to get over obstacles and predictably bonk out, but I kept to my mantra this time (”slow down”) and Combs Canyon was nearly no problem (yay).

(This is that road and the pix doesn’t do it justice. Take my word for it: it’s a b***h.)

Once over the hill, the landscape changes and the scenery becomes very green.

I turned around at Bowers Mansion, hoping the snack bar would be open so I could get some energy food but no luck. The ride back was very slow but still very scenic.

A common sight was the number of cars with empty bike racks parked on the side of the road. These folks were riding through the valley and having a great time without the hassle of hill climbing. I highly recommend this instead of doing it the hard way like I did because it’s a perfect way to see the some of the best of Nevada’s landscape.

As always, I wish I had taken more pictures. If you’d like to see Washoe Valley in all its glory, head over to Bike Carson.

All in all: a good, hard ride. Next time, I will carry more food with me and maybe start earlier to avoid the Washoe Zephyrs.

My next goal: riding from Reno to Carson (someday).

The stats:
22.34 miles
1 hour 54 minutes ride time
1,024 calories