Name F S S M T W T F Totals Pam Downs 62 60 - 60 40 72 - - 294 Don Axtell - - - 60 60 72 34 - 226 LeRoy Rodriguez - - - 60 60 72 - - 192 Roger Erickson - - - 40 40 - - - 80 Dennis Uyeno - - - - - - - 24 24 John Mazzella - - - - - - - 24 24 Irene Johnson - - - - 20 - - - 20 Diana Axtell - - - - - - 5 - 5 Jerry Downing - - - - - - - - 0 Jennie Phillips - - - - - - - - 0 Karl Schilling - - - - - - - - 0 Paul Vlasveld - - - - - - - - 0
LeRoy arrived about 1 PM, followed shortly by Pam. Pam was just stopping by with her friend, Phil, as they had gone hiking that morning up behind Grover Hot Springs. Pam then left to get her car, and LeRoy began to set up his tent.
A few hours later, I was wandering around the campground and noticed that our favorite campsite was now empty. We decided to grab it quick, no need to wait for tomorrow. I brought my big tent over and began to set it up. This time I took the extra effort to do some grading of the dirt under the tent, to keep any rain water from going underneath. Once this was finished, LeRoy and I slowly moved stuff over from the other campsite. Pam showed up after our move, so she did not end up having to set up twice.
This one campsite would be enough for the group for the first few days. Another campsite would be needed later on, but that could wait till later. My big tent was on one tent pad, for me and Diana. Both Pam's and LeRoy's tents could fit on the other tent pad. It seemed like most of the afternoon was spent in setting up camp. It was tiring work, hauling stuff down from the car (and moving campsites), so I was glad that this wasn't supposed to be a ride day.
After dinner, we went on our traditional hike up the hill, and signed in at the registry box, before sitting down to enjoy the view. That evening we had our traditional campfire. The hike ended up being only one of two for the week, but the campfire was held every evening.
The ride for today was to go up and over Ebbetts Pass, then up and over Pacific Grade Summit. The plan was to go find Bill Merrin's memorial marker somewhere between Mosquito Lake and Bear Valley. A year ago, Pam had gone with Marianne Merrin to put a memorial at the location of Bill's death. Bill had died a few years ago, when he had a heart attack while out riding his bike. He was found still sitting on his bike, leaning on the hillside.
We drove to Markleeville to start the ride from there. After first visiting the "secret" restrooms, we were off. These are secret because it is a good place to stop during the Death Ride, so long as not too many people find out about them.
Climbing Ebbetts Pass seemed pretty easy, not quite as I remembered. I think it might have something to do with not having already done two Monitor Passes yet. Even what I remembered as being some of the steep sections were not bad at all.
We checked out some of the POIs (Point Of Interests) along the way. I showed Pam where the lower reststop would be. We then checked out what seemed to be a small cemetery. It had a fence around it, but there were no headstones to mark what seemed to be 4 graves. Then there was the stone wall which is the only thing left from the town of Silver City, which used to be bigger than Markleeville. Then we found the first of the many false summits. Still 3 miles more to the real top.
We finally got up to Kinney Reservoir, where we stopped for a sandwich. I couldn't resist, so I took a jump into the water. I was quickly right back out again, which was understandable since there was still some ice covering the surface of the lake.
We were hanging out for awhile, then we saw some cyclists coming on up the hill. Pam recognized them as being from a group of about 12 riders from Oregon who were touring around for this week before the Death Ride. Pam had seen them in Virginia City a few days ago. They said that they stayed the night at Topaz Lake, and had come up over Monitor Pass this morning, and were now going over Ebbetts Pass and on down Hwy 4 to Murphys, then south to spend the night in Sonora. That seemed like a long day to me.
From the reservoir, it was only a mile more to Ebbetts Pass, and this still seemed pretty easy. Then it was down the other side to Hermits Valley and beyond. Climbing the other side up to Pacific Grade Summit still didn't seem too hard. Then I remembered that the last time that I did this was when I bungeed Lucie up the hill.
Then it was past Mosquito lake at the summit and on down the other side. We went a bit slowly, as we were now trying to spot the marker. Pam said that it was near a bridge. A few miles down and we found a bridge. Pam said it was near here somewhere. Then I managed to see a piece of wood in the ditch. I told Pam that I had found it. The wood turned out to be a small wooden cross, broken in two, with "Bill Merrin" written on it.
We were able to "repair" the cross with the use of a rubber strap from my bike. Then we decided that it would be best to put the marker higher up on the hill, so that it would be safe from snowplows and graders. Pam and I collected a few rocks and stacked them up to properly support the mended cross. This marker is located just 0.1 miles from the bridge, going towards Mosquito Lake, and is just a few yards past the point where the road narrows and the yellow line ends. There is a large dead tree directly behind the marker.
With our work now done, we had some lunch before heading back towards Markleeville. I suggested that the creek in Hermit Valley, just at the foot of the downhill, might make a good spot to jump in the water. We agreed to regroup there.
At the creek, we found it to be a good spot, so Pam and I were in the water pretty quick. No having to ask us twice. On a hot day, with a hot climb ahead of us, in the water is such a nice place to be. LeRoy didn't jump in with us, but hung out until we were again ready to roll. Creek jumping would just about be a daily occurance for us.
We found a bag of litter left over from someone's picnic lunch, so I decided to bring it along and dispose of it when I had the chance. I couldn't find a trash bin in the Hermit Valley campgrounds so I decided to haul it on up the hill with me. Then along the way, whenever I saw a tin can or other trash, I would stop and add it to my load. This kept me busy enough so that Pam was able to beat me to the top of Ebbetts Pass. I had managed to collect about 15-20 pieces of trash along the climb, so that now the backside of Ebbetts pass was litter free.
After the downhill, while we were cruising along the flats heading towards Markleeville, Pam was very much energized. She had just finished two of the passes, still felt great, and had come to realize, that "Yes, I could do this!". Completing the Death Ride was finally starting to become a reality. Pam, LeRoy, and I then all practiced doing our sprints for any sign that came along. Totals for today were 60 miles with 6800 ft of climbing.
After some ice cream in Markleeville, we were off to camp, now driving the car. It started to look as if it might rain, but that we might be able to get into camp in time. We made it back, with a few minutes to spare. Just enough time to make everything waterproofed. I put my beach umbrella up over the stove. I made sure that my tent was all zipped up.
Pam was going off to North Tahoe for the night, to visit an old friend, and to ride with him the next day. So Pam just loaded up her bike, a change of clothes, and she was off.
Then the rain started. Not very hard, but just enough to get things wet. It lasted for about an hour, during which time we cooked up some dinner. It was just the two of us for now.
After dinner, I headed off to South Tahoe, where I was scheduled to pick up Diana. Diana flew into Reno that morning, and then got herself over to Harrah's casino in Tahoe. Luckily, when I entered the casino, Diana was just about the first person that I came across, so I didn't waste any time trying to find her.
Back in camp, the rain was now all gone. Irene Johnson had arrived while I was off collecting Diana. We ended the evening with our usual campfire.
The evening before, I had thought up the idea of putting a marker for Pam at the location of her accident. Since LeRoy and I were now going to be driving over Monitor Pass, this would be the perfect opportunity. Using a board from the firewood, I took some charcoal and used it to make a sign saying "The Bull Lady". Together LeRoy and I did the best that we could to figure out just exactly where Pam had encountered the bull. At this spot we placed the sign, facing the uphill riders. We stacked a few rocks around it to hold the board. We would then keep this a secret from Pam, since we were scheduled to be climbing this side of Monitor the next day.
The Sonora Pass ride was to start from Walker, along Hwy 395, at elevation 5400 ft. We found a good place to start at the town park. The route then took us for 15 miles south along the Walker River, slowly climbing to 6900 ft. After the 15 miles, we came to the start of Hwy 108. From here it would be another 14.5 miles to the summit of Sonora Pass.
After a few more miles, I figured that it was time to find some place to stop and eat, preferably in the shade, as it was now a bit warm. There were no trees in this stretch, so we finally stopped at an old building that had a shady front porch. We stopped to eat. While eating, I figured out that we were at the entrance to the Marine Corps Training Center that I heard was out this way. Every so often, a vehicle would drive by with a soldier driving.
A guy came along, dressed only in camouflage shorts and running shoes, jogging with his small dog, Fluffy. He called out "Great day to be out biking." as he went on by. Soon after, we finished eating and thought that maybe we should try to find some water at the base before we headed up to Sonora Pass. We were going to pass by this jogger again so we figured that we would just ask him. The jogger guy then told us "Go to the barracks and tell them that the CO said it was ok to give us some water." It turned out that this jogger guy was the Commanding Officer of the center.
After we got some water we headed on up the road. The road got steep in a few places, but with a triple chain-ring it wasn't too bad. We passed by this campground and it looked like the marines were having a big barbeque. There were many of them all lined up to get lunch. Then I looked around a bit and found that just about every shady spot under the trees was filled with marines. Their camouflage uniforms really work, as we could hardly see them.
After the marines barbeque, the road took a few switchbacks and quickly climbed up out of the valley and closer to the high country. The section of road that was advertised as being 26% grade turned out to be a double-switchback much like the one on Quimby. But I don't know where they got 26% from, as it seemed much less. It wasn't too bad. But I did stop 3 different times to dip my T-shirt in the creek and then put it on again. The climb would have been very warm otherwise.
A final half mile sprint (at 4 mph) brought me and LeRoy to the summit at 9624 ft. Great views down from where we had just come, but not much looking out towards the west. We hung out at the top for over a half hour, chatting with other people who happened by.
On the way up LeRoy had complained about all of the downhills, which meant more uphills, so I decided to estimate how much extra climbing that we had to do, as my original estimate for this ride just used the elevations at each end. It turned out that the 15 miles from Walker to the junction was pretty much all uphill, but that Hwy 108 from the junction to Sonora Pass had an extra 720 ft of ups and downs in each direction. Totals for the trip were 58.5 miles with 5670 ft of climbing.
We figured that we would pass Pam's friends house just to say hi, since it was on the way. We got to the house and found the sprinklers to be on, the front door open, her friend's purse on the table, but nobody to be found. We hung out for awhile, taking turns in the restroom, getting water and cookies, but still no friend. Then we were off again. Heading out, Pam passed us by the elemantary school and there we happened to find Pam's friend, who had walked her son to school, and was still chit-chatting with her neighbors. This was the small-town life. No worries here. After finally getting to say Hi, we headed out.
After Minden, at mile 20, we had another 20 miles to go down Hwy 395, which mostly seemed to be uphill. LeRoy went off the front, and we didn't see him at the lunch stop at Topaz Lake. Finally, just as we were ready to leave, LeRoy arrived. Seems that he had gone to check out the marina at the lake. So we were now all together again.
A few miles more on Hwy 395, then we started up the backside of Monitor Pass. I had to pee but decided to hold it for a few more minutes, as we were going to get to Pam's new memorial. When I knew that it was just up around the next corner, I excused myself and stopped at a nearby tree. When I finally caught up, Pam and LeRoy had just reached the spot. Pam had gone by and LeRoy had to call Pam back to check it out. We decided that the memorial needed the red bandana added to it, as I had been carrying it around with me for the last year, and it needed retiring. It turned out that the red bandana was the first thing that people would notice during the Death Ride, as the memorial was still in the shade at that time of the morning. Without the bandana, people would not have noticed it.
Then it was back to the work of climbing the hill. It was warm, so at the halfway switchback we stopped to get our clothes wet in the small stream. This felt great. Then finally on to the top. I timed Pam without first telling her, and she did 108 minutes, which turned out to be 5 minutes over her schedule, but this included both of the stops that we made. So really, Pam was ahead of her schedule for the Death Ride. This was good.
Pam's only worry now was the fact that she seemed to have caught a cold and was a bit stuffed up today and not feeling all too well. But even so, she managed to ride ok. Pam's plan now was to take it very easy these next few days and to try to get over this cold in time for the Death Ride.
After stopping for ice cream in Markleeville, it was back up the hill to Turtle Rock. I suggested that they could just ride their bikes back to camp, as they could get some extra miles that way. So I followed them down in my car. I pretended that I was once again crewing for RAAM and so was following my rider, Pam. I told Pam that all it took to be a RAAM rider was the desire. Totals for the day were 72 miles with 5700 ft of climbing.
I left Diana to go off to Tahoe, while I decided to ride my bike up to Carson Pass. The road seemed very easy, and I never needed my small chain-ring. But I figured that it would probably feel steeper during the Death Ride. It was good to do this hill now, as some of the stretches are very long, so it was good to refresh my memory as to how far it was to the top.
Coming back down the hill, I decided to get used to the high-speed descents. I felt very comfortable up to 35 mph, then got more nervous the higher I went. Coming into Woodfords I hit a max speed of 52 mph, but I didn't like going that fast at all. My biggest concern was the crosswinds. Then coming down the hill into camp, I again tried for my max speed, this time getting 50.5 mph. I felt fine this time, maybe because there was no crosswind. Totals for the day were 34 miles with 2500 ft of climbing.
I was back in camp before lunch time, which was good as Pam was expecting visitors. They came right on time. Marianne Merrin came and brought along Al and Elfie Allen. They were all long time members of ACTC. We had a good lunch. We talked of old times. They had done the Death Ride Campout on their own back before I was doing mine.
We went to pick up our registration in the afternoon. I bought some of last year's water bottles for $2 each. Pam again told her Bull Lady story to see what she could get. This time it was only good for one free $2 bottle. I thought that she should hold out for a free jersey.
Jennie and Karl joined the campout in the late afternoon. Brian Bernhardt stopped by for a few hours to visit. He was going skiing at Kirkwood while Judy was on a bike tour in Colorado. Paul, like always, arrived very late. Paul found the right campsite this time, arriving at 11:15 PM, and slept in his sleeping bag on top of one of the picnic tables. Paul said that he was awakened at 11:30 by a bear sniffing at him. The bear went away, but I don't know how much sleep Paul got after that.
I was 5 minutes behind my schedule when starting out, but I wasn't worried. I'd make that up someplace. It seemed like a strong headwind going out towards the Monitor/ Ebbetts junction, but I was cruising along ok. On the climb up the front side of Monitor I usually don't get passed by hardly anyone, but this day there seemed to be quite a few riders that passed me by. I felt that I was riding fine though, so I just kept to my own pace, and I ended up getting my normal time, so it wasn't that I was going slow.
Going over a cattle guard near the top showed me that the slow leak in my front tire was going to be a problem, so I decided to stop and change it. I didn't consider this time to be wasted, though, as I managed to eat 1.5 PBJ sandwiches here.
I knew that I was now a bit behind schedule, so I was looking for Pam coming back up the back of Monitor. My original schedule had me catching her at the bottom, but I finally saw Pam just over 2 miles up from the bottom. That was just past where her marker was located. Pam was looking happy and energetic so far. This was good. Later Pam told me that she was in tears while riding down the backside of Monitor. The remembrance of hitting the bull was just too much. She was glad that she met LeRoy at the bottom and could get a big hug from him.
At the bottom of the backside, I just turned and started back up. I was carrying all of my own food, so it was my strategy to save time by skipping most of the reststops. Since Pam now had over a 2 mile headstart on me, I didn't think that I could catch up with her, but I'd give it a try. I felt good all of the way up, and did a reasonable pace, but never did see Pam. As long as she was still ahead of me, then she must be doing good, and would be maybe 20 minutes ahead of the schedule that I worked up for her.
I got water first at the rolling reststop half way up the backside of Monitor. You give them your waterbottle. They run up ahead and fill it up while you keep riding. Then they give it back to you. My next waterstop was half way down the front side of Monitor. I stop in here because all of the crowd is gone by this time.
By the time that I started on Ebbetts I was back on my own schedule. Not too far down the road, I finally had Pam in sight ahead of me. I had the urge to just hang back and ride with Pam, but she told me to go ahead and ride my own ride. So off I went. Since Pam was ahead of her schedule, I might have been trying a bit harder to get ahead of my schedule.
At the top of Ebbetts, I stopped long enough to eat a PBJ sandwich, then off I went down the backside. At the bottom I again just turned and started back up. I saw Pam coming down hill about 4 miles from the top, instead of near the top, so she was still way ahead of her schedule and riding strong. I was riding my schedule and picking up time by cutting my reststops short. Once again at the top of Ebbetts, I was now out of water, but decided to just ride on down to the campground at the 7000 ft sign and eat and get water there.
I felt pretty good rolling back into Markleeville. But I had skipped my real lunch break and so I decided that I needed one more stop to eat my last PBJ sandwich and to fill up on water. After my stop in Markleeville, I was still 20 minutes ahead of my schedule.
Over the hill past Turtle Rock then down to Woodfords. I wasn't riding strong, but I was riding steady. On the climb up Woodfords canyon, I started to feel tired. It was warm, and the too-short restbreaks might have been catching up with me. I found a close-by stream and so I stopped to dip my T-shirt in the water. I also ate my last food, a 3 muskateers bar. I was only stopped for 3 minutes and I think that I made up this time afterwards as I was able to ride a bit better.
Once at the Hope Valley reststop, I was again on the edge of being too-tired, so I knew that I had to stop and eat alot of food. Since I was now out of my own food (5.5 PBJs and 2 3-muskateers), I had to go with the reststop food. I got a waterbottle full of Cytomax and a pile of cookies. I sat down and forced myself to eat. Another rider sitting near me was just sitting there, not eating. I knew that I had to eat, so I ate. 17 minutes later I was on the road again. Not too long of a reststop.
I had eatten just enough food to get me up to the top of Carson Pass, as I was again almost too-tired by this time. So again, I found lots of food and made sure that I forced it down. I was 20 minutes this time. Still not too bad, as my schedule allowed for a 15 minute break.
Now that my 5 passes were over, it was time to go find Pam, as I had said that I would do the last pass with her. Our schedules had me getting all of the way back down to Hope Valley before I met her, but I figured that I might see her much sooner if she was still ahead of schedule. And she was. I was only about half way down when I saw Pam riding up. She was a bit more tired now, but then so was everybody else. Pam was still doing ok.
Together we rode back up to Carson Pass, getting there about an hour after I first got there and getting there almost an hour before Pam's schedule. Pam was again overcome with tears now that she had finished her 5 passes. She was glad that I was there to give her a hug this time, just as LeRoy was there at the bottom of Monitor. This had been a year full of training just to complete this Death Ride, and now it was becoming a reality.
Pam and I both needed the reststop food now. The hill climbing was finally over. Now we could just take our time. 28 minutes later, we began our descent. We rode conservatively back down the hill. No risk-taking here. My max speed all day long was just 42 mph, and that was on Monitor.
When I had first gotten up to Carson Pass, the riders were still relatively spread out. When Pam and I next got to Carson Pass, the riders were alot thicker. Now that we were going back down, and the cutoff-time had just passed, we noticed that the riders were thicker than ever. I think that a good half of the 5-pass riders were still behind Pam and I.
Back at Turtle Rock, we got our 5-pass pins and then signed the poster. They were counting the number of riders and we were #s 558 and 559. So there must have been over a 1000 people who managed to complete all 5 passes.
Below is a Table that compares the actuals with the predictions for both Pam and I. My plan was to ride from and to camp plus do Carson Pass twice, for 150 miles. My 2nd Carson pass got shortened by about 9 miles, and then Pam gave me a ride down the hill into camp, so I ended up with fewer miles. Pam just stuck to the normal route, so her milage was about the same as her prediction, which did not agree with the advertised distance of 129 miles. Both of our speeds were slightly faster than predicted, which is good. We both had good performances. My reststops ended up being a little longer, while Pam's reststops were much shorter. This is because Pam was doing much of her eating while riding, while I was doing all of my eating while stopped.
Don Axtell Pam Downs
Predict Actual Predict Actual
Total Miles 150.0 137.5 124.6 124.0
Total Climbing 17656 16830 15133 15133
Average Speed 12.59 13.18 10.62 10.90
Hilly Ratio 118 122 121 122
Travel Time 715 626 704 682
Rest Time 120 129 105 78
Total Time 835 755 809 760
Ride Factor 0.856 0.829 0.870 0.897
Average Pace MB MB+ M M+
All of the people in our camp completed the Death Ride, doing all of the passes
that they had planned on doing. I was also able to find some other ACTC people out
on the course. Here is a list of people and the number of passes that they did.
Don Axtell 6 Pam Downs 5 LeRoy Rodriguez 5 Dennis Uyeno 5 John Mazzella 3 Jennie Phillips 5 Karl Schilling 5 Paul Vlasveld 5 Roger Erickson 3 Jerry Downing 5 Jim Molinari 5 Ken Kennedy 5 John Blaine 4 Jim Baker Guy Neenan 5 David from Concord 5 Will Whitworth 5 Craig Jeung 5 Rick Collins 5
Then we all said our goodbyes and went in our separate directions. I had a very good week, but now it was time to go. I knew that it would be a very tough adjustment for me to make this next week - going to work 5 days in a row. But I do have the memories.