March '98 Tour Report Addendum

After the tour and meeting (not necessarily in that order!), I rode home from Lake Kaweah to Sunnyvale. "No problem," I bragged to the doubters, "I have lots of endurance." In fact, I felt pretty smug for not camping in the rain, cold and wind.

But the joke was on me. The 200-mile ride home from southeast of Fresno was among the worst I've ever had. It was very cold, and my already-low tolerance for cold had been drained during the day. On Hwy. 99, I was pelted with hard cold rain and wind so strong I was nervous about getting blown over if I had to stop. I stopped (once) in Madera for gas, where the little lever on the gas pump handle got stuck in the position to keep the gas pump pumping. I yanked the nozzle out of my gas tank just before it overflowed and directed the gushing gas to the ground seemingly for minutes as I lamely fumbled to unlatch the lever. Great.

On Hwy. 152, I was encouraged by a dry road, but then was suddenly slammed with more wind and hail-like rain. Sky-wide lightening and earlier talk of a tornado added to my paranoia. To make matters worse, it seemed my clutch was freezing up: it took a huge effort from my entire arm to pull the clutch lever in. Still, experience counts: I knew that a good attitude was important, and was the only thing I could change right now, so I kept my spirits up and reduced fear and fatigue by talking aloud and singing in my helmet.

Pacheco Pass was the worst. Out of nowhere, the wind and precipitation picked up again, and this time, the rain looked oddly heavy. "This is NOT snow!" I said, until I was close to the summit and could not deny the slushy accumulation. Then started a steady stream of oncoming headlights, creating glare on my faceshield and forcing me to flip it open to see at crucial moments, taking on the full force of the weather on my face. The road markings were invisible under the slush. Then some stupid tailgater decided I should be its pilot vehicle, and stuck to my rear until finally the 'gater picked up on another car, brakes constantly on and off as it maintained its 10-foot following distance.

After Pacheco Pass, the homestretch on Hwy. 101 was dotted with sudden wind and rain, but was mostly just really really cold. I was in good spirits when I rolled into my garage, but relieved the ride was over because now it was almost impossible to shift gears. Thinking my clutch was shot, I discovered that the real problem was that my left hand had lost all strength: I couldn't click off my electric vest switch, or turn the fuel petcock lever!! Frozen fingers are the usual indicator for cold hands, but I'd been keeping my fingertips warm on the cylinders, and didn't detect how much control I'd lost in my wrist and grip. Happily, my right hand was good enough to get me into a hot bath, where full dexterity was eventually restored to both hands.

After thawing, I curled up with a huge mug of hot chocolate and watched the news, all about the weird harsh weather. No kidding! I can't imagine that camping was much fun that night for the folks who stayed in Lake Kaweah that stormy night. Well, it made for a beautiful tour on Saturday, and no doubt a fabulous ride home the next day - the weather was *great* on Sunday!

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