Today, April 6th, there was a carrot and stick for the ride. The carrot was tonight we sleep in a motel in Persidio. The stick, to get there the road goes up that 15% climb I mentioned yesterday. I opted to ride in the van with Evan over that 15% climb to a rest stop about 27.1 miles into the ride. The van ride after Lajita was steep even in the van with the trailer. The total route was 57.5 miles. I rode 30.46 miles from the place Evan stopped. He was going to wait there to give water and supplies to the rest of the group. On the way to there we stopped at a store in Lajita where the mayor, a goat, watched everyone come by.

For some reason my GoPro Hero 9 did not record audio for the video so my usual banter is not there.

Traffic was light as I rode to Persidio over a some climbs but nothing approaching that 15% one. I stopped at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Redmond for lunch and rest. I think that was a little more than 14 miles leaving about 16 miles to the carrot, 3 Palms Motel. The Persidio city marker arrived but it was still a couple of miles before I started seeing buildings. Once in the town I made several turns to get to 3 Palms. Jeff and Mitch were there sitting under the carport with Evan. The van and trailer were parked across the from there. I cooled down for awhile and then went to my room (Jeff was my roommate but had not arrived yet), hauled my 2 bags upstairs, and took a shower.

We all gathered around 6 PM to go eat at the Oasis Restaurant next door to the motel. It was nice to not have camp cooking. Or setup my tent. The mattress looked and felt much softer than the rocks at Rancho Topanga. After a long dinner we all went back to the motel to sleep.