Carson City, capital of Nevada

I suppose an explanation is in order. We stayed the night of the 13th in a quaint bed and breakfast named and run by Lucienda. A charming old woman she ushered us on our way and we began our ascent to Kirkwood. This ascent composed of a 5500 foot climb over the span of 56 miles with a 800 foot basin thrown in for good measure. But I'm getting ahead of myself. We managed to stop for lunch at Cook's Station admist the passing tractor trailers at noon and voraciously attacked what was placed in front of us. Sated, we promptly continued our ascent and managed to make it into Kirkwood, population 48, at 5:30. Kirkwood is a ski resort that is more or less uninhabited during the summer months, which we were made painfully aware of by discovering that there was noone manning front desk, just our key and a pamphlet about Kirkwood. Finding our room and the bunk beds inside we began to search for our next meal. A few phone calls later we were back on the bikes and bolting to the only restaurant open in 40 miles. After that we returned to our bunk beds and prepared for the next day. Despite being nearly abandoned there was a general store, and after a quick breakfast we scaled the Sierra Nevada and made it to Carson's Pass, elevation 8573 feet. Having conquered the mountain and appropriately feeling on top of the world we flew down the other side and were granted some of the most beautiful scenery one could imagine. The snow runoff had created newly formed streams which bubbled with noise and life. The trees were a full green, the kind only granted during the spring months. As we made our way down the mountain the air gained a palpable dryness to it and the scenery change was quite vivid. While there was still green to be found, underneath the shrubs there was a brown that slowly began to envelope the landscape. Crossing the California Nevada border and successfully knocking out one state in four days brought us into Carson City, Capitol of Nevada. Exhausted and weary, we made our way to the hotel and began to plan for the next day.