South Lake Tahoe, CA -> Placerville, CA — 88.8 miles, 6,731 ft
Welcome to my last blog! We got an early-ish start to this morning (by Spokes ’25 standards) since Dan and Natasha were also headed out of town for a trip. This proved to be a great decision as we had a longer ride for today — almost 90 miles with 6,700 feet of elevation gain. But today would also be an excitingly speedy day, finally leaving the higher-elevation southwest for good with 11,000 feet of descent on the day as well.
The Spokies started the day together as we rode on this delightful trail surrounded by tall evergreens. What a terrific greeting for our first California ride! It was so refreshing having my line of sight interrupted by trees and a curving roads once again. After a full summer of biking, fresh of yesterday’s rest day, the legs felt fresh. To use a Joseph-ism, we were ZOOMING.
Joseph had let us know that after packing up the car (which is always a bit slower after a rest day) he was going to go shopping in South Lake Tahoe and he might miss rest stop 1. We reached rest stop 1 and everyone else had forged on, so after a quick bathroom break, Greta, Sarah, and I continued up the first climb of the day.
When we got to rest stop 2, Joseph still wasn’t there to meet us. Ruth and Ramona had already moved on. Joseph was only a few minutes away from the rest stop, so the rest of us decided to wait for him and admire the pretty lake and skip stones.
Joseph made up for his lateness with the best possible excuse one might have for such a grave transgression. He had set his mind on one-upping Ruth’s best-driver-ever submission on day 70 with one of his own. He opened the minivan door to reveal bag upon bag of groceries. There were the all the essentials and classic Spokes hits we’d requested for food, of course. Then, fresh apples, oranges, peaches, and a whole watermelon he was planning to cut up for us at the next rest stop. For our delicacies, we had a whole pack of Oreos and a family size Blue Machine Naked smoothie. AND, there was a “mystery surprise” that would be revealed later. I love mystery surprises.
Let me tell ya, the Blue Machine smoothie was simply mindblowing. Transcendental. (This is one of my three very-late blogs that I’m filling in retroactively and I still remember how great that smoothie felt going down the hatch). We were like hyenas. People were greedy. Okay, I was greedy. And Ishaq. When Joseph came back to show off the next bag of groceries, half the smoothie was already gone.
The peaches were so juicy and sweet as well. There were only a few peaches, so those who wanted peaches shared. We left one for Ruth and Ramona to share at rest stop 3. After the feasting frenzy had died down, Tian was still holding that last peach. “Guys… what if I just ate the peach.”
“No, Tian, we need to save it for Ruth and Ramona,” the virtuous crowd protested.
“I’ll share it with you Tian!” Greta piped in evilly.
Despite the virtuous crowd™ restating our position that this was a terrible, mean, no-good, poo-poo thing to do, Tian bit into the peach. Greta and Tian shared the peach. They ate the last peach! The peach meant for Ruth and Ramona! Shame them!!!
We all agreed we should simply omit these items from the shopping haul at rest stop 3 and Ruth and Ramona would never have to know. (The rest of us except for Tian had been complicit in the great Blue Machine disappearing act, so it was kind of a glass house type of situation). Sorry Ruth and Ramona. And sorry you’re finding out this way. You snooze bike faster you lose 🤷♂️
When I rolled in to rest stop 3, a feast was spread out on the picnic table we’d claimed. Fresh watermelon slices and my packed sandwiches awaited. Ruth and Ramona went for a swim in the lake. Greta and I went for a swim as well but the water was freezing so we dipped our toes and skipped some rocks. At this point I was already ready to crown Joseph best driver ever but we still had three more rest stops to go…
By now you’ve probably noticed a few themes when it comes to the biking groups. Ruth and Ramona — the dynamic duo. Ishaq and Tian, frequently lone warriors but a ride with them is never a dull one. Greta and I have become the founders of what we have informally been calling the “dilly dally club.” As suggested by the name, the dilly dally club excels at dilly dallying. We are extremely distractable, make frequent stops, are chatty cathys, will wait for anyone (or use that as an excuse to dilly dally), and are always the last to leave the rest stops. The dilly dally club doesn’t have an official motto, but if it did, it would probably be something like “sure I’m ready to leave, just one more thing.” Dilly dally club membership varies day-to-day, but you can bet your bottom dollar either Greta or I are in it on any given day (usually both if neither of us are driving).
So, Greta and I left rest stop 3 last and took on the last major climb of the day. As we neared the top, we suddenly ran into a long, backed-up line of traffic in our direction. We passed these cars on the shoulder until we reached the top and found out the cause for this traffic. A short stretch of highway was closed off for transporting logs (?) and only one lane was available. A flagger was holding up our side for the time being. Greta and I joined the other Spokies who had been waiting for much longer than we had and dismayed to see our dilly dallying rewarded. The dilly dally club strikes again!
After a short wait (for the dilly dally club, I think Ishaq waited for like 20 minutes), our side got the go-ahead, and we kicked off the second half of the ride together, a descent that would take us from 8,000 feet down to 2,000. Sarah slowed down abruptly at one point, so those of us behind her (Ruth, Ramona, Greta, and I) who passed her while descending waited for her at a turnout. Unfortunately, a bug had flown into Sarah’s eye and she had pulled over and tried to rinse it out. Her eye was still bothering her, so Sarah hopped in the car to try and get some eye relief until it was safe for her to bike again. Ruth and Ramona, finally relegated to the back of the pack after their blistering start to the day, decided to join the dilly dally club.
At rest stop 4, Joseph unveiled one of his surprises for the day (but not his last): ice cream! We busted out the spoons and bowls and all helped ourselves. Many of us topped our ice creams with Oreo chunks. Greta mashed her chunks up very fine and stirred it in with her ice cream until it became this spotty sludge. I thought it was gross until she explained she had basically made a cookies and cream milkshake. So of course, I had to go for thirds on the ice cream and give that a go.
The descent sped us along to rest stop 5, another lake. This one was in Sly Park Recreation Area, and had a small fee for vehicles, so we stopped at the parking lot near the entrance. Here, Joseph pulled out his final ace up his sleeve in his best driver ever campaign. He’d set out cups, orange and apple juices, and dry ice! We drank dry ice cooled juices and marveled at Joseph’s driver performance. Forget best driver day of Spokes ’25, today might have inducted Joseph into the all-time Spokes driving hall of fame.
We clarified the access road to the recreation area was free for bikers, so Greta, Ishaq, Ramona, Ruth, and I dropped down to the lake. Ruth and Ramona achieved the rare double swim day. I joined them in the lake while Greta and Ishaq napped. With the sun getting pretty low in the sky, we all agreed to skip the last rest stop and head to the final destination in Placerville.
The dilly dally club (with new members Ruth and Ramona for the day), chatted on the final biking leg for the day as the descent grade finally mellowed out. Ramona pitched us on her great idea for a piece of Spokes merch — a T-shirt designed like a band’s concert tour with “that one photo of us in front of the church” (she pulled over and showed us which one she was referencing, although we lamented that Ramona and Tian weren’t even in that photo!) and our learning festival dates on the back advertised like tour stops. We all thought it was a fantastic idea. We also discussed who would be down to get a tattoo at the end of Spokes, a la Spokes ’24, and, if so, what design we would want.
The dilly dally club arrived at the church hosting us in Placerville just as the sun was setting. Dinner preparation was in full swing. I knocked out on one of the pews (oops). As always, we ate together and reveled in each other’s company. Dinner with the Spokies — at one point new, foreign, and a given that stretched into the far, distant future — now was all too familiar, joyous, cozy, yet concluding, enumerated by the days in the week we have left, a tradition fated to come to an end. The dilly dally club rehashed our conversation from earlier and we discussed merch, tattoos, and ways we wanted to honor this journey when we ride across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and finish Spokes 2025.
This is my last blogging day. It’s been an honor recapping and reflecting on every eighth day of Spokes and sharing them here.
Signing off,
Charles
MIT Spokes 2026 
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