Day 5:The sweet, sweet summit

So, ill just come right out and say it: altitude sickness is a real thing. So was my bloody nose at 2 am.. It is the weirdest feeling in the world..It was hard to think straight.
We woke up and things were a tad bit better, especially since we woke up next to an incredibly gorgeous lake.  We went to a campsite to find water and met a lovely family that was camping to get away from the heatwave (they lived near the lake we found refuge the day before). They shared their water and gave us watermelon to eat as we chatted. They had a 4 year old girl and were trying to teach her how to ride bike but she was too afraid, so we showed her ours and she was pretty interested. Really cute.
Then began or climb to the summit: Carson's pass. We.had to climb top 8574 feet.the altitude made out so difficult and we were easily fatigued, and it probably didn't help that we had climbed 50 miles the day before. We stopped 5 miles in and had the most delicious meal we had in days : burger and sweet potato fries. When we asked where we should go for food, we were given three option of as general store and the Kirkwood inn that had great burgers. Once "burg.." Had left the guy's mouth our eyes got big with excitement, and it is safe to say that it may have been the quickest we pedaled all day. It beats the plain tuna... And there was ketchup, too ;). It really is the the little things in life. That being said, i can't personally say that it was the greatest meal to fuel the last part of our climb with, as it gave me quite a lovely cramp. The altitude wasn't making me feel good either. So with the nausea, the cramp, the heat, and sore legs, it was a difficult battle. but we were so close to the top and there were many times that i would look up and around and be so amazed and speechless at what i saw that i forgot everything else.... Everything was so beautiful and unlike anything i.have seen before (to be honest it was hard to remember that i was still in California)

Our descent was exhilarating. We passed though tall and almost magical looking mountains. We stopped frequently to let our breaks cool and check our tires for stones, and to regain our composure with all the tractor tailors zooming by. Our descent (and we only went.down to 4500 ft) was a pretty amazing way to see what we had just accomplished. We were spent, without a doubt, due to the altitude and the lasting fatigue from the day before. We splurged for a hotel to shower (i went though two wash cloths to get the grease and dirty off) and charge our phones. Tomorrow we will ride to the edge if the desert. One major mountain range down, one to go. One state down, many to go.