{"id":146099,"date":"2017-01-17T10:23:04","date_gmt":"2017-01-17T10:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=146099"},"modified":"2017-01-17T10:25:42","modified_gmt":"2017-01-17T10:25:42","slug":"travelling-world-hera-van-willick-code-red-sierra-nevada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/01\/17\/travelling-world-hera-van-willick-code-red-sierra-nevada\/","title":{"rendered":"Travelling the World with Hera van Willick: Code Red in the Sierra Nevada"},"content":{"rendered":"

With sunglasses on my nose, a tank top on and a clear blue sky above me I\u2019m looking out over the white mountains of the Sierra Nevada. Behind those mountains lies Yosemite National Park. All roads crossing the park are closed due to snow. \u2018Sierra Nevada\u2018 is Spanish for \u2018snow covered mountain range\u2018. I just now looked up that translation on the internet, after wondering about it for days. Funny thing is that the name \u2018Sierra Nevada\u2019 sounded very \u2018tropical\u2019 to me (probably since it\u2019s Spanish and the other \u2018Sierra Nevada\u2019s are located in Spain, Venezuela, Colombia, Chili and Argentina) but now turns out to fit exactly what I\u2019m looking at, snow covered mountains.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For New Year\u2019s I was in Nevada city (which is located in California, not in Nevada) as a guest with friends of my bike buddy Shaun. A stormy weather came in and would last for days, strong winds, lots of rain and snow. With a 2151 meter pass on the menu it was quite easy to accept their offer to stay a few extra days. While the one storm came to an end a next one was nearing. We decided to take advantage of the two days in-between the storms to cross over the pass to Truckee. The first day we biked halfway up the big pass to a place called \u2018Yuba pass\u2019. As the twilight set in we started looking for a campspot.<\/p>\n

On both sides of the road was a 1,5 meter high layer of soft snow and trees. As we were scouting a closed campground for a spot some workers advised us to get out of there as quickly as possible before \u2018the boss\u2019 would return. He would not be amused by the fact that we ignored a closed gate (it wasn\u2019t locked) and a very extensive collection of \u2018No Trespassing\u2019 signs. We slithered back up to the dark main road over an icy trail. A few kilometers further, where the old road hit the highway, we found a service and refuel station for the snowplows. I asked one of the workers if it\u2019d be okay to put our tent up on their property. Not much later we were cooking dinner on a 70cm thick layer of snow. They gave us the code for the semi-heated workshop where we could use the toilet and ordered us to go inside during the night if we felt like we were gonna freeze to death. Even though the temperature dropped to about -15C that night (so I heard afterwards) I was warm enough in my clothes in my sleeping bag.<\/p>\n

The next day we reached the town of Truckee via Donner pass, where our host welcomed us with the offer to sit out the next storm at their place. Newspapers, radio, television, \u2018the people\u2019, alarming warnings came in from every corner for the \u2018worst flooding since 60 years\u2019. People were stocking up on food in the supermarkets, schools closed and appointments were cancelled. The fear of the people was fed as to be expected from the American media. Armageddon is here!<\/p>\n