DAY 37

Snow Pine Lodge to Cedar Grove, Kings Canyon National Park, California

We finish the massive re-ascent of the Sierra's in 2 slow hours, bothered by face flies hovering around, but not touching, our faces (still annoying). At the top we're rewarded with our entrance into Kings Canyon, our 4th National Park so far. The hills, of course, continue. For about 10 days now, criss-crossing the Sierra's, we've either been crawling up at about 6km p/h for hours at a time, or speeding down at about 50km p/h. Nothing in between. 

So we go up some then we go down some etc etc through some pretty stunning surrounds, the highlights being the lichen covered rock walls of the canyon, and riding along the extremely inviting emerald green Kings River. There's almost no traffic here which is a big relief, so we hog the road the whole way. After setting up camp we head to a nearby waterfall to refresh. We get talking and both agree that for the first time in the trip we're fatigued and not actually looking forward to riding tomorrow, a feeling we don't like and want to avoid. So we agree to take it really slow for a few days and rest up. These mountains and heat have taken their toll. But it's hard to get too down in a place like this.