San Diego, CA to Tijuana, Mexico
28.00 miles
2:38.16 hrs
37 max
10.6 avg
Total Mileage: 6225.9 +
There was a day when my odometer was not working correctly and a couple days where I rode around without my cateye connected for a couple miles at the end of my route. I predict that these miles add up to about 50 unaccounted miles.
With that being said I am now in the stage of COMPLETION OF TOUR DE AMERICAS! My three country tour has now come to an end. What do I do now?
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Day 84 - Thursday December 10th
Encinitas, CA to San Diego, CA
63.92 miles
5:18.53 hrs
30.6 max
12.0 avg
63.92 miles
5:18.53 hrs
30.6 max
12.0 avg
Day 81 - Saturday December 5th
Camaillo, CA to Santa Monica, CA
53.78 miles
3:44.07 hrs
35.2 max
14.3 avg
53.78 miles
3:44.07 hrs
35.2 max
14.3 avg
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Day 80 - Friday December 4th
Santa Barbara, CA to Camarillo, CA
60.31 miles
3:45.09 hrs
30.8 max
16.0 avg
Day 79 - Thursday December 3rd
Oceana, CA to Santa Barbara, CA
97.08 miles
7:10.22 hrs
37.6 max
13.5 avg
Day 77 - Tuesday Decemeber 1st
Monteray Bay, CA to Kirk Creek CG
76.13 miles
6:20.18 hrs
35.9 max
12.0 avg
Day 76 - Monday November 30th
Santa Cruz, CA to Monteray Bay, CA
60.6 miles
5:16.12 hrs
30.2 max
11.7 avg
Day 75 - Sunday November 29th
Pacifica, CA to Santa Cruz, CA
66.79 miles
5:01.26 hrs
37.7 max
13.2 avg
Leaving Pacifica was like leaving home. I have become well acquainted with my new found family and familiar to the idea of living in the San Fran area. I do have my eyes set on getting to Ventura by Thursday though to meet up with my mother who is teaching in the area this weekend.
The ride today felt long and slow. Most of the route was flat and the grades were not nearly what they were north of San Fran but todays ride was not easy. The time that I spent off the bike definitly made things hard as my legs were no longer used to cycling every day. They were used to playing wii for numerous hours!
A memorable moment of today was a red tail hawk sitting on a telephone pole and as I passed by it curlled it's body up into a torpedo shape and dove down into the garden below only to arise with a rabbit in its talons! It was quite a site to see! Other than this the ride was pretty boring.
It was great when I arrived in Santa Cruz though. I met up with two college friends and spent the rest of the day joking around and catching up.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Monday - Saturday, November 16th - 28th
I only expected to spend 3 days in the Bay area but it obviously turned out to be much longer than that! The new plan is to leave this area on Sunday November 29th and head towards San Diego with a couple days stop in LA to visit friends! But what exactly did I do in San Fran that motivated me to stay for such a long period of time, you ask? Well, let me tell you!
Monday: Walked around Downtown SF - Immediately after getting off the BART I found out that Wicked was playing at the Orpheum and I decided that it was about time that I saw the production. I was determined see it before leaving SF, no matter what! The rest of the day was spent being a tourist, watching street performers and checking out the scene at the warf. Near the end of the night I heard some live music that pulled me into a bar. I sat down and listened to Albert Niland play acoustic guitar for about an hour. After I fell in love with his music, I purchased his CD and proceeded to talk to him about my fancy of his music and my trip. He shared that he was also a cyclist and was dreaming of doing a trip like mine (but in europe) in the near future. He agreed to exchange guitar tips for cycling tips.
I couldn't leave the downtown area without riding on the historic trolley! I took the trolley back to the Bay Area Rapid Transit. It was a very cool experience and I met some great people along the way that were very interested in my story.
One thing that upset me while I was down there was the number of homeless people in San Francisco. My experience would have been a lot brighter if it was not for the mass quantities of people asking for money. It saddened my heart to see them there in such 'desperate need'. It did not take long before my feelings of sadness turned into annoyance. How many times can you be asked for money or to buy a newspaper to support the homeless before you go insane... 1392 times is the answer!
Tuesday: Visited Berkeley. The school is gorgeous but the local area is thriving with homeless people still. I decided, while I was walking around the campus that I would check out the engineering department as a potential place to attend grad school. My experience was frustrating! I asked around and finally found the engineering office for graduates. I then talked to a lady about attending grad school there, just to be told that they have no information to give out about the program, they would not allow me to tour any of the facilities because all lab work is proprietary, they wouldn't introduce me to any faculty and I had to go online to get all my information about anything! Great! That is exactly what I was looking for when I decided to check out the campus in person!
That night we went to Trivia at a irish bar downtown - 2nd place, alright!
Wednesday: I was given a choice today of weather I wanted to go to Yosemite or see Wicked. I chose Yosemite! We drove the 4 hours to get there on Wednesday so that we could play around all day on Thursday. We slept in a heated tent and had a wonderful meal at the lodge (thanks Chris!)!
Thursday: Chris and I played around in Yosemite. We woke up early and hiked to Yosemite falls, Vernal falls and Nevada Falls. The views were amazing and the hikes long. I could not help myself but have a huge smile on my face all day! Unfortunately this 'play time' took quite a toll on our bodies and both of us had sore knees and legs the next few days.
Friday: Chris and I entered our names in the Wicked lottery. My name was the first one pulled, it was just meant to be! We met up with Barbara and saw Wicked. The seats were horrible. I think I had the worst seat in the whole theatre, but I moved back for the second half and it was phenomenal. I will just have to go again sometime, oh shucks (that's sarcasm for all you who don't know me well enough to understand that I will use this as an excuse to see it again)!
Saturday: Attended the Lupis Dance Benefit in downtown SF. Before the benefit we had burritos at la cumbre in the mission. Supposedly this is where the first burrito, as they are known today was made.
Sunday: Biked to Golden Gate Park and found a pickup ultimate game going on, so I joined in! It was fun to meet some locals and play a game that I have long missed since the start of my trip.
Monday: Helped Chris in the garden, Out the door, Saw 'This Is It" at a theatre downtown. The documentary of the concert was really good. If there was one thing that I wish it would have contained it would have been a dress rehearsal. Rainy
Tuesday: BIG GARDEN DAY followed by game night. I helped Chris install rock walls in her garden... the next day my upper body was a little sore and it took me a couple minutes to realize that it was due to gardening!
Wednesday: Drove down to Palo Alto to check out Stanford and visit Don and Doris (my grandmothers younger sister's house). Stanford was an amazing university. From the architecture to the landscape there was a welcoming and studious feeling about the place. At Don and Doris's house we had a lefsa making party! I rolled lefsa for the first time and it turned out that I am, in Wii terms, at a near professional level. Nobody believed that I had never done it before. Well, now that I think of it there may have been a time about 15 years ago that I may have rolled a piece or two at my uncle Mike's house in New London, WI. Who knows...
Barbara went to pick up her daughter Rachel at the airport for Thanksgiving. This made me a little nervous because I did not her to come home and feel like I had taken her family away from her so I made myself scarce for a while after she came home. I needed to see how she acted around the house before I said or did anything. In the end, everything was good and
The night ended with me reassembling my bike and replacing the chain followed by staying up till 3:30 in the morning playing Wii with Chris.
Thursday: Thanksgiving with the Lorents Family. FUN!
Friday: Updating Blog, Played a bunch of Wii, watched a movie. Just hanging out and having fun!
Saturday: Packed up all my stuff and prepared for an early morning departure. Then Chris, Barbara, Rachel and myself went to The Sound Of Music Sing Along Movie in the Castro.
Sunday: Predicted departure time is 8am
I only expected to spend 3 days in the Bay area but it obviously turned out to be much longer than that! The new plan is to leave this area on Sunday November 29th and head towards San Diego with a couple days stop in LA to visit friends! But what exactly did I do in San Fran that motivated me to stay for such a long period of time, you ask? Well, let me tell you!Monday: Walked around Downtown SF - Immediately after getting off the BART I found out that Wicked was playing at the Orpheum and I decided that it was about time that I saw the production. I was determined see it before leaving SF, no matter what! The rest of the day was spent being a tourist, watching street performers and checking out the scene at the warf. Near the end of the night I heard some live music that pulled me into a bar. I sat down and listened to Albert Niland play acoustic guitar for about an hour. After I fell in love with his music, I purchased his CD and proceeded to talk to him about my fancy of his music and my trip. He shared that he was also a cyclist and was dreaming of doing a trip like mine (but in europe) in the near future. He agreed to exchange guitar tips for cycling tips.
I couldn't leave the downtown area without riding on the historic trolley! I took the trolley back to the Bay Area Rapid Transit. It was a very cool experience and I met some great people along the way that were very interested in my story.
One thing that upset me while I was down there was the number of homeless people in San Francisco. My experience would have been a lot brighter if it was not for the mass quantities of people asking for money. It saddened my heart to see them there in such 'desperate need'. It did not take long before my feelings of sadness turned into annoyance. How many times can you be asked for money or to buy a newspaper to support the homeless before you go insane... 1392 times is the answer!
Tuesday: Visited Berkeley. The school is gorgeous but the local area is thriving with homeless people still. I decided, while I was walking around the campus that I would check out the engineering department as a potential place to attend grad school. My experience was frustrating! I asked around and finally found the engineering office for graduates. I then talked to a lady about attending grad school there, just to be told that they have no information to give out about the program, they would not allow me to tour any of the facilities because all lab work is proprietary, they wouldn't introduce me to any faculty and I had to go online to get all my information about anything! Great! That is exactly what I was looking for when I decided to check out the campus in person!
That night we went to Trivia at a irish bar downtown - 2nd place, alright!
Wednesday: I was given a choice today of weather I wanted to go to Yosemite or see Wicked. I chose Yosemite! We drove the 4 hours to get there on Wednesday so that we could play around all day on Thursday. We slept in a heated tent and had a wonderful meal at the lodge (thanks Chris!)!
Thursday: Chris and I played around in Yosemite. We woke up early and hiked to Yosemite falls, Vernal falls and Nevada Falls. The views were amazing and the hikes long. I could not help myself but have a huge smile on my face all day! Unfortunately this 'play time' took quite a toll on our bodies and both of us had sore knees and legs the next few days.
Friday: Chris and I entered our names in the Wicked lottery. My name was the first one pulled, it was just meant to be! We met up with Barbara and saw Wicked. The seats were horrible. I think I had the worst seat in the whole theatre, but I moved back for the second half and it was phenomenal. I will just have to go again sometime, oh shucks (that's sarcasm for all you who don't know me well enough to understand that I will use this as an excuse to see it again)!
Saturday: Attended the Lupis Dance Benefit in downtown SF. Before the benefit we had burritos at la cumbre in the mission. Supposedly this is where the first burrito, as they are known today was made.
Sunday: Biked to Golden Gate Park and found a pickup ultimate game going on, so I joined in! It was fun to meet some locals and play a game that I have long missed since the start of my trip.
Monday: Helped Chris in the garden, Out the door, Saw 'This Is It" at a theatre downtown. The documentary of the concert was really good. If there was one thing that I wish it would have contained it would have been a dress rehearsal. Rainy
Tuesday: BIG GARDEN DAY followed by game night. I helped Chris install rock walls in her garden... the next day my upper body was a little sore and it took me a couple minutes to realize that it was due to gardening!
Wednesday: Drove down to Palo Alto to check out Stanford and visit Don and Doris (my grandmothers younger sister's house). Stanford was an amazing university. From the architecture to the landscape there was a welcoming and studious feeling about the place. At Don and Doris's house we had a lefsa making party! I rolled lefsa for the first time and it turned out that I am, in Wii terms, at a near professional level. Nobody believed that I had never done it before. Well, now that I think of it there may have been a time about 15 years ago that I may have rolled a piece or two at my uncle Mike's house in New London, WI. Who knows...
Barbara went to pick up her daughter Rachel at the airport for Thanksgiving. This made me a little nervous because I did not her to come home and feel like I had taken her family away from her so I made myself scarce for a while after she came home. I needed to see how she acted around the house before I said or did anything. In the end, everything was good and
The night ended with me reassembling my bike and replacing the chain followed by staying up till 3:30 in the morning playing Wii with Chris.
Thursday: Thanksgiving with the Lorents Family. FUN!
Friday: Updating Blog, Played a bunch of Wii, watched a movie. Just hanging out and having fun!
Saturday: Packed up all my stuff and prepared for an early morning departure. Then Chris, Barbara, Rachel and myself went to The Sound Of Music Sing Along Movie in the Castro.
Sunday: Predicted departure time is 8am
Day 74 - Sunday November 15th
Point Reyes, CA to Pacifica, CA
55.31 miles
5:45.00 hrs
36.4 max
9.6 avg
What a gorgeous day! I woke up with a layer of frost on my tent and was I frigid cold! I delayed riding out at 7:10am by stopping at a bakery until the sun cam up and it had a chance to warm the unusually cold air.
As can be seen with my slow pace, I had a crap ton of climbing to do today but it was all worth it due to the continued gorgeous cliff side scenery that I was experiencing.
Today I encountered my second wipe out of the trip. This was not much of a wipe out, as I was climbing a hill and was motionless at the time my bike was tipping over. The story goes like this: I looked behind me as a ascended a large climb. The view behind me overlooked a coastal bay with beaches and cliffs as far as the eye could see. There lay a lake in the back ground, behind a strip of houses that separated the two bodies of water. I thought to myself, I must capture this view. As I looked ahead I scoped out the point of which I wanted to capture this photo. My vista was no more than 30 feet ahead of me at the beginning of a guard rail protecting a blind corner. When I reached my destination I brought my bike to a halt, unclipped my right foot with ease and twisted my left leg in a similar fashion in an attempt to unclip my left foot so that I may place it down on the ground for stabilization, as I had thousands of times. That was all this action was though... and attempt.
The clip on the bottom of my cleat had come loose and did not allow the generation of enough torque to unclip. Moments later I found myself in a frenzy of thoughts, trying to fight the slight motion that my body had already made to lean the bike to the left; into traffic. As I slowly tip over and I try to counter act this motion, my mind focuses in on all the sounds around me. The sound of silence gave me reassurance that no cars were coming from behind, "ahhh... safety". Once defeated by the inevitable force of gravity, I gave into falling and started concentrating on relaxing my body in preparation for impact. The fall did not hurt physically but as I lifted my body from the ground, a cyclist appeared from behind me; my pride was dented.
The rest of the ride into SF was amazing. The saddest part of this day was when I climbed up a large hill, with one of the largest grades I have ascended, to take a near necessary amazingly beautiful photo of the golden gate bridge just to find my camera battery dead.
The rest of the jaunt into Pacifica, CA (where I have extended family and where I am staying a couple of days) was very hilly and I ended up exhausted by the time I found myself at my final destination.
55.31 miles
5:45.00 hrs
36.4 max
9.6 avg
What a gorgeous day! I woke up with a layer of frost on my tent and was I frigid cold! I delayed riding out at 7:10am by stopping at a bakery until the sun cam up and it had a chance to warm the unusually cold air.
As can be seen with my slow pace, I had a crap ton of climbing to do today but it was all worth it due to the continued gorgeous cliff side scenery that I was experiencing.
Today I encountered my second wipe out of the trip. This was not much of a wipe out, as I was climbing a hill and was motionless at the time my bike was tipping over. The story goes like this: I looked behind me as a ascended a large climb. The view behind me overlooked a coastal bay with beaches and cliffs as far as the eye could see. There lay a lake in the back ground, behind a strip of houses that separated the two bodies of water. I thought to myself, I must capture this view. As I looked ahead I scoped out the point of which I wanted to capture this photo. My vista was no more than 30 feet ahead of me at the beginning of a guard rail protecting a blind corner. When I reached my destination I brought my bike to a halt, unclipped my right foot with ease and twisted my left leg in a similar fashion in an attempt to unclip my left foot so that I may place it down on the ground for stabilization, as I had thousands of times. That was all this action was though... and attempt.
The clip on the bottom of my cleat had come loose and did not allow the generation of enough torque to unclip. Moments later I found myself in a frenzy of thoughts, trying to fight the slight motion that my body had already made to lean the bike to the left; into traffic. As I slowly tip over and I try to counter act this motion, my mind focuses in on all the sounds around me. The sound of silence gave me reassurance that no cars were coming from behind, "ahhh... safety". Once defeated by the inevitable force of gravity, I gave into falling and started concentrating on relaxing my body in preparation for impact. The fall did not hurt physically but as I lifted my body from the ground, a cyclist appeared from behind me; my pride was dented.
The rest of the ride into SF was amazing. The saddest part of this day was when I climbed up a large hill, with one of the largest grades I have ascended, to take a near necessary amazingly beautiful photo of the golden gate bridge just to find my camera battery dead.
The rest of the jaunt into Pacifica, CA (where I have extended family and where I am staying a couple of days) was very hilly and I ended up exhausted by the time I found myself at my final destination.
Day 73 - Saturday November 14th
Salt Point SP, CA to Point Reyes, CA
62.28 miles
4:53.59 hrs
41.7 max
12.6 avg
The scenery the past couple of days has been nothing of what I expected. Most of the land up here is desert farmland. I had expected gorgeous scenery with forests to my left and cliffs on my right. Unlike my fathers stories, the coastal highway 1 doesn't even compare to the Oregon coast! Well, this was my thought at least up till today.
Today, I rode on some of the most gorgeous coastal highway that a man could possibly dream off. Words cannot explain the views that I experienced. Even pictures have a hard time expressing the feeling that goes through your body as you climb and descend 12% grades, 400 feet above the sea, 2 feet away from the edge of the cliff leading into the treacherous waters bellow, gazing over green lands, tangent to bright blue waters; all this while you are totally vulnerable to the elements and cars zooming by. What a rush!
At this point I have realized that I am not going to make it to Santa Cruz for even one day of the ultimate tournament, but I am content with that because the weather is great and I am having the time of my life making my way into SF!
62.28 miles
4:53.59 hrs
41.7 max
12.6 avg
The scenery the past couple of days has been nothing of what I expected. Most of the land up here is desert farmland. I had expected gorgeous scenery with forests to my left and cliffs on my right. Unlike my fathers stories, the coastal highway 1 doesn't even compare to the Oregon coast! Well, this was my thought at least up till today.
Today, I rode on some of the most gorgeous coastal highway that a man could possibly dream off. Words cannot explain the views that I experienced. Even pictures have a hard time expressing the feeling that goes through your body as you climb and descend 12% grades, 400 feet above the sea, 2 feet away from the edge of the cliff leading into the treacherous waters bellow, gazing over green lands, tangent to bright blue waters; all this while you are totally vulnerable to the elements and cars zooming by. What a rush!
At this point I have realized that I am not going to make it to Santa Cruz for even one day of the ultimate tournament, but I am content with that because the weather is great and I am having the time of my life making my way into SF!
Day 72 - Friday November 13th
Van Damme SP, CA to Salt Point SP, CA
68.21 miles
5:09.50 hrs
42.9 max
13.2 avg
Another broken spoke! And I have the tooling to fix it! DUN DuN dun! Friday the 13th lingers around my head as I think about potentially horrid things could happen during today's travels. I made it a point to only let these thoughts into my head early on in the day and to forget about them immediately after. The problem with making a point of something like that is that the more you try and forget, the more you think about them. So, I failed miserably!
With all the hype of Friday the 13th my day was exceptionally pleasant! Unfortunately, it was not a pleasant day for another biker that I met along the way. Dave was his name. I ran into him around noon as I came over a hill to find him with his panniers removed and brand new bike upside-down on the side of the road. Of course, I when I approached him I asked if everything was all right and he explained how he had a bent rim. He was going to try and ride to the next city with a bike shop and I thought that I should probably take a look at his bike before he left. I, on one hand, do have quite a bit of experience with truing wheels, broken rims and broken spokes. I offered to look at the bike for him and he was happy to have what he called a "personal roadside mechanic". After inspection, his spokes were SOO loose! No wonder he bent it! I then set to work truing the wheel to the best of my ability. My goal was not to make it perfect, but make it as true as possible so that he could have a safe ride into the next bike shop to get it looked at by a professional. I was very happy with the my results and would have felt comfortable riding away on the wheel myself. I was a little worried that the wheel was no longer concentric and had a little lump in it but that was not something that I felt like I could fix. Dave was very happy to be on his way but not before we exchanged information. I look forward to hearing about how the rest of his trip went when he finishes. Hopefully he didn't have any more issues with the wheel and it held up till he was able to get it checked out!
Even though this occurrence took up a decent chunk of time out of my day I still managed to get in a decent amount of mileage and talked to numerous people during the day who all seemed eager to donate to my cause. It did prevent me, however, from getting to the SP that I wanted to camp at that night. My only option was a SP that was VERY full and did not have hiker/biker sites. There was another campground just 1/4 mile down the road with h/b sites, but thanks to Arnold (CA gov.) it had been closed. As I slowly cycled around the nearly full campground, looking for a place to possibly pitch my tent, a woman walking the opposite direction that I was moving said, "You can stay at our camp site if you like". Without much anticipation I accepted the invite and she accompanied me back to where I would end up pitching tent. This night was probably one of the most enjoyable nights I had thus far. I ended up meeting 6 lovely people (who were all avid cyclists) and we exchanged stories about cycling adventures over an adult beverage of choice. It was truly an enjoyable night!
Overall, one hell of a day (in a good way)!
68.21 miles
5:09.50 hrs
42.9 max
13.2 avg
Another broken spoke! And I have the tooling to fix it! DUN DuN dun! Friday the 13th lingers around my head as I think about potentially horrid things could happen during today's travels. I made it a point to only let these thoughts into my head early on in the day and to forget about them immediately after. The problem with making a point of something like that is that the more you try and forget, the more you think about them. So, I failed miserably!
With all the hype of Friday the 13th my day was exceptionally pleasant! Unfortunately, it was not a pleasant day for another biker that I met along the way. Dave was his name. I ran into him around noon as I came over a hill to find him with his panniers removed and brand new bike upside-down on the side of the road. Of course, I when I approached him I asked if everything was all right and he explained how he had a bent rim. He was going to try and ride to the next city with a bike shop and I thought that I should probably take a look at his bike before he left. I, on one hand, do have quite a bit of experience with truing wheels, broken rims and broken spokes. I offered to look at the bike for him and he was happy to have what he called a "personal roadside mechanic". After inspection, his spokes were SOO loose! No wonder he bent it! I then set to work truing the wheel to the best of my ability. My goal was not to make it perfect, but make it as true as possible so that he could have a safe ride into the next bike shop to get it looked at by a professional. I was very happy with the my results and would have felt comfortable riding away on the wheel myself. I was a little worried that the wheel was no longer concentric and had a little lump in it but that was not something that I felt like I could fix. Dave was very happy to be on his way but not before we exchanged information. I look forward to hearing about how the rest of his trip went when he finishes. Hopefully he didn't have any more issues with the wheel and it held up till he was able to get it checked out!
Even though this occurrence took up a decent chunk of time out of my day I still managed to get in a decent amount of mileage and talked to numerous people during the day who all seemed eager to donate to my cause. It did prevent me, however, from getting to the SP that I wanted to camp at that night. My only option was a SP that was VERY full and did not have hiker/biker sites. There was another campground just 1/4 mile down the road with h/b sites, but thanks to Arnold (CA gov.) it had been closed. As I slowly cycled around the nearly full campground, looking for a place to possibly pitch my tent, a woman walking the opposite direction that I was moving said, "You can stay at our camp site if you like". Without much anticipation I accepted the invite and she accompanied me back to where I would end up pitching tent. This night was probably one of the most enjoyable nights I had thus far. I ended up meeting 6 lovely people (who were all avid cyclists) and we exchanged stories about cycling adventures over an adult beverage of choice. It was truly an enjoyable night!
Overall, one hell of a day (in a good way)!
Day 71 - Thursday November 12th
Leggett, CA to Van Damme SP, CA
59.62 miles
4:55.27 hrs
35.8 max
12.1 avg
Come to find that if I would have continued cycling and yesterday and not had the broken spokes I would have had to climb a crap ton of large hills and had to rough it in the woods! Although, the climbing would not have been so cold, as I woke up this morning and my tent had frost on it! I didn't think I would run into that along the CA coast.
I started my ride this morning no more than a quarter mile from the epic 'Highway 1'. Highway 1 has symbolized the last and supposedly most gorgeous part of my journey. Even though I have over 1000 miles to go the end feels near and I am excited to be in this gorgeous landscape.
I had heard my father speak many times of how he adored Highway 1. He expressed his fond memories of traveling along this road during a college roadtrip. I have thought about these stories many times and I can't wait to experience what he was talking about, although my experience may be a little different since I will be on a bike and not in a car.
Ever since I left Arcata, my route has taken me away from the coast. It was not until today that I was reacquainted with gorgeous coastal scenery. Like my fathers stories, you unexpectedly come out of the cold and dense forest, round one corner, and all of a sudden the ocean opens up to your eyes. The sun hits your face and you are instantaneously warm again! I will never forget the view I had as I ate an early lunch sitting there on the guard rail. Nor the sound of the waves crashing against the mountainous cliffs north of where I sat. Nor the thousands of seals floating amongst the waves upon which I later come to find were not seals at all but seaweed! Nor the feeling that I had when I realized that I left my titanium spork where I ate; even though I thought about the probability of forgetting the utensil as I placed it next to me.
Oh, what fond memories I have made of Highway 1 already. And, I am not even a 100th of the way down it!
59.62 miles
4:55.27 hrs
35.8 max
12.1 avg
Come to find that if I would have continued cycling and yesterday and not had the broken spokes I would have had to climb a crap ton of large hills and had to rough it in the woods! Although, the climbing would not have been so cold, as I woke up this morning and my tent had frost on it! I didn't think I would run into that along the CA coast.
I started my ride this morning no more than a quarter mile from the epic 'Highway 1'. Highway 1 has symbolized the last and supposedly most gorgeous part of my journey. Even though I have over 1000 miles to go the end feels near and I am excited to be in this gorgeous landscape.
I had heard my father speak many times of how he adored Highway 1. He expressed his fond memories of traveling along this road during a college roadtrip. I have thought about these stories many times and I can't wait to experience what he was talking about, although my experience may be a little different since I will be on a bike and not in a car.
Ever since I left Arcata, my route has taken me away from the coast. It was not until today that I was reacquainted with gorgeous coastal scenery. Like my fathers stories, you unexpectedly come out of the cold and dense forest, round one corner, and all of a sudden the ocean opens up to your eyes. The sun hits your face and you are instantaneously warm again! I will never forget the view I had as I ate an early lunch sitting there on the guard rail. Nor the sound of the waves crashing against the mountainous cliffs north of where I sat. Nor the thousands of seals floating amongst the waves upon which I later come to find were not seals at all but seaweed! Nor the feeling that I had when I realized that I left my titanium spork where I ate; even though I thought about the probability of forgetting the utensil as I placed it next to me.
Oh, what fond memories I have made of Highway 1 already. And, I am not even a 100th of the way down it!
Day 70 - Wednesday November 11th
Burlington SP, CA to Leggett, CA
49.47 miles
4:12.44 hrs
48.0 max
11.7 avg
Waking up surrounded by redwoods was awesome! I met two ladies this morning cooking breakfast next to my site. It was nice to talk to them for a while and found out that they were on a significantly detoured (they left from Seattle) trip to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving.
I made it out of the campsite in a timely fashion and was looking forward to a great ride. Cycling through the rest of the redwoods was amazing! I love this place! The trees are just so wise and majestic that time flew by.
After leaving the redwoods I had quite a bit of climbing to do but this did not bother me because I was utterly happy to be where I am. Sadly, this feeling of happiness did not last too long. I broke another spoke about 25 miles into my trip. The break was on my rear wheel and I did not hesitate to stop and try and fix it. In anticipation of cycling on my own again I purchased a cassette bolt (to remove the cassette from the freewheel) and an extra piece of chain that I figured I could use with a piece of cloth as a chain whip (I had aspirations to make my own chain whip when I got the chance). Much to my disappointment this method did not work and I could not produce enough torque to loosen the cassette from the freewheel. The According to the cyclists pamphlet that I had there was a shop in a town just 6 miles away. So, I used my Kevlar spoke to temporarily true the wheel.
At first I thought all I needed was a pliers big enough to grasp my cassette remover bolt. So, I stopped at a hardware store to check out potential tooling. I did not want something heavy, bulky or expensive and the first place I went did not have anything that met those needs. I then proceeded to the bike shop where I came to find that they did not have the tooling I needed either. To top it off, the mechanic was only there on Mondays so I couldn't even pay to have it fixed! I could not believe that California would produce a cyclist map that said there was a bike shop in this city when they were only open 1 day a week, without any notification on the map. Sounds like a proper place for the usage of an asterisk (*)!
I asked the clerk if I could use some of their equipment to fix my wheel and the lady said, "NO!" I was quite struck by this answer and then proceeded to tell her a little more about exactly what I was doing. You know the whole I am raising money... blah... blah.. blah... schpeel! Much to my surprise, she held her ground. I definitely approached the whole thing the wrong way but I didn't think it would really matter all that much, I was mistaken! I asked about other shops that might have the tooling what I was looking for and she pointed me in the direction of NAPA auto parts.
I found a locking pliers on sale at NAPA (cheapest and lightest option), purchased it and attempted to fix my wheel. (Very nice people at NAPA, they let me try out a couple of pieces of tooling before purchasing any of them) I found my method of wrapping a piece of cloth around the end of the chain and holding onto it, to be a poor alternative to chain whip. A few bloody fingers latter from the chain slipping off the cassette, I was in a very poor mood! I put my wheel back on and went back to the bike shop to purchase the ridiculously expensive chain whip ($25). Upon returning to the bike shop I went behind the counter looking for anything that I could purchase as an alternative to the chain whip. As I was sifting through a couple boxes of bike parts, an older gentleman approached me asking if I needed help finding anything. I then find out that he is the bike mechanic at the shop and was in for about an hour while the clerk went to lunch.
After talking to him for a bit he allowed me to use any and all of his tooling to fix and true my wheel. After all that I spent the next hour fixing my wheel. With this experience behind me I decided that I should suck it up and purchase the expensive chain whip.
I left that town two hours after I entered with all the tooling I needed to fix my own wheels from now on. About 13 miles down the road my purchases made up for themselves due to another broken spoke that I was able to fix in about 20 min.
What a day! I should have been able to ride for another 2 hours and had high goals of cycling 80 miles. I guess I will have to make up for it tomorrow! I did have free lodging in an abandoned church yard though!
49.47 miles
4:12.44 hrs
48.0 max
11.7 avg
Waking up surrounded by redwoods was awesome! I met two ladies this morning cooking breakfast next to my site. It was nice to talk to them for a while and found out that they were on a significantly detoured (they left from Seattle) trip to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving.
I made it out of the campsite in a timely fashion and was looking forward to a great ride. Cycling through the rest of the redwoods was amazing! I love this place! The trees are just so wise and majestic that time flew by.
After leaving the redwoods I had quite a bit of climbing to do but this did not bother me because I was utterly happy to be where I am. Sadly, this feeling of happiness did not last too long. I broke another spoke about 25 miles into my trip. The break was on my rear wheel and I did not hesitate to stop and try and fix it. In anticipation of cycling on my own again I purchased a cassette bolt (to remove the cassette from the freewheel) and an extra piece of chain that I figured I could use with a piece of cloth as a chain whip (I had aspirations to make my own chain whip when I got the chance). Much to my disappointment this method did not work and I could not produce enough torque to loosen the cassette from the freewheel. The According to the cyclists pamphlet that I had there was a shop in a town just 6 miles away. So, I used my Kevlar spoke to temporarily true the wheel.
At first I thought all I needed was a pliers big enough to grasp my cassette remover bolt. So, I stopped at a hardware store to check out potential tooling. I did not want something heavy, bulky or expensive and the first place I went did not have anything that met those needs. I then proceeded to the bike shop where I came to find that they did not have the tooling I needed either. To top it off, the mechanic was only there on Mondays so I couldn't even pay to have it fixed! I could not believe that California would produce a cyclist map that said there was a bike shop in this city when they were only open 1 day a week, without any notification on the map. Sounds like a proper place for the usage of an asterisk (*)!
I asked the clerk if I could use some of their equipment to fix my wheel and the lady said, "NO!" I was quite struck by this answer and then proceeded to tell her a little more about exactly what I was doing. You know the whole I am raising money... blah... blah.. blah... schpeel! Much to my surprise, she held her ground. I definitely approached the whole thing the wrong way but I didn't think it would really matter all that much, I was mistaken! I asked about other shops that might have the tooling what I was looking for and she pointed me in the direction of NAPA auto parts.
I found a locking pliers on sale at NAPA (cheapest and lightest option), purchased it and attempted to fix my wheel. (Very nice people at NAPA, they let me try out a couple of pieces of tooling before purchasing any of them) I found my method of wrapping a piece of cloth around the end of the chain and holding onto it, to be a poor alternative to chain whip. A few bloody fingers latter from the chain slipping off the cassette, I was in a very poor mood! I put my wheel back on and went back to the bike shop to purchase the ridiculously expensive chain whip ($25). Upon returning to the bike shop I went behind the counter looking for anything that I could purchase as an alternative to the chain whip. As I was sifting through a couple boxes of bike parts, an older gentleman approached me asking if I needed help finding anything. I then find out that he is the bike mechanic at the shop and was in for about an hour while the clerk went to lunch.
After talking to him for a bit he allowed me to use any and all of his tooling to fix and true my wheel. After all that I spent the next hour fixing my wheel. With this experience behind me I decided that I should suck it up and purchase the expensive chain whip.
I left that town two hours after I entered with all the tooling I needed to fix my own wheels from now on. About 13 miles down the road my purchases made up for themselves due to another broken spoke that I was able to fix in about 20 min.
What a day! I should have been able to ride for another 2 hours and had high goals of cycling 80 miles. I guess I will have to make up for it tomorrow! I did have free lodging in an abandoned church yard though!
Day 69 - Tuesday November 10th
Arcata, CA to Burlington SP, CA
57.63 miles
4:20.28 hrs
33.1 max
13.2 avg
Late last night Alex and Nick told me that they were going to stay an extra day in Arcata, CA. This was not the news I wanted to hear for if I would have known that earlier on today I would have continued riding yesterday to make it to San Fran so that we could meet up later. It turns out though that if I would have done that I wouldn't have an ultimate tournament to look forward to in Santa Cruz!
So, today I set off towards the great city of San Francisco, alone. Late departure was inevitable since I had a spoke to repair that morning and I didn't want to wake everyone during the process. I waited till most people were up and then proceeded to take care of the important task at hand. Of course after repairing my wheel everyone was making breakfast so I stayed around a little longer to eat and socialize.
By 11am I was finally off and I had two options in route. With high hopes of making it to Santa Cruz by the upcoming weekend for an ultimate frisbee tournament, I opted for the shorter route on 101, avoiding the large climbs of 'the lost coast' and the extra 30 miles. I thought long and hard about this decision, constantly asking myself if I would regret not going on the lost coast. When it came down to it there was nothing in the wilderness of the lost coast that I could not see on my next trip out west and it would give me something to look forward to. Plus, with the overcast and rainy weather the ride along the lost coast may have been very limited in view.
So, instead of setting my hopes on the potentially gorgeous views and untouched landscapes of the lost coast I opted to make it to the majestic redwood forest. Upon arriving at the redwoods and touching my wheels to the pavement of the "Avenue of the Giants", I felt reassured that I had made the right choice in route. I ended up camping at the Burlington SP. The camp site was gorgeous, with massive redwoods all around in a hazy mist. It looked like a scene that you would find in Lord of the Rings.
57.63 miles
4:20.28 hrs
33.1 max
13.2 avg
Late last night Alex and Nick told me that they were going to stay an extra day in Arcata, CA. This was not the news I wanted to hear for if I would have known that earlier on today I would have continued riding yesterday to make it to San Fran so that we could meet up later. It turns out though that if I would have done that I wouldn't have an ultimate tournament to look forward to in Santa Cruz!
So, today I set off towards the great city of San Francisco, alone. Late departure was inevitable since I had a spoke to repair that morning and I didn't want to wake everyone during the process. I waited till most people were up and then proceeded to take care of the important task at hand. Of course after repairing my wheel everyone was making breakfast so I stayed around a little longer to eat and socialize.
By 11am I was finally off and I had two options in route. With high hopes of making it to Santa Cruz by the upcoming weekend for an ultimate frisbee tournament, I opted for the shorter route on 101, avoiding the large climbs of 'the lost coast' and the extra 30 miles. I thought long and hard about this decision, constantly asking myself if I would regret not going on the lost coast. When it came down to it there was nothing in the wilderness of the lost coast that I could not see on my next trip out west and it would give me something to look forward to. Plus, with the overcast and rainy weather the ride along the lost coast may have been very limited in view.
So, instead of setting my hopes on the potentially gorgeous views and untouched landscapes of the lost coast I opted to make it to the majestic redwood forest. Upon arriving at the redwoods and touching my wheels to the pavement of the "Avenue of the Giants", I felt reassured that I had made the right choice in route. I ended up camping at the Burlington SP. The camp site was gorgeous, with massive redwoods all around in a hazy mist. It looked like a scene that you would find in Lord of the Rings.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Day 68 - Monday November 9th
Big Lagoon NP to Arcata, CA
31.59 miles
2:43.55 hrs
33.7 max
12.0 avg
We made it to Arcata in no time, despite the rain and cold. After visiting 2 bike shops and making some phone calls, Alex found the rim he wanted in stock at a bike shop in Eureka. Therefore, Nick and Alex don't have to wait around for an extra couple days for an ordered rim to arrive. Meaning, I am going to stay in Arcata tonight and head out tomorrow with Nick and Alex as company. Matt has opted to stay an extra day to catch up on correspondence and blog updates.
Nick and Alex biked down to Eureka to pick up the rim, have it installed and bike back to Arcata since we have a connection, for a place to stay through warmshowers.com (a cyclists version of couchsurfing.com). It does seem like another short day in the crapper but with the rainy weather and chance for companionship all the way to San Fran, I feel that it is well worth it!
31.59 miles
2:43.55 hrs
33.7 max
12.0 avg
We made it to Arcata in no time, despite the rain and cold. After visiting 2 bike shops and making some phone calls, Alex found the rim he wanted in stock at a bike shop in Eureka. Therefore, Nick and Alex don't have to wait around for an extra couple days for an ordered rim to arrive. Meaning, I am going to stay in Arcata tonight and head out tomorrow with Nick and Alex as company. Matt has opted to stay an extra day to catch up on correspondence and blog updates.
Nick and Alex biked down to Eureka to pick up the rim, have it installed and bike back to Arcata since we have a connection, for a place to stay through warmshowers.com (a cyclists version of couchsurfing.com). It does seem like another short day in the crapper but with the rainy weather and chance for companionship all the way to San Fran, I feel that it is well worth it!
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