With the Border Patrol on on our trail ...

When the blog last left of we were in sunny Malibu eating pancakes and getting ready for out assault on Los Angeles. We were looking to make Dana Point, south of Laguna Beach that night - Which was about 87 miles from Malibu. Jon and Ryan had to be in LA to catch a ride back to Utah by Friday at 11:00 AM. This gave us two days to make it from Malibu to Mexico, about a 180 mile trip. Everyone was feeling good from the day before, and it was my turn to drive, and so I reluctantly took the keys. Some friends of ours from BYU were in the LA area, so they met us at the RV park where we camped, so there was a total of six bikers in the peloton chasing the suburban. 

By the time the first 23 miles were up in LA, our friends had bounced out, and Jesse was ready to drive again, still tired from the 94 miles the day before, I slammed some fruit snacks and got on the bike. The first part of the LA path follows a bike path along the beach. It was really fantastic! We were riding with sand on both sides of us, watching people play volley ball, surf and sunbathe. The going was a bit tougher as we climbed over the Palos Verde peninsula and down into some not-so-pretty parts of Long Beach. We had missed a turn and were headed through LA on surface streets that were not on our bicycle map. It wasn't hard to get around and people seemed eager to give directions. As we crossed the gorgeous industrial parts of Long Beach, we came over the immaculate LA river on Anaheim Blvd. As we were hooking up with a bike path in the area, I noticed a building that said "West Coast Choppers". We, by happenstance, had arrived at the Jesse James garage where they filmed Monster Garage. We stopped and took pictures, and then took off to have an immediate flat tire on Jon's bike. We put in a new tube and inflated it, only to have the new tube puncture. We didn't have any more CO2 cartridges, and so we just called Jesse Sprague (I guess we could have tried Jesse James) to come and bring us the floor pump. Not only did Jesse save us on the mechanical problem, he had lunch in tow. We gobbled down some fried rice. I suppose it was delicious, but I didn't really take time to savor the taste. After we left the flat site we were off down to the mouth of the LA river.

As we reached the coast, we found the Long Beach coast was a little bit nicer than the industrial inland. We again rode along the sandy beach until we found and filled up at a In-N-Out. Orange county was a great scenic improvement. Huntington beach was really nice, and so was Newport. I had been calling campsites all day long, and couldn't find a place to stay, but Jesse again came to the rescue by locating a reasonably priced hotel room in Laguna Beach. We fit 5 people in a king room and locked the bikes up outside. We obviously didn't have enough room to cook and were famished, so we looked up a Italian resaurant in the area. We decided on a Macaroni Grill in Laguna Hills. We walked in at 9:30, and they had no Idea what hit them. The first thing out of our mouths was - "What has a lot of food?". The hostess suggested the Mama's Trio, and it still wasn't sufficient, We downed about 8 loaves of bread, and they gave us our own water pitcher, that was refilled about 3 times. We might not have been able to cycle with the best, but we were definitely top-notch eaters. We were all pretty tired, and filled with endorphins, so it turned out it we were especially giggly. I don't know if we were oxygen deprived, but everything seemed funny and we were excited, because this was our last supper before we would hit the Mexican border and the trip was over.

We figured out that we had to do 100 miles on Thursday to get to the border, and so we tried to get out early. We had hit the road by 9:00, Having fueled up on Granola cereal and fruit snacks. We rolled through Dana Point and San Clamente, where Ryan stopped by a bike shop to adjust a pedal, and I picked up two CO2 cartridges. We now had three, and a spare tube. We continued on through towards San Diego along another incredible beach. We saw tons of people in wet-suits and surfboards, and we had a good tail wind, so we were making good time. After we passed the beach, we entered Camp Pendleton, a marine base that allows cyclists through if they have an ID. We met another cyclist around our age before the base and showed him how to get through. I think he was appreciative. 

After Camp Pendleton we me Jesse in Oceanside and crammed a footlong subway. In Oceanside we were once again along the beach for a while before we hit Encinitas. It is here that Jon has a flat tire. We were close to a bike shop, so we turned around and he used their floor-pump and purchased another tube for us to carry. We then started off again, to have his tire blow out again, almost instantly. We went back to the shop and had the guy look at it, he found a broken tread, and made a sell to Jon for a new rear tire. It had taken a lot of time, but I was thankful to finally get back on the road when in about four minutes later, Jon suffers his 3 flat. We decide that there was a problem the new wheel that he had bought in Santa Barbara, and he decided to stay there and call Jesse to pick him up. Nate, Ryan and I continued on. We hit the big hill right before Torrey pines and decided to take the more direct, steep route. It was fun and we got to see some pretty scenerey, after we peaked out at the top of the hill we rode along Torrey Pines Golf Course and UCSD. After we dropped down and rode through La Jolla, Ryan stopped by another bike shop in San Diego, because he had a spoke break off of his wheel and it was badly out of true. They fixed it within 25 minutes and we were off again.

The route had us riding along the boardwalk in San Diego, but it was too crowded and again we had to use surface streets. We had to move quick, because we were very time pressed, we were racing the sun for the border. Our time situation just got worse as we passed through the Mission Bay area and Ryan had flat #4 on the day. We had used all the tubes, and so I found I was the only one carrying a patch kit, and the glue in it had evaporated away. I didn't know where a bike shop was, and so we had to call in Jesse for a second time. He came, we fixed the tube, and Jon jumped onto Jesse's bike and we were off again. We were starving and had no time to stop for food. This is where I started to get testy and push it, and I lead people the wrong way, and then we had to turn around and finally hit the pedestrian ferry late in San Diego. We had another 40 minutes before it left for Coronado and we decided to pay the $7 each and get there right away. The ferry ride was gorgeous as the sun was going down and everything in San Diego harbor looked magical. I snapped some good pics, and then we hit it hard when we landed in Coronado, we still had 18 miles to ride. 

I am sure the Silver Strand was pretty, but I couldn't see it in the dark. I was concerned about it being a downer to bike in the dark, but it turned out pretty nice. We were on a bike path, so we didn't have to worry about cars. Riding in the dark made the moment just seem more memorable, and since we were no longer in a rush, we just slowed down and enjoyed the pleasant weather. The bike path took us into imperial beach, but it was not as it was shown on the map, so we again took surface streets over to where were supposed to end the trip. As we approached the border, we were stopped by a Border Patrol agent who told us where we were trying to go was only open during daylight hours and we couldn't really proceed any further because the border was completely wired with cameras and infra-red to catch people crossing it, and 

we would definitely attract attention. We decided to go towards the port of entry to get better pictures of Mexico. Here we were again stopped by a Border Patrol agent, who further directed us to stay off the border and showed us a way to approach it, and get food. Both agents seemed happy to hear out cycling story and told us how they catch about 50 people a night between I-5 and the ocean.

We reached the port of entry for pictures and then proceeded to the nearest mexican restaurant on the American side of the border. It was about 10:00, and I had biked 104 miles without eating anything since a 11:45 AM subway sandwich. I ordered a fish burrito combo meal, and a kids taco combo meal. We ate and then had the pleasant experience of packing all guys and gears on and in the car and very tiredly driving to a Motel 6 in Oceanside. Jon and Ryan had to catch a 6:00 AM train to LA so they could meet up with Ryan's brother and catch a ride back to Utah. I slept hard, but  not enough and woke up in the morning to see Ryan and Jon gone.

Jesse, Nate and I hit up breakfast in Oceanside, and then the beach for some body surfing and sun bathing. We left Oceanside around noon, and got into Albuquerque around 3:00 AM. It was long and tiring, but the most fun I have had in years, and very fulfilling. 

I would do it again in the drop of a hat. 

Biking Malibu

Monday morning we had a power breakfast of breakfast burritos. Jesse found some hot green chili at the store and I went to work. Jon for some reason bought whole wheat tortillas, but the end product didn't turn out so bad. If you don't already know, I am all about breakfast burritos, and can be quite particular about them. Our goal for Monday was to ride from Pismo Beach California to somewhere around Santa Barbara. As Usual we got out late and had to push until late, and didn't have a place to stay planned out.

When we got into Santa Barbara, I experienced the craziest small world BYU story. We were trying to find a place to crash for the night, when we exited onto some smaller side streets. we were next to a golf course when I  saw a car with a BYU parking sticker in the window. I said, "Hey! BYU!" and then I looked into the car to see Garrett Graves and Jon Esplin, two guys that I had home taught a couple of years ago. They were headed down the 101 from their summer internships in San Jose to Disneyland. Apparently they had taken some surface streets to find a restroom somewhere, and they ran into me on my bicycle. Small world, really small world.

As I said we had no plan on where to stay and all available hotels were around $150 for two people, we had five. We looked into nearby campgrounds and hostiles, but they were all too pricey and in the wrong locations. We then thought about UCSB which was nearby and decided to try to see if there was an on-campus place to stay. I rode over and saw some high-rise dorm buildings, much larger than what Deseret Towers had been. I asked them if there was a way to rent dorm rooms for a single night, but they said they only did conferences. They did however point us to a place across campus that runs dorm rooms like a hotel. I called up and talked to the lovely Nicole, and we had a place close to the beach, on campus for all 5 for $109. We crammed into a 2 twin bed room, but there was a communal kitchen an lounge that we took over where we cooked steaks and spaghetti for dinner, and had pancakes and strawberries for breakfast with yogurt. It worked out very well, especially with the large amounts of showers for five ripe men.

Tuesday we rolled out trying to make out way to Malibu. The route was fairly quite, but along the most amazing beaches for most of the way. We saw tons of surfers along with people suntanning and playing volleyball. Jon had to start late because he had a crash on the campus of UCSB and turned his wheel into a taco. Poor guy had to drop $100 for a new rear wheel in order to continue on the trip.

When we arrived at the Malibu Beach RV Park, we were told that we could only have 4 in a camp site or we would need to pay another $65 for a second tent site. We decided it would be easier to have one person leave and sleep in the suburban instead. We were going to execute this plan, when we met two girls from Ireland that were camping in the spot next to us and we worked a bargain where we would cook breakfast if they would let us set up a ten in their spot. All tent areas had ample room.

We are off for LA today, and breakfast is ready.

The Start of Week 2

Contrary to popular belief, no one has yet to die on this adventure, and Nathan did not become a casualty of cannibalism. It has been quite some time since I have updated the blog, but hopefully I will have time tomorrow morning to find some wifi.

Since the last entry Nate and I had a great time seeing my mom, and traveling into San Francisco. My mother came to spend time with my dad for their anniversary. The best part about it is she brought some cookies with her. By this time of the trip I had become very sore and felt constantly dirty. We spent a night about 35 miles north of San Fran in a private RV/camp park. It was close to a town, and so we thought we would have minimal critter activity. We thought wrong.

About 2 AM we were awoke by growling and crashing cooking supplies outside the tent. After I gathered enough energy and courage I shined my light outside the tent to see 4 sets of eyes staring back at me. We had been attacked by raccoons. They had gone to town on all left out food, and apparently they had no decency whatsoever, because they also ate some of our snickers bars. After chasing away the varmints we cleaned up all remaining food in the suburban, and went back to sleep so we could get to San Francisco in a timely manner in the Morning.

My folks made it back from their hotel to see us off that morning, and we tried to push it into San Fran. On our way there we saw some other bike tourists and started to talk to them. Like most other people doing the coast, they were carrying their gear, but as it turned out they were BYU graduates. It was fun to talk to them, and we helped each other navigate around Marin County where the route gets a bit dicey. After we pushed on past them, I took a wrong turn to get onto the Golden Gate Bridge, but luckily was helped and corrected by a very cute female cyclist. She told us that the Golden Gate has two pedestrian paths, but the one was closed during the day and we had to muster through on the one against traffic. We followed her through, and then she helped us find our way over to the Fisherman’s Wharf area. From there we went and met my folks at a parking lot over by AT&T Park.

After I changed at the Suburban, my folk’s took Nate and I out to eat in little Italy for a little carbo-loading. After the meal we drove Lombard Street and went through some of the shopping districts. We didn’t have much time with them, as Jon Stevens was flying in and we had to meet him at the CAL-Train station. My parents dropped us off back at AT&T Park and said goodbye. After we picked up Jon and loaded his equipment in the car we were just 3 more lycra clad men roaming the streets of San Francisco. We decided to be “cultured” and see china town. On our walk over there we asked a guy on the street for directions. He seemed astounded that we would walk all the way to China Town. He didn’t realize that we had biked there … FROM OREGON. We were on the streets of China Town a measly 15 minutes after the encounter, intrigued by America’s resistance to excercise. We ate at the “Floating Sushi Boat Restaurant”, and asked the sword shop for their most dangerous weapon. We took pictures and then walked back to the ball park to catch the game against the Chicago Cubs. San Fran won it 5-4 and we saw it from the second to last row in the stadium. The seats were in far left field, but were actually fairly good because the view was great.

After San Francisco we spent the first night in Sunnyvale with Nate’s Aunt, and that day at Stanford with James Colovos. It was really good to see him and he seems to be doing great, and is definitely less socially awkward than the many other engineering students we met there. I think Jon was amazed by the Stanford Campus given how much larger it is than BYU with a smaller student body. It was a VERY nice campus. After Stanford we picked up Jesse from the airport, and headed over to the Wickstrum family’s home for a delicious dinner of Hamburgers. Their three young children; Isaiah, Dana, and Hannah were probably the highlight of the trip. They were extremely cute and all decided to help us work with our bikes in the morning. It was a very happy household and their hospitality was incredible.

I decided to drive the first leg of the second half, so I could have as many direct miles as possible. So far it has worked because I haven’t ridden a leg since. The first day we came through a small pass of 1300 feet and down towards the Salinas valley. We rode through miles upon miles of farmland and saw some incredible country. My favorite part of the farmlands was riding through strawberry fields because they smelled so wonderful. It really made me want to eat strawberries and cream.

We rode into Monterey and happened across a very unique event. They were having an exotic car auction in Monterey close to the ritzy tourist district. The bike path went right behind the back fence of the auction so we got to see all the exotic cars. The picture I took shows mainly older Bentleys and Rolls Royces.  As it turns out we also saw hundreds of other super cars because of a large car show that they were having at Pebble Beach. I never thought I would get tired of looking at Ferraris, but after 2 days of it, I did.

The first night we had a hard time finding a camp spot until we found a place that had mercy on us and gave us a complementary one. It was needed because the next day was the Big Sur, and with its plethora of hills, a good night’s sleep was needed.  As we started out the next day we came to the first Vista over the ocean and started to take pictures, when a man from Chicago with a 2010 Ferrari pulled up. I don’t remember the car’s model, but it was a front engine V-8 that was a hard top convertible. I don’t know much about it, but it was an incredibly gorgeous car. I tried to make small talk with him and it worked. So far I think the best way to meet other tourists is to offer to take their picture in front of something beautiful, like an Ocean Vista. After I took the photo, of course I turned the topic of conversation to his car, told him about the epic bike trip I was doing, and asked if I could take pictures of his car. He said yes and told me I could sit in it. I don’t know what he was thinking, but I had no shame and sweaty as could be I plopped down in a brand new Ferrari as my buds took glamour shots of me. I wasn’t complaining.

The bicycle riding was challenging, for the Big Sur has plenty of large hills, but Nate and I were well prepared for them. Since others were not as well prepared, Nate and I didn’t have to drive at all. It was beautiful country and a great place to bicycle. By the end of the day though we were tired and there wasn’t any campsites within biking distance, so Jesse found a spot on the side of the road, and against the wishes of the great state of California, we camped. We had to get to bed early because we had to put in over 50 miles the next day in time for a 1:00 sacrament meeting in San Luis Obispo.

This brings me to today where I got up at 6:30 helped start breakfast for everyone and got on the bike by 8:30. Nate, Ryan and I were the only ones to start out, and Ryan only went part of the way into San Luis Obispo. When it was down to just Nate and I we flat out hauled! We had a wind at our backs and were cruising well over 20 MPH going uphill. One section we were keeping between 27 and 30 MPH and we weren’t going downhill. This might be the strongest I’ve felt all trip. We rolled into town around 11:50 and proceeded to an old gym on the campus of Cal-Poly. (Jesse has a knack for finding little gems that are very valuable to hobos!) We showered and ate a quick lunch of freeze dried food and PB&J’s here and headed out for church. Church was a decent singles branch in a very strongly Spanish themed chapel. It was a newly built chapel, and what I think is one of the best looking chapels that I have seen. We stayed for all 3 meetings, and priesthood was an amazing lesson taught by a convert who has only been a member for 8 months. It was very uplifting.

After church Nate and I rode to a town called Oceana where we are camping for the night. We are in more of a neighborhood than the woods, but it seems to be alright. We are doing laundry and had In&Out for dinner. Life isn’t too bad. I am really tired but hoping for some good sleep because we are probably going to push 90 miles in the morning. 

Over the hills and extremely windy

Yesterday was the worst day by far. we had the largest climbs and went the farthest distance yet. We did 88 miles, and it was all rolling hills including Leggit hill at around 1750+ feet. We got into camp late and were really sore.

The day started off in Myer's flat and we rode about 17 miles up the road when we were picked up by my dad for church. We drove about 11 miles backwards to a small branch in Miranda where we went to church. It was a pretty little town on the Avenue of the Giants. From there we continued to climb and snake around the Eel River. There were good small rolling hills until we got to Leggit. Here we went to see the drive-thru tree, but when we found out that it was more expensive for 2 bikes to go through than a single car, we didn't go through. We realized that after Leggit we had 28 miles without services in pretty much nothing but wilderness, we tried to fill up our bottles and grab some food. We stopped by a small gas station that had a single refrigerator and a single shelf of snacks. A teenager with bloodshot eyes came out to greet us. The whole place reeked of pot, and the kid told us that the water wasn't safe to drink. I then bought a gatorade and a powerbar. At first he saw Nate was getting stuff and thought we were together. He said $5, and I said that I was just getting the two things. He blinked and then pressed a different button and said $2.50. I think that was the cheapest gatorade/powerbar combo ever sold in that town. Nate picked up the same drug-induced deal and we filled up our bottles from a water-cooler and we were off.

The hill was steep, but we didn't stop until we got to the top, The big hill was around 40 miles into our route. When we started to drop it got real cold, and windier as we approached the coast.  Right before the coast we had about a 600 foot hill that we had to go over. after we descended that one, it was a spectacular view of the ocean. We met and talked to some motor-bikers who had grown up in New Mexico. One of them had a daughter at New Mexico Tech. They applauded us for make it up those steep gradients. We had a good talk and then went on to the next town around 6 miles away. At the small town, we spent $7 on a quart of chocolate milk and organic cookies (We were starving!) we split them and warmed up. We had sweated profusely going up those gradients, then as we hit the coast, the sharp sea breeze chilled our wet bodies. It wasn't raining but we wore our coats for the last 11 long miles of rolling hills into camp. It was a rough day.

I am so glad I am in a starbucks right now in Fort Bragg sipping on a Venti hot chocolate warming up. Today we are going to go about 86 miles, but it should be much easier. That being said, It is just the morning and I am beat!

I took lots of pictures, but no time to post!

Avenue of the Giants

This was written the night before last. Internet problems prevented posting

Wow, it is amazing that today is already over. It was a fun day, and a lot less demanding than yesterday. In the last 5 miles I tried to really push it because I had a bit of energy left, and I also wanted to see if I could drop Nate, but every time I looked back, he was sitting there like Alberto Contador following my every move.

We started out just north of Trinidad and are in a campground in a place called Myer’s Flat. I believe we did about 82 miles today, but I am not positive about how many we did because my bike computer had a spasm and reset itself as I was headed down a hill. I think we had gone around 73 miles when that happened, and then we biked another 10 miles into the camp.

Adventures of the day include letting the map lead us to a dirt trail that lasted about 6 tenths of a mile. I hit a patch of sand and took a spill because I couldn’t get my speedplay pedal unclipped. I need to work on it, because it has gotten a lot of debris stuck in the cleat and has become overly stiff. Not to brag, but they are speedplay zero pedals, so I can adjust the float if necessary so I can clip out quicker if it comes to that. – Enough of the bike-geek digression. After the spill We thought the dirt path went on for miles further so we cleared a fence with our bikes and helped a girl lift her bike and gear over the same fence. She had been traveling solo and took our advice to stay on the freeway. Bad idea.

After traveling about a mile on the Freeway we looked to our right and saw that the pavement started up again on the trail, we called back to solo girl, but she didn’t follow us. It turned out that this path was really scenic and even took us over an amazing old railroad bridge that produced amazing photos. Also we passed by a lot of pastures filled with milk cows. We stopped to take pictures by them when one of them came over to see us. We thought that was nice, but she was breathing heavy, and had horns, which was different. I then realized it wasn’t a cow but a dairy bull. According to my mom dairy bulls are the meanest bulls around. He walked right up to the fence and started to paw at the ground and snort. He didn’t want us anywhere near his harem. We thought it was funny until we saw a large gap in the barbed-wire and decided to get out of there.

After the pretty scenery with the cows and the bridge, we rode into a small town named Arcata where we saw and went into a bike shop. Nate needed new brake pads and I checked out all the classic Tour de France posters they had. It was a pretty good collection, but probably the highlight of my day came around 8 miles later when we rode in hungry to Eureka, The bike shop told us to try the Coop on the 101, but before that I saw an all you can eat Indian food buffet. SOLD! Nate had never eaten Indian before, but before he could say no I had 2 pieces of Naan bread and half a piece of tandori chicken in my mouth. It was delicious and the perfect biking food. I just probably shouldn’t have ate so much. I definitely got my moneys worth out of it. I felt kind of bad because I had eaten so much I wasn’t extremely hungry when I road into camp 50+ mile later and my dad was cooking delicious pork chops with mashed potatoes. So I ate two HEAPING plates worth and two bowls of custard for desert. I ate so much and was so full we had to sit around in the restaurant watching Indian music videos until I could start biking again.

The next ten miles went slowly, but after the digestion process was underway we took an amazing route on the other side of the eel river that was extremely beautiful. We saw some amazing farmland with many more dairies. Most of the small dairies had signs outside that said “Horizon Organic” so maybe some of you hippies have drank milk from the cows that we saw.

After the farmland we hit some hills and passed some other bikers with pannier packs. I wanted to stop and talk, but I wasn’t getting my pedal out, so I just waved and continued. As we got into Rio Del I stopped to fix my pedal, and the other bikers caught up with us. I started talking to them, they all had good hobo beards and had interesting stories. One guy started out walking from Philadelphia and was making a film documentary. When he reached Iowa he bought a bike and started biking through, he hit Colorado, and Montana and went up to Washington. When he was in Eugene Oregon he had all his video equipment stolen and is now just pedaling  back to San Francisco and calling it quits. You had to feel for the guy. The other guys were two people he met and started to bike with in Eugene. As it turns out one of them knows my brother-in-law Peter. They were in the same 500 level Aeronautical engineering study group this last year at the University of Michigan. It truly is a small world! I really enjoy meeting other people, hearing their stories and making connections.

After the encounter, we rode around a town festival in Rio Del, rode through Scotia, which is a spectacular little town. It was extremely clean and in step with its heritage. After these small towns we followed the 101 along the Eel river until we hit the “Avenue of the Giants” road. We road quickly through here, but stopped to take pictures. Nate went Ewok hunting, but he has yet to produce, I am starting to think that they are nocturnal. The last 20 miles were all on the Avenue of the Giants road along the Eel, and were fairly quiet despite the incredible scenery.

Having recapped the day, and being incredibly tired …

Good night!

Day 1

This first post Nate wrote as we were driving from Grants Pass, Orego; to Brookings, Oregon to start the trip.

     Here we are, headed out from Grants Pass, Oregon when we spent the night in a hotel for maybe the last time during our 2 week, 1000 mile bike ride down the California coast.  There are three of us right now, Danny, Danny’s dad and myself(Nate).  More will join later.  We are trying to decide where to start.  Either we can go all the way to Brookings, OR or just start at the border.  Danny and I are enjoying the thicker, more moist air and we haven’t even reached highway 101.  We’re hoping for super human abilities when near see level.  We’ll let you know what happens.

Ok, it is time for me to rant now.

      The trees are BIG. As you can see by some of the pictures that I am going to post. These suckers are impressive. According to the bicycle tour map, some of them are over 2000 years old! that means that some of them were around in the time of Christ. that is incredible. From what I know the climate has to be pretty specific for redwoods, which means that it has to be cool, and wet. It is definitely cool and moist here. I don't know if the temperature went over 65 degrees, and we didn't see the sun for most of the day because of the fog. I can tell that my dad enjoys it. He has always said that if he wasn't an accountant he would be a forester.

For the ride we started in Harbor, Oregon and headed south to the California Border which was about 5 miles away.

Ok, I am laying down on the bench as I type this because my back hurts so much.

It was fun to ride through the California fruit-check station on a bicycle. They didn't even ask! I was offended, I could have been bringing in diseased strawberries - stashed away in a jersey pocket. After the border we skirted around the 101 on different smaller roads. A break from the traffic was nice because at points there was no shoulder and we would be passed by logging trucks that would come within inches of hitting us. It wasn't very fun. The one of the very first stops we made in California was in front of Lily fields. The town's sign (Smith River) said that it was the Lily Capital of either California or the world. I can't remember. But it had large fields of Lilies. Only a few were in bloom as we passed, but it was still impressive.

At around 25 miles into the trip we hit Crescent City where Nate and I stopped for Lunch. We were already hungry because we started late due to the almost 2 hour drive to the Coast. We stopped at a burger joint and ate buffalo burgers at a table next to a few of Crescent City's finest. After we were full we headed out oblivious to what was coming next.

Full on buffalo burgers we snapped a shot next to Ocean World (We didn't go in because are too cheap and time pressured to visit too many tourist traps) After that we headed out and at the outskirts of very small Crescent City we saw the start of a hill and a sign that was spray painted to say the hill was a type of cat. We started up the hill just as the food had bottomed out in our stomachs. I didn't realize that it was the second highest hill in the whole trip. It took us a while, and a lot of pain but we finally made it to the top in the midst of amazingly sized redwoods. (I think the larger ones are up around 1000 feet as opposed to on the Coast). I think we climbed from sea-level to 1240 feet in a few miles. It wasn't that difficult, but again we were full, and surprised by it. After we started down, and almost hit the beach again, I could hear Nate screaming at me, so I stopped. It turns out he had a flat tire. A nail had gone in one side of his tire and out the other. We fixed it at an overlook, helped a family take a picture, and then they took a picture of us.

As we continued on the highlight of the trip was probably taking the Prairie Creek bypass through the scenic redwoods. Beside being the 3rd biggest climb between here and San Fran it was spectacular. Again bigger redwoods, and to my suprise ELK! As I tried to take pictures here I realize my Camera ran out of Juice and so we reverted to cell phones. It is neat to see a 6x6 bull  in the wild, but we saw FIVE grazing right next to each other within 40 feet of us! we probably could have gone up to pet them. It was awesome! and then as we were leaving we saw about 5-7 cow/calve Elk crossing the road about 20 feet in front of our bikes! it was way cool. As we went on we saw about 20 head in a meadow laying down, and then later in the evening about 100 head in the distance in a pasture next to a corral of horses. There is just so much vegetation here they just really prosper.

After the elk we were pretty tired. We are headed north to south because that is how the wind is supposed to go, but apparently it didn't get the memo. We were headed into a headwind most of the day. It was always discouraging seeing the grass pointed towards you, and then another rolling hill in the distance. This is a really rugged part of the country. Despite all of this we rode about 5 miles further than originally planned (85 miles over all) and are now camping at the Emerald Forest RV and camp. It is sold out and busy, but being in a redwood forest makes it very nice. Plus Wifi is very, very nice.

Hopefully I can figure out the picture thing.

Sunday Aug 1st T-5 Days!

The grandiose adventure of attacking the coast is underway. This trip is a lot less ... grandiose than it once was, but that was to be expected. Original plans called for around 15 people, corporate sponsorships and over 1700 miles. I was supposed to be in such good shape that I would be grating cheese off of my rock hard abs. The trip was originally planned as a Utopia trip, but I don't have any regrets.

Currently the trip will have a total of 5 cyclists (barring last minute camaraderie) and will have 2 cyclists go over 1000 miles (Nate Jensen and myself). The other cyclists (Jesse Sprague, Jon Stevens and Ryan Taylor) will accompany us from San Jose, CA to the Mexican border. With the limited resources that everyone in this trip has to deal with, this is quite a feat. If we didn't start talking about such a huge trip, it might not of even happened. My father has been a HUGE help by driving support the first half of the trip and allowing us to use the suburban. The fact that this trip is actually happening plays with my emotions. This has been a dream of mine and realizing that it is going to happen is extremely satisfying to me.

This week has been busy getting ready for the trip. I have been extra concerned about dehydration because of how I have been handling my training. I think I have been low on electrolytes and fear not being recovered enough the next day to where I will get behind schedule. To remedy my fear I have been stocking up on supplements. I bought 130 servings of Hammer gel, 112 servings of PowerBar hydration drink, 60 servings of Accelerade, and 100 dehydration tablets. Hopefully this will stay of cramps. Protein drinks are to be purchased next week. If I struggle with it, it won't be because a lack of nutrition. It might be because of poor use of nutrition, but not because of limited supplies.

I leave Albuquerque with my dad for Provo on Wednesday the 4th, will pick up Nate Jensen there and then drive all day on the 5th to Brookings Oregon. The madness will start early on the 6th. Until then I have to eat healthy, and have good, light bicycle rides. To make this all convenient, I have about 17 hours worth of work to do before I leave Wednesday. This all is compounded by the fact that I can't start until a shipment of picture-frame molding comes in tomorrow afternoon, and I start to build around 300 picture frames. I will have a busy few days, but the trip should be rewarding.