Final Destination

We made it!  We're here in Sebastopol with our friend Frankie and his family.  They are in the midst of building an additional beautiful house on their acre property, so we're helping them in any way we can.  There are apple trees and plum trees and blackberries to pick for jam and pie...Katie is in heaven for the moment.  We're looking forward to working on our first farm coming up here soon, but glad to have wonderful people to board us while we look. 

Here are two-dimensional renderings of some views that could never justly be replicated:

 After leaving Monterey, we headed towards Sunset State beach near Santa Cruz.  Lonely-feeling foggy mornings lifted as we rolled into strawberry fields as far as the eye could see.  Unfortunately, a few too many poorly washed pesticideberries can make for a bad next morning, so we had to spend an extra day here; the next nights' sunset made up for it.

Jesse wasn't able to spend much time remenescing in Santa Cruz, as from Sunset Beach to Half-Moon Bay was our longest trek of the trip: 56 miles.  We were tired after that day, but the next was a short jaunt into San Fransisco city where we met up with Katie's parents who were on their way to Washington.  We spent that night with our friend Nikki, then onto where Jesse could spend time with a few more old college buddies: Mike in Berkley.  There we had a few days' rest and an epic BaconOff 2012, where bacon was used to garnish some very interesting and delicious dishes.   

 We then headed out of the city via the Golden Gate Bridge and a couple very interesting trips on the BART system.  Turns out 8-foot beast-bikes don't fit in Frisco elevators (thank god for escalators), but it's a good thing people in big cities don't make too much of a fuss over wierd circumstances.  The bridge was incredibly windy and foggy, until you got to the other side, where the sun shone through and the heat started.  Luckily, we only had to go 10 more miles to John, another college friend. 

Samuel P taylor was the next and last campground of the trip.  One of the most beautiful areas we've encountered, and popular for it.  By this time we were very glad it was our final night of the trip, and very greatful for the extra pretty surroundings.

  Northern California's fantastic bike routes took us through some forest-lined paths until the foggy coast bore down on us again around Tomales Bay.  We had some delicious fresh raw oysters at a little market right before Sonoma County, then Frankie came and picked us up from a little town called Tomales when our legs could take us no further.  We're feeling accomplished, rejuvenated and ready for the next adventure!

Post Battle of Big Sur

We made it!  Through the roughest, toughest and most isolated part of the coast we've gone through on this trip: Big Sur.  It was a beautiful, awe-inspiring and challenging journey.  We know that there are equal ups and downs when traveling the coast, but man those downhills went by so fast it felt like Big Sur was one huge uphill struggle.  One we are incredibly proud of ourselves to have made through.  So here's what we've been up to the past few weeks! 

After an early goodbye to Matt we headed off to Leo Carrillo State Beach for a night, then all the way up (50 miles) to Carpinteria.  All the way through Ventura county in one day!  Our friends Gillian and Colin were heading North to South on the same Pacific Coast Biking Trail, so we had some great beer boiled brats and swapped stories into the night.  A rest day in Carpinteria was spent relaxing and tasting some delicious beers at a local brewery. 

Then we headed up to Refugio State Beach, where we spent the night with the gentle sound of the waves (punctuated by screaming children) lulling us to sleep.   After spending a rest day in Lompoc (pronounced Lom-poke, apparently) we headed up for a night in Oceano/Pismo Beach area.

After conquering Harris grade on the way out of Lompoc, a little rocking out is in order

 Katie modeling her rainproof parachute pants and feeling pretty good about it.

  On to Morro Bay where we met up with Jesse's College buddy Alex.  We spent a relaxing day at Morro, then all three of us continued on the 26 flat miles to San Simeon.

 Here we are, feeling accomplished after our journey!

Big Sur: 'nuff said.

Greatest way to spend a 25th Birthday: cycling 3 days through Big Sur. 

Day #4 of Biking!

So we're not counting the days of rest in our biking tour, seeing as we're going to have quite a few of those days and we don't want to exaggerate our badassery. We had a fantastic BBQ Friday night at Katie's parents where we recieved a lot of love to help us along on our journey. Katie's brother Alec came with us on Sunday's 40 mile trip to Hermosa Beach. That's right, he did 80 miles in one day, we are quite proud of him. We're also extremely grateful for all the city-biking tips he gave us and for making us feel a lot safer on that not-particularly-beautiful part of the trip. Hermosa Beach is as the name suggests: georgeous. We stayed the night at Jesse's Dad's friend Jay and his wife Franci's house which had a flabbergasting view of the ocean. They treated us to an unfathomably good tri-tip BBQ with more excellent people. After saying goodbye to Jay and Franci, we headed off from Hermosa Beach and took a beautiful bike path along the beach and then inland along a waterway to Matt and Lilly's place in Culver City. We're looking forward to getting out of the city areas and into the countryside! We'll get pictures uploaded when we next get to a computer with those capabilities.

And the Adventures Begin!

  So here we are, starting our new way of living and our new way of traveling on the coolest machines known to man!  We began Wednesday's 35 mile jaunt with a nice send-off from Jesse's parents, then continued through North County San Diego.  Camp Pendelton ended up being a pretty ride-through after being gently re-directed by the nicest (and only) military police I've met (thanks guys, we would have ended up a looong way off track without you).

 We spent the night at a campsite in San Clemente State Beach, after some finagling with the camp head.  Turns out having awesome bikes packed to the max makes us look a lot more "legit" in the words of the supervisor.  

Yesterday we finished our first long-distance push of the journey through Laguna and Newport Beach, then inland to Orange via the 'mighty' Santa Ana River trail: 42 miles to Katie's parents'.  We have been incredibly lucky having cloudy and foggy days to cool us off on our rides, even a little spritz of water from the sky.  Even better fortune was the rain that waited until 5 minutes after we made it in to the house to begin in earnest.  Now for a few days of R&R and music to rejuvenate us for the next long push: Hermosa Beach!