Browsing Archive: July, 2011
Posted by the girls on Thursday, July 28, 2011,
Well, folks, today marks the end of our trans-America bike trip. We started the morning in Half Moon Bay and went through our usual routine for the last time. We had some leftover packets of instant oatmeal, so we passed them out to the other touring cyclists who were also camping in the hike-and-bike campground at Francis Beach.
The weather today was similar to yesterday: misty, cool, and foggy. We opted to stay on Hwy. 1 rather than the paralleling bike path. The traffic wasn't too heavy, bu... Continue reading ...
Posted by the girls on Thursday, July 28, 2011,
When we woke up this morning, we were greeted with a little fog and mist. The sort of dreary conditions did not get us down though. We want to enjoy and make the most of our last two days. Today's ride was about 26 miles along Hwy. 1. We headed north to Half Moon Bay. The mist definitely made it a bit chilly, but we ran into a few other cyclists also toughing it out (although they were all headed south and had a more favorable wind).
Once we reached Half Moon Bay, we stopped at a local coffee...
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Posted by the girls on Tuesday, July 26, 2011,
Today we biked from Santa Cruz to a KOA campground south of Pescadero. The ride was under 30 miles, but we had some strong headwinds to compete with. We saw a lot of other bikers today, many of whom were touring. They were all headed south, however, and had the wind at their backs. Toward the end of our ride, we stopped at Ano Nuevo State Reserve. We did a 3.5 mile walk to see some elephant seals. They were mostly adult males who were molting their skin/fur. In August, they will return to the...
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Posted by the girls on Monday, July 25, 2011,
Since we were disappointed with the RV park rates, we packed up our stuff to seek new accommodations. First though, we went to check out the Mystery Spot, which was only about a 1/2 mile from where we were staying. The Mystery Spot is a 150 ft diameter circle that has some weird gravitational forces; the trees grow in unusual ways and things happen that wouldn't normally happen. It's a bit difficult to explain, but you can see some of our goofy photos in the Picasa albums and read more about ...
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Posted by the girls on Monday, July 25, 2011,
It was really hard to say goodbye this morning to Margie, Jason, Ellie, and Ashley. Margie sent us off with full bellies; she made us delicious pancakes for breakfast. We decided to continue biking from where we left off, so we had Margie drive us back to Monterey.
Even though it was a bit chilly and foggy, we enjoyed the ride along the bike path. When the path ended, we got on Hwy. 1 and went inland a bit to Watsonville. It was a few miles out of our way to actually go through the city, but ... Continue reading ...
Posted by the girls on Saturday, July 23, 2011,
We woke up with intentions of biking to Santa Cruz, but fairly quickly decided that we wanted to spend more time with Margie, Jason, Ellie, and Ashley. Margie said we were welcome to stay as long as we wanted, so we thought, "Why not?" We still had an extra day to play with in our schedule. We figured it'd be best to take use it somewhere that we are comfortable and truly enjoying ourselves.
With that said, today was a bit of a lazy day. After breakfast, we did manage to get out of the house t... Continue reading ...
Posted by the girls on Friday, July 22, 2011,
We took the day off today at Margie & Jason's house. They live in Carmel Valley, which is about 10 miles inland from Carmel-By-The-Sea (which is just south of Monterey). After eating some oatmeal, we headed to Monterey with Margie and her younger daughter, Ellie. Ellie is attending kayak camp there, so we dropped her off and then took a little tour. We gawked at the beautiful houses along the coast near Pebble Beach, did a little grocery shopping, and ate a delicious lunch at Thai Bistro II i...
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Posted by the girls on Thursday, July 21, 2011,
Well, folks, we've officially made it to the West Coast!! It is not the end of our trip, however. We will continue biking for a few days as well as take a few days off to enjoy the area.
Today we biked south along Hwy. 1 from Sunset State Beach to Monterey. We biked through a lot of vegetable fields (artichokes, lettuce, cabbage) and got turned around at one point. We took a quick break near Moss Landing to look at some sea lions. Eventually, we had to get off of Hwy. 1 and get on a bike path.... Continue reading ...
Posted by the girls on Tuesday, July 19, 2011,
Today our trip odometer flipped over to 4,000 miles! We stopped in the middle of a downhill to capture the moment on film :)
We had a great morning. We were able to sleep in and get a late start in order to avoid the morning commuters on Pacheco Pass. We had an awesome breakfast thanks to Jim & Kathy (Irish steel oats with raisins, honey, brown sugar, and walnuts). The beginning of the ride was a nice descent downhill. We took our first stop in Los Banos. We went to the grocery store and were ... Continue reading ...
Posted by the girls on Tuesday, July 19, 2011,
After saying our goodbyes to Eddie this morning, we got back on the road. Our legs were a bit sore from hiking two days before, but we got back into the groove fairly quickly. We first headed south from Merced for about 15 miles, then we turned onto Hwy. 152. If you are considering biking this road, don't do it. It was so full of potholes, cracks, debris, and the traffic was flying by at 70+ mph. There were a few sections that were much smoother, but we all agreed that it was one of the worst...
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Posted by the girls on Monday, July 18, 2011,
This morning we decided to take advantage of the breakfast buffet at Curry Village. We had worked up pretty good appetites after hiking the day before (and from biking the past 3.5 months)! We stuffed ourselves full of muffins, danishes, eggs, veggie sausages, biscuits, fruit, cereal, french toast, pancakes, yogurt, juice, and other goodies. We had to sit in the dining room for awhile to let the food digest; we could barely move. I think we all got our money's worth!
We decided that we wanted ... Continue reading ...
Posted by the girls on Monday, July 18, 2011,
We got up early, ate oatmeal, and packed up our tents. We forgot to mention in the last post that we met some backpackers the night before. They were looking for space in the backpackers' campground, but it was pretty much full. We told them that they could share our site (we understand what it's like to not have anywhere to stay). We found out that the 3 of them had started out as a group of 4, doing a long hike through the park. Unfortunately, the trail was not passable because of icy condi...
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Posted by the girls on Monday, July 18, 2011,
We've been thinking about Yosemite for quite a few weeks now. Today was finally the day that we arrived!!! Our host, Eddie, drove us to the Amtrak station in Merced where we caught the regional bus to Yosemite (YARTS). It was only $25 roundtrip and even included the park entrance fee. After seeing the windy, narrow road into the park, we knew we made a good decision not to bike in.
After about 2 hours, we were dropped off at the Visitor's Center in Yosemite National Park. We wanted to pick up ... Continue reading ...
Posted by the girls on Friday, July 15, 2011,
Today we biked from Woodward Reservoir to Merced. The route took us through grove after grove. First, we saw a lot of corn. Next, we were surrounded by peach orchards (and of course we had to try a few samples). And finally, we went through rows and rows of almond trees (we also sampled some, but they were far from ripe).
We arrived in Merced early (our CouchSurfing host was on his way back from San Francisco). That was no problem though because we had a lot of errands to run. First, and most... Continue reading ...
Posted by the girls on Friday, July 15, 2011,
We definitely took our time getting ready this morning. We thought we'd leave Joseph and Mary's house around 7am, about the same time that they would leave for work. Michelle and Rebekah were awake at that time and said their thank-yous and good-byes. However, we didn't actually leave the house until 1pm. One of our mistakes was turning the TV on. We got hooked watching some stupid episodes of "Made" on MTV. Then we decided we were hungry and may as well eat lunch, so we cooked a bit.
Finally ...
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Posted by the girls on Wednesday, July 13, 2011,
Today was "mostly" downhill. The first part of the day was quite a nice grade, but it lessened throughout the morning. We followed Hwy. 88 to Jackson. One of Michelle's gracious drivers lives in Jackson: the man who picked her up near Baker, Nevada. If you don't remember, his name is Chuck. We decided to call him and see if he was home. We were in luck! He met us about 30 minutes later at the local Denny's restaurant. After chatting for awhile, we went over to his house to meet his partner, H...
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Posted by the girls on Tuesday, July 12, 2011,
Last night was very chilly; I guess we should've figured it would get cold since we were at 7,000 ft! Obviously, we all survived. We actually slept til 8am this morning, which is quite late for us. I think we were all dreading the climb ahead of us. Luckily, we did almost half of it yesterday, but we still had 10 miles until the summit (Kit Carson Pass at 8,560 ft).
It was a tough climb, but we all made it. We had awesome views of Red Lake near the top. We stopped at a little National Forest ...
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Posted by the girls on Tuesday, July 12, 2011,
"On the road again...I just can't wait to get on the road again!" Well, actually, we probably could have waited and spent more time in Tahoe, but it was time to say our goodbyes this morning. We spent 5 full days off in Carson City and the Lake Tahoe area: our longest break yet! So, as you can imagine, getting back into the groove today was a bit difficult.
We had a few small climbs right away leaving Carson City and getting to the tiny burg of Genoa (the first settlement in Nevada in 1851). ...
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Posted by the girls on Saturday, July 9, 2011,
Today was our final day in Tahoe. We woke up and went to breakfast with Dan and Loula at the Wildflower Cafe in Incline Village. The food was so good and the portions were huge. We all left feeling too-stuffed, but of course, satisfied.
We had planned on taking the bus back to Carson City, but Dan and Loula offered to drive us. We have been so lucky to have received rides from Mike, Dan, and Loula....thanks so much guys!!Once back in Carson City, it was time to run errands. First, we pumped u... Continue reading ...
Posted by the girls on Saturday, July 9, 2011,
After spending the past two days boating, it was time to stay on land. Loula offered to show us around to some of her favorite spots. After eating breakfast, we headed out to do a short little walk. The hike started out a little steep, but once on top of the ridge, we walked around the rim to catch gorgeous views of Lake Tahoe. It was in this area that Mark Twain once accidentally set a forest fire. There were some informational signs along the path that provided tidbits of random knowledge.
A... Continue reading ...
Posted by the girls on Saturday, July 9, 2011,
As if one day of boating weren't lucky enough, we were invited to go again the following day! Paul was taking out the same boat and so far only he and his co-worker, Shannon, were planning on going. So us girls and Mike happily tagged along.
Mike picked us up from Incline Village and drove us back to the marina at Zephyr Cove.
This time we got an earlier start and were out on the water by 10am. The weather was just right - sunny with blue skies! We headed out toward the middle of lake and got ... Continue reading ...
Posted by the girls on Saturday, July 9, 2011,
We were planning to take the bus from Carson City to Incline Village, where Emily's aunt has a condominium (actually 3 buses since we'd have to transfer). However, Mike decided that he wanted to go to the beach and offered to drive us up to Tahoe. Of course, we gladly accepted.
Our beach day at Tahoe quickly turned into a boating day. Mike has so many connections, one being his friend Paul. He and Paul have been friends since high school. Paul works at the marina at Zephyr Cove. It just so ha... Continue reading ...
Posted by the girls on Wednesday, July 6, 2011,
Today was a day off in Carson City. Our number one priority was to get Michelle's bicycle fixed. Our CouchSurfer, Mike, made us some awesome blueberry pancakes for breakfast. After eating, we stuffed Michelle and Rebekah's bikes into Mike's car and drove to Bike Smith bike shop. Even though they were really busy, they said they'd be able to squeeze our bicycles into their schedule.
In the late morning, Mike, Michelle, and Rebekah drove to Lake Tahoe while Emily stayed home to rest. She woke up... Continue reading ...
Posted by the girls on Tuesday, July 5, 2011,
Today we woke up, ready to go, even though Emily was still feeling a bit under the weather. We weren't able to eat oatmeal because our fuel bottle was leaking and not working properly. Instead we ate some other odds n' ends we had around.
As soon as we got on the road, Michelle realized her front tire was flat. We did a fairly quick repair, but could already feel the heat of the day encroaching in on us. The beginning of the ride was really flat and fairly enjoyable (considering that Emily wa... Continue reading ...
Posted by the girls on Tuesday, July 5, 2011,
Even though there wasn't a bike shop in Fallon, we decided to take the day off. If we had continued on to Carson City as planned, the bike shops would all be closed anyway since it was a Sunday. Plus, Rebekah and Emily were ready for a day off after the 114-mile day.
We tried our best to sleep in, but were out of our tents by 7:30 am. We did our usual Wal-Mart run to buy fuel, food, and other necessities. Then we went to McDonald's to take advantage of the free wi-fi. We enjoyed some free samp... Continue reading ...
Posted by the girls on Sunday, July 3, 2011,
We didn't wake quite as early as usual, though when the sun is up at 5 am, it's hard to sleep past 6 am. Our plan was to ride about 60 miles to MIddlegate, NV, but that plan changed quickly. We were on the road by 7:30 am but didn't get too far, only about 11 miles, when Michelle decided she couldn't continue. After getting a new derailleur on her bike, it hasn't been shifting gears correctly and there was pretty much no way she'd be able to do the climb that was just in front of us.
So, afte...
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Posted by the girls on Sunday, July 3, 2011,
In the past 24 hours, we have seen/met more touring cyclists than any other point during our trip. As mentioned in the last post, we met two very young guys coming from San Francisco at the RV Park in Eureka. At the Mexican restaurant last night, we met two more people (a young couple) who were headed to Yorktown, Virginia.
Today we met the first cyclist about 20 miles outside of Eureka. His name was Hamish and he was from Scotland. He just decided a couple weeks ago that he wanted to tour the...
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Posted by the girls on Sunday, July 3, 2011,
The winds died down today, so we were able to bike as planned. We ate cereal and yogurt instead of our usual oatmeal (this is one of the many small luxuries of staying in a hotel and having a fridge). We left the hotel and headed west on Hwy. 50. Today's ride was 78 miles with no towns or services along the way. This meant that we had to carry all the water we would need for the entire ride. Luckily, it was not as hot today (high of 80 instead of 100+) so we didn't go through as much water.
T...
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