Trip Pictures

We got in from California late Sunday night (around 3am) so we are all struggling to catch up on sleep and get adjusted back to the real world. Full trip recap/highlights/stories to follow at some point. In the meantime we've posted all of our pictures from last week. Enjoy!

Bike Cali 2008 Pictures

Eating Through San Francisco

After our trip through silicon valley yesterday (we got kicked off google's campus-no visitors allowed) we have been eating our way through San Francisco. We went to the ferry building yesterday after shiping our bikes back home. Last night we went to a bar near the hotel and ended up at a carls jr later that night which was not a good idea. We are sitting (very satisfied) in the in-n-out burger at fisherman's wharf right now. This place is seriously amazing and needs to come to the east coast! Weather is beautiful and Jesse and my legs feel much better.
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Defeated, Deflated, but the Trip Continues

As you all know by now we rented a car yesterday at the Montery County Airport.  We were able to fit all of our bikes and gear in there and continued the trip by car.  I wanted to go on and finish the trip but I realized that our vacation was becomming more of a hassle than it was a fun time.  The winds were brutal and the mountains were getting steeper and the legs were in lots of pain.  We did ride the 5 miles from the campground at the top of Monterry to the car rental site.  After picking up the car we headed to Pebble Beach and 17 mile drive which was unbelievable.  We ate lunch on the 18th green and then walked around the course and obviously went to the store to buy some unnecessary and expensive memorabolia, but that's what memorabilia is for.  We continued on up The 1 as they say in California and headed for Santa Cruz which we all thought was a big dump.  I wouldn't recommend anyone going there.  We stayed at our scheduled campground last night which was pretty much as nice as you can get for a campground.  We started a nice fire and ate at the 5 star restaurant they had at the campsite.  This might be the most expensive vacation I have ever been on.  Just had breakfast in Half Moon Bay and we are at the Apple Store in Cupertino right now, and Jesse doesn't want to leave.  After this we are going to see the Google Campus and then onto Palo Alto to see Stanford.  Our final destination is San Francisco for the next two nights.  While the biking part of the trip is finished we are all still having a great time, and we realized we wouldn't have been able to do Silicon Valley or a lot of the extra stuff we have done without a car, so I guess in the end it was all good.  FYI Jesse is buying everything that has an Apple Logo on it, it's a good thing we have a big trunk.

Thank you Avis

Jesse posting

So last night at dinner in the fishermans warf in Monterey we decided we'd had enough of the horrendous and sometimes dangerous coastal headwinds that had been blowing us around. Also some legs were very sore (mine and mike's, I think mitch's are fine) so we rented a ford explorer and began driving the final 100 miles or so. Admittedly my legs are very weak right now and have been waddling around like a goofy penguin. For lunch this afternoon we stopped at the Pebble Beach golf course somewhere between Monterey and Carmel. The grounds were beautiful and so was my salmon sandwich. Currently, we are driving around Santa Cruz looking for UC Santa Cruz.
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Monterey

Today was supposed to be an easy 40 mile day. Almost immediately we realized that wouldn't be the case. Our friend, the wind, was out in full force all morning. At mile 15 Mitch and I waited for Jesse in a freezing, windy area we later found out is called hurricane point. I'll let Jesse fill you in on the details but he never made it...he took a bus to Carmel where amazingly he met up with us again. We stopped at a bike shop in Monterey to fix a broken spoke on my back wheel. The owner recommended a great burrito place. Monterey is really nice. We are going to head to fisherman's wharf for dinner in a little while.
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Sleeping with the wind

Last night it was pretty windy, at least twice I thought my tent cover was going to blow away. Luckily I set it up like a champ (mad tent setting up skillz).

Apparently, and I'm not sure if this is true, for the second night in a row Mike has had something stolen from him by something without thumbs. The first night candy by a bird (or as I suggested a monkey with thumbs), and last night his brand spankin' new tights by only god knows what (I'm snickering to myself while typing that).

We're about to embark on day five. Legs are a little sore, but spirits are not.

We made it

Jesse posting


Currently, we're sitting in the lodge at our campsite relaxin. We just ate an enormous delicious dinner. (I had a salad Ma) Today was one of the most insane days ever and definately the hardest ride i've ever finished. 70 MILES!!My favorite part of the day had to have been when we stopped to watch actual elephant seals in their habitat. (layin in the waterand on the beach). They were massive. Think size of a 70's Buick Also, in the same area as the seals were tiny squirrils (dad I took pictures). Oh also before I forget dad instead of commenting you have been emailing mike.Hardest part of the day was everything after ragged point around mile 20. I was pretty sore today.All in all great day. Took a while almost 10 hours in the saddle (guestimate) but worth it.

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Finally in Big Sur

After waking up at 5:30 am to try to get ahead of the winds and starting our journey to Big Sur we finally made it almost 12 hours after we left. We climbed hills and descended into valleys and saw the most scenic views the Pacific Ocean has to offer. Its too bad we couldn't stop for longer and take some more pictures but we had mountains to climb in order to cover 70 miles to get to our destination. The best part of today was the elephant seals we saw right outside San Simeon (pictures to follow). The last part of the day was rough, climbing up to 1,000 feet from sea level but it was made all the more rewarding with a downhill of 3 + miles averaging about 37 mphs on the way down. It was quite the exhilarating feeling and made climbing too the top all that more rewarding. We are in the biggest hippy bar in the USA right now in Big Sur where we are going to enjoy some food and drink and rest before we start onward to Monterry tomorrow. Time to drink!!

Almost in big sur

Soooo tired...we rode 63.5 so far. Nothing on the road today. More to come in a bit. Thank god no wind today! California is awesome.
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update...made it to fernwood campground after 69 total miles. Tomorrow should be a nice easy 40 miles to Monterey.

San Simeon State Park

We made it to San simeon state park a few min ago. 58 miles of riding. No reception by our tent. Mitch and I are waiting for pizza delivery by the campground entrance haha. Today was brutal with the wind but we went through some great placess. Morro bay and pismo beach are amazing. Tomorrow is our longest day riding to Big Sur.
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