Knocked off and the End of the Road

Hello all.

Well I have made it to the end of my journey. I got to the border with Mexico on Saturday afternoon and have since been hanging out in San Diego.

The feelings of finishing the ride were a lot more dramatic than the actual event itself as there were no cheerleaders, fanfares or fireworks at the end funnily enough just a bit of a dull checkpoint! I spent the last few miles leading up to the border fairly emotional as it was the end of the adventure.

The finish line!
The day of the last ride I found pretty difficult. I wasn't liking the thought of not having another days riding and destination ahead of me as it is what has been driving me along for the past month and a bit. It was also a fairly uneventful days riding, certainly compared with having to ride through the metropolis of L.A. a few days before.

The night before riding through I had stayed a ca campsite in Malibu which was although as expensive as some of the Motels I had stayed in in the NW did have a certain charm to it as hopefully this picture justifies

Malibu Campsite

I'd also managed to get there in good time so spent a little while on an empty beach which is not so easy to find around here. Check the hipster beer shot.

I made a really early start the following morning as I thought it was going to be a stressful days riding through the city. Stress was an understatement as I made it through relatively unscathed as much through luck than judgement. It was the scariest riding I have ever done in my life and not something that I would choose to do again.

Entering LA
This stretch was fine as there was a 4 mile long traffic jam but before this I had to weave through parked cars and wheelie bins with 3 lanes of traffic behind me all going at least 50mph, not nice.

Thankfully after that there was a really well looked after cycle path through a lot of the northern beaches. It was surreal riding along these as it was about 8am and no one was around, not what I had imagined from LA city beaches. I got to Venice beach just as it was waking up which was an interesting spectacle. There were a lot of homeless people around and all of them looking pretty strung out, I sat and got a coffee and watched the world go by for an hour or so which was an interesting sight.

On my way again and through more deserted beach cycle paths such as this. It was a shame the sun was not out but it felt great to be making such good progress with the ride.

The peace and quiet soon ended though as I had to get back on to the Pacific Coast Highway with the goal of Newport beach being the end of the days ride. This was the hairiest riding I have ever done and it is no coincidence that this is where I got knocked off my bike for the first time ever. I was sat stationary at some traffic lights for 30 seconds or so and next thing I knew I was on the floor! Some old man in a big 4x4 had just driven straight into the back of me! Thankfully there was no harm done and after I had exchanged a number of angry words with the guy and picked my bike up and dusted myself down he had thrown $20 at me and driven off!!! A little shaken up I got to Huntington as quickly as I could where another cycle path started and the sun had come out bringing the beach to life.

Huntington
Leigh who I know from trade shows down the years had kindly agreed to host me in Costa Mesa that evening and it was great to see a friendly face after such an eventful day.

Leigh

The next days ride to Encinitas was nowhere near as eventful thankfully and again it was great to know someone there, one of Hughs' friends from his US tours out here Mike Sherk. Thanks Mike. That then lead to the last days ride to the border and a trip back to San Diego after I had completed the ride where I am now.

A great day yesterday taking in the sunshine, the city and my first ever baseball game.

Go Padres!

I fully embraced the culture by drinking horrible beer and eating a veggie hot dog (the only Baseball stadium in the US which serves them) The padres won which apparently is rare and I missed the only 2 runs of the entire game as we arrived late due to watching England lose on penalties....again! A great day out though and a massive thank you to Taryn for hosting me so well here.

I fly back on Wednesday and have to now go and find a bike box and suitcase from somewhere but I'm thinking I will go and have a ride around the velodrome http://sdvelodrome.com/ .

Thanks for your time in reading the blog, it may well be my last but then again maybe not. It's been good to know that some of you have enjoyed reading it and has cheered me up to hear some responses when times have become a little tricky or lonely.

It's been an amazing trip and has really opened my eyes up to cycle touring as it is so much fun and as cheesy as it may sound I feel as though I have learnt a fair bit more about myself by spending this amount of time on my own.

Nice one,
Sam x

The end's in sight

Hello all.

I am currenlty in Solvang which is a Danish town a fair few miles inland from the coast. I have taken a route away from the coast for a change of scenery as the coastline has become really busy and not as picturesque as it has been in Northern / Central California.

There has also been a change in the fact that it feels as though I could already be in Mexico! The language in some towns is just Spanish and english speakers will be in the minority. The most obvious example of this is a town called Guadalope. There is such large scale farming of strawberries, artichockes, celery and cabbage around here and all the workers are of Mexican origin. There has been some great food as a result of this though.

Here's an example of the landscape. Flat and full of farm fields. Not the most exciting of riding but good to clock up some miles. The days have started cloudy for the first few hours but it soon burns off an gets into the late 20's I guess, sometimes more inland but never too hot to cycle in.

Last night I stayed in a place called Lompoc which is hame to the Vandenburg Airforce base where they used to launch rockets into space. I had a really nice climb before hand and then this was the view down to the town

Lompoc
I was very kindly hosted by Roger and Ellen Perkins here who looked after me so well. I was fed and watered and offered a bed. It felt like such luxury. I had met Roger a few days earlier at a campground and he was good to his word of looking after me. I owe them a big thanks. If you ever want to charter a yacht in the British Virgin Islands be sure to check out www.sailillusion.com .

A couple of days earlier I had stayed at a campsite at San Simieon. In the field next door they had these roaming freely

Zebras from Hearst Castle.

After spotting these I got shots of another great sunset on the beach.

The day before here I had stayed at a great campsite alongside the Big Sur stretch of road overlooking the coast. There was more problems with Racoons though as they managed to lift the lid on the food storage box and stole my 7 avacodes I'd got for a dollar earlier in the day. I even caught them in the act of it!

Here's some more shots of that stretch of road. It was a truely incredible 50 mile ride.

As soon as the climbing on this stretch of road ended it went really flat and these were the main occupants of the otherwise desterted beaches.

Well that's about it for now. I am planning on catching the England game after a couple of Danish pastries and ending up in Santa Barbara this evening. By the weekend the riding will be over, what will I do then?

Thanks for reading,

Sam x  

Santa Cruz, Monterey & Big Sur

Hello all.

I am currently in the library in Big Sur after just having cycled the most incredible 25 miles form Monterey. My goal is to finish up here and then go and subject my self to the pain of watching England play football. Apparenlty the road after here is even better so if I feel to dejected after that I know I will be cheered up quickly.

Here's some shots of the road I have just been on. Whoops, it wont work so you'll just have to take my word for it.

South of Half Moon Bay the coast is definately getting more of a beach culture vibe to it. Santa Cruz seemed pretty cool but pretty touristy. There was a small swell but tthe waves here are so slow, it's hard to believe that they break at all. There were some pretty good skim boarders out as well as I'd never seen it done properly.

The next days ride to Monterey reminded me of the east of England but on a much bigger scale. I cycled for about 30 miles on flat lands through strawberry fields as far as the ye could see mixed up with an occasional artichoke field. I stopped at a market stall and got a lot of strawberries and the bargain of the century. 7 Avaocados for a dollar!

Monteray was also pretty cool, I cycled around a private road called 17 mile drive with numerous golf coarses all alongside the road right by the coast. That night I met a guy at a campsite from the British Virgin Islands who took me under his wing and drove me around in his MG to go and get some food. It was a lot of fun and he has offered me a place to stay 100miles south in Lompoc which is great.

Right as there are no pictures I will leave it at that for now, I may ask my Dad to stick some up in the meantime if I can mail some to him.

Nice one,

Sam x

South of San Fran

Hello everyone.

I am currently sat in the Libarary of Half Moon Bay, California. The town made famous not only by the big wave surfing spot Mavericks but also one of Hugh J Nobles' smash hit "The girls of Half Moon Bay" Hopefully I will meet a few later on as Hughs' friend Adam is going to show me around the town which seems lovely.

Obligitaory Golden Gate shot

My time is tight so the blog wont be long as I only have 20 minutes. I had a couple of days off in San Francisco the past couple of days and enjoyed some time out of the saddle. Scorching weather which apparently is rare so made the most of it. I had hoped to get to see the Giants play baseball but I missed them by a day. The stadiuam looked amazing though.

As I crossed the Golden Gate, half way across I met a guy cycling in the other direction and he was wearing a Forest shirt.....AMAZING!

The night before I got into town I camped out on the Marin headlands, home of mountain biking. It was an incredible campspot overlooking the bridge and totally isolated. This was what I needed before entering into a big city for the first time since Vancouver.

Here's a panoramic of the road up to the camp.

It's been great riding as well, some really strong tail winds along the way and have been meeting some really interesting people, some a lot more sane than others but all of them worth spending the time to talk to. There seems to be a LOT of washed up hippies in California and there is a lot of pot being smoked everywhere. I have been offered it for breakfast a couple of times now from people who just seem to camp all year rather than live in a home. The most interesting person I met so far was a cycling hobo named David. He had done 13,000 miles on his bike and didn't have a home but just loved riding his bike, he had a nice set up and three dollars to his name. I bumped into him asleep under a tree and shared a 6 pack of beer with him that I was taking back to me tent. He seemes so happy with his lot that I could forgive him his brief religious nutcase rantings and take him for the super nice guy he was.

The following day I met someone whse love for cycling was the same but maybe a little more with it. A guy named Matt who had taken his two daughters on a 7 day tour camp with the above incredible bike. We had a lovely evening at the camp and chatted till dark. He has a compant called Disanto who make really cool merino cycling hats. http://www.disantoclothing.com/ of which I have kindly been given one.

My time is nearly up so i will just add a few more pictures as they may be of some interest

Thanks for reading,

Sam

California and massive trees..

Well all is well here, just had one really wet day which was almost welcome as it took me back to the adventures a  the start of the trip.

I am now in sunny California. Well it is now, it wasn't the day i crossed into the state.

It was sad saying goodbye to Oregon and all the people I had met. Top of the list were a couple from Kansas called Don and Mary who had spen the week before Dons' daughter was getting married by cycling to her wedding. It was great bumping into them from time to time on the trip and sharing some stories. I hope one day they can make it over to the UK and we can go for a ride back home.

The first day riding in California was pretty hard. 70 miles or so and some big climbs out of Crescent City but it was after then that the riding became a lot of fun. After a 5 mile climb I was at the top of a long but shallow 7 mile decent through the Redwood Forests along a road called the Newton B Dury Scenic Parkway. The road was cutting through Redwood forests.

Such as this
Now I had heard about how big the trees are but seeing them is something else. It is amazing just jumping off the bike and going for a walk through the forest. It is so peaceful and eiree in there and makes you feel so tiny. Some of them are over 350ft tall! Kanckered after a long ride I ptched tent at a campsite and had these guys as interesting neighbours....

Elk
Apparently they can do you quite a nasty if they take a disliking of you!

The next pleace I stopped was Eureka. They have a really good brewery there called Lost Coast where I had one too many and wobbled back on my bike after meeting some good people in there.

The next day I had more riging through the Redwoods on a great road whic was pretty much empty for 35 miles and cut through the Forests see below.

I tried a shot with my self timer and this was the result, It had been raining all day but the mood was still good, better han the photography any how.

The night after this I treated myself to a B&B in a town called Miranda, which was really friendly place you will be glad to know.

Apart from the foryas ino the Redwoods the riding had been horrid. All on dual carriageways with fast moving traffic and then yesterday on single lane, really busy roads with a lot of logging trucks.....scary. You have to pedal flat out for about 3 minutes then take a rest and wait for some more traffice to go by then go again.

Thankfully I am now on the US 1 after getting on to it and heading back to the coast. This will now take me to SF 200 miles or so away. Route 1 is a great road, busy at times but through spectacular scenery and rolling hills. Yesterday I climbed up to 2000 ft and had an amazing decent all the way back to sea level.

It's great to be riding along the coast again and I have met another tourer from Australia who has been good company. It was nice to have some companionship riding and also to drink a few beers with whilst watching the sunset last night over the ocean.

The road to Fort Bragg this morning

I am now sat in a library in Fort Bragg. I have only done about 15 miles today and I am not planning on many more as the sun is out and it's a scorcher. A day on the beach awaits.

I am a bit apprehensive about arriving in the big city of San Francisco soon as it has been such great wilderness for the trip so far.

Thanks for reading
Sam

Some pictures at last

Hello everyone. Well I am in a library in Bandon, Oregon and the computer will allow me to put some pictures up so it could be a little picture heavy. Above is a stretch of road I cycled this morning, it was beautiful and empty.

Yesterday I had my first rest day and really enjoyed a day off the bike, I spent it how any good Brit abroad would and sat on the beach and got sunburnt! I was staying just outside of a town called Chalrseton and it was a lovely campsite near a beach. The beach was called sunset so aptly enough I managed to view my first one of the trip here. (see picture)

There was a Botanical garden there also and it made me feel like I was back home to some extent.It felt surreal that just behind me was the crashing Pacific Ocean yet here it was so peaceful.

The day spent riding to get here had been great, as have all of the days of late. My legs are starting to feel really strong now and also there has been a very helpful tail wind the whole way. The expanse of sand dunes was incredible,

Hopefully this panoramic shot does it some justice.

I have been feeling really good about the whole trip of late and enjoying my own company. I am sure that the sunshine has helped a lot. As have stretches of road like the above here.

In a couple of days I will be leaving Oregon and arriving in Northern California where there are some bigger hills and to start off with the Redwood forests which I a excited about seeing.

Hopefully this one's a bit more interesting with some pictures.

Speak soon
Sam x

A computer which I thought worked, sunshine and a theiving Racoon

Hello.

I am currently in a town called Reedsport which is fairly central in Oregon. The miles have been flying passed helped by a good tail wind and also some incredible scenery.

Since I last wrote I have camped evey night which has been good fun and kept the cost of the trip down. The Staurday night however I got a bit of a fright when I awoke to my food bags getting ripped to shreds outside, It was hard to get back to sleep after this but somehow managed. 2 hours later I woke up to a big warm lump sat on top of my tent...! I shouted and pushed it off and lay awake for about 2 hours after that..I can just invisage the Racoon using my tent as a hammock whilst eating my food!

As I can now put some pictures up I will add a few that should have been in the last update.......

Well I would but just found out that I still can not upload pictures....Foiled at the final hurdle!

So it looks like it's just back to my drone again...

Riding from Tillamook there were some steepish climbs up over 3 capes but all of them were worth it as the views were spectaular.

It was yesterday however that the I had my best day of the trip. I stopped off at a really cool bike charity project (Green Bike Co.) where I tweaked the bike I rode to a town called Yachats and as I was there the sun proeprly burst through the grey that had been overhead for 3 days. This coincided with such an amazing stretch of coastal road. Route 101 hugged the coast and climbed up and down. The views were awe inspiring and it bought me to tears again as it was the first time that I could see so much of the coastline and all in brilliant sunshine. This 25 mile stretch I will remember for the rest of my life. It maybe took me about 2 and a half hours to cover the distance as I just had to keep stopping to take pictures (again imagine them here if the bloody computer would allow me to put them up...!) At the end of this stretch I arrived at the Oregon Dunes. They spread for what looks like an enternity and inland they have a number of beautiful lakes surrounded by trees. The dunes are enormous too, I tried walking up one but I was too tired after a ride and gave up not even half way up one.

It's been cool meeting fellow tourers as well. A really cool retired couple form Kansas who I have bumped into twice in campsites, a German couple who I shared a bottle of wine with last night and a girl from Oakland who I rode with for 10 miles or so. They have all been realy cool people and super friendly as have all the locals. I am pleased to say though that I have not yet been overtaken by anyone else with touring gear and hope to keep it that way the whole trip.

Well, I will leave it at that for now, I really wish that I could sort out the pictures and as soon as I do you will all get bombarded..

Missing home a bit but every corner I turn offers me something new and exciting so I am holding up well. Maybe I will treat myself to a day off the saddle tomorrow though.

Thanks for reading,
Sam x