Day 65

7/19/16 San Francisco, CA, about 10 miles.  This will be the last blog post about a riding day.  I had already made it to San Francisco on Day 64, but being tired, and with the lack of fun going through urban areas with a loaded bike, I didn't ride across the city to the Pacific.  I did that on Day 65.  I spent most of the day visiting sights with my mostly unloaded bike.  In the afternoon, I rode my bike through Golden Gate Park and down to Ocean Beach.  There, I put my feet in the Pacific and washed my face with its water.  I proceeded to go back to my friend Devin's apartment and slept for 14 hours.

Fin.

Day 64

7/18/16 Davis, CA to San Francisco, CA via Vallejo Ferry, about 67 miles.  Riding out of Davis through endless orchards and fruit farms was beautiful.  I saw many other cyclists on the way, and there is a town called Winters about 15 miles west of Davis with a coffee shop frequented by Davis cyclists doing a 30 mile out and back.  The day continued nicely as I began hitting the San Francisco suburbs around mile 30.  Continuing on, a headwind began to pick up and by mile 45 I was heading straight into a strong wind.  I eventually reached Vallejo, where the housing developments and later urban development blocked the wind.  I got to the ferry dock at 3:20, in time for the 4:00 ferry across San Francisco Bay into San Francisco.  I'd have liked to bike all the way to Oakland for the shorter ferry ride, but I heard that the Vallejo Ferry is a beautiful ride, and I'll be living in the area for 5 years, so I can always go back and bike Vallejo to Oakland.  Made it to San Francisco and met up with my friend Devin for dinner.  Devin worked at the Federal Reserve during my first year there and is now working in San Francisco.  He was the first familiar face from before the trip that I have seen since leaving Virginia.  I dipped my feet in San Francisco Bay after dinner.  We got ice cream at Ghirardelli Square before heading back to his house in the Mission District.

In some respect, the trip is now over.  But I still need to bike across the Golden Gate Bridge, bike to the Pacific, and bike back to Berkeley (this time via the Oakland Ferry).  So there will be a Day 65 and probably a day 66, depending on when I do all that.

Day 63

7/17/16 Folsom, CA to Davis, CA, about 42 miles.  Started the day riding along the American River Bike Trail, a heavily used bike trail connecting Folsom and Sacramento.  In Sacramento, I saw Sac State, the California Capitol Building, and the California Museum.  Afterward, I left for Davis, the self proclaimed best city for biking.  Davis is also the first city since leaving northern Virginia on Day 5 that was familiar to me, having visited UC Davis while touring grad programs.  In Davis, I stayed with Robb and Nancy.  Robb is the mayor of Davis.

Day 62

7/16/16 Kirkwood, CA to Folsom, CA, about 84 miles.  Woke up this morning in the Sierra Nevada, a beautiful place to wake up, with a huge descent ahead of me.  I had spent most of Kansas and eastern Colorado climbing up to over 4,000 feet of elevation, and the day prior climbing another 4,000 feet to over 8,000 feet of elevation, only to lose almost all of it and return to near sea level in a single descent from the Sierra Nevada.  Then, about two miles into my ride, my rear derailleur cable snapped.  This means that my rear gear was forced into the highest gear, rendering my bike basically useless.  I was fortunate to have bought spare cables back in Damascus, VA on someone's advice, but I had never replaced a cable before.  I spent the next hour and a half trying to figure out how to switch a cable by trying new things and unscrewing all kinds of parts, as lack of cell service in the mountains removed the lifeline of phoning a friend or using Google.  Finally I figured out how to replace the cable, and it worked!  My bike was rideable once again.  I continued my way down the mountain, flying past breathtaking vistas on my way into California's San Joaquin Valley.  Finally, at about 70 miles into my ride, just outside of a town called El Dorado Hills a suburb of Sacramento, I ran into a wonderful strip mall with a Peet's coffee shop.  I had an excellent iced latte there and celebrated the success of making it to the urban parts of California.  I continued on down beautiful roads towards Folsom, where I'm being hosted by a family, the mom and dad having ridden across the country back in 1994.

Day 61

7/15/16 Dayton, NV to Kirkwood, CA, about 64 miles.  I've made it to California and to the top of the Sierra Nevada!  No more mountains, no more state borders.  I'm planning to get to the Pacific in four days from now.  This morning I went through Carson City, Nevada's state capital.  I didn't stop since there didn't seem to be much going on except people commuting to work.  The last town I got to in Nevada was Genoa, where I stopped for breakfast, but not before stopping for a picture in the town park right as the sprinklers went on, leaving me soaked.

I crossed the California border on a small side road that had more local road cyclists than cars, riding right alongside the Sierra Nevada mountains which surround Lake Tahoe.  I crossed the California border on that side road, meaning I only got a small post for a California sign, but it's better than no sign (such as in Maryland, Virginia, and Illinois..).  Right after crossing the border, I began the climb over Carson Pass through the Sierra Nevada.  The climb was about 4,000 feet from bottom to top, bringing me to an elevation of around 8,600 feet, the last time I'll even be at over 1,000 feet of elevation after I descend tomorrow.

At the top of Carson Pass, the road intersects the Pacific Crest Trail.  I got to meet some hikers and was offered some food by trail angels at the top.  Trail angels are people who help long distance hikers with food and water, and the ones here help cyclists too.

I intended to go to a campsite, but after finding a campground that was full, I decided it would be more fun to camp across the street right beside a lake surrounded by mountains.  This wasn't before being offered by two people at the campsite interested in my trip to share their site, but as it's my last night that I plan to camp, I thought doing so beside beautiful Caples Lake at the top of the Sierra Nevada would be too good to pass up.

Day 60

7/14/16 Middlegate, NV to Dayton, NV, about 96 miles.  Got an early 6am start today and the riding conditions were great.  I passed by Fallon Naval Air Station, where Navy pilots are trained, and got to see many military jets flying around.  Just before Fallon, I met two cyclists Amrit and Ajit from Nepal who are cycling around the world.  They have been through India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, and are now following a similar route across the United States as myself.  I got to Fallon, about 46 miles in, at around 10am, just in time for breakfast.  Fallon is where the population of Nevada starts to increase as I approach Reno and Carson City.  Fallon is also where the Adventure Cycling Association's Western Express route changes from Section 1 to Section 2.  This is the route that I have been following since Pueblo, and it means that I am now on the final section, Section 1 (the maps go West to East, so Section 1 is last for me).  Another accomplishment: by longitude, Fallon is west of Los Angeles. 

About 20 miles past Fallon, I came over a hill with a view of the Sierra Nevada, the mountain range sitting on the border of Nevada and California.  I saw a few peaks which could be on the California side, which means that I might have seen California (after consulting with maps for a while, I think there is fairly high probability that at least one peak is in CA).

As usual, the headwinds picked up again.  My pace slowed and I barely thought I could make it to Dayton.  The final 15 miles took almost 3 hours, on flat terrain.  I got a flat tire at one point (first since eastern Colorado) and while fixing it, a driver pulled over to help.  He's a mountain biker and explained the wind to me.  Apparently as the sun warms up the air in California's central valley, the air rises causing higher air pressure in California than Nevada.  This causes air to get sucked over the Sierra Nevada and blow strongly to the east.  I'm now glad to have an explanation as to why I've spent every afternoon in Nevada with hot air blowing in my face.  The good news is that I've been breathing California air.

Day 59

7/13/16 Austin, NV to Middlegate, NV, about 63 miles.  Today would have been an easy day if not for headwinds.  Nonetheless, I made it to my destination of Middlegate.  I met two eastbound cyclists on the way, Noah, who is riding from Portland, Oregon to Maine, and another from France, who is riding from San Diego to Montreal.  Middlegate is a town of 17 people, but it has a highway stop with a small restaurant and motel, and I'm camping outside.

Back when I was further east, I used to comment on which major Midwestern cities I had gotten west of by lines of longitude as a marker of progress.  Today, I can do the same for major West Coast cities.  By longitude, I am now west of San Diego, California.

Day 58

7/12/16 Eureka, NV to Austin, NV, about 68 miles.  The day started off very well.  I was moving quickly for the first 25 miles.  Then the headwinds started.  At first they weren't so bad.  I got up the first small climb of the day, and met two Norwegians going from LA to NY on the descent.  They were fixing a flat.  While chatting with them, holding my bike, a huge gust came that blew so hard that I lost balance trying to hold my bike up and fell over with my bike into the street.  After we chatted for a while longer, I kept going.  The winds had picked up considerably, and they were coming from straight ahead.  I was going on gently sloping uphill terrain at below 4 mph.  It was exhausting.  I was relieved when I finally got to the big mountain at the end of the day because it meant that the mountain would block the wind.  And it did help, although it was an exhausting climb given my state going into the climb.  The mountain was double peaked, with a second climb after the first descent, but finally I made it to the top of Austin Mountain, the final significant climb on route before the Sierra Nevadas in California.  That felt great.  I ended the day in Austin, a mountain town just a few miles down from the peak of Austin Mountain.  I met a guy named Gary there, who is walking across the country from Point Reyes, just north of San Francisco (he plans to take two years, though will stop in the winter to do something else and then go back to where he left off next year).  I'm camping in a city park tonight, with one week left until my planned arrival in San Francisco.

Day 57

7/11/16 Ely, NV to Eureka, NV, about 76 miles.  Woke up this morning to 33 degree temperature.  Decided to sleep in.  After the sun warmed things up a bit I got going.  Finally it wasn't too windy, and with a daytime temperature in the 70s, it was perfect for riding.  One of the best riding days so far, if not the best.  Got many thumbs ups from passing cars and waves from motorcyclists as well.  Ended the day in Eureka, which has a mostly boarded up downtown, and I really disliked the restaurant that I ate at.  Camped in a city park for the night.

Day 56

7/10/16 Baker, NV to Ely, NV, about 62 miles.  Got an early start to avoid headwinds, leaving around 5:30.  I still had headwinds, which required me to take frequent breaks as I was struggling even on the parts where the terrain was relatively flat.  Nevada has interesting topology, with big mountain ranges running north to south and long valleys in between.  That means lots of up and down, but I actually enjoy it since the passes are not very steep, so it's just pushing up for a while and then a nice long descent.  I ended in Ely, a former mining town that now has many closed up shops and lots of cheap motels and a few casinos.  I camped out in an RV park.

Day 55

Milford, UT to Baker, NV, about 82 miles.  Crossed my last state border til California, although that was just before town.  Today was a long, hot, and windy day with three small mountains.  There are no services between Milford and Baker, so I carried extra water, and I definitely needed that.  Went through four water bottles plus two sports drinks, and drank a lot more after getting to town.  I also passed a town called Frisco, UT, a former mining town that's now abandoned.  I saw a boarded up hole in the mountain that could have once been a mine entrance.  In Baker I met three eastbound cyclists Del, Engin (sp), and Derek, going from San Francisco, CA to Newton, KS, about half of the country.  They helped me with tips about the coming days through Nevada and California.

Also, I am of the suspicion that my speedometer loses track of a few miles each day.  The sign and map says there are 84 miles between Milford and Baker.  I will go with my speedometer in terms of calculating mileages, although I'm fairly certain it undercounts by about a mile for every 30 or so travelled.

Day 54

Cedar City, UT to Milford, UT, about 56 miles.  Had a great tail wind that pushed me most of the day.  I barely knew I was going uphill til I was near the top of the only hill of the day.  Cruised down at about 20 mph and had what I think is my fastest daily average so far at about 13.9 mph.  I got to town at around 2pm and spent the night in a motel.

Day 53

Cedar City, UT, 0 (3) miles.  Took a rest day in Cedar City.  Went down to the bike shop to get a new chain and brakes and a tune up.  Walked around the local college campus, Southern Utah University, which has a really cool Shakespeare theater.  Spent most of the rest of the day napping.  Joe, Jacob and I went out for Thai food.

Day 52

Panguich (Red Canyon), UT to Cedar City, UT, about 68 miles.  Cycling is not always a safe sport, and there are very high risks involved.  Please always wear a helmet, and when riding on highways with trucks, always have a rearview mirror.  These are the safety precautions that I take.

Today I woke up to a freezing cold morning.  The desert is a cold place at night.  Got started early and spent most of the morning going up Cedar Mountain, the last time I'll reach an elevation over 10,000 feet.  The 4,000 foot climb with strong gusting headwinds was long and slow and took most of the morning and afternoon.  The top had some great views of Cedar Breaks Canyon, although I was running late so I didn't go into the park area where I could get the best view.  The descent through huge canyons was beautiful, but also incredibly scary.  There was heavy traffic, lots of sharp curves, steep grades, a narrow road with no shoulder, and of course that headwind which required rebalancing at every gust and turn, which is tricky at high speeds.  I held onto the breaks for most of the descent.  I got to my destination in Cedar City around 5pm, where I'm staying with a Warm Showers host named Joe for two nights.  Jacob was already there.

I started this post with safety tips, and the reason is because I learned that Jacob wrecked on the descent from the mountain, and his bike was totalled so he will have to end his trip.  He was going at high speeds down the mountain when a truck coming around a corner passed too close.  It didn't hit him, but Jacob got caught in the draft and lost control.  He luckily was not badly injured, but he had some bad scratches to his elbow and knee.  The front wheel and fork of the bike took much of the impact.  A pickup truck stopped to check on him so he was able to hitchhike to Joe's in Cedar City.

Joe is an awesome host.  I learned about him from my friend James who came here on his cross country bike trip last year.  Joe took us out for pizza at an awesome pizzeria which had the best pizza I've had on this trip (and better than most if not all that I've had in my life).  After dinner, Joe took us to the less touristy northern edge of Zion National Park, where we saw the awesome cliffs of Zion Canyon.  It's a sight that really needs to be experienced.

I'll be staying in Cedar City for two nights, then I'll begin my planned 12 day ride to San Francisco on Friday.

Day 51

Escalante, UT to Panguich (Red Canyon), UT, about 58 miles.  Today was a very cool day.  Jacob and I continued to ride past Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument into strong headwinds.  After lunch in Tropic we headed up to Bryce Canyon City, where we left our bikes and caught a shuttle into Bryce Canyon National Park.  Bryce Canyon is stunning.  We walked around the rim of the park taking in the views.  After we saw the canyon, Jacob wanted to keep riding, but I wanted to stay and hike.  We split up and I went on a short but awesome 1.3 mile hike called the Navajo Loop Trail which went down into the canyon.  Afterward I went back into Bryce Canyon City and had dinner and continued riding for about 10 miles to Red Canyon Campground, where I'm camped in a canyon.  The nearest town is Panguich, about 11 miles from here.

Day 50

Fruita, UT to Escalante, UT, about 74 miles.  Happy July 4th!  Today was a big day in many ways.  First, it had some of the best landscapes.  This morning I started in Fruita within Capitol Reef National Park and saw Chimney Rock.  I later climbed Boulder Mountain, one of the most difficult mountains yet, and then descended along The Hogback, a stretch of steep road on a ridge with huge canyons on either side.  I finished the day going through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  The second way in which this day was big is that it was probably the most challenging.  I'll have to consult with Google at some point, but it had what I believe to be the most elevation gain of any day thus far, and very steep roads going up Boulder Mountain and winding through the canyons.  There was also a hailstorm at the top of Boulder Mountain, but luckily I had just stopped to take a picture and there was a small shelter nearby.  Third, I met two more cyclists.  One going east (but doing a loop going back towards LA after Pueblo) named Jim stopped under the shelter with me during the hailstorm and we chatted briefly.  Then at the bottom of the mountain, I met Jacob from Berlin, Germany who is going west to San Francisco and eventually finishing in LA and we happen to be staying at the same place on Wednesday evening.  We rode together for the rest of the day and will ride through to Cedar City on Wednesday.  Fourth, I have met a big milestone: I am within 1,000 miles of San Francisco.  I now have an expected end date of July 19, which includes fourteen more days of riding and one planned day off in Cedar City.

Day 50

Fruita, UT to Escalante, UT, about 74 miles.  Happy July 4th!  Today was a big day in many ways.  First, it had some of the best landscapes.  This morning I started in Fruita within Capitol Reef National Park and saw Chimney Rock.  I later climbed Boulder Mountain, one of the most difficult mountains yet, and then descended along The Hogback, a stretch of steep road on a ridge with huge canyons on either side.  I finished the day going through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  The second way in which this day was big is that it was probably the most challenging.  I'll have to consult with Google at some point, but it had what I believe to be the most elevation gain of any day thus far, and very steep roads going up Boulder Mountain and winding through the canyons.  There was also a hailstorm at the top of Boulder Mountain, but luckily I had just stopped to take a picture and there was a small shelter nearby.  Third, I met two more cyclists.  One going east (but doing a loop going back towards LA after Pueblo) named Jim stopped under the shelter with me during the hailstorm and we chatted briefly.  Then at the bottom of the mountain, I met Jacob from Berlin, Germany who is going west to San Francisco and eventually finishing in LA and we happen to be staying at the same place on Wednesday evening.  We rode together for the rest of the day and will ride through to Cedar City on Wednesday.  Fourth, I have met a big milestone: I am within 1,000 miles of San Francisco.  I now have an expected end date of July 19, which includes fourteen more days of riding and one planned day off in Cedar City.

Day 49

Hite, UT to Fruita, UT, about 87 miles.  This morning had some beautiful riding but steep climbs.  I had a light breakfast and spent 50 miles rushing to the next town, Hanksville, so I could get some food.  There I found an awesome gas station with a burger restaurant inside that had veggie burgers.  I had two veggie burgers and a large milkshake.  After that I had some energy to ride to Fruita, right in the middle of Capitol Reef National Park.  I had to fight through strong headwinds coming from a nearby storm, slowing me by about an hour, but the storm did provide some shade, so perhaps it was a fair trade.  I got to the campsite in Capitol Reef and it is beautiful.  Did a short hike up a cliff to watch the sunset.

Day 48

Blanding, UT to Hite, UT, about 78 miles.  Utah has some interesting landscapes.  Went past huge cliffs and rock formations sticking straight out of the ground.  It's really cool to see.  The desert is a beautiful place, and it has a sweet smell to it.  There were some clouds this morning and light sprinkles which kept it cool.  There were no towns on the way to Hite, and by the afternoon it got very hot.  The store in Hite was closed when I got there and the heat was getting to me, so I tried to go right to sleep.  As I was lying in my tent, two people drove into the ranger station that I was camping at to dial 911.  They had been hiking in a canyon and they went into a pool of water about 10 feet below the trail and some members of the group couldn't get back out after an hour and a half of trying to get them out.  Only the two who showed up had made it out.  The nearest town was 50 miles away and the sheriff took 1.5 hours to arrive.  It was getting dark at that time and I don't know how the story resolved.  There was talk of needing a helicopter to get them out of the canyon.  In that time two people showed up in a car supporting their friend going east across the country on a road bike.  He showed up a bit later and we talked for a while before they went off to camp just down the road.  He's getting a PhD in Computer Science at Stanford.

Day 47

Dolores, CO to Blanding, UT, about 79 miles.  Made it to Utah today.  The cliffs and canyons in this area are just magnificent.  There was cold rain all day, and it poured rain for about an hour, but this is probably preferable to the desert heat that I'll soon experience.  In Blanding I'm staying in a motel again to avoid camping in possible thunderstorms tonight.  The rain system should be gone after tomorrow, but hopefully some clouds will linger behind to provide shade.  I talked to an employee at the hotel in Blanding and he grew up in Parsippany, NJ, a town not too far from where I grew up.