While in Oakland I got to thinking about the days to come, and after much hemming and hawing, decided that instead of biking clear to Arizona through days of farms and deserts, I would take the enjoyable alternative. This was to bike down the coast all the way as far as Los Angeles, and from there take a cheap train ride to Flagstaff. This decision was a great relief to me, who had been feeling a bit of time pressure, and was also not totally mentally prepared for going many days without a campsite or trees to hang a hammock, and also many miles at a time with no water.
The rest of my time in Oakland was a breeze. Visiting sweet infoshops and toyshops and coffeeshops, hearing some great music and partying on the beach in San Fran with my newly made Cuban friend Fredo and Jenny, an old friend newly moved to the bay. I also checked out Sacred Rose Tattoo, where my good friends house mate Amanda works, received my friend Helen for a few hours, and soaked up the mid november sun. On the last morning, Zach, Sadie, and James saw me off with a heaping breakfast meal before I headed on to the train out of the city.
My first day was a long, exciting, and ultimately challenging one. I went up along the skyline avenue south of S.F. towards Santa Cruz, and it was definately a big jump back into the saddle, reaching heights of 3000 ft elevation along some points in the trail after starting from sea level. I passed the original Alice's Restaurant (though I only learned it was the original many weeks later), and many beautiful lookouts over the bay and the sea. I was in kinda a weird head space, starting the very physical work after a week of rest, and also wrestling with some emotional issues associated with my break-up with my longtime girlfriend Jen. Nonetheless, the motion and adrenaline where a good distraction.
As the day wore on, I started to get a bit worried about reaching my intended destination by nightfall. About an hour from sunset I was still climbing, and peaked the hill with even less light left. I raced headlong back down the hill and covered 15 miles in about half an hour, but I was still about 10 miles from my camp when the light went away completely. I stopped at a little restaurant, figuring it was dark already, it didn't matter if I rested now or not, plus i thought the homecoming traffic might lessen. Over a traditional german sausage and Erdinger beer (thanks for the tip Andreas!) I chatted with a young bartender about life in Santa cruz, before recommencing my trip. I made it the several miles in the dark with just a little headlight, to the park, and after riding a mile into the entrance station, found that the actual campground was about 4 miles around the other side of the park. I headed back and around, and about two miles in encountered yet another ridiculous hill. About half-way up the hill I felt my back end wobbling more than it should, and stopped to find that a screw had come off holding my rack to the bike. So, in the dark on the side of the road I had a little freakout. I calmed a bit and fixed the issue with a thick piece of wire, then climbed back on and crawled the last mile or two to the campsite. Wouldn't ya know, it was closed for the season. Disregarding the rules never felt so good. I slept like a babe that night.
The next day I made it into Santa Cruz early and tootled around, saw a monarch cluster (not a big one) and enjoyed the town, before heading on down the road. A few miles in I got pulled over by a cop, who read me the riot act on not biking on the freeway, even though it was the same highway 1 which I had been on for hundreds of miles. Then he made me wait awhile for another car to come to give a sobriety test (why a long distance biker on a freeway would be in any way intoxicated is beyond me), and then when I passed with flying colors, apologetically gave me a ride off of the freeway and directions to get to my next camp.
The next day I fumbled around the Salinas valley, trying to find my way to Monterey while avoiding Hwy 1, which I now knew was not an option. I had intended to go the Aquarium, but the 30 dollar price tag was a bit too steep, and I continued on my way, entering Big Sur an hour before sunset. Here I had another ride in the dark for an hour after dark. In the campsite I met some excellent folks from Montreal, Antonie and Andree, who were biking from Vancouver BC to San Diego, the whole coast. I road with them for the next day, passing through the beautiful Big Sur area, which is similar in many ways to highway 1 around Fort Bragg, north of San Fran. It was interesting to be in Central California, and still be fifty miles either way to the nearest grocery store. The coastline here is just as dramatic as the northern parts, but it is easier because there are many more bridges, so that you don't have to roll in and out of the gullys. On the final day coming out of Big Sur, I passed a cool spot with hundreds of elephant seals lounging around, and was really happy to see these crazy big beasts.
The last couple days riding towards LA were pretty and uneventful. My knee started hurting really bad around San Luis Obispo, but i found just the correct muscle that was hurting, rubbed it intensely with my hands and tiger balm, and the next day I was pain free. I ran into a father/son team who had started in Portland, Ben and Tony from Pittsburgh, and wound up biking with them for a couple days, entering LA together. Otherwise, I just cruised and enjoyed the sun through the last days, through Santa Barbara, Malibu (the town that stretches for 20 some miles with no real center, just giant mansions), and finally into Santa Monica and Venice, where i met up with Deniz and Alex, my hosts in Portland and my hosts in LA!
In LA, I spent alot of time hanging out, and enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends new and old, including all of the wonderful dishes that one should expect and so much warmth and cheer that it about made me explode with happiness. I also saw the fantastic Mr. Fox, which I have been waiting for years to see, and it was awesome, as well as visiting a really cool hippie hangout where Alex may or may not move in the hills near LA. Two days after Thanksgiving I got on a train to Flagstaff, and had a wonderful evening staring out at the passing Mojave desert in the moonlight, talking to a Swedish girl I met on the train. In Flag, we went together with a friend of hers to a sweet little coffeeshop and had a wonderful breakfast, at which point we parted with exchanged facebook information, and I gathered a few essentials before getting picked up by my new host Belle.
Thus concludes the current journey, but really only a leg of it. My life here is exciting and adventureful, and I will be sure to write soon with more info about it, as well as a host of pictures from the trip and after (as soon as I get my disposable camera developed)
Cheers, Larken
Post script: If any of you have been feeling blue lately, you are not alone. You may be experiencing a viral bummer, sent from Southern Montana, or an unfathomable bummer when contemplating the gyre in the North Pacific, or just thinking of the whole year of 2009 as one collassal bummer, but fear not. We hear at High-altitude gardens have begun work in our newly established BBTI (bummer blocker technologies institute) to research a new device called a bummer shield to block all of the potentially harmful bummer particles flowing through the ether. Look for new products arriving soon, in many pleasing colors that will be sure to keep you happy and bum free.
Oh Larken how you are missed! It sounds like your trip has not been short on adventures and good times, so I am incredibly happy and admitedly jelous. Cheers too you and to the new year!
ReplyDeletep.s. I want a bummer blocker!!!