Day 70 - Welcome to California!

Distance: 46.96mi | Time: 4:21 | 1442kcal | 1572 vertical feet

california-coastal-trail-through-the-redwoodsToday we crossed the border from Oregon to California. State number six of eight! More than half of the trip is done and about 330mi left to San Francisco. On a map of the visitor’s information we found a cool trail for bicyclists and hikers which follows directly the coast line and leaves the 101 for a while. It would have been perfect, if there wouldn’t have been fog all around the coast today. The sight was therefore limited to about 30 feet. We felt soon little water drops sticking to our eye leashes during the ride. There’s a campground right at the beginning of this coastal trail which is closed for the winter season. This means, we had the entire campground for us. Currently we are sitting in our tent, listening to the sound of the ocean, which is about 100y yards away from us and will make us fall asleep soon!

Day 71 - California Coastal Redwoods (Sequoia giganteum)

Distance: 53.85mi | Time: 6:22 | 2234kcal | 3303 vertical feet

131021-california-coastal-redwoods-coastal-trailWe continued our ride further south and had to realize soon, that the Coastal Trail here in the Redwood National Forest is not well maintained. Although it was considered a bicycle trail, we walked our bikes about half of the trail. At the end of this effort we at least had a nice trail through the Coastal Redwood Trees here. These types of trees grow more than 300 feet tall and can become more than 1000 years old. Some of them have 15 feet in diameter. It has a mystical flair riding through these kinds of forests. You see only super big columns where the branches first start at about 60 feet height. Since there was a storm just recently, we found many seeds of these trees and collected some of them, to grow our own Redwood in Munich soon :-) Later we made the way until Patriks Point State Park. The clouds were still here and we could only hear the ocean most of the time. At the end of the day, we used our crazy bright bike lamps and set them to “blinking” function, to make the cars keep the safety distance to us. And oh wonder, almost everybody passed us with good distance, we should have done that way earlier ;-) 131021-california-coastal-redwoods-hole131021-california-coastal-redwoods-top

Day 72 + 73 - Camping next to a giant

Distance: 81.18mi + 45.18mi | Time: 6:42 + 4:39 | 2397 + 1562 kcal | 2824 + 2884 vertical feet

camping-in-the-redowoods-unusual-campgroundpacific-coast-bicycle-routeWe continued our ride further south and had to realize soon, that the Coastal Trail here in the Redwood National Forest is not well maintained. Although it was considered a bicycle trail, we walked our bikes about half of the trail. At the end of this effort we at least had a nice trail through the Coastal Redwood Trees here. These types of trees grow more than 300 feet tall and can become more than 1000 years old. Some of them have 15 feet in diameter. It has a mystical flair riding through these kinds of forests. You see only super big columns where the branches first start at about 60 feet height. Since there was a storm just recently, we found many seeds of these trees and collected some of them, to grow our own Redwood in Munich soon :-) Later we made the way until Patriks Point State Park. The clouds were still here and we could only hear the ocean most of the time. At the end of the day, we used our crazy bright bike lamps and set them to “blinking” function, to make the cars keep the safety distance to us. And oh wonder, almost everybody passed us with good distance, we should have done that way earlier ;-) riding-the-bicycle-through-the-avenue-of-the-giants-redwood-forestsmall-redwood-seedlings

Day 74 - The ride though a tree

Distance: 58.17mi | Time: 5:54 | 2055 kcal | 4275 vertical feet

chandelier-tree-drive-through-tree-in-leggett-with-bicyclethe-route-one-californias-west-coastToday we went to a place, where they carved out a hole in a redwood tree so people and even cars can fit through. Of course we didn’t want to miss the change in doing this on our journey and so we paid for this tourist attraction and rode through it. And this tree is incredible 2400 years old and has a diameter of 21 feet. The further journey brought us away from the 101 and on the route 1. This is the old highway which follows the coast down to San Francisco. We made it until the Russian Gulch State Park, which was closed. Since it was close to dark (about 6PM) we decided to stay anyhow. We set up out tent in a small redwood forest and after we got all set up the noises started. Currently we’re sitting in front of our camp-fire and realizing, there are raccoons all around us. Luckily there’s a bathroom to lock the food away!west-coast-usa-riding-the-route-1

Day 75 - Along the coast

Distance: 73.09mi | Time: 6:58 | 2612 kcal | 5671 vertical feet

gopro-west-coast-of-californiawest-coast-of-california-shore-with-bicycleWe rode further down the route 1 with tail-wind and sunshine the entire day. Only the traffic increased quite a bit on this highway. Our first stop was a cool picnic place directly at the shore of the pacific high up on one of the peninsula cliffs. The highway 1 misses a bit on bridges, so it is mainly an up and down, where no major passes are reached, but it sums up after an entire day. Sometimes the scenery here reminded us to some race tracks from “Need for Speed” .It’s a kind of narrow but really good paved road following either directly at the shore of the ocean or a bit inside with windy curves and many trees. Even on a bicycle the curves are fun, that’s how windy the road is. The landscape reminded us a bit to the tundra in Africa but with trees. The trees are also different, now they are more the ones growing in dry lands. random-picture-of-the-west-coast-california

Day 76 + 77 - Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge

Distance: 43.73mi | Time: 4:39 | 1703 kcal | 3231 vertical feet

biking-the-route-one-california-fogThe density of the VW busses “vanagon” greatly increased the last few days. This means we’re getting closer to San Francisco, the town which was famous for the hippy-movement in earlier days. Many alternative relicts of this time can still be seen in this town. Of course we took the way over the Golden Gate Bridge, the most famous building in this town and went further to the most crooked street on earth on Lombard. We sneaked in ahead of many cars full with tourists; that’s the benefit of a bicycle tourist :-) Later we came down to the harbor to catch a boat over to Alcatraz but unfortunately even at that time reservations of 2 days before Are required, so we gave us some little time at the Pier 39. This pier is now owned by sea lions making loud noises and fighting with each other for the best spots on the wood. There you can watch them from less than 10 feet away sleeping on the dock and pushing themselves in the water. All the time followed by the loud “onk-onk” noise.the-golden-gate-bridge-san-franciscocricket-street-in-san-francisco-with-bicycle