12/10/2010 Day 42 Vancouver to Mexico

Distance Travelled: San Luis Obispo to Lompoc campground 62 Miles (100km)

Money Spent: Went all out today and spent $3 on cream cheese and $0.25 for a 3 minute shower

Time cycling: 4 hours 30 min

Total Distance Traveled: 2586 km

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I slept on the floor of in one of the girls rooms last night and slept very well although Kendra slept on the couch outside because I left my music on my headphones too loud and she couldn’t sleep. Sorry Kendra. I should have turned it down.

After travelling for such a long time I have grown a habit to listen to music to get to sleep, this is because of hostel dorm rooms where people are either snoring or coming in drunk (which in most situations would likely be me), the music blocks out the noises around me and I just hear the music localized in my headphones. Now I can’t sleep if I don’t have any music, mind you, I listen to some of the heaviest Scandinavian metal bands to do this and I wouldn’t have it any other way. People are very surprised that I can sleep so well listening to the music that I do, but it works for me.

Today wasn’t as hot as yesterday and the first 30 miles of today’s cycle was very cruisy through farmland and I did it in one stretch until arriving in the town of Guadalupe where I had lunch. This town seemed almost completely Mexican aside from the one saloon bar on the main drag with every corner shop seemed to be selling Tacos or Burritos.

I followed the cycle route down the highway to Harris Grade road that was closed to all traffic due to construction; I went into it anyway because I didn’t want to cycle back up the road I came to take the detour, also when I spoke to Jeff on the phone yesterday he mentioned that I could cycle up it. I didn’t have any problems cycling this road but at about ¾ up the steep hill one of the screws holding my back rack of my bike broke in half making it too unstable to ride. I managed to do a quick fix that subsequently made my rear break touch and go, but at least this way my bike was cyclable.

I took it easy down the snaking downhill stretch into Lompoc where I found a hiker/biker campsite. I would have continued further to catch up with Charlie and Sasame (as they should be ahead of me) but im not in any rush because I have booked two nights in a hostel in Santa Monica for Friday and saturday (in three days time) and its not very far away.

At this campsite I met Steve who cycled with his guitar and loved his peanut butter which I think was his dinner and shortly after meeting him Jay who I met in Half Mon Bay showed up.

I made quite the concoction for dinner – brussell sprouts and already cooked burger mince sautéed in a cream cheese chicken flavored sauce that was surprisingly tasty.

Sorry, no pics today. There was nothing worth taking a picture of… maybe tomorrow.

11/10/2010 Day 41 Vancouver to Mexico

Distance Travelled: San Simeon SP to San Luis Obispo 46 Miles (74km)

Money Spent: $4 at the Grocery store and $3 for an ice-cream chocolate drink

Time cycling: 4 hours 15 min

Total Distance Traveled: 2486 km

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The guides for the family camping holiday left early this morning giving the three of us everything they didn’t need to take… strawberries, hard boiled eggs, Gatorade, hot chocolate sachets, the leftovers from last night and even some ground beef that they were just going to throw away, I honestly wished I had more room in my bags to take more but under the constant heat of the sun all the perishables would turn a little manky.

I developed a bit of a cough over the night which sucks but it didn’t really bother me too much but let’s hope it goes away.

The sun got very hot very quickly this morning which is only going to get worse the further south I go and now I’m sporting a very nice tan line for my legs - just above the knee down to my sock line, both my arms - from a sleeveless shirt and my nose – from my sunglasses which I try not to wear all the time as I’m trying not to go for the reverse raccoon look.

We cruised the flat terrain where the wind blew us 20 miles with very little effort we passed a bunch of small seaside towns including one that had a population of 18 people… and I’m not kidding, it was that small.

In the town of Cayucos I parted from Charlie and Sasame to find the library to use the internet and to recharge a bunch of my gadgets and gizmos, unfortunately it was closed for over half the week but whats really irritation is that for the past few days every library I’ve tried to check out has been closed. Bad luck I suppose.

I trucked on through to Los Luis Obispo in the heat of the midday sun where I had lunch with all the leftovers given to me in the morning on a bench in a dog park, not surprisingly being surrounded by dogs as I made and ate my food.

Again the Library was closed here so I found a café where the staff were very friendly, so much so when I finished up using the internet on of the staff (Jen) asked if I had a place to stay for the night. I was going to meet up with Charlie and Sasame at the next state park camp site to make chili together, but I’m sure they will understand if I didn’t show.

Jen was a very sound chick I would like to say she was hitting on me by inviting me to her place but her housemates are involved with warm showers and thought I would need a place to stay. It was still too hot to cycle so I took her up on the offer.

She lived in a huge house with 18 others, I quickly got to meet everyone and their friends and had a great time playing basketball, riding a high bike (which is a lot easier than it looks – its essentially 2 bike frames stacked on top of each other – amazingly good fun too) and helping out with the invitations for a 300+ people party they will be throwing for Halloween in a couple of weeks.

When they found out I was something of a cook I was roped into cooking a few dishes at dinner as a contribution for letting me stay. Most of the people in the household were vegetarians and they just got a load of free “damaged” vegetables and fruit from the supermarket, so I cooked up a bit of a storm making 4 or 5 dishes. Everyone loved the food and their certainly was a lot of movement in this crazy household for everything to be organized, I was very surprised how quickly everything was cleaned and tidied up and their systems they used for ‘who does what when’ worked a treat.

At some point I mentioned dumpster diving, which is something these sudo-hippies get involved with and then Tammy took a few of us to a donut store where we got about four kilos of donuts that had really nothing wrong with them and were delicious… why do they throw them away? It’s crazy!

Look at the cute little Squirrel

Smallest town ive seen

The fine for camping is $200, thankfully i haven't been caught... yet

Cayucos Peir with nice surf

10/10/2010 Day 40 Vancouver to Mexico

Distance Travelled: Phiffer Camp ground in Big Sur to San Simeon State Park 72Miles (115km)

Money Spent: $1.25 for fruit and vegetables and $0.25 for a shower

Time cycling: 5 hours 40 min

Total Distance Traveled: 2412 km

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I woke up this morning after having some crazy dreams last night, I found that Rayo and Helly had left their flashlight at their campground, they had left earlier and I thought I could pack my things and catch up to return the item as they were going in the same direction as pretty much everyone else at the biking campsite.

I left at the same time as Nicole and Timo and I would have joined them for the day but they were very slow cyclists so I sped ahead up the first of 2 major climbs for the day.

I caught up with Charlie and Sasame pretty quickly and joined them for a bit of a cycle to another state park that offered a waterfall from a cliff face into the ocean, it was only a short hike but good to get off the saddle of my bike.

Big Sur was a little disappointing after being told it is a really nice spot… well, it was nice but it had the bits and bobs of everything I have seen in northern california with Redwood trees and cliff faces but scaled down and not so dramatic. It did offer hot springs if you went on a 10 Mile hike but that would have been a little too much strenuous activity

Compared to everyone else ive cycled with I’m a little speedy in comparison, although I don’t mind being slowed down were I generally wait at the top of the hills or at a nice vista view, Charlie and Sasame were relatively slow when things got a little steep but that’s fine.

Later we finally caught up with Rayo and Helly so I could return their flashlight, Rayo was a little shocked as he left it at the campsite because they didn’t want it anymore… well, I tried, didn’t I.

There were some crazy steep hills today that were not easy but the downhill rides were and are always good fun. But the way I see it, if the terrain was always flat this cycle trip would be boring as all hell/

The three of us stopped for lunch on the roadside in the shade of a tree beside a sheer dropping cliff with a breathtaking view of the pacific that was much clearer today than I had seen before.

After the exhausting four hills tackled today the terrain smoothed out to a nice plateau making an easy ride to the next campsite, we cycled quite a distance today to try and catch up with Jeff and the two Americans he is cycling with but when arriving at the campsite it turns out he left there in the morning meaning we are only one day behind him.

When cycling along the easy flat road it was great to just look around, as there were elephant seals, kiteboarders, surfers, a historic castle called Hurst Castle and even Zebras – of all animals to see out here.

Charlie was exhausted after the hills and was lagging behind, I decided to speed ahead to the campsite so I didn’t have to wait around. The campsite was further than I thought and when I arrived I had run out of water and was dehydrated as fuck, the first campsite I saw with people I asked where the tap was and they offered me not only a shit load of bottled water but also invited me and the other two (when they arrived) dinner which was leftovers for some sort of family gathering group camp and they had to eat all the food that was leftover. All the families had left and the guides were there to pack away everything. They even let us camp beside them as the area had been paid for.

They cooked off all the burgers they had and told us to help ourselves to pretty much everything… it was fantastic… I filled up on as many triple cheese burgers and salad as I could squeeze in and put myself in that painful state… no scratch that… I put myself in a blissful state! Score!

So thank you guys, it doesn’t go unappreciated, you were all awesome!

Charlie and Sasame were shocked at how much shit I get for free, it really is incredible. Even at one of the stops we had earlier in the day I was given free bottled water and a muesli bar just so randomly. I’m certainly not going to complain!

The sunset at Simeon State Park

Leaving Big Sur

Coastline...

...and more coastline

Lunch Break

Charlie and Sasame catching up with me

The endless view of the Pacific

Look at this dog, come on! really?

At the top of one of the steep climbs, the tan line I have is pretty bad-ass

...more coastline

just making sure I'm headed in the right direction

Elephant Seals sun baking

09/10/2010 Day 39 Vancouver to Mexico

Distance Travelled: 3 Miles from Seaside to Phiffer Camp ground in Big Sur 50Miles (80km)

Money Spent: $5 for a beer and $5 for accommodation at the hiker/biker campground

Time cycling: 3 hours 50 min

Total Distance Traveled: 2297 km

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It was a good thing I camped where I did as a few miles further I would have been in the town of Seaside where I wouldn’t have found anywhere to camp for the next 15 Miles.

I wanted to make it out on the road early so I packed my things and scoffed down brekky (Cereal with amazing strawberries) before 8am.

I cycled the long route through 17 Mile road that took me along the shoreline that had very pretty views of the coast especially at that time of the morning. This is where I briefly met Helly and Rayo, they were from Canada, retired and pretty sound although Helly seemed very reserved… I would have cycled with them but they were a little slow, so I pushed on.

Not sure whether I have mentioned it before, but I now have a new found love for bagels, cream cheese and avocadoes…this as a snack was so good.

Cycling through the town of Carmel was very picturesque, just a lovely cosy little town with an amazing beach with the whitest sand, I highly recommend checking out this place. Whilst here I found the library but it didn’t open till 1pm and I was there before 10am so I joined back up to the highway and made my way to Big Sur.

Ive been told a lot of good thing about Big Sur and didn’t look into any details about the place, it looked like it offered nice views of the coast and more redwood forests but from what I could see it was nothing better from what I have seen further North in California.

I found a nice little café on the side of the road offering internet, I bought a beer (Very expensive), uploaded some blog posts and did some emailing. I met a nice couple who I chatted with for a while and the offered me their leftovers as they couldn’t finish it…. Perhaps it’s the way I look but as I have mentioned several times before in this blog its free food and I’m not going to refuse it.

I went to the Phiffer State park camp ground were I met Charlie and Sasame, these two had met Jeff before and were a very funny couple (engaged) who gave me a shit load of brussell sprouts as they had too many of them weighing them down… more free food!

Rayo and Helly were at the campground too along with a whole bunch of other cyclists and hikers, perhaps upwards of 12-13 people more than I have seen in all the hiker/biker camps ive stayed at.

Today was a bit of an achievement too, I had cycled 45 Miles before 12pm.

I had a beer with dinner with the German couple I had met a few days ago at Half Moon Bay (Nicole and Timo) and as everyone went to bed very early, so did I.

Californian coast - HDR

Passing through Monterey

Coming close to Big Sur

08/10/2010 Day 38 Vancouver to Mexico

Distance Travelled: Davenport to 3 Miles from Seaside 60Miles (96km)

Money Spent: $10 for Groceries, $22 for electrical stuff I need to build something, $7 for more fuel for my stove and $3.50 for some fruit and veg at a market

Time cycling: 4 hours 45 min

Total Distance Traveled: 2217 km

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Last night a Raccoon tried to claw through my tent to get to my food, fortunately I woke up just in time to scare the bastard away. Using some duct tape I was able to patch up the holes and change the colour of my duct tape watch that broke years ago.

I headed off before Pedro and Hejon and hit the road at about 9am.

I stopped off at Santa Cruz to buy some groceries and other goodies then cruzed about downtown. Santa Cruz I found to be a pretty cool small city that had pretty much everything. It was easy enough to get around although I tried to rejoin the hwy but cyclists were now prohibited from getting back on. I had to find the pacific coast bike route that annoyingly took quite a bit of time.

When I finally made it to the route, it took me into farm land where the roads were terrible, almost rivaling the worst of the roads in Vietnam so I had to take it easy to not break my bike.

The crops that were getting grown were, from what I could see were cabbages and strawberries, and the sweet aroma that the strawberries gave off made my mouth water. I would have dismounted my bike to pick some quickly but that’s stealing!... yes, I do have some boundaries. Besides there were a lot of Mexicans in the area doing all the harvesting and I didn’t want to make an issue with them. Its funny I say this though, because a lot of the American’s I’ve met have told me to be careful around Mexico and Mexicans and I always take what they say with a pinch of salt or ignore what they say, but perhaps its rubbed off a little bit on me because I was a little frightened as I passed groups of them as I cycled by. Hmm.

Finally I made it to the part of the Hwy that I could enter and I gunned it for a while before stopping at a market where they had a special on avacodoes: 7 for $1… so cheap and so good, I also picked up some other fruit and veg for dinner too.

Again the bike route took me on another goose chase for the day as there again was another section of the highway that was restricted to cyclists and on some more dodgy roads was a considerable amount of headwind.

I was trying to make it to Monterey but somewhere between Marina and Seaside I became all lightheaded and fatigued and thought it was time to set up camp for the evening.

I found a spot under a tree beside a railroad track a bike path and the highway, which is very loud, but I’m very tired so I reckon ill be able to sleep through it.

I made a delicious dinner which was another clam chowder concoction with pasta and Vegetables with Strawberries for desert. Yum yum.

The evidence, thats a raccoons paw print

One of the beaches around Santa Cruz

That sign was an understatement

07/10/2010 Day 37 Vancouver to Mexico

Distance Travelled: Half Moon Bay State Park to 2.5 Miles North of Davernport 40Miles (64km)

Money Spent: $0

Time cycling: 2 hours 45 min

Total Distance Traveled: 2121 km

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Last night it took me a little while to get to sleep and when I did I actually had a nightmare. I haven’t had a nightmare since I was a kid, perhaps it was because I was feeling a little ill. It just seemed a bit strange.

After saying goodbye to Jay and Michael I hung around the camping grounds sewing up my backpack that was looking a little worse for ware, it took almost two and a half hours to fix some of the issues and I was very happy with the end result.

As I still wasn’t feeling too great I took it relatively easily, I cycled for only 2 miles before pulling over to have lunch by the beach. Whilst there I met a guy from San Fran doing a 2 day cycle trip to a hostel and back again, his name was Jesse and he joined me for the next 20 miles where I went into the hostel to check it out.

Along the way we stopped where there was a beached whale and its calf that had washed ashore after being hit by a boat… it was a blue whale and was the largest road kill I had ever seen… also it didn’t smell too great either. I held back on the kiwi accented beached whale jokes that I had seen on Youtube and for those who haven’t seen it here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdVHZwI8pcA

The hostel where Jesse was staying was right next to a historical lighthouse and I managed to get into the lounge area where we met another guy named John, he was cool offering us both fruit and who actually met the German couple Silke and Bernt that I had met sometime last week.

I managed to quickly have a shower before heading back out on the road towards the next camping spot.

An hour or so before the sunset I had another flat, this is where I met Hejon and Pedro. Hejon was a Korean woman who was very funny and Pedro was a Spanish guy who has done a lot of traveling like me. After getting this flat tire I thought I might as well just camp with these two on the side of the road.

Where we camped really wasn’t that hidden from the highway and also very randomly there was a skate park just behind us. It was very strange to stumble across this as it was really in the middle of nowhere. Whilst setting up camp a few skaters came by to use the Park but they didn’t care that we were spending the night.

Pedro and Hejon offered me some pasta and veg after I fixed Pedro’s cyclo-computer and as I was tired I was asleep by 8.30 – bed time when I was a kid.

Beached Blue Whale

Me touching it... it was slimy and smelly

And its Calf :(

Right by where i camped for the night

Beautiful Sunsets here in California

06/10/2010 Day 36 Vancouver to Mexico

Distance Travelled: Stayed in Half Moon Bay State Park

Money Spent: $15 for food $7 for the night at the camp ground

Time cycling: n/a

Total Distance Traveled: 2057 km

I wasn’t feeling 100% today just a little drained so I decided to have a rest day.

Brian needed to use the internet in town so I offered him my laptop whist I did some shopping. In return Brian bought me breakfast; it was just cheap McDonalds but free breakfast nonetheless and actually was very enjoyable.

For most of the day I just chilled and slept in the sun until two other cyclists showed up, the first guy was an American (Jay) who didn’t talk much and the other was an Aussie (Michael) who was call and we chatted and cooked dinner together.

That was the other thing, I tried getting away without paying for another night but I was approached by a ranger of sorts who said I could only stay one night as it was a hiker/biker site knowing I had stayed last night but not knowing that I didn’t pay for it. I told her I wasn’t feeling well and I gave her the $7 for a second night and she moved on.

Sunset, Half Moon Bay, California, USA, 2010 HDR

Rose's on Beach, Half Moon Bay, California, USA 2010 HDR