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I'm a bad Boy Scout! (Conclusion to the Cali Tour)

Posted on 17. May, 2008 by Derrick.

One thing that I normally pride myself on, I’m always prepared for anything. When we go backpacking, I’m always giving someone in camp something out of my pack to borrow or use. When I go Mountain biking, I always stop to help out the guy that didn’t bring his pump or patch kit.

My father and 14 years of Boy Scouts hammered into my head the Boy Scout Motto, “Be Prepared”. I’ve spent the last 5 months “preparing” for our coastal bike tour. Planning long weekend rides for Summer and I, pushing hard to commute to work 3-4 times a week, gearing up our bikes, and route planning the trip. I had spent countless hours on our tour, and like always, I was confident that I was organized and well equipped.

I was dead wrong. Not only did I miss plan for weather (ended up buying two beanies, two sets of full finger gloves, two pairs of pants and two long sleeve shirts), but nothing can prepare you for the hills that the Pacific Coastal Highway will throw at you. Those days of cycling are some of the most grueling and amazing that I’ve ever done. Summer and I both agreed that the trip would have been a bit more enjoyable had we had more time. With such a short schedule, we were forced to ride on days that we should have rested to recouped.

With that being said, I had an amazing time. The views were gorgeous, and I got to experience one of the coolest places in the world (Big Sur).

I’ve also come back with a healthy dose of respect for Summer. Not only did she follow me on every stitch of road, but she suffered through physical aches and pains that most people would have given up on the first day. She endured a variety of crashes, allergy’s, fatigue, frigidity, and bossiness from me. She is a trooper, and she could have made this trip miserable, but she put her usual Summer smile on and hung in there. I’m truly grateful for that.

• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3
• Day 4
• Day 5
• Day 6
• Day 7
• Day 8

The route (warning, the full size is 8136×947 and 1.4mb)

The pics (click the pic)

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Home again (Day 8)

Posted on 10. May, 2008 by Derrick.

After spending a pleasant night at our friends house, boxing up the bikes, and returning the rental. We were at the airport on our way home.

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Sunny Pfeiffer (Day 7)

Posted on 09. May, 2008 by Derrick.

Glutton for punishment is a word I’d use for myself, because on the way out of our camp site, I asked the the camp site supervisor where the nearest trail for a hike.

One day of rest and I’m ready to go on a 5 mile hike. Summer somehow agreed to it. I think because day 7 was our first day of sunshine and I don’t think she wanted to go home without seeing something in the sun. So we headed to Julia Pfeiffer state park.

On our way down to Santa Barbara, we stopped at a little restaurant in the middle of now where. We somehow found ourselves surrounded by a group of harley bikers from germany, a gay couple from france, and a young couple from Italy. We were the only english speaking customers in the joint.

by the end of day 7 we were on our way to Los Angeles.

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and on the 6th day we rested (Day 6)

Posted on 07. May, 2008 by Derrick.

aaaaaahhhhh rest!

We started off the day by picking up a car rental for the rest of the trip. Then headed off to REI to pick up some clothes we could wear. We had enough cycling clothes but nothing for just walking around in.

Once we were presentable (changed in the parking lot of the REI). Our original plan of relaxing in Monterey commenced. We started off by heading over to the famed Bay Aquarium. It was O.K. but both Summer and I have been snorkeling in the “real” thing, and an aquarium is only cool when you get close to the sharks.

Followed up by taking a tour of pebble beach. It’s not worth the $17 tour, the golf isn’t worth the $475, and the homes aren’t worth 30 million dollars. But this tree is cool!

Even after a days worth of rest, we still went to bed at 8pm.

our day off should have happened 3 days ago, but it didn’t. We went back to Big Sur and stayed at a campsite instead of another hotel.

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Carmel by the Coach Collar (Day 5)

Posted on 06. May, 2008 by Derrick.

When we broke camp from Big Sur, it was 6am and our plan was to push hard to Cambria CA. It would have been close to 70 miles, and I wasn’t sure if the torain was going to be as brutal as the day before. To add to that, we had two more days of camping before we could get to a hotel and wash clothes.

We had a meeting of the minds at about mile 5 into our 5th day. Summer made an executive decision that this was supposed to be a “vacation” not boot camp. I agreed. Mostly because I wanted to keep Summer as a girlfriend, not my X-girlfriend.

The decision was to turn back and stay at a hotel in Carmel by the Sea.

You cant tell, but Summer was crying in this picture. We had to re-ride the 26 miles from the previous day. The difference between day 4 and day 5 was that we had a 15-20mph head wind going back north. I had a tough time making headwind. I’m 200lbs and I’ve rode in some brutal rides before, but this was out of bounds as far as pushing the human body. We should have had a day of rest after day 3, I should have stopped us two days ago.

When we finaly got to Carmel by the sea we found a hotel close to the center of town and decided head out for an honest meal. We had been camping for the last 3 nights and had nothing but camping food.

We found a little dive that served some of the most amazing sea food we have ever had. I’m not sure if it was due to eating camping food for 3 days, the brutal ride, or the exhaustion, but it was delicious. Summer had crab, and I had oysters. Couple of glasses of wine and creme brulee.

We stumbled on a Coach store and I decided to reward Summer with a new purse. Summer decided to reward our Labrador Guinness with a Coach collar.

We also bought a bottle of wine and drank next to the fire place.

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Big Sur Hills (Day 4)

Posted on 05. May, 2008 by Derrick.

Each morning Summer woke up with an allergic reaction to something. What it was, we didn’t know, but her eyes were at times almost swollen shut. We were also Sleeping close to 12 hours a night at this point.

Day 4 was supposed to be a day off. We had originally planned on going to the Monterey Bay aquarium but because we under estimated the elevation gains, we were about 50 miles behind schedule and had to push on. We did have a little bit of time to check out the Monterey Bay marina.

The next 25 miles had the most elevation gains that we had ridden to date. The bonus was that it was also the most amazing scenery I’ve ever seen.

We spent 7 hours riding those 26 miles. Switch backs. Thousand foot drop offs with hardly a guard rail. Traffic and RV’s. We were exhausted after 4 days of hard riding.

Notice the box right off the end of the picnic table. We did too. Raccoon box!

- Derrick
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