California Coasting

Two of my roommates, Jake Tanner and Seth Herway, and myself have been training all summer to do a bike trip along the Oregon Coast. Things fell through with the logisitics of doing the Oregon Coast so we did the California Coast instead. We flew in to Oakland, went across the Bay to San Francisco and rode our bikes down the coast. We tried to stay on Hwy 1 the whole way but in many sections it is closed to bikes. It was a sweet trip with lots of dramatic views of shear cliffs going into the ocean. It was also quite the adventure trying to figure out a route as well as finding places to sleep, and piling on some serious mileage. All in all, it was super tough but just as rewarding.

At the Oakland airport putting our bikes together and getting ready to embark on 400+ mile journey.  

We figured riding our bikes across I-80 on the Bay Bridge probably wasn't too safe so we took a fairy across the Bay from Oakland to S.F. 

That's Golden Gate bridge behind us.  

Arriving in San Francisco. 

The guy we stayed with is a park ranger and lives in this sweet house (the only house) along the beach. Jake had the hook ups with people to stay with along the way. 

About 80 miles south of San Francisco. 

More scenic California coast. 

The night we rode into Big Sur all the camp grounds/ everything else were sold out. We were really scrambling for a place to stay and came across these girls who worked at the camp grounds and let us sleep on their porch.  

Here's the cabin we stayed at.  

Refreshed and ready to go after a night in Big Sur. 

Us getting lost in Santa Barbara. 

Seth and Jake. 

Just one of the sweet views along the coast.  

This is us trying to re-fuel after a brutal afternoon. We had riden at least 125 miles the previous two days so we were slammed. 

We only had one flat tire on the trip just outside of Malibu. 

Right as night fell we made it to the city and were able to get off the Freeway. That's Santa Monica pier behind us. 

We ran into this guy who showed us a sweet path that ran along the beachfront all the way from Santa Monica all the way to Orange County. It was pretty sweet victory lap cruising the beach under the stars! 

At the airport in Long Beach! 450 miles in 4 days! 

Havasupai

Havasupai is a place near next to the Grand Canyon that the Havasu Indians once inhabited. I guess they are the last of the Grand Canyon dwelling Indians left today. The water is supposed to be crystal clear blue/green color but we supposedly went during the monsoon season. It rained each day we were there, although not for long periods of time, but long enough to make the water the disgusting brown color shown in all the pics below. Nevertheless we all had a good time and even got to stop by the main viewing point for the Grand Canyon on our way home.

We camped out at the top of the trailhead so we could get an early start and beat the heat. We left about 6 in the morning.  

Myself, Heather, Jason and Seth. 

The descent down to the bottom of the falls was quite treacherous. Good thing for the trusty chain bolted into the rock! 

Scenic picture down the canyon. 

Mooney falls. 

Scenery was amazing!  

We luckily came across some sunscreen on a hike out to the furthest falls. Thanks to Jason and Seth I was able to get all the hard to reach places.