Well it seems we still are not back on route, which kind of sucks. Placerville was further away than we thought and we are still 20 miles out, but we were told it is all down hill. The morning was a long flat ride which tool us to Lincoln for lunch. After Lincoln the hills came, which I liked. The afternoon hills weren't bad at first, but post Auburn was the death of us. Between Auburn and Cool is a giant canyon which the American river runs through. Cruising down the canyon was probably the best ride we have done to date. It was unbelievable, the views were amazing! However, what goes down must come up. Three miles straight up no break. After killing our legs to pull way to much gear up this canyon wall we took a break at a mini-mart. Although Ryan and I planned to get more than 62 miles in today it wasn't much use after the long afternoon.
On our way out of town we passed by the Cool Community Church which let us set up shop on their field..for a price. The have been very hospitable, but strongly encouraged us to attend their Bible study. So after a long day where we only want to eat and sleep we headed down for some Luke. It wasn't too bad and we got out early enough, plus now we have Jesus on our side.
Ok, tomorrow we will definetly be through Placerville in the morning, back on track, and heading to Carson City where we can gamble away all of our money. As of right now i need to rest my legs and get some sleep.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Crazy headwinds
After a day and a half rest in Chico we got back on the road again. Unfortunately our departure was quite late. We didn't leave till close to 1:00 in the afternoon. That left us with a short hot day. Both of our legs were feeling good, but we lost distance due to the short day. We only bike about 43 miles. The road was all flat through open land and farms, but the head wind was nuts. With all the gear we have, every factor makes a big difference. Right now we are stealth camping on a walnut farm. We tried to find a farm house t ask permission, but tyere is nothing visible. Hopefully an angry farmer won't wake us in the middle of the night and cause problems.
For tomorrow we want to get down to Placerville as early as possible, which will then put us bqck on route with the maps we have. Placerville looks like it is at the foot of the mountains on our way towards Carson City, so we will probably have a flat ride in the morning with some hills in the afternoon. Our goal is to finally start putting on serious miles tomorrow. Get up early and ride all day.
For tomorrow we want to get down to Placerville as early as possible, which will then put us bqck on route with the maps we have. Placerville looks like it is at the foot of the mountains on our way towards Carson City, so we will probably have a flat ride in the morning with some hills in the afternoon. Our goal is to finally start putting on serious miles tomorrow. Get up early and ride all day.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
A Couple Days In
By now we are on day three of our adventure and we are chilling in Chico, CA at Ryan's brothers house. It has been fun, hard, and a grear learning experience so far.
Day 1: we left the hotel around 6:30 am and took a longer route to the bridge. Big mistake, it was 20 miles of monster hills. Hills so steep they would be uncomfortable to drive up. After getting to the bridge we rode down to the ferry and headed out to Vallejo. Expecting to leave the hills behind we where sorely mistaken. The first day was all hills. We ended up riding 74 miles for the day and getting to camp a little late. We arrived at a camp site at about 7:30 and had to set up camp in the dark.
Day 2: Saturday was an easy day, only 35 miles to Sacramento. We woke up late because day 1 took a lot out of us and headed toward Davis, the bike capitol of th US. Davis is an amazing town. A bike show on every corner. There bike lanes were so developed that they even had round abouts for the bike lanes! Ryan and I grabbed sandwhiches and walked around Davis for a little then headed east. The ride to Sacramento was flat and hot. At Sacramento we hung around and waited for Ryans brother to pick us up and take us to Chico.
These first couple weeks have given us insight into how the trip will be. We've had large hills and flat hot roads. We both need to work on food choices, I'm constantly hungry. We have a couple videos from the start that hopefully I can get posted soon. One problem I am facing is that the solar charger does not charge as well as I hoped. That is one of the reasons I have not been posting.
Day 1: we left the hotel around 6:30 am and took a longer route to the bridge. Big mistake, it was 20 miles of monster hills. Hills so steep they would be uncomfortable to drive up. After getting to the bridge we rode down to the ferry and headed out to Vallejo. Expecting to leave the hills behind we where sorely mistaken. The first day was all hills. We ended up riding 74 miles for the day and getting to camp a little late. We arrived at a camp site at about 7:30 and had to set up camp in the dark.
Day 2: Saturday was an easy day, only 35 miles to Sacramento. We woke up late because day 1 took a lot out of us and headed toward Davis, the bike capitol of th US. Davis is an amazing town. A bike show on every corner. There bike lanes were so developed that they even had round abouts for the bike lanes! Ryan and I grabbed sandwhiches and walked around Davis for a little then headed east. The ride to Sacramento was flat and hot. At Sacramento we hung around and waited for Ryans brother to pick us up and take us to Chico.
These first couple weeks have given us insight into how the trip will be. We've had large hills and flat hot roads. We both need to work on food choices, I'm constantly hungry. We have a couple videos from the start that hopefully I can get posted soon. One problem I am facing is that the solar charger does not charge as well as I hoped. That is one of the reasons I have not been posting.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Did you say MARYLAND!?
We are finally in San Francisco and getting close to the start. Tomorrow morning will be the official first day of Surly Headed East! At this moment everything is packed, nothing more we can do.
Well, the past couple days have been good and bad. The flight went well on Wed and everything arrived in one piece, but just because everything went well doesn't mean it wasn't stressful. Waking up at 3am to fly cross country, praying your bike arrives at a sketchy airport motel is never fun. Luckily, as I said, everything went well. After arriving at flee bag motel, we took out our bikes and started the assembly process. For the most part the bikes went back together easily (mine still isn't shifting very well). Once we unpacked and reassembled we took the bikes out for a short four mile test ride, trying to find dinner. In the end we ate prime rib like kings at the Hunter Palace (it was actually pretty good).
Day two of prep work was much better, but had its own little snags. We spent the day running errands, buying all the last minute gear and food for the trip. Our resort is located about ten miles south of the city so we cruised up into San Fran on the bikes, doing our first urban biking, which is so much fun! Having some trouble finding products at crappy REI or EMS type knock off sports store (Sports Basement), we finally found everything we needed on the otherside of town at the real REI. After getting the final camp gear and groceries we rode up to the Golden Gate bridge and checked out the start location. On the way back to our estate, Ryan and I went back along the Pacific, getting lost in the ghetto and eating stomach turning $30 pizza. By the time we reached the motel we clocked a nice 55.4 mile warm up ride, although we only had our rear panniers on all day.
Over all the trip has been fun so far. San Francisco is a great biking city. They have bike lanes every where and when there aren't bike lanes the cars have been great about bikers. Tomorrow we will be leaving the city and heading over to Vellejo towards Sacramento. Time for another sleepless night.
-Patrick
Well, the past couple days have been good and bad. The flight went well on Wed and everything arrived in one piece, but just because everything went well doesn't mean it wasn't stressful. Waking up at 3am to fly cross country, praying your bike arrives at a sketchy airport motel is never fun. Luckily, as I said, everything went well. After arriving at flee bag motel, we took out our bikes and started the assembly process. For the most part the bikes went back together easily (mine still isn't shifting very well). Once we unpacked and reassembled we took the bikes out for a short four mile test ride, trying to find dinner. In the end we ate prime rib like kings at the Hunter Palace (it was actually pretty good).
Day two of prep work was much better, but had its own little snags. We spent the day running errands, buying all the last minute gear and food for the trip. Our resort is located about ten miles south of the city so we cruised up into San Fran on the bikes, doing our first urban biking, which is so much fun! Having some trouble finding products at crappy REI or EMS type knock off sports store (Sports Basement), we finally found everything we needed on the otherside of town at the real REI. After getting the final camp gear and groceries we rode up to the Golden Gate bridge and checked out the start location. On the way back to our estate, Ryan and I went back along the Pacific, getting lost in the ghetto and eating stomach turning $30 pizza. By the time we reached the motel we clocked a nice 55.4 mile warm up ride, although we only had our rear panniers on all day.
Over all the trip has been fun so far. San Francisco is a great biking city. They have bike lanes every where and when there aren't bike lanes the cars have been great about bikers. Tomorrow we will be leaving the city and heading over to Vellejo towards Sacramento. Time for another sleepless night.
-Patrick
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
5 Minute Anxiety!
If you ever wondered how to scare yourself to the very core, decide you are going to climb on a bicycle strapped with everything you own to keep yourself alive and healthy and travel across the country as an amateur cyclist. Then once you bought everything you need, put it on your bike. Now try to pick it up...it is exactly 7 times heavier than you ever thought possible.
Once you've scared yourself silly and professed that you're never going to make it, throw on your cleats and ride it around the driveway. The gratification you will feel is unparalleled, the tears are unrestrained, and the bike glides across the road like, surprise, it was meant to carry your weight plus 40+ lbs of gear and supplies.
I've never felt a greater rush of satisfaction. Today is the first day I feel separate from the average.
Departure, One Week!
Ok, so we are coming to the final days, there is now less than one week till Ryan and I will be in California. Most of our preparation is done, my bike is on its way via fedex, and as of today I am now unemployed.
The game plan is that we will both fly out to San Francisco on Wed., September 23, spend September 24th preparing our gear and head out on September 25.
As of now I'm just in the excited state. I'm pretty sure that next week, probably either Monday or Tuesday, I'll start getting anxious and nervous. Until then, I'll just enjoy packing and preparing.
Thats it for now, check back often and I'll try to put in another update before we leave.
The game plan is that we will both fly out to San Francisco on Wed., September 23, spend September 24th preparing our gear and head out on September 25.
As of now I'm just in the excited state. I'm pretty sure that next week, probably either Monday or Tuesday, I'll start getting anxious and nervous. Until then, I'll just enjoy packing and preparing.
Thats it for now, check back often and I'll try to put in another update before we leave.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
The Naked Bike
From Ryan:
Well, the essentials are finally on my bike. It took several weeks of ordering parts and riding 60 miles round trip to the bike shop to put on racks and fenders but my bike is ready for the road.
I figured I'd show you all that you will need many weeks to fix problems before you even leave. We've been talking about this trip now for months. I barely had the funds together a couple weeks ago and I started buying all the stuff I laid out. My shopping carts on 6 different websites remained open and my computer on for weeks while I saved up the cash I needed. I finally ordered it all but adjustments needed to be made. I ran into some issues. Immediately, I knew the saddle on the bike needed to go. It was uncomfortable beyond belief...$35 additional cash laid out. Then the front rack came in a week after the back rack and fenders due to an ordering problem. No big deal but I'm glad I got it this far away from our ship out date because it turns out it didn't quite fit with the hardware in the package. One trip to the hardware store and a small saw cured that issue. I'll show pics in my blog tomorrow. Long story short, the naked bike is ready to gear up. My gear arrives tomorrow and another blog will be up.
There are a couple things I should warn you not to skimp on! PEDALS!!!! Buy GOOD pedals. I bought economy pedals and both the pedals and cleats are awful. I'll be switching these out before I leave. A saddle is obviously important. It takes a couple rides to get accustomed to one...know if its going to be acceptable before the big ride. DO NOT skimp on clothing....I bought cheap jerseys and they itch and the seams are in terrible spots. I knew there was a reason they were $30... Shorts are the same thing. The difference between my pearl izumis and my falconis is huge...The pearls are fantastic...the falconis are not as fantastic.
So far, this trip has been an eye opener...I cant wait to actually get out there!
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