So many mountains, so much climbing

Onyx Summit - The highest either of us have ever climbed on tour.

Last time we posted, we were in Idyllwild, CA.  We thought that was a big day of climbing, and we topped out at 6,200'.  Two days ago we went over Onyx Summit... at a whopping 8,443'!  That was a big big day of climbing.  We went up nearly 7,500 vertical feet that day.  Today, we are going back up to 7,901', after having dipped down to 3,000' yesterday.  A few stories:

After our big climb we stopped at the summit to take some pictures.  Surprise!  The local cycling club was having their Tuesday night race to the top.  We got to watch the 'finish', aka arrive exhausted at the summit going a lot faster than we had been going.  A lot.  We bundled up for the descent in our jackets and warm gloves.  It's cold going downhill at 8,000', regardless of how bright the sun is shining.

On the climb up to Onyx Summit

That night we stayed in a great hostel in Big Bear Lake.  It was a really neat place - bunk beds for nearly 50 people, two kitchens, bathrooms, etc.  It was actually full because of the crush of PCT hikers right now, but they let us camp in the yard and use the facilities inside.  The bustle and chatter of the kitchens reminded us of the co-op in State College: lot's of friendly outdoors folks in their early twenties.  We were also very very lucky to meet a cycling fellow named Dave who was about to start leading the Adventure Cycling group on this route.  He has been leading tours for 17 years!  At the beginning of his 'career' leading tours, all the other riders were younger than him, but now they are mostly older.  He was 54 years old.  I (Daisy) got really excited - it means I can just keep on touring for the next 50 years! Yay!



A view of the Rim of the World Highway



We thought that we would have lots of descent coming out of Big Bear, after all it was located at nearly 7000.  We were kind of right.  There were some very very steep little hills awaiting us, as well as a few longer (2+ miles) gradual climbs.  The scenery, however, was stunning.  The mountains!  I love them.  As long as we are at high enough elevation I can just keep riding, happy as a clam because it's not deathly hot.  I love the pine forests.  We even have started to see some redwood trees.  More of those in the next week...

A mural on the side of Rim of the World Highway.
Click on the image for more detail

We went on this crazy road called The Rim of The World.  It was a depression era public works roads that just barely clung to the side of a mountain.  Somehow, for some crazy reason, some genius built a high school on top of it.  Seriously.  The traffic was pretty bad, but we made it safely. 

Last night we stayed at a big campground overlooking a resevoir.  The best part?  We got $5 hiker biker sites!  Regular campsites (which weren't as nice) were $45.  Thank goodness we didn't have to pay that.  The showers though...  were so high pressured it hurt to get wet.  We didn't use too much water.

Our lovely campsite last night

We have a little more climbing left to do today, but we are already at 6,000' so it's nice and cool (ha! it's actually 80).  Here's the most exciting news of all:  Tomorrow the Tour of California professional cycling race is going to pass us!  I am super super excited, as I've never seen a pro tour peloton in real life before.  We've been watching the bike race signs on the signs of the roads for two days, and we're going to see them tomorrow.  If you watch the tour or tour highlights from Friday's race you'll see a LOT of the roads we're on (and maybe you'll see us cheering too).  Here's a link for more info. 

Train tracks in the desert - as seen this morning

Once a gypsy, always a gypsy.

Way back in Pittsburgh, Jason was drying out our tent while I went food shopping.  A couple of young hippies walked by and asked him where he was heading.  As they left they told him "once a gypsy, always a gypsy".  It seemed to be a compliment.  Now that we're on bike tour, we really do seem to be gypsies.  We are on our third day of real riding, but it feels like we've been on the road for much longer.  It is HOT here in southern California.  Further, it's COLD at night.  The desert is like that I guess.

On our first day on the road it seemed to take forever to get out of San Diego.  We ate lunch at a golf course resort in the middle of the desert.  We thought we were going to get kicked out, but instead the employee just showed us to a bench near the snack bar.  After lunch we climbed and climbed and climbed...  in the heat of the day it was pretty rough.  Around 2:00 we couldn't take the heat anymore and just sat and read under a tree for two hours.  This came to be a habit!  I (Daisy) can't seem to handle much heat - I wilt when it hits 80. 

 

 We spent the first night in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park.  They had Hiker/Biker sites for only $5 per person, and we were happy to get showers.  Although they cost 25 cents for 2.5 minutes...  we only needed a quarter each!  That night the stars were amazing, and it got super cold.  When we woke up there was ice on the inside of our rainfly.  We had slept at around 4000', and as I write this we are above 5000' again. 

View of Anza-Borrego State Park

  

Yesterday was another scorcher - I'm not sure how hot it was but that rest in the heat of the day was absolutely necessary.  We rolled through a little Western-looking town around lunchtime and met a fellow that was dressed as an old-time sheriff.  The little towns here are pretty great, and geared towards the PCT hikers.  It has been easy to find gear and refill water.  People have been very friendly.  It's funny, actually, sometimes people in cars stop and ask us directions just because we're on the side of the road.  We obviously are not from the area, so it's ridiculous.  We've gotten requests for a casino and a liquor store.  Ha!

Last nights campsite... 15 meters from the road (but well hidden!)

We are now in Idyllwild, a little mountiain tourist town of about 3000 folks.  We had a big lunch of hamburgers.  For a couple of mostly vegetarians, it was quite a feat.  When bike touring though, it's easy to dream of hamburgers and fish and chips.  I'm still dreaming of the fish and chips.  Maybe next week...



We are riding lots of windy mountain roads, climbing in and out of the mountains.  The pass today is at just over 6000', and we'll finish the day at around 2000'.  We started out at 3000'.  It seems that all we do is go slooowly uphill and then fly downhill.  Most of the time... it's uphill.  I won't lie - more than a few times I've wondered if we've bitten off more than we can chew.  That's just because I'm wilting in the heat though.  The higher up and the farther north we go, the easier it will get.  The scenery is beautiful, and I can't wait to hit the national parks in just a few more days.  Ok, at least five...  But whenever I see the PCT hikers I realize how good we've got it.  They are walking on blisters that formed on top of blisters.  Their clothes are crusted in salt, and they still keep moving.  So... I guess we can keep pedaling!

Daisy doing her lovely 'we're taking a break!' dance.

We've seen several protests to folks speeding past on motorcycles.  A different one just said "This is not a crotchrocket raceway", but this one wins the prize.

The trip really starts... we're in San Diego!

We made it to San Diego today!  The three-day cross-country trip was great, although we got pretty stinky being cooped up on the train for all that time...

The train left Pittsburgh at midnight, and we quickly settled in for the night.  Although I (Daisy) sleep fine, Jason just could not fit himself on the seat.  The three nights on the train turned out to be fine though - during the second night I actually just slept on the floor and left the whole double seat to Jason.  The train is surprisingly fun, we ate food from Trader Joes, played cribbage and Yahtzee (Jason got two yahtzees in one game!), and had a nice layover in Chicago. We randomly ran into an old friend of Jason's (Hey Steph and Jon!) on the street, and had lunch with two of his college friends from Delaware, Pam and Erik.

The people at the table before us left this cup, and I was pretty excited about it.

Miraculously, the train got in to Los Angeles an hour early this morning, and we ended up catching an earlier train to San Diego.  Once there, we put the bikes together, dried out our still wet tent, and started the adventure.

Getting bikes on and off trains is surprisingly easy.  Look!

Specifically, we got on the trolley to the border.  It was quite an adventure to get our fully loaded touring bikes up the three steep steps into a city metro car.  Actually, I got stuck about 2/3 of the way up and had to wait for Jason to haul the bike up for me.  The people in the car looked at us like we were crazy.... and they were probably right.  We managed to get the bikes safely off the trolley as well, but needed teamwork.  At this point, we were within sight of the border.  We rode a bike path along a peninsula (that used to be an island until the highway went in), and made it to a ferry just in the nick of time to get a ride back to downtown San Diego.

We really did start at the border!  This picture proves it.

We made our way to Jason's friends' house (Thanks Matt and Kira!), where we were greeted by two bouncing dogs.  After much needed showers, we were treated to dinner (Thanks Matt, Kira, Colin, Jaime!) and a hilarious stroll in San Diego Old Town.  Apparently there's some plaque somewhere that commemorates the first palm tree that was planted in California but now no longer exists.  Actually, there are three plaques, which we never found.  None of them are actually near a palm tree.We know they exist because of smart phones.

Tomorrow we are setting out for the mountains!  We have been warned of the heat, the steep roads, etc etc, but we are not worried... we are excited!

We made it to Pittsburgh!

After two and a half days of riding, and more than a few funny stories, we've made it to Pittsburgh.  It's always interesting to ride into a city from the outskirts, watching it slowly change from suburbia to almost-forgotten to Dairy queens, food stores, strip malls, and finally to the actual city.  I think of that outer ring as 'anywhere America', since it seems to be the same just about anywhere. 

So back to the Journey...

We left on Sunday after the UU music Sunday.  That was really fun!  We soon realized that we had left Jason's sunglasses behind... oops!  He did buy some excellent clip-on glasses though.  Now it's like he has sunglasses on demand!

That first first night we met up with my stat friends in Prince Gallitzin State Park.  We went swimming, ate spicy rice, and made s'mores.  We even got some free camp wood.  Also, we were essentially the only campers there, so we didn't have to be quiet, which was nice.  Look at those friendly statistics faces!

Yesterday we rode some rail trails across the middle of the state, thinking that they would be a nice traffic-free alternative to the steep hills we had been seeing.  We even camped alongside one of them (which is technically not qallowed, but a huge storm rolled in).  This morning though... that 'flat rail trail' pulled a bait and swtich.  The old train went through a tunnel... but they had closed off the tunnel!  The only way around was OVER.  We essentailly had to portage the bicycles and gear in three trips over a steep staircase.  Grrr... That was the last of the rail trails for us.  We stuck to the roads from then on.  I reccommend rail trails for family weekend adventurers, not touring cyclists.  It's a great get-away, but a bit monotonous and slow. 

So today it rained rained, and now we are in Pittsburgh at the library.  They have very fancy screens, and Jason is kind enough to wait for me outside.  I best hurry up and relieve him of his bike-guarding duty!  We are very excited to meet up with a few friends here, shower and get supplies for the train ride.  Three days in the train, just watching the country roll by... after the steep hills of Pennsylvania our legs deserve a good rest too.  Thanks for reading!  We may get a chance to update in Chicago, otherwise it won't be until we reach California.  We're going west...!

...and they're off!

Look at that- the adventure is beginning.
Yippee!!!!!

All Packed!

First we gathered everything that we needed....

Wow! That was fun, certainly -- Daisy has been making lists of things to take on this tour all semester long, and now we finally got to make our pile o' stuff and bag it into the panniers! I think we'll have everything we need. ;) haha. And a lot of extra food: dehydrated beans and delicious cans of smoked salmon for lunch, a couple of things we won't find easily on the road.  We're listening to Mark Erelli, who is a singer/songwriter I highly recommend.

It's late (midnight), and we're just finally ready for our big first day.  We've got coffee duty at the UU tomorrow at 9, and a few loose ends to tie up in the morning.  Getting out of town is always so difficult, but the departure is within sight now.  We present...  our packed bags!

I suspect it will take us days to figure out where everything is.

What it's like to be almost ready (For Daisy):

I can't focus on anything - except checking the passes that are still closed because of the snow.  I keep making lists, dreaming up maps of our panniers - where will we keep all of our gear?!  I know I'm supposed to be answering questions about my research, but different questions keep popping into my head:

Will we have enough water?  Enough shade?  Should I get some electrolyte powder?  Do I really know how to tie up a bear bag properly?

At this point, it doesn't really matter.  We'll figure it out as we go, and I am so excited to get on the road.  To give you a little idea of why I'm so excited, check out this link to a Google map.  It has just a few of the stellar locations we'll be riding through marked.  Do you see all those national and state parks and forests?  We're riding through the 'best of the west', and over some really huge passes!  Tioga Pass in Yosemite goes up to 9,945'.  Wow!

Meanwhile, things in State College are winding down.  All my final papers are submitted, the end of the semester meetings have taken place, and the undergrads are going crazy and moving out of the dorms.  We leave in just two days: on Sunday right after the service at the UU.  Then we are meeting up with a few of my (awesome) friends from statistics for a camp-out in Prince Gallitzin State Park on our way to Pittsburgh.

From Pittsburgh we'll catch a train to San Diego.  It leaves on Tuesday at 11:59 pm (ha!), and we'll arrive in Chicago in the morning.  Then we'll have a chance to wander the city and get books for the next leg to San Diego, which will take until Friday afternoon.  We hope to take the metro down to the Mexican border then ride back north to where Jason has friends where we'll be staying for a night before really setting out for the Southern Sierras.

The Co-op Kitchen - another reason to get out of town.
  The paint tubs are our grain storage, everything else is dirty dishes...