Down the coast to Long Beach (Greater LA)

Spent only one night in San Francisco. My parents are in the country visiting my brother who lives down in Long Beach so I decided to meet them there. The big question was where to store my bike but with a contact I had made in Capitol Reef NP I could find someone.

The plan was to take greyhound down the coast but it turned out to be even better. Met two german students in my hostel room, after some chat they invited me to join them on their ride to LA. Rental car, one night of camping in Big Sur, of course I went for that.

The ride was fun and the coast spectacular as always. Third year in a row I'm able to visit Big Sur!

The campground we wanted to stay at was full but we were told about a road climbing up from the coast trough national forest, where wild camping is allowed.
Best decision ever! What an amazing spot with the best night sky I had for a long time.
For the record: The campfire on the picture wasn't ours! Making a fire is strongly prohibited for a good reason, some people though don't care which sometimes leads to wildfires...

The next day through San Simeon, San Luis Obispo, Pismo Beach, Santa Barbara, Malibu to Santa Monica. We rented beach cruisers for a short ride to the Venice boardwalk and back (also something I had done before. Was a bit of a tour guide). Well after sunset I eventually arrived at the hotel my parents were staying, right on PCH.

San Francisco, City By The Bay, most beautiful manmade place on earth

"Ocean in view! O! The joy!"

William Clark, November 8th 1805

On the ferry right now, 50 minutes to go.

(Pics taken with tablet...)

Day 61 - Vallejo and ferry to San Francisco

Writing on a 7" Tablet  sucks, so I'm gonna copy a mail I sent to Linda, why writing the same things twice:

One more day to San Francisco.
The last days I was sure not to take the ferry like the map proposes but to ride over the GG bridge. But I've biked the bridge 5-6 times and I don't want to do another day (on roads I've already biked two years ago), being so close to the city of my dreams. Plus I like boat rides.
Long story short I'm gonna bike the last ~80 miles to Vallejo tomorrow and take the ferry into SF.

Right now I'm in Sacramento at a beautiful hostel, a building from the 18th century
http://norcalhostels.org/sites/default/files/files/dl_sac_5.jpg

It was in Sacramento where I bought a cheap bike and started my first long bike tour down to LA, two summers ago. That time I didn't even dream about coming back the next summer... and the next...

Nice to be here, where "everything" started.

Can't upload pictures right now, after an update of the tablet software, the app to transfer them from my memory card doesn't work

Day 60 - Sacramento

Day 59 - Placerville, California

Day 58 - Carson City

Partied too hard, rest day needed....

Day 57 - Carson City, Nevada

So much to tell, the last two days were quite eventful. That's all I can say for now though. Like the nights before I'm sharing a motel room with Shaun. Shaun loves beer and so do I, so that's what we're doing. Tomorrow's gonna be a hard day, mainly because of the beer but also because of the last big climb over the sierras.
We are out of the desert and right in the smoke of the Rim Fire. Had that  last year already, for Shaun it's something new. Extremely limited visibility, not gonna see the beautiful mountains when I do Carson Pass tomorrow.

Stay tuned, I'm gonna write about the last days later, including pictures.

But frankly said, on the next long tour I'm not gonna try a daily blog. Most other bicyclists don't and that's for a reason. It's hard to deliver good content every day after 10+ hours on the bike.

Cheers,

Matthias