Biking from San Luis Obispo to San Francisco

Hey everyone!

I am now in San Francisco, after a month's stay in San Diego to work and replenish funds. Its been a while, so I'll try to fill in some blanks, starting with the most recent - my bike ride up here.

From San Diego, I took the train up the coast, past LA, and to a small town called Guadalupe, about 30 miles south of San Luis Obispo.



After my first full day of riding, I arrived in Cayucos. I had been here before so long ago on a crosss-country family vacation (I think I was in middle school at the time). Back then, my mother made friends with Laila, who you see in the picture below, so I came by for a visit and spent the next day there. She was a great host and also took me surfing.



The next day I rode to Big Sur. It was pretty foggy most of the way all the way to San Francisco, but the sun did come out usually in the afternoons.





As I got closer to Big Sur, I did see some evidence of the fires, but I didn't smell any smoke or see too much destruction. I did get a shot of a helicopter carrying a bucket of water.



Unfortunately I can't show you the rest of the way through Monterey, Santa Cruz, Half Moon Bay and San Francisco, because my digital camera stopped working. (I did get a disposable camera though for the rest of the ride.)

After a bit of a blogging hiatus....

Hello everyone! I know you are all anxious to hear an update on the trip. I am Megan, Drew's sister, and I was able to join Drew and Mike along with my other brother, Alex, last month in Utah and Nevada. We had an amazing time and I thought I would share our experiences and pictures.

Alex arrived in Salt Lake City in early May, a few days after finishing his finals. Over the following two and a half weeks they traveled to Moab, Canyonlands National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, and rafted down the Colorado River for a few days.

I met up with the boys in Las Vegas, NV. I arrived in the middle of the night and we drove out of the city in search of a place to sleep. We finally spotted a great gravel parking lots and set up camp. In the morning I awoke to beautiful views of colorful rock formations. Finding camp in the dark and waking up to discover the beautiful scenery seemed to become a usual occurrence!

On our first day, we set out on a hike through Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, which is just 15 miles outside of Las Vegas. It was a beautiful hike up the vivid red rocks. Along the way, we did some bouldering and we were rewarded with amazing views of Las Vegas at the end!








Stay tuned: THERE'S MORE TO COME......

Tucson, AZ

We stayed in Tucson for a few day, and we loved it. It is rated as one of the top cities in the country for Bicycling, so that is what we did alot of when we were there.



While we were there, we stayed with my second cousin Cari, and her girlfriend Shelly for three nights, both of whom I had just met on this visit. I'm glad I got to meet them, and stay with them, because they were such great hosts, and such fun and nice people. I can't believe it, but I just realized now that we didn't take any pictures together. I guess I'll have to come back and visit again.


One neat attraction that we saw there was Biosphere 2, which was a big self-contained glass building where a group of people lived inside for two years in the early 1990's. It allowed no material exchange between the inside and the outside, and was an experiment primarily to see if life could be supported in an small contained environment. (In case you were wondering, Biosphere 1 is the Earth).






On our way out of town, we stopped to see my Aunt Sue and Uncle Russ's friends, Dave and Darlene. We stopped in during the afternoon and talked a while, and had a real nice dinner there. From there, that night, we headed up to Phoenix.

Tombstone

We next visited the town of Tombstone, AZ. If you've seen any of the Wyatt Earp movies, or know the stories of Wyatt Earp, this is where Wyatt Earp was, and where the shootout at the OK Corral took place.

We spent our time at the Tombstone Historama Museum, wich was located at the OK Corral.

And we also saw a re-enactment of the shootout.

White Sands National Monument

At this point, we started to head west toward Arizona. In about the middle of southern New Mexico is the White Sands National Monument, which is also in the middle of a huge Missle Range. The white sands here are made of gypsum, which is what wallboard and plaster of paris are made out of. Here there are dunes of white sand, that were deposited here by the water that flowed from the nearby mountians into shallow lakes. When the water evaporates, the gypsum remains behind and becomes part of this white desert of sand dunes.

We only spent a few hours here, but as you can see, we did enjoy our time in the sand.

Roswell

Not too far north of Carlsbad is Roswell, where we stopped into to see the Roswell UFO Museum. We both enjoyed that quite a bit. It was a small museum with a lot of things to reading about different peoples accounts and newspaper articles and stuff like that.

Carlsbad Caverns

I know, its been a long time since we last posted anything here, so its time to catch up with some stuff that has happened weeks ago. By the way, I loved the comments that I've gotten from so many of you. They were hilarious. Keep them coming, and I'll try to be better at keeping up to date.

Since Guadalupe, we've been through Southern New Mexico, through Arizona, and back through Northern New Mexico, but lets back up to Carlsbad Caverns.

When we drove into Carlsbad, NM, it was great weather in the 70's and we went for a real nice bike ride around town. We were planning on riding to the caverns the following day, but the big surprise was that it snowed that night, and was freezing the next day. Check out our desert snowman we made.


The caverns were very spectacular, but its hard to describe them, so here are some pictures that hopefully give you a good idea of what they are like.

Guadalupe Mountains National Park

After we left Big Bend we traveled north to Guadelupe Mountains National Park which was at the very top of Texas, just under the border with New Mexico. All around this mountain range is just relatively flat desert, then the Guadelupe's suddenly rise 5000 ft from the desert floor. This was actually once a reef under the sea, called Capitan Reef. Because of this it is composed mainly of limestone, and all around, you are able to see fossils of sea life in the rocks.


We stayed here for four nights... The first night we simply arrived and picked a spot to sleep. The next three nights we camped on the mountain. First, we hiked up to Guadalupe Peak, which is the highest peak in Texas at 8749 ft. From here you can look east, south, and west, and see the flat desert 5000 ft below. We spent the night at a campsite a little ways below the summit.


The next day, we woke up and went back down the mountain to the visitor center, replenished our food and water, and headed back up the other side of the valley to our campsite (Pine Top).


The following morning, this time with thankfully lighter packs, we hiked the Bowl Trail, which took us up Hunter Peak, then around into "the bowl", which was a very nice hike through a region between the mountain peaks where the vegitation and life are more characteristic of regions much further north. This happened because the climate in this area used to be much wetter and cooler many years ago, and when the climate turned warmer and drier, this area in the higher altitude and protected by the surrounding mountians still remains as it used to be.


We spent one more night at the Pine Top campsite, and the following morning hiked back down and left to come to Carlsbad.

Big Bend

We had been in Big Bend National Park, TX for an entire week - from Feb 19 to Feb 25. We really didn't know much about this place before coming here, but we were very pleasantly surprised with how much we like it. The park itself is huge, with alot of variety from the lower desert floor along the Rio Grand/Mexico Border ~1800ft, to the top of Emory Peak in the Chisos Mountains that reaches 7825 ft.

The weather for us was great summer-like weather - usually with highs in the 80's, although we did get into the mid 90's, but it did cool down at night sometimes to the 30's. The temperature difference between the higher and lower elevations is usually about 15 degrees.


Things we did did and saw:

Chisos Basin - We really enjoyed staying in the Chisos basin, which was an area of the park surrounded by a circle of mountains all around. I really need to show photos to explain. [I will post them when I am able to.]

Emory Peak - The highest peak in the Chisos Mountians was Emory Peak, at 7825 ft. We hiked this early in the week as a day hike.

Boquillas Canyon - We went for a short hike in Boquillas Canyon. There, we met a Mexican guy, Jesus, who was selling walking sticks, painted rocks, and songs.

Hot Springs - We went to the hot springs twice, and it was so nice with the water temperature at 105 degrees. It was a very nice 3 mile hike in from one trail head through the desert, up to the hot springs which was right on the Rio Grande. We could just step over the stone wall from the hot tub into the river.

Santa Elena Canyon - Near the end of our stay, we visited the Santa Elena Canyon that contains the Rio Grande River. This was a very nice easy walk, with the temperature much cooler and more comfortable than outside the canyon. The site of the canyon as it exits into the open is quite remarkable. I promise to post a picture as soon as I am able.

Campsites - We stayed at some pretty remote campsites out in the desert.