Category Archives: friends

city, friends, history, roadtrip, travel, USA, vehicles

Alcatraz

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Tuesday was another day on the waterfront in San Francisco. After a completely avoidable & regrettable communication breakdown, we met Kristy & Joel just in time to get on our booked 9.30 ferry to the Rock. Strangely, the Bay area had served up a consecutive fantastic day & it was a most pleasant short ferry ride out to Alcatraz. A very popular place to visit, I didn’t find it too crowded to get a good look around. It’s an odd island – such a beautiful setting in the gateway to the San Francisco bay with great views all around on such a day, plenty of flowers that you wouldn’t expect & a lot of birdlife (no predators). All this is contrasted markedly with it really just being a big, mostly desolate, rock with a huge old crumbling relic of a prison sitting on top.

With its history of being an army fort guarding the bay, then an army prison, then a federal penitentiary before the site of an Indian occupation & finally becoming part of the National Park system, I was fascinated. Of course, the biggest focus of the island today is the former maximum security cell block – the audio tour (the first I’ve done this trip) voiced by former guards & inmates is really well done. The cells, except solitary confinement for some reason, were smaller than I expected. It seemed as though life there was for the most part rather routine & quiet, with good meals & hot showers (so prisoners wouldn’t get acclimatized to cold water & think a swim across the bay was a good idea). Still, with the city tantalizingly close it must have been torture. The 1946 riot & various escape attempts were well detailed, as was life on the island for the children of the wardens.

Back on the mainland, we enjoyed a nice long lunch of clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls on Fisherman’s Wharf catching up about roadtrips & life in Canmore. Leaving Joel & Kristy to explore Pier 39 we headed back to the historic ships that we didn’t get the chance to wander around on Saturday. The Eureka was a big old wooden-hulled (one of the largest left) ferry from the days before the big bridges around the Bay Area. It reminded me a lot of one I went on in San Diego two years ago – there was nice little collection of old vehicles on it too. I found the most interesting to be the Balclutha – a big old three-masted sailing ship that plied quite a few different routes over its long life – curiously it used to take a lot of Californian Douglis fir to Australia for the construction of the Broken Hill mines (there’s a tenuous link to my old job at Bluescope Steel there somewhere). There was a neat little old red tug tied up – reminded me of Little Golden Books for some reason. Leaving Joel & Kristy to explore the city a little more, we returned to the hotel to do a few errands before we met for dinner.

bikes, friends, GPS, MTB, roadtrip, travel, USA

Montana de Oro (again!) & Monterey Aquarium

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After trading Facebook messages with Emma for a couple of weeks, coincidentally we all ended up in San Luis Obispo on the same night. I met Emma & Brent at Easter two years ago (just before I left NZ) on what I still maintain is perhaps the best riding trip I’ve ever been on. We (a group of about thirteen – all from Napier/Hastings, except me) rode the Queen Charlotte Walkway at the top of the South Island over the long weekend. With big climbs, fantastic downhills, spectacular scenery, wonderful autumn/fall weather & a great group (I only knew one guy before the trip) – it’s a ride I’ll remember for a long time. Brent & Emma have quit their jobs back home, rented out houses & are now planning on taking four to five months to do a similar loop to what Valerie & I are currently doing (except in the opposite direction, starting from San Francisco). It was with just a little jealously that I listened to how they’d set their minvan up with a bed & bikes in the back – sort of what I’d been planning on doing originally – & saw a trip with two keen bikers.

Only a week into their trip they’ve had much more excitement than we have (& they can keep it) – police drug raids in the motel room next door, (lack of) visa hassles, a tick removed under local anesthetic & then discovering a car down a bank with a very drunk woman at the wheel last night. It was great (mint) to catch up last night in SLO over a beer & share riding & road-trip stories, trade recommendations & listen to true-blue Kiwi accents (although Emma still has a little English there).

They rode the same trails yesterday afternoon that I had that morning, but I was keen to ride with them so we hit the trails again this morning. It was nice to have people to chat with on the climb & then someone to chase/chase me down the hills. We followed the same loop mostly that I did yesterday (except starting at the campsite) & once most of the way up East Boundary cut off to the right & rode Barranca back to the fireroad.

A lot foggier at the top of Hazzard Peak compared to yesterday.

Barranca had a little bit of a climb & then turned into the most technical (not too bad) downhill in the area – it was much more rocks & gravel than the packed dirt on Hazzard Peak & Manzanita. I had a good fun chasing Brent down & trying not to swallow too much of the dust he was kicking up around the corners.

A tick-infested (OK, he had one) man kindly took this at the top of Barranca

Yesterday I had spied a little bit of trail on the other side of the creek, so we dipped down, crossed the creek & rode the Reservoir Flats trail back to the campsite. It was a fantastic little ride in the morning fog, super nice to have some Kiwi riding buddies (albeit briefly) – with goodbyes & good-driving well-wishes we parted way.

We’re now on our way north up the Central Coast to the acclaimed Monterey aquarium. It was weird as we drove up the 101 seeing that big layer of marine cloud sitting off west over the ocean, while we are bathed in sunshine. It’s beautiful countryside to drive through – gorgeous hills on both sides with extensive vineyards giving way to multitudes of market gardens in the center (big rows of pickers’ cars parked along the side of the road, seemingly in the middle of nowhere).

Looking at the atlas just after leaving SLO, it looks like it’ll make much more sense to continue up the coast to Santa Cruz (good riding) & San Fran before heading east to Yosemite & up to Lake Tahoe (instead of Monterey, east to Yellowstone, west to San Fran with a day trip south to Santa Cruz, & east again to Tahoe). So that’s probably what we’ll do.

*We had a good few hours to look around the aquarium. It was pretty cool, but now that summer vacation has begun it was packed with families which made it a little difficult to see some of the animals. Is it a bad sign that the thing I will remember most is that the plural of fish over here is ‘fishes’? Actually, the jellyfish & the sea-horses (& kin) were the best things.

A leafy sea-dragon

So this is what a cuttlefish really looks like – all those years I thought it was for feeding (dead) parrots

bikes, food, friends, GPS, MTB, roadtrip, travel, USA

Bike cleaning, great food & a big ride

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Coronado was well worth a look, as the bridge over is not far from where we are staying in San Diego. We moseyed around late Friday morning, found some great ginger beer in a Scottish shop (not quite sure what that was doing there, but the accent was great) & generally looked over the harbour at the city while chatting with a very talkative gallery owner.

The afternoon had been long ago handed over to bike maintenance at Chip’s place. My bike was still filthy from its Utah & Colorado muddy adventures & just altogether greasy. So it was great to hang out with Chip (I met & rode with him a bit last time I was here, we’ve obviously kept in touch) & pull various parts of my bike to bits. A short trip to the LBS (local bike shop) later I had been converted to a Geax Saguaro on the rear (back to tubeless, the tire was so hard to get on the rim I don’t see it coming off any time soon).  After riding on it for a day, I’m not entirely won over – it didn’t seem to give as much climbing traction as the Crossmark.

All the time I was tinkering with my bike Chip & Dale (a coincidence I assure you) had been preparing a feast for us. Over the last two years I’d got the impression that the food served around here is fantastic, so I was pleased to see this great looking barbecue in action.

The homemade bread was delicious, the barbecued chicken & ribs absolutely fantastic and the homemade strudel so good Valerie managed to down a whole one. With some good wine & a lot of travel & bike stories it was definitely the most memorable meal of the trip so far. Thanks so much for having us in your home,, Chip & Dale – I can’t say much more, I don’t want it going to your heads.

It wasn’t a late night, however, as Chip had organised a big ride for early Saturday morning. With most of an hour’s driving out of the way, nineteen of us were on our bikes by 7.45. We were riding a big loop around the Cuyamacas – I’d done this same loop (or a similar one) with a few of the same people last time, but in reverse. I’m not quite sure how we ended up with so many people, but it was fun – even if it did end up breaking up into two or three smaller groups at times.

It was a nice morning for a ride, not too hot, clear & usually there was enough breeze to keep the annoying bugs away. We ended up doing 50km/31 miles & there was a fair bit of climbing involved (1200m). I mostly sat in the back group just hanging out & cruising along in the middle ring pretending I was slower than I am – was good fun. Although a long ride, it wasn’t too technical (some short sections up required a little pushing) so I wasn’t as tired by the end of it as I expected – hungry though. I think because I’d ridden it before I didn’t end taking a lot of photos, but here are a few.

Despite having been told by many that riding the loop anti-clockwise was better, I’m not so sure. The climbing was definitely easier, but the way we went yesterday had a big downhill on a fireroad – reading my post of last time I rode here, I was definitely more excited about the down sections going clockwise. Still, it was wonderful ride – the longest of the trip so far, so that’s got to be good for the legs.

I wasn’t long home & showered & I got a text from Andrea, so I spent the evening in PB (Pacific Beach) with her & some of her friends – very nice to catch up & see a familiar Kiwi face. It was great just to be driving back into the area; the scenery is always good in PB. It turned into a bigger night than I’ve had for quite sometime (which is not altogether difficult), so I’m not sure if I’m tired from the ride or not getting to bed (couch) until late. Best thing was the lack of mugging. But the sun is out now, so we should go & explore San Diego a little more.

bikes, friends, GPS, MTB, roadtrip, travel, USA

Slickrock Trail & Magnificent 7 (well, three of them)

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Today was my opportunity to ride what is arguably the most famous mountain-bike trail in the world – the Slickrock Trail. Just as I was driving up there, I got a text from Miles & it turned out that I’d meet him afterwards for another ride. Not in the best shape of my life (but hopefully getting closer), I tried to get around the trail as quickly as possible while still taking enough time to take pictures & appreciate the scenery & trail. At nine o’clock on a Monday morning, the trailhead wasn’t too busy & I probably only saw about twenty people on the whole loop – more reinforcement of planning to avoid the weekend. The rock itself was mostly super smooth & grippy. The trail was about ninety-five percent rock & the rest a little bit of sand. Peppered with a lot of sharp descents & then tough pinch climbs, it’s not a complete walk in the park but great fun all the same. I started off the ride looking at big thunderstorms off in the distance, but they avoided me & I spent time in direct sunlight, cloud & a stiff cooling breeze.

The views were out over the Colorado River towards Arches NP & east to the La Sal mountains (nice to see these not capped in cloud, unlike yesterday). Picking the route across the rock was made pretty easy by following the big white dashes painted on the rock. Enough of that, here are a few pictures.

The outskirts of Moab

After a quick dash back to the motel, refilling the Camelbak & making & consuming a wrap, we were off to meet Miles & Diyora (sp?) at the other end of town. Driving north towards Canyonlands NP, Miles & I were dropped off at top of Gemini Bridges Rd with ominous looking storm clouds sending bolts of lightning down not too far away. We rode down the road for a mile & eventually found the unsignposted trail off the 4WD road. The Magnificent 7 is a group of now more than seven trails that lead from where we started back towards Moab. We rode the first three of them (Bull Run, Arth’s Corner & Little Canyon) before meeting our pick-up back on Highway 161. We had a big net descent & the riding was more of the type I prefer – getting away from town, getting a bit of distance in & seeing less seen views. The big black clouds avoided us as we made our way down Bull Run. The scenery was once again spectacular, but as Miles & Diyora had to hustle back to Denver (six hours away) for Diyora to catch a red-eye back to NYC, I wasn’t stopping as much for photos. Also, the trail was really fun & with plenty of canyon-side riding, drops & step-ups. Half way through we walked off the road a little to have a look at the Gemini Bridges – it’s not until you are standing on top of them that you realise that there are two parallel bridges separated by a metre gap.

Riding 30 miles/48 km today (the most I’ve done in one day since a Lake Minnewanka epic with Alex last July) with 850m of climbing was possibly a little optimistic, but I’m still alive – but may pay for it tomorrow on Porcupine Rim. It also means, I don’t remember many of the singletrack details from this afternoon – except it was brilliant with beautiful views. More storms blew in, but we were fortunate to only be showered on for ten minutes or so. With a bit more dodgy route finding & a big long climb & then even longer descent to the highway we were back at the cars & I was somewhat worn out. Another great ride, I eagerly await riding a lot in Bend, Oregon with Miles in July.

Back towards Moab & the La Sal mountains