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SUMMARY PAGE - Here is a summary page of what is below.
Alana and I will be alternating when providing updates. As such, things might seem a little jumbled at times, but we'll try to make it as neat as possible.
If you'd like us to send you a post card, send us an email with your mailing address to biking_the_us_eh@yahoo.com
We had some problems as you will read with going through Yellowstone park so our trip map is a little different. I should clear it up all now from the beginning. I'll update the maps when I get back. There isn't a scanner around hear unfort.
We left McGregor, MB and head towards Brandon on the #1. From Brandon, we jumped on the #2 and headed for Sask. From there, it turns into the #13 and we rode it all the way to Cadillac (south of Swift Current). This road is way better than #1 with respect to looking at Prairies. And less busy. From there, we headed down #4 which turns into 191 at the border. The Montana route is mostly the same except for instead of turning to Red Lodge at the south part of Montana (onto 212), we went on the 310 towards Bridger, then headed down to Cody on the 72/120. He heard Beartooth pass was nuts. So now we are totally off from our route for awhile. From Cody, we went down 120 to Thermopolis, then down to Riverton and headed for Lander (these highways all change numbers so I didn't put them in for now). We got a lift from to Evanston, Wy (don't know which way he drove) but we ended up there. From Evanston, we took the Interstate 80 (yeah, it was kinda nuts) to Echo, Utah (the interstate forks there). We headed down to Wanship on the I80 where Alana got a flat and this guy was nice enough to bring us to Heber City, Utah. From Heber city, we took the 89 down through Provo, Indianola, Manti, Salina, Marysvale, and Panguitch. We forked off on 143 towards Cedar City and that is where we are now.
Phew, sorry about that, I'll update the maps when I get a chance.
I also have to update the rest of route. We were given professional drawn maps and weren't allowed to post them so I'll have to give a city by city descreption.
Next update is in Reno, Nevada, one week hopefully.
So I have a couple of images of the elevation we climbed during the last week and a little. I've titled the images appropriately. If you want to know the miles from one city to the next, check the updates below. They are pretty screwy drawings because paint is hard to draw in with a trackball. They might not be in riding order either. My friend is just posting them as is.
Panguitch to Cedar City
Milford to Middle of Nowhere
Middle of Nowhere to Ely
Ely to Eureka
Eureka to Austin
Carson Pass
I still don't have the route maps up unfort. for some of the sections. Here is the one from SanFran to Santa Barbara, and here is the one from Cedar City to SanFran. Click on the detail link and you'll see where the maps lead.
This will be the last time we update the site before the end of the trip. We have about 350 miles left and then we are done. We're at over 2100 miles now. Alana has a flight out of LA on the 26 so that's our final arrival time. I have to find a way home so send money or donations or air miles and I'll gladly say thank you and bake you a x-mas fruitcake. We'll thank everyone one now for the help and all the emails. It's been fun. Hopefully it'll be safe along the coast. We're still checking email when we can.
McGregor to Brandon - 60 miles.
Nice day for biking. Long but made it. Stayed with Alana's family. Everything went alright.
-- Quinn
40 miles. What a nasty day, winds 20,30, and 40km/h in our faces. It sucked. Cloudy too. We made it from Brandon to a place called Deleau and stayed in a camp ground. A nice couple gave us water and when we left, handed us $20 for lunch during the day. Great couple. Camping was cold though but we made it
-- Quinn
62 miles. Got up early and had our stuff ready to go by 8am. We were off and running and everything seemed ok. We stopped in Reston, MB and ate our lunch. There, one person offered us water and a washrooms, another person asked us if we needed anything from his store, and the last person asked us if we needed any first aid stuff (and he gave us some stuff). He also gave us his email and asked us to send him a post card... no problem.
After lunch we had some bike issues. We had to take off Alana's rack and fender, adjust it so it was straight and her screws were tight, and then put it all back on the side of the highway. Took a good 2 hours and that put us back the mileage we wanted to make that day. But we biked like bats out of hell for the last part of the day (4:30 - 8) and got a good 40 miles in.
We stopped at a campsite and some people gave us a place to stay (bread and breakfast) and I'm here now. We are going to bed soon and I'm on dial-up so there isn't much else I write. We head out tomorrow again early and hope to cover more grounds. Everyone we have met has been pleasant and we haven't had any issues with the locals. They are great.
That's all for now, update the site in a couple of more days hopefully if we get to internet.
-- Quinn
70 miles from Wouchope to Griffin. Wind SSE
We set off around 9am and we had a slight wind behind us. Wouchope was a small place with only one person living in the town. Nothing special about this day. Getting hilly. We were able to shower in a post office. We camped outside and made food with our burner. Today was boring.
-- Quinn
Griffen to Weyburn 20 miles Saskatchewan
so this is the first entry i've put in (i being alana), they're probably allot longer than quinns, but i guess thats a way to separate them and the fact that i cant spell and have marginal punctuation...
Break Day!!!!!
Weyburn is the closest larger city we've hit in a while and for a while so we took this day off. We biked in slowly in the morn and got a room at the circle 6 motel, then we went to wallmart (Quinns ideal store and on my top 10 hated list - but it was right next door and we were so so sore from biking and we need to pick up a slew of different things, so i put prejudice asside for a bit), People have never stoped to surprise me with how kind they are, just walking back to the motel someone picked us up and gave us a lift. Pretty non eventful day though, we just ate allot, watched tv, too out all of our gear and tried to decided what we could lose, then went out for a beer, didnt actually drink much of it because we fell asleep. so we left some for the cleaning lady as a tip of sorts...
-- Alana
52 miles from Weybern to Ogema cloudy, cold and a SSE wind 20km/h
We were pretty tired today so we didn't do too much. Biking 100 miles is a lot hard than someone would think. We ate dinner and breakfast in a restaurant in town and the people were really friendly. There was a campground we stayed and it was freezing in the morning. I had been riding the previous day with my steering all out of alignment so I mananged to find someone with a plumbers wrench and straighten that out. A lot easier to ride when you aren't pointing in the ditch and going straight. Nothing special about this day either.
-- Quinn
Ogema to Lefleshe 83.5 miles Saskatchewan
so the beautiful but a bit monotonous flat lands of saskatchewan were broken for a bit with this wicked hill, oh it was heaven, we finally got over 40 miles per hour as we went down it, a bit nerve wracking when you have so much weight on you, but it was about time we got to go in some direction besides completely horizontal. Dull day besides that, we just biked, we had a slight wind to our backs so we got going pretty well, we stopped in laflesch, strange town that one is, we had chinese food in this bright pink building that looked like it'd been there for centrueis, it had that traditional flat front and the one lone bench out in the front. The owners were Chinese, and you had to wonder how they ended up there.
-- Alana
55 miles from Lafleche, Sask to Cadillac wind 15-20km/h west and cloudy.
We hit construction today and we had to walk about 5km. It was pretty nasty. We just wanted to get to Cadillac but it took us for ever just to do 55 miles. We stopped off in a bar in town and got some water and potatoes. Again, people were interested in what we were doing. We tented in a field and it rained for a while but it wasn't too bad. Ate our food, cleaned up and went to bed.
-- Quinn
cadillac to Loring 70.5 miles Saskatchewan to Montana
Loring is just past the border in Montana, I really love montana, we woke up with frost so there were shardes of ice in the air it seemed as the sun rose, bloody cold though, i dont want to think about it now, so i'll continue... we went to the pub to have some toast and coffee, and got to hear about bar fights, why bars are turning to cans from bottles because they cant be thrown as well, and how people around those parts will get into fights and never be seen again, not too hard to imagine because it's such an open country, they say it takes over 30 acres per head of cattle to graze, that pretty much explains the space. cattle are really entertaining, they always stop what they're doing to look at us, as we pass by, and if we scare them - we're pretty darn intimidating on our bikes you have to understand, especially when we;re crawkling up a hill - they'll start running away, sometimes in our direction which just scares them more until it's a stamped, it's good fun. except fot that one cow in loring that didnt stop mooing all night long. i wouldnt mind seeing that one on my plate, anways, i'm digressing, back to the bar, in traditional montana folklore, this bar fits perfectly, the old owners were held up and shot, the man caught is sitting in death row, much to the annoyance to other people we spoke to since they figure that something should have been done about it and he should have just been killed by now instead of using tax payers money. but thats enough about this day...
-- Alana
60 miles from Login, Montana to Philips (middle of no where). Wind west over 20km/h.
So the west wind seems to blow us around a lot here in Montanna. And the hills are relentless. We stopped off at this guy's farm and they were nice enough to let us sleep inside and use the showers and all that good stuff. They also invited us for dinner and we had a good chat with them for some time. We stopped in Malta to have something to eat during the day. Out here it's typical range living. Cows, grazing fields, odd accents sometimes. It's great. We were exhausted though. Always good to sleep in a warm bed.
-- Quinn
Philllips to Bohemian corner (junction 19 and 191) Montana 70.5 miles
well, we almost died
no joke
we were so tired this time
up hills and down hills
up some more hills and down
still no break
our legs were really really really tired,
then there was the crossing of the missouri river (my appoligies to anyone reading this who can spell, i can't worth a dime and we only have an hour on the library computer before being kicked off of it)
that pass has a special pull off for trucks that need to chain their tires
after so miuch biking we hit this place, it was georgeous coming down, but going up we had to get off out bikes for the first time and start to walk up it
it took a while then we had over 20 miles left to go. and we almost died, or i guess i should say i almost died, quinn claming to be superman was probably alright, but he did seem tired. we made it to bohemian corner and ate just about as much as we could find there, for a couple of solid hours and then they opened up the town hall for us to sleep in.
it was a bit creepy, apparently theres a ghost of the old owner of the store (this town is basically the store a few houses and the hall) who came into the store at the same time, causing the door buzzer to go at the same time each morn. after he died the buzzer would still go off like clockwork for a while, they feel for a reminder that he was alright and all. not something you want to think about in a dark hall with no lights on. oh yeah, and we've hit rattle snake country, this was a store that catered to huinters and theyt mentioned that they shot two just out of the store witihin the last while, apparently they're attracted to the roads or somehting, i was too tired to catch the full story,
-- Alana
68 miles from Junc 19 and 191 to Round up west with a little north wind 10-20km/h
K, now we are getting fricken tired. We just wanted to get to Billings so we are just going without any breaks for the last week. We stopped off in Grass Range and had some food today. The hills are getting crazy and we haven't even reached the moutains. Are legs are aching and we need a rest but we shall strive on until we get to Billings, Montanna. I think today was the day Alana got me a little upset for some reason so I decided to bike 30 miles with little or no break. Sorry Alana. I think she likes it though, we get to places faster, hehe. We saw some hunter on the side of the road with his crossbow... pretty crazy until he told us that we were crazier than him for biking. I guess so. When we got to Roundup, we stopped in to this supermarked and had a chat with the local batty lady (they exist in every town). She was nice though. We made our food in the campground and hit the hay. Tomorrow, we're off to Billings for our rest. Getting cold out here.
-- Quinn
Roundup to Billings 47 miles
whats with stop signs with bullet holes in them? that i still dont understand the sport of that and every sign out of town has a bottle smashed against it make it an international sport and montana is bound to bring home some golds
i still really love montana, the people here are realy really kind, and distinct. we finally made it to a motel today, for a well deserved rest. when were were there we saw a man get out of his car, and bring his rifle out of the car and into his hotel room, we met him again in the lobey, seemed a nice sort of fellow.
so we crashed and watched some tv and then went and got some of the best hamburgers ever, they were at doc and eddys, and they were huge!!! we probably broke a world record eacting them, then we ate some more, and some more, it was great, and then crashed,
-- Alana
Rest day, so we have 2 days until our birthdays (Alana and I have the same birth date) so we're contemplating going and getting drunk and hanging out in Wal Mart at midnight. It's open 24hours and it's monstrous. It rules. We're just updating the site now and hope the email keeps coming in. Sorry for the late updates. We have no way of getting them up when we're in the middle of no where. Send us your address if you want a post card. We took a different route from the maps I have up so if you are confused on the route, I'll change it when I have more time. I'm speeding through these updates so if Jon doesn't fix the spelling mistakes or something sounds whacky, it's the speed reason. We'll be on tomorrow (Sunday the 19th) to check email again. Send us something before then or else we won't be able to reply for some time (depending on where we are). Hope everyone's doing alright. Email us biking_the_us_eh@yahoo.com.
So we brought our bikes in to this place in Billings (The Bike Shop) and the guys there were great. They let us use their stand, helped us clean up the bikes and fixed some minor glitches. Definitely check these guys out if you are in town. What up to Nate and the gang. Not only was he good with the bikes, he could handle a mean tequila. He gave us a call and brought us out to the local pub. We had a few drinks but didn't get to Wal-Mart unfortunately. We also met a guy working here in the city from India who came and had a couple drinks with us as well. All in all, a good rest day.
-- Quinn
Today we vegged out in the motel and ran some errands. We had to get some supplies from Wal-Mart and grab some new earings for Alana. Tonight we'll probably load up on some pasta and get ready for the long haul over the moutains. We'll be heading southwest towards Cody, Wyoming. We aren't going the RedLodge way. We heard it snows in July. We'll check email and update when we can. So far we have covered over 700 miles. Some people I talked to were impressed while Dean thought I was dead in a US highway ditch. No, we're still alive and well.
-- Quinn
Our birthdays, woohoo, Happy Birthday to us. We had a cinamon role and a glass of wine. Oh yeah, we went about 40-50 miles today. Alana was in another world and I think the speed limit there was 10 miles/hr. So we didn't get much done. It was really cold and wet when we left and we really didn't feal like biking. We ended up going from Billings to Bridger. We tented in the town and it seems to be getting colder out here. Better luck tomorrow.
-- Quinn
Bridger to Cody, Wyoming. 63 miles.
So this was a long tough stretch. Don't know why but then we realized elevation can do weird stuff to you. Like make you go 10 miles/hr on a straight stretch with little or no wind. I haven't been updating the elevation so maybe I'll put it in here. Winnipeg is about 800 ft asl. We got to Sask and we were around 1800. Going into Montanna we slowly climed to about 3000 but reached 4000 ft asl at one point in the middle of the State. Billings was around 3500. From Billings to Bridger remained around 3800 to 4000 ft asl. From Bridger to Cody, the highest point we hit was 6000 ft asl. Then, back down to 5000 on the other side of the hill where we reached Cody. We stopped off for nachos and coffee and chocolate cake and ice cream. We decided to do a cross America nacho tasting test as well. So we go to different places and try their nachos out. So far, the best have been in Billings but they weren't all that great. Still looking. We camped outside and froze again and got up at 6am to get a good start. Continued next update (sept 22).
-- Quinn
alright, so turns out that some cyclists were mauled by a bear not to long ago around here, one of them got too far behind, that and some places that were were planning on stopping in at yelllowstone national park are closed, and turns out that there construction so the time to enter the park is only between 6-10 am and pm.
so we're sitting in cody now, hanging out, quinn is fixing some coputers here in a cellular store for free internet. It looks like we're going to have to hitch hike to jackson hole or at least through the first part of the park because the bears are really bad along one stretch (they didnt get enough to eat t his year and are very agressive). We picked up some bear spray and have made some signs and were going to try our luck tomorrow, otherwise we're going to change our route and miss jackson hole and go south then west to salt lake city,
oh yeah, i think i'm getting sick,. but besides all that it's still pretty cool. despite the shoddyness of the last couple of days, thats because i bought a cowboy hat, black is all the rage, you can always wear a black cowboy hat apparently, or a straw one, but thats just for the summers, so i picked one up, all i need some is a few head of cattle and a spance of land. i'll work on those another time,
alright, hopefully the next update you'll get will be from jackson!!!
-- Alana
still in cody to thermopolis - 85.5 miles
so we tried to hich a ride out, this meant that we got up at 4:30 to put away the tent and get on the road. once on the road we put up some signs. This was Quinn's first time hitchi hiking (although he claims that this really isnt hitchiking). we were planning on getting a lift out to teh park because that was the noly way we could get out there and bike the pass and get to a town that would let us camp. But hitching didnt last long, we got stopped by the state patrol, they were very nice about it but we had to put the signs away. apparently it's illegal to
So we decided to make a new route, we headed out of town eastwards. we put in over 85 miles, it felt relly good to get out on the road again and out of cody, it's a nice town but a bit too touristy for our tastes.
I managed to fall off my bike again, happens every so often, this time i almost took quinn with me, but he stayed up and i just got a few more burises.
The land around here is changing, it's still hilly but the soil is red now. It's crazy to bike through, the entire place is like an optical illusion, the hills slope and the road looks straight even when you're biking uphill. It's really furstrating until you figure it out, and it's disconcerning to never really know what type of incline you're on.
-- Alana
Thermopolis to Shoshoni - 30 miles
So we left really late today and put in a really crappy effort. We went through the Wind River Canyon and it was pretty rad. Wyoming creates a biking illusion. You think you are goign up hill when you are going down hill and vice versa. Messes you up a ilttle. We were short of getting to Lander so we stuck our thumb out at the side of the road. A guy with a horse hitch put our bikes in it and gave us a ride all the way to Evanston. Cheating a little I guess but we've done over 1000 miles right now. So this guy has a dead antelope he just finished hunting in the back of his trailer and all through Montana and Wyoming, I wanted to get a hunting picture. So he let me hold up the head and hols his rifle and I got a picture. Best picture on the trip for sure. And I was still in my biking clothes. I was so pumped and still am. The guy thought I was nuts of course. Alana just laughed. Then coming into town, he plowed down 2 baby deer. We tried to steer out of the way but we couldn't dodge them. Nasty eh? So much wildlife around here. Anyways, we got a lift into town, checked into a cheap motel and went to bed. Ryan's (the hunter) is getting a post card obviously. He ruled. Now we're almost back on track.
-- Quinn
evanston to a cabin on the top of a hilll in midway 50 miles
today we took on the interstate, it's legal in wyoming so we guessed that it might be in utah, turns out it isnt but we didnt get stopped, it wasnt that bad, the ttraffic is moving along pretty quickly but that was great when you got a semi, it would drag us a good ways up each time one passed.
Today was our first flat, over 1000 miles without a flat, pretty impressive since i was getting 2 a week in minneapolis, we walked the bikes to a restaurant in the town near by, and were told that the bishop there might let us tent in the church yard, or right next to it, on the way there we met Bill. He was really cool, he told us that we could spend the night in his cabin if we needed a place to stay, his cabin was in midway on the top of a huge hill, the sun was setting when we got there so we got to look over the balcomny and watch heber city turn on, -- thanks Bill for the chocolate milk and the place to stay, it was an amazing view!
-- Alana
Midway/Hebert city to Indianloa 75 miles
So we left the cabin and we were pretty high up on this mountain side so we had to watch that we didnt' speed around the corners and get wasted by passing cars. At a gas station, we met this guy who had a couple of super nice bikes in his truck. He told us that if we needed anything, we could go to his bike shop 2 blocks down. We needed air in our tires so we went by his house. He seriouisly had everything you needed for a bike. He put air in our tires and cleaned our chains. He was like the chain police. He probably sleeps with his chain at night. But he was really nice and gave us some great advice. He even had the same bike Lance Armstrong had. He had just finished doing a 100 mile route the day before. Anyways, we got on our way (late again, it's getting bad) and headed for Indianola. It was about 8 or 8:30 before got there and pitch dark. It was a tough ride up this pass and it took us awhile during the day. Plus it was about 85 out so we were cooking. We were headed for this town Thistly but some guy told us that it was underwater because a landslide pushed all the water too high. We almost ran out of water but some people gave us some (from their RV). Back to 8 or 8:30, we asked one person in this small town where we could pitch our tent and he mentioned in the middle of no where 3 miles down. We didn't feel like biking any more, so we stopped in front of this other guy's house and waited till he saw us and came out to help (it worked). He let us stay on his property for the night. Now this guy was awesome. Best and most interesting guy I met so far.
Here's the Bio.
The guy (call him Bill, not sure if he's wanted) moved out to this little town and is a truck driver. He gave us water and let Alana use the bathroom. He had about 3 dogs running around loose, 2 in a pen in the back, one tied up and a pure bred wolf in a cage. In the house, Alana said she saw 10 more puppies. Anyway, he doesn't say much at night but in the morning, he comes out and gives us some coffee and tells us he has been fishing everywhere in Canada. Then he gets interesting. His dogs keep running out at the road and jumping in front of moving trucks while he's yelling, "get back here, my boss is going to chew/kick my ass". It was so funny. Then he tells us one night, some guys come creeping around his property so he gets out his 6mm and starts firing it off. Then he chases them to the moutains thinking they are hunters. Later on, he finds out it's his buddy playing tricks on them and the Bill files a police report. But he's not supposed to own a gun because he was in jail at home point (the officer asked him if he had a gun), but then he told the officer his buddy is a felon to with a truck load of guns he should go check out.
Bill said he was going to be crippled in 2 years because he got into an accident with his Camaro and slammed into an Elk which flew right through his window and kicked him in the face. He had this rad truck parked outside (got a picture with him and me in it) with the letters F.O. on it. Take that which ever way you want and it wasn't an F-10.
Before we left, it looked like he was clearing his cupboards because he gave us cookies, trail mix, hot chocolate packages, prunes, uhh... he just kept on coming out side with more food. We were already fully loaded but we took some stuff. Alana also got a picture with the wolf. It was very shy and timid. Bill had to hold it close to Alana to get a picture. All in all, this guy ruled. He gets a post card too. He said that wherever we were in Utah, we could give him a call and he would pick us up, even if we were in jail.
-- Quinn
Indianloa to Salina 72 miles
So we took Bill's advice and went to this Home Plate restaurant. They had good pancakes. Nothing exciting about this day. We camped in this RV park which was fairly cheap. They had showers which were nice and we made some spaghetti (not too exciting when I tell you what we ate for supper eh?). Highway #89 provided a real scenic route. It's good that we took this way rather than the original way we had planned.
-- Quinn
selina- marysvale Utah 55 miles
we hit our first bit of bad weather this time, we had to sit on the side of the road and wait out a lightening storm, the wind was so strong, it was blowing us off the road, it was pretty slow,
actually, we sat out a few times that day, outside wallmart, otuside pizza hut, mmm that one smelled so so good, outside a church, and outside some town that wasnt really a town, it had a sign but there were only a few houses,
we were hopeing to make it to cedar city the next day but we were stopped so much that we didnt get too far, so it'll take us another day bah
we've hit ATV country, thers 2500 miles of track around this place called buig sugar mountain ( i think, i didnt write the name down and i cant remember). People come from all around to ride atround these parts. This sugar mountain is a huge mountain that looks like it's been leached of all it's colour so from a distance it looks like it's covered in fur, we biked through a pass of sorts to get there and the rock formations were amazing!
-- Alana
marysvale-panquitch 55 miles
long long day to panguitch, i dont know why it took so long, must have been the wind,
today , i fell off my bike again, we were going up a hilll and quinn stopped and i wasnt looknig and i ran into him, i couldnt unclip my shoes in time, so i fell over and cut up my leg and burised my elbow, we sat on the side of the road for a while and ate some chocolate, that made it berable to continue on. When we hit town we drank an obscene amount of coffee to avoid going outside, it was slush raining and we didnt want to put up a tent, some people at the restaurant helped us out allot and found us a cheap motel to stay at for the night. It was too cold and i was feeling pretty down after the fall. Another problem i've been having is that i'm losing feeling in my left hand, it's from teh pressure on the handle bars, but the las two fingers hav gone completely gimpy, so i feel pretty bashed up. Anyways, the motel was right above a 24 hr gas station, so we spent the night gonig downstairs to buy 40oz bottles of MGD (quinn's never seen them before) and eating junk food, it was heaven to be warm and full...
in case anyone is curious, this is pretty much how our days go... we wake up around 6-7 no, wait, i should say i wake up around 6-7, then have to wake quinn up. Regardless of what we do, we never seem to leave before 9:30, sometimes as late as noon, it takes time to put the tent down, get everything packed up, eat, eat some more, find something warm to drink, look at the maps, etc. then we bike straight until it's almost dark most days, stopping to talk to people and to eat some more. we eat allot. pretty much all the time. what do we eat? granola, peanutbutter and bread, granola, power bars, granola, bananas, granola, banana chips, we should have gotten a granola and banana chip sponsor for the amount that we consume. did i mention that we eat allot of granola?
-- Alana
Panguith to Cedar City 48 miles
This day was probably our toughest day. It was our moutain day. We went from 6000 feet to 10,500 feet in 30 miles. It was nasty. We went through rain to hail to snow with thunder coming from behind us... uphill, 30 miles. It was bloody hard. Ask Alana, she'll tell you. The view was nice but took us a long time to get to the high spot. At about 8000 feet I thought we were gonig to start heading down hill. At the top, there was snow on the ground. We drop through some winding areas and go to this lookout point where you could see Cedar Breaks National monument. It was an awesome canyon full of cool rock structures. A little ways down, there was another lookout point where you could see Zion National park. The views are getting better because the season's are chaning. It was fairly cold up there though. Could see our breath the whole time and I put 4 layers of clothing on Alana so she was warm. I just biked in my shorts because I wanted to show my legs off to the hunters. Anyway, after the second scenic point, it was 17 miles downhill to Cedar city. And I mean, DOWNHILL. We average around 32-35 miles/hr for a good 15 minutes it seemed. We were flying. And you could feel the air get warmer as you went down. That was the best part of the day obviously. We got into town (tomorrow is rest day) and found a motel just in time to watch the presidential debate. All we watch is American politics it seems. So ask us anthing on the Bush or Kerry and we could let you know. Had a beer and went to bed.
On a side note, it must be a past time for some Americans (not all, please don't get offended) to go along every side of the highway and smash beer bottles or throw beer cans/bottles around. Every 10 feet is glass or some sort of beer related product. Stupid.
-- Quinn
RESTDAY!!!!
today we're finding a cheap motel with a pool so that we can swim a bit, we've both been craving swimming since the start of the trip, it'll be nice to stretch some muscles. beside that we're updating this log, which takes a crazy amount of time since my had is so messed up right now, and then were going to relax. cedar city is about 10k population wise, so it has just about every thing we need
we';re thinking about biking up that 17 mile hill without all our gear on our bikes to race down it again, it was so wicked!!!
-- Alana
Cedar City, Utah to Milford, Nevada - 60 miles
Today wasn't too bad. We got an idea on what the desert will be like. We were thinking all sand, flat, perhaps hot but we were totally wrong. They call highway #50 the "Lonliest highway in America" and they are right. You'll see from the updates ahead. Oh yeah, by the way, check out the "Even more things to note" at the top of the page. We've added some stuff like elevation pictures and routes through Utah, Nevada and California. It's not all to scale but it's the best I can do with mspaint. Alana is sleeping right now so I'm doing all the updates. It's the first time I haven't gone to bed before 9pm. I'm such a rebel. Anyways, Check out the top to refer to the next updates.
Anyways, back to today. We arrived in Milford, a small little town, and found a park to camp in. We met this Mexican truck driver who was super nice (gave us fruit) and hung around to talk for awhile. Then the bad sleeping night finally happened. We looked around at the beginning of the night for sprinklers and we couldn't find any near us so we pitched our tent on the grass (we could have pitched it on the cement in a picnic area). In the middle of the night, we hear this thing pounding on our tent and wondered if we were being attacked. After sitting there for a couple of seconds, we realized the sprinklers came on. I was totally zoned out and thought it was 4am. We quickly woke ourselves up and planned to jumpe out of the tent. There were 2 right beside us. I jumped out and put some garbage bags over the heads (not before getting soaked). We quickly took our pegs out and moved the tent onto the cement. Cold, wet and tired, we tried to go back to sleep. It really sucked.
-- Quinn
Milford to Middle of Nowhere. - 53 miles
Why would we stop in the middle of no where you ask? Because we met some people who were more nuts than us with respect to a cross country journey. We met a couple, who started from Maryland... the woman was biking and the guy was, get this, jogging. Nuts!!!! They were doing it for a charitable cause (I don't have their homepage now but I'll put it up soon). So we met Matt and Laura chico and they bike/run abot 35 miles a day with a rest once a week or so. He's gone through 10 pairs of shoes given to him from Mizuno (sponsored). They had a guy (Ron) to help them across the desert (haul water and such) but before that, Matt pushed a baby carriage with stuff in it while Laura had some panniers. They did the same stretch up to Cedar city we did (see image at top of page for elevation map). So we stopped early that day and ate dinner with them in the middle of no where. And man is the desert quiet. Not even crickets out there to make noise. It was great to have company for dinner. And have someone cook our meal. They filled our water bottles when necessary too. Great couple. Again, I'll put up the info on them soon. They were heading to San Fran.
-- Quinn
Middle of Nowhere to Ely - 95 miles
Lots of passes we climbed throug today. Everday we have passes to climb which burns us out more and more. We left early in the morning and said farewell to Matt/Laura and Ron. We went to Baker to pick up some food only to find out they are opened 4-6pm daily (it being 9am, we were out of luck). So we headed on our way with what food we had and stretched on to Ely. We were biking in the dark by the time we got to town. It was pretty scary. Alana lost sight of me after I got 10 feet in front of her. We headed to the grocery store immediately and ate chips as we shopped. Instead of finding a camping place in the dark,we decided to stay in a motel 6. Easiest thing to do. The first room had no shower head and the phone didn't work so they moved us to a different room. Being exhausted, we went to bed immediately.
-- Quinn
Ely to Eureka - 80 miles.
More passes and more desert. We biked down a pass in the dark this time. It was kinda nuts too. This guy on the top of the hill said he'd give us a ride to the other side but we decided to finish the climb. He was waiting for us at the bottom and he let us stay in his bar(closed for the summer) on the floor for $10. It was awesome. Warm and semi-soft floor. He was a great guy. We made our food and listened to the vice-presidential debate aftermath. Outside, deer roamed the RV park.
-- Quinn
Eureka to Austin - 70 miles
Today we met 3 guys on their way to Austin. They stopped and we talked for awhile on the side of the road. Their wife was running for water and food for them so we got some water out of the deal. We headed down a 7% grade right outside of Austin. Man can you cruise on a loaded bike. When we arrived into the town, there was an RV park with a community youth group eating supper so they offered us burgers, popcorn, watermelon, chocolate, triscuits... uhh, I think that was everything. Above us, you could see some sort of fighter planes rocketing throug the sky... no not Alien ships, no area 51 around here.
-- Quinn
Austin to Fallon - 112 miles
We're amazing. it was about 90F outside today and there wasn't many stops along the way. We stopped off at a bar 60 miles into the journey and hung around with this for lunch. She said she hitchiked with here 2 kids (under 8 years old for both) across America when she was younger. Kinda crazy... just kinda. Oh, she was pregnant with a third too. She had only $50. She was very interesting. We were running out of water at the end of the day so we put a sign on our back and a hunter stopped and gave us some water. We arrived into town in the dark again and went to anoter motel (looking for camping in the dark sucks). We ordered pizza and devoured it. We bargained with the hotel staff and got the hotel for $40 no tax. They had a sign up saying 'Welcome Canadians' so I knew I could bargain a little.
-- Quinn
Fallon to Carson City - 62 miles
Today was a nasty windy day. Took us forever to get to Carson city and we missed some of the debate again. It was Friday night and everything closed early for some reason. We biked around and finally find a Wendy's drive through to eat at. Never will I eat a 3 patty burger again. Not good. We ate our fill and went to bed knowing we had 2 rest days ahead of us. We stayed in a Super 6.
-- Quinn
Carson City - DAY OFF
So we were recommended to go to the Fandango Casino for a wicked buffet. And it was pretty awesome. They had everything. Asian, BBQ Grill, Seafood, crepes, desserts, fruit, salad bar... we ate till we nearly passed out. We told the lady at the counter what we were doing (biking and all) and they said for us to come back in the morning and they would give us a free meal at the Champagne breakfast. Awesome eh? Being so full, we didn't accomplish too much for the rest of the day. Went to Wal-Mart, bought some stuff, bought a beer and watched TV of course.
-- Quinn
Carson City - DAY OFF
We went to the Buffet again and it was awesome again. We stuff ourselves and couldn't move of course. They had everything you want/need in a breakfast including... the Champagne. Free bubbly. That day, we literally did nothing. Watched TV and procrastinated. Around 11pm, we finally started to put our stuff togethter to head out for the morning.
-- Quinn
Carson City to 1/2 way up Carson Pass. 41 miles
Alana was a little tired today so we took it easy and stopped 1/2 way up Carson pass. Check the elevation map to see what it was like. We bough some stuff at a bar 1/2 up and the lady there gave us some free cookies. We camped just along side of the road and were told to watch out for bears. We hung our food in the tree and kept the bear spray in the tent just in case. Nothing happened though. We also met some bikers along the way who gave us some tips. they had come down from the other side and warned us that it was quite cool. We also met some guy in a small town along the way we passed the week before in the desert. He had someone touring with him in a car so he got a ride back and noticed who we were. He too, gave us some tips.
-- Quinn
1/2 way up Carson Pass to small town off our route
Sorry if I'm not sounding too enthusiastic right now but it's 2:30am and I'm still writing these. Alana is sleeping away. Anyways, so today we got to the top of the pass and it was 8000 feet on our way to sea level. Nothing but down for most of the way. It ruled. So much that we passed the intersectin where we were suppose to turn and headed to far north. Yah, it was stupid but it didn't put us off to much. We passed a forest fire (could see it burning a mile away). We just coasted most of the way down. We got into the small town (forgot the name) and were told by one RV park owner that his was $18/night to camp but there was another for only $6/night. We headed on down to the next one (getting later at nigth now) and it was also $18/night. Who the hek charges $18/night to pitch a tent? Stupid. So we stayed there because it was too dark to go anywhere else. It got dark fast and so we cooked our food, armed ourselves with bear spray and went to bed.
-- Quinn
Small town to Davis - 78 miles
Since we were off track, we had to find a new highway to Sacremento. We took the #16 and it sucked. Heavy traffic, glass, rocks, heat, wind, and 2 fricken' flat tires in 15 minutes for me. It was unbelievable. I thought I put the tire on wrong. One was glass, the other was a sharp rock, both embedded into my tire. So that was really frustrating. Despite all of that, we finally got back onto our proper trail and it was wicked. They have the best biking trails in Sacremento (forgot to mention that we woke up with smoke all around us... the forest fire was really making the air hazy). But back to the trails, there were trails everywhere and they were easy to follow. We headed towards Davis (known as the biking capital of the world). We met a guy along the way who gave us his number to contact him to see if we could camp in his yard. We made our way to Davis, got something to eat and called up Mike. He not only came and picked us up in his truck, but he also let us stay in his house for the night and watch some of the third debate. Thanks to Susan and Mike. We also heard that the pass we just went over closed the next day to to the forest fire so we just made it.
-- Quinn
Davis to San Fran - over 80 miles I think
So we knew some peole in San Fransisco, CA so we headed out there to find where they were. Most of the day was travelling along bike paths and small roads through orchards of all kinds. It was really nice. Still hazy from forest fires though. Further along the way, we came through some hilly sections and right when we got to Vallejo (on the edge of the Bay), the Ferry was taking off. We just caught it to get a ride over to the city. Perfect timing. We relaxed and saw all the bridges (including the golden gate) as well as passed by Alcatraz. San Fran is a pretty nice city and we met up with Alana's friend Dom and stayed at his place. Kinda in the ghetto but better than sleeping no the beach. We just hung out there for the night and watched a movie. Lots of homeless people though. We met his roommates as well and they were great entertainment.
-- Quinn
San Fran, - DAY OFF
So today, we went out on a tour arond San Fran. We went to China town and a burger joint and checked out the wharf too. San Fran is a pretty awesome place. We walked to one side and took a taxi back. Man are there some steep hills you have to drive up/down. If you were on a bike, you would go through a pair of brakes in a day. At night, we made our own nachos. We went out and bought all the ingredients and made about 2 bags of nachos with cheeze, salsa, tomoatoes, lettuce, jalepenos.... it was wicked. I still have a soar stomach writing this hear. ANyways, it's 2:45 and I'd better get to sleep soon. Alana will kil me in the morning when I don't get up. We're on our way down the coast tomorrow (today..???). We'll check email in a week or so. Send us what you want. The journey will soon end. Good night.
-- Quinn
San Fran to San Fran.... ???
So today we woke up really late and headed out late. We went through the city across the golden gate bridge and realized we crossed it for nothing. It was too late in the day to make it anywhere to tent so we stayed in a motel. All together, it was just poorly planned that day. There was a marathon in the city the next day so almost every hotel was booked. It sucked.
San Fran to Half Moon Bay - 40 miles
Today, we went up a crazy pass called Devil's pass. It was nuts. It was pouring outside, there was no shoulder (the road was crumbling on the white line), rocks had fallen on the road because of landslides, the traffice was insane (2 way, one lane each) and it was uphill for 4 miles around these curves. I thought we'd get hit for sure here. The rain was so acidic that it burned my eyes to the point that I couldn't see out of them and had to stop. When going down, the wind almost blew us off the cliff. So we pulled into town early and stayed at a motel (they gave us a good deal) and relaxed for the rest of the night. It was kinda funny though that at one point while we were biking, this guy took a picture of us because he must have thought we were nuts. Weird.
Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz - 55 miles
Today was a little nicer ride along the coast. It's nice when the ocean is right there. We ate lunch on the beach and a wave amost took our stuff away. Lots of pumpkin farms along the way which was kind of neat. We met a man named Yosi who invited us in to stay at his place. He had done a biking trip before so he knew exactly how we felt. He showed us around town and gave us some passes to an Aquarium in the town ahead. Down at the docks, they have these giant pillars with logs all along the sides of them. In the daytime (or while the tide is high), the sea lions swim up and lay on the logs. When they tide goes down, they just lay on the boards suspended 8 feet over the ocean. It's awesome. We did our laundry, made our food and went to bed.
Santa Cruz to Monterey - caught a lift. ~40 miles
When we woke up this morning, at 6am, there was a wicked storm outside. We got up anyways thinking it wasn't so bad and when we looked outside, we thought there was a monsoon. It was crazy. So Yosi (thanks Yosi) offered us a ride and to the town with this famous Aquarium. It was awesome inside. They had all these cool types of jelly fish and giant tanks full of full grown tuna and hammer head sharks (amoung other fish). Stayed in another hotel because it was still raining and we didn't want to get soaked again.
Monterey to Pacifica - 62 miles
So we're driving down the highway (#1 on the coast) and they have traffic stopped. We went up ahead to see what was going on and it turns out they were shooting a Lexus commercial. They had this helicopter flying around after the car and taping it. Pretty cool. We waited about 5 minutes and then they let traffic through. Later on that day, we caught up to a biker (lady) who biked from Seattle down to where we were by herself. Pretty good. We talked with her for awhile and headed on. We stopped on the side of the road at a camp site and pitched our tent and went to sleep. The highways around here are just nuts. Zig-zagging up and down... it was pretty nuts. But again, this highway is right beside the ocean. The cliff is 2 feet away. I recommend going to see it.
Pacifica to Grover Beach - 93 miles
Today we stopped at a gas station in Grover Beach. A cop whispers me over to this phone and tells me if I have seen anything suspicious in the store. Eventually we find out that someone triggered the silent alarm and there is about 5 cops ready to jump in the store. Exciting. We stayed the night at Alana's friends and ate pizza. Forgot to mention, yesterday, while we were in one of the camp sites, an army of rancoons ransacked our food. One pulled Alana's pannier out from underneath the fly and opened it up (without ripping it) and ate our granola. All night long we could hear racoons running around and trying to eat our stuff. They didn't get scared from us making any noise either. So we didn't sleep too well. Anyways, back to today, we stopped on a beach where all these elephant sea lions were laying about (before we got to Grover). That was about it for today.
Grover Beach to Refugia Camp State Park - 78 miles
We biked through a small town today only to find a sign in the middle of our route saying take a detour. We looked at the detour and of course rejected it because we'd be way out of the way. So, we're biking and biking and eventualy come to the top of this hill and look down only to see that the shoulder was completely torn and dug up (no way to go on it) and there were concrete barricdes to stop the cars from falling in the pit on the side of the road. 2 lane traffic again, and a 7% grade for 2 miles. The decline was nuts. We had no choice but to go on so we started out. No cars behind us, everything was ok so far.... then, in my mirror I see the biggest semi heading down the hill. All I could do is signal for Alana to move over... she had no idea a giant semi was coming down the moutain. Of course I braced myself when it came past me (while cycling at over 35 miles an hour down hill in the car tire area of the lane). Thought we were dead again but we made it through. We eventually made it to the State Park and slept right beside the ocean. I woke up yesterday with an itchy neck and today, I had this bite mark sort of thing on it with a crazy welt. It sucked. I bought a bunch of creams and stuff and in a couple of days, it was better. Alana loved the sleeping by the ocean part.
Refugia Camp State Park to Santa Barbara - ~25 miles
Finished the trip, that's it. We drove into Santa Barbara (rich and nice) and stayed the night (and of course we ate nachos). Sorry for not updating the last coupld of peiced. I'm at home right now and Alana will be at home soon as well. The next coupld of days after this one, we went down to Laguna Beach (in the O.C) and hung out there. It's south of LA. It was really nice as well. I flew back to Minneaopolis and took a bus back to Winnipeg. Alana went to Australia and will be back to work fairly soon. She's so excited too I heard.
I will be posting a summary link if you don't want to read all of the stuff above, I'll be updating whatever I can for the next couple of days.
Relaxed in Cali.
October 25
Relaxed in Cali.
October 26
Relaxed in Cali.
