Update from Ashland, Oregon

Where there were once five, there are now four. Another pedaling comrade lost to the abyss of Lassen National Forest in Northern California. After a soul crushing KOM decimation to the highest point of the tour (at least so far) Lassen Summit 8,512 feet - we watched our prolific climber, Jack, as his knees swelled to the size of grapefruits. 

Descending ~4000 ft down to Cave Campground for the night, we grabbed our headlamps and went out in search of more adventure, this time inside a lava tube big enough to fit a bus. 

Camping update

Tonight marks the end of day 6 of our trip and our second night of camping. Last night we were Salmon Lake just a bit south of Graeagle. We rode about 68 miles with about 7000 feet of climbing on Monday. Today we rode about 75 miles but there was more downhill than uphill. In Wednesday we will camp somewhere in Lassen and will probably not have cell service again. We are trying to update our location with SPOT (see the route tab) at least once a day. We don't use it all the time because of limited battery life. There might have been a problem last night but hopefully it is working now. We'll post with more details when we are somewhere with a computer that we can use.

Reminiscing after four days in

We're four days into our tour now; we finally have our full crew together, and the real adventure starts tomorrow when we will start traveling through parks and forests and camping outside during the night.  Today as I was riding I was thinking about how I came to be involved with this trip, and how we came to have so many people interested in following our trip online.  I had a chance to look at our website stats for the first time since the trip started this evening, and I saw that we've had over 250 visitors and over 2,000 page views.  I thought it would be interesting to share some thoughts about how I got involved with this trip and what how we've set up our web presence.  Read on if you are interested.

Day Two: SF to Santa Rosa

Our first day saw the four of us riding north on Highway 1, along one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline in California - known by some as the SlowCoast. From Santa Cruz we pedaled north towards San Francisco. We rode to the lighthouse on West Cliff Drive before leaving town, saying our last goodbyes and taking pictures as a group before our first leg.  Mile 3 Jack hit glass and sustained a flat, great start to our 80 mile day to the city! Headwind and fog stayed with us to Half Moon Bay where we stopped at the last New Leaf Market for a few months, hot food bar and carrot juice to keep us going. As we moved out of the Slowcoast and up Devil's Slide, things started to speed up. Soon the hustle and bustle of San Francisco rush hour surrounded us. Still calibrating to our loaded up bikes, negotiating narrow paths between cars and riding the city topography was tough on tired legs. Dinner, friends, and relaxation rounded out a good first day of Portland to Portland.

Day two was more eventful than expected. We started in misty/rain/fog and were soaked through by the Golden Gate Bridge. We made our way north toward Santa Rosa where we planned to camp just up past the city at Bothe-Napa State Park. Things took a 'turn' when blazing down Nicasio Valley Rd toward Petaluma, winding our way through redwood forest and out into stretches of oak-woodland, Gabriel hit a big pot hole on the shoulder and paid a visit to dust town. Scraped, bleeding, and a little disoriented, Gabriel's crash took us off our planned course for the day. We slowly pedaled into Petaluma and attempted to find a place to stay for the night. Searching warmshowers and asking local bike shops we finally made contact with a man Donn in Santa Rosa. He is president of the Santa Rosa Cycling Club and a big biker like ourselves. On short notice he let us into his home, bought us pizza and beer, and shared some stories from the road. Back in the 80s, Donn toured across the state on the Bicentennial Northern Route before Adventure Cycling was called by that name. He gave us a few tips for tomorrows ride to Sacramento. Thanks for all the support Donn!

Tomorrow 96 miles to Sacramento, past Lake Berryessa, where our fifth rider Lorenzo awaits. Keep cruzin. 

Top Ten Extreme Touring Memories

Last summer I biked from Santa Cruz to Portland, Oregon, traveling nearly 900 miles in nine days with many hills along the way.  Early on we joked that we were doing "extreme touring" and the longer we rode the more the label stuck.  Eventually everything became "extreme," and while it was a form of humor, there was also some truth in the sentiment.  Because of course there are many types of bike touring and not all of them should be classified as extreme.


I don't think there is any definitive classification for what extreme touring is, but I can think of a few general guidelines: