Ken is a great guy. He is the organizer of an occasional bike overnight camp trip in San Diego, using social media to make them happen. If that sounds informal, it is. I missed Ken’s most recent trip: a ride through Carrizo Plain National Monument at the peak of California’s wildflower bloom this year. But …
Tag: bikepacking
Pearl Izumi X-Project Pro Shoes: High Performance Commute/Touring Shoes? And Shoe Fit Basics
Picture the plight of poor Pearl Izumi when it comes to marketing their X-Project shoes. These are race level, high-tech, top performing shoes. Pearl has figured out that even on a race shoe the entire sole of the shoe does not have to be so stiff that they make you walk like a penguin. X …
Cycle Tour Morro Strand to Santa Maria: From The Beach To The Farm
Day 5 of my 8-day tour would be a long ride through a wide variety of California terrain, but it started with me fixing my kitchen. Quick backstory: I thought my fuel canister was empty after very little use, so I pitched it and bought a new one. I was pretty excited to cook bacon …
Cycle Tour Kirk Creek To Morro Strand, Shuttle Around Coast Highway Closure
I awoke Wednesday morning on day 5 of my 8 day bike tour of coastal central California, greeted by the sound of the waves crashing on the cliffs below my tent at Kirk Creek campground. The morning weather was very damp fog, classic Big Sur, so my gear was pretty wet but manageable. I was …
What’s A Bike Shirt? Zoic District, Troy Lee Grind, Club Ride Vibe, Others
Bike Shirt (bīk SHərt) noun: A shirt suitable for cycling, styled like a casual shirt with a collar, made with technical fabrics and features helpful to cyclists. Why bother with a nerdy definition? It distinguishes bike shirts from bike jerseys, tech tees and wing suits. Many companies that make them call them jerseys but I …
Cycle Tour San Jose to Santa Cruz, Lost on the Freeway, and CPAP Crisis
Day one of my tour turned out to have many of the problems I was afraid it might have. But a defining trait of an adventurer is how you deal with the problems that will inevitably happen. If you react by wishing you had luxury accommodations, panicking, or giving up, you are probably not an …
Cycling Tour of Big Sur / Central Coast California
In May 2017, the Mud Creek Slide came crashing down on Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) in California, turning an 80-mile section of highway with no exits into two separate 10-mile and 50-mile dead-ends. As bad as that sounds, the details made it even worse. Additional slides and a bridge failure isolated the tiny and beautiful …
San Elijo Overnighter
I have been planning and preparing for a week-long tour of PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) here in California, and this overnighter ride is, among other things, a shakedown for the tour. I have spent time shrinking my load to a minimum size and weight. Most tourers err on the side of packing too much if …
The Strand On the Los Angeles Coast to Sycamore Canyon Overnighter, July 2015
The Plan This is another throwback blog of a ride I took a while ago. The route was simple: to ride the entire length of “The Strand”, continue along Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) to Point Mugu State Park and camp at a Sycamore Canyon, then retrace my route back the next day. [activity id=338607581] [activity …
Vultures, An Opsrey And A Cutthroat Overnighter
We have been getting much needed rain in California lately, and it continues to wreak its own special havoc with outdoor activities. Cyclists here are not used to dealing with rain and they mostly stop riding, so when I ride in the wet there are very few cyclists to be seen, even on weekend mornings. I don’t …
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