Reflections

I've been putting it off for a while, but I'm now quite settled in Singapore, so I suppose it's appropriate I finally get around to writing this.

I just want to share a few of the lessons I learned during my trip.

1. Two weeks is about my limit for a bike trip. After the two week mark my enjoyment started to go down and I started really wanting to get back to civilization. Of course now I want to go out biking again, but next time I will definitely limit it to at most two weeks.

2. I'm very dependent on other people for happiness. The trip became a lot more enjoyable, albeit different, when I was travelling with people rather than alone. I certainly learned a lot about myself and I'm glad for the time I had alone, but for my next trip I definitely want to bring at least one other person with me.

3. A lot about bikes! I went into the trip having never had to change a tire. Several tire changes and other bike experiences later, I know a lot more! I feel far more confident about biking distances and being able to take care of my bike. This means I'll be bringing my bike to school and will be hopefully using it quite a lot!

4. While biking is good for travel, I definitely enjoy running more as a form of exercise. Having more experience though, I might consider triathlons if I ever get into swimming.

That's about it! I expect I'll be doing another trip in the future, but certainly not until I get back to the states, and then it would have to only be a weekend or so until summer.

Thanks for reading!
-Amos

Day 26

Well, I did it.

I made it over the golden gate bridge at about 8:40 tonight after about 90 long miles of riding. I snapped a few pictures and then proceeded to traverse San Francisco in the dark on my bike (or pushing my bike for some of those hills) to find my friend's house

I'm now settled, showered, fed, clothes washed and drying, and I even have a bed.

And now I'm going to crash. I'll write reflections on the trip as a whole once I have a real computer

Day 24 and 25

Happy fourth of July! Yesterday was a short day of riding because we got into Mendocino soon after their parade, and got a good reminder of how much drunk driving there was likely to be. That combined with the narrow windy and hilly roads around this area convinced us to play it safe and stay at the van damme state park a few miles after Mendocino, which was only around 15 miles total for today.

I should still be able to make it to San Francisco by tomorrow evening though by putting in some long days, about 75 miles today and about 90 miles tomorrow.

San Francisco tomorrow!

Days 22 and 23

Yesterday was a good although not super interesting day. I biked about 46 miles to the Eureka KOA, and saw some elk on the way out of elk prairie. Saw some big lagoons too. Won a game of pool at the KOA.

Today was definitely more interested. The others I was traveling with wanted to sty another day and rest at the KOA, while, I really wanted to get going. I also figured out a way I could do a 75 mile day and a 55 mile day and cut out a day from the biking the pacific coast book's schedule. So, I ended up splitting from them and probably won't be seeing them until they get to San Francisco.

Today included a lot of freeway biking, which I find can be kind of fun because it's generally pretty flat and straight, so you can get going fast. Then there was the stretch in the avenue of the giants, which was some beautiful biking. After that, the sun came out and I got some beautiful views of the valley and some warm weather, and I met some other bikers.

It turned out the place I originally planned to stay was closed due to budget cuts, so we went a little further to the Richardson grove state park, which, with avenue of the giants, is probably a little over 80 miles for me today.

I should be getting to San Francisco in just four more days!

Day 21

Good day yesterday. A 46 mile bike ride to the elk prairie state park over somer big hills and ended with a wonderful scenic ride through the redwoods.

Day 21

Good day yesterday. A 46 mile bike ride to the elk prairie state park over somer big hills and ended with a wonderful scenic ride through the redwoods.