coasting along

its been a while since i wrote in this due to my travel break in los angeles with Anabel. to sum that up we ate tons of food, biked around, saw some movies, spent too much money, caught up with kayla and ceci, and ate more food. It was a sweet time but made me realize how much I miss Anabel.

I left los angeles saturday morning going south, I was planning to camp out at the crystal cove state beach but while biking through a woman yelled out "do you have a place to sleep tonight?" well I did, but hot showers and beds always beat bushes so i took her up on the offer. She and her husband had just biked around cuba and had much to share about what its like. I had a delicious dinner and then they took me out to a jazz concert.

I left sunday and had a pretty slow day, its really hard biking along the coast without getting distracted and wanting to stop at every beach. I stopped a little early at the san onofre state beach to camp and went to a lot of trouble finding a hidden camping spot off the trail alongside some cliffs, only to realize the next morning there was a campsite about 100 yards ahead and that they don't really enforce payment for camping.

I went dumpster diving for the first time today behind a health food store, it was a tad dissapointing, i found a bunch of horse radish and I got pretty excited about some yogurt until I smelled it. better luck next time I suppose.

Well I'm off to the torrey pines state reserve to camp for the night, then to san diego to see my brother. From there I'll be starting cross country, its going to be difficult to leave the coast, but exciting to see what the rest of the country has to offer.

Hello coast line

After camping in a sketchy spot by the st ana bike trail last night we made it to the coast within a half hour of waking up, my first view of the pacific coast! Its beautiful and so nice out, I can't believe what they call winter over here. We laid out bikes in the sand and had breakfast on the beach, watched some dolphins dip in and out of the ocean, and laughed at some seagulls.

The past few days have been awesome, the guy that took us in ended up being a hardcore cross country coach, one of his sons was Ryan Hall, Beijing olympic runner, hollllaa. We got tons of mexican food for dinner while he talked about running and his sons and sent us off the next morning with a box of energy bars and directions to the st ana river trail.

After some uphill biking by big bear lake we had a downhill for about 25 miles on this crazy beautiful mountain road. The traffic was terrrifying but the views were amazing. Plus we found a full box of cookies and 2 giant cans of beer by the side of the road, I've never been so excited about free food.

We're on our way to crystal cove state park, a park by the beach to take an easy day of hanging out before we part ways tomorrow. I'm gonna miss travelling with Jordan, but I know this is only the beginning of a really great trip.

I head into L.A. sometime this weekend depending on if I can find a place to stay, i just signed up on couch surfing and warm showers though. Week in the city with Anabel! so excited! I can't wait to catch up with Kayla and hear all about Ceci's south American adventure.

thats all for now

Day 3 of bicycle fun!

I'm writing this from the big bear city library. The first chunk of the day as spent going up a mountain in the national forest, I fell behind Jordan pretty early in the day but met up with him at the top relieved to hear that he had also taken numerous stops and had only waited about 15 minutes. There was snow at the top! which is only amazing after being in the desert for the past few weeks. While waiting for me Jordan met some jogger guy with his dog that offered us his house for sleeping/showering/eating home cooked meals. word! I think I smell like balls already.

big bear city is a rustic small town, filled with cabins and surrounded by national forest and the first lake I've seen in california. very picturesque

The trip has been awesome so far, spent the first night out in saw tooth canyon, a bunch of jagged rock formations in the middle of nowhere, some fun climbs and incredible views of the desert. We started out with 2 miles of fairly steep downhill into luscerne valley, the last town on the desert side of the mountains, tres tiny. After stocking up in the one grocery/hardware store we made our way up the steady incline leading into the mountain range. We didnt make it too far and stopped a little ways short of the base of the mountain, camping below some trees (also a new sight since being in the desert).


I'm off to a hot shower and meal

Last day on aquarius

Its my last morning on the ranch, I'm going to miss this place and everybody here. Especially the animals, shakti, the kitten is sitting on my lap right now cleaning herself. The dogs have been restlessly howling and whining since last night, like they know that their primary walker is leaving. I've learned so much since I've been here, I just hope I retain it all.

It was fun spending the holidays here, we had a huge vegan meal on christmas with the few people still here. I spent new years day hiking from the ranch out to mt general with 2 other interns, there was an old mine shaft in the mountain that we checked out then had lunch on the top.

I leave today at 10:00 with my trailer mate Jordan, we're biking together for a few days down to the san bernadino national forest to camp out, then we part ways, he's off to san diego and I'll be heading to L.A. to spend the week with Anabel and visiting Kayla and Ceci.

I'm running a bit late and should start packing things onto my bike,

Goodbye aquarius ranch