That SURtainly was BIG!

elevation of Big Sur

Big Sur, is a section of the California coast that has little in the way of towns and lots in the way of long hills and windy (as in both curvy and breezy) roads along beautiful steep cliffs. Above is the elevation chart of what we slowly rode.  The shoulders throughout Big Sur were extremely hit and miss, but mostly miss, which is scary especially when pulling a trailer that is wider than your average bike on the side of the road.  We spent a good part of this section riding from pull out to pull out to soak in the amazing views, and to dance in delight that we just survived the last mile.  The roads were loaded with tourists in all shapes and sizes, from RV's pulling cars, to masses of Harleys and even a few other crazies on bikes, but everyone's eyes were having trouble paying attention to the pavement in front of them, making this even more scary for us. With all that being said I am excited to announce that I am typing this from the other side of Big Sur, therefore we have SURvived the treacherous SURoundings once again.  

This section of the trip was a SURprize to me.  I have heard of Big Sur, but living it is SURiously unexplainably aweSURme.  We had a great tail wind that gave a much needed boost up the mountains.  We camped a night at the Big Sur campground, and woke up in a thick fog that has been famous most mornings of this trip, but we quickly road above it to overlook a sea of clouds, pretty sure if you just add free ice cream it would be just like heaven.   

Tiger striped feet, courtesy of Keen 

You could turn this sign 90 degrees and it would describe the hills accurately

5 star picnic location

This would be way easier if she wasn't hauling all those makeup bags

At the Big Sur campground

Days like this we only bike about 30 miles due to roadside distractions.

Soaking up the views

We really wanted to play on the beach, but it was just too crowded.

after thousands of miles of searching, we finally found it!

Peeps in da club

Stephanie and Ashley (bookends in the pic), who rode down the coast and ended in San Fran, Brad and Mary, headed to San Diego, and Scott and Sarah, who are headed to South America.

 Every tour must have its own unique qualities that set it apart from other rides. Our Canada tour was littered with random kindness from strangers at every turn. Although we have definitely had many blessings of kindness this trip, the thing that is standing out about this route is the social interaction, especially with other bike tourists. The west coast bike route is probably the most popular tour among cyclists in the entire U.S. Consequently, we see other cyclists making their way along different stretches of coast line most every day. Often, we see the same cyclists several times throughout the trip. We have befriended folks from Germany, locals from California checking off their bucket lists, college students out for an adventure, and hard core travelers who are headed to the tip of south America, making this section just a tiny drop in their bucket of miles. We end up making it to the same campsites every night, where we can swap stories about hills, headwinds, and hangry episodes (which is being so hungry you are angry, hence, HANGRY).  Many of these pictures are with a group of 6 that we have been trouping with, which makes the often stressful rides through big cities a little more bearable (we all rode to San Francisco together, and thus had safety in numbers, as well as photographers in numbers for the big bridge crossing!), as well as provides safety from the nightly raccoon assaults we have at each camp.
Leo has many fans along the route, and often he gets all the greetings and attention wherever we go. He gets his picture taken daily by amazed motorists and cyclists alike, who cannot believe a baby is on such a big tour.
For those who are concerned, our fears about riding through California have been abated. There is a surprising amount of bike paths, keeping us off the busy roads, and lots of quiet back roads as well. And bonus- no more logging trucks! We must have left them in Oregon. Wahoo!

We have seen a live and dead bobcat this week, which is a first for us!

lots of winding, coastal roads that make it hard to put down the camera

The Fellers, from Half Moon Bay, who took us in for the night after church. Awesome family!

Harvesting the strawberry fields south of Santa Cruz- I think these are for Driscoll

Leo's new friend Ophelia, who we stayed with in Monterey

our troop making it up a hill on the way to San Fran

We finally found the bridge! Now what?

so excited its clear!

Well, we are off to Big Sur tomorrow, hopefully it lives up to it's hype. Until then, may the winds ever be in your favor!

Come hill or high head wind.

The last week and however long its been since our last post have been great.  Before we left for this trip, the part I was most excited for was biking through the redwoods. That being said, they did not disappoint.  We first saw the massive trees the day we entered California. We had just a hint of the trees and it was enough to keep me pedaling for more.  The Avenue of the Giants is the famous drive through the redwood forest.  As soon as we rode into this grove we instantly became tiny.  Our jaws were dragging on the ground as we slowly took the smooth winding road a midst trees that were around to witness the birth of Christ, and the invention of the bicycle.  There was a quiet reverence within the trees, calling us to hop off the bikes and wander on foot.  One day was just not enough for us, so we decided to make camp and stay to play for an extra day.  When the sun went down, the backlighting from the many campfires surrounding us gave a show of tree shadows dancing the night away. The next day we bouldered redwood stumps, went on a hike, took a dip in the river, had a picnic in the woods and enjoyed our time out of the saddle.  The redwood trees lived up to every bit of the hype and almost left me not looking forward to the rest of the trip knowing we just biked through what I expect to be the climax.  But the rest is still unknown and yet to be experienced; who knows what will be the real climax.

As we ride we have been meeting several other bike tourists who are going the same route-ish.  Some start earlier or later and have different end points based on deadlines or budgets but we find ourselves running into several of the same bikers again and again.  Of all these we have met only one other touring with a baby, who we quickly befriended and then intentionally planned to meet up for camp three nights in a row.  Most of the State parks have "hiker biker" sites reserved for those who arrive on foot or bike.  Therefore most nights in the campground become a bike party, where we all hang around the campfire (with or without a flame) and talk about the big hills, thrills and chills.  The last several nights have been the same pack all traveling separately and arriving to camp at various times, but then we gather and socialize... its been great to share this with friends from all over.

We made our way out of the redwoods and back to the coast, now on the famous 'highway one'.  Windy, hilly and no shoulder adds a lot to the challenge but the extreme traffic we fought due to Labor day weekend will  not be missed.  

My brother Keith has joined us on his bike!  His bike goes a lot faster than ours due to its 1100cc engine, but he camps with us and then spends his day exploring, covering in a day what it takes us a week to accomplish.  It's his second time seeing Leo, and they are already good friends, which lets Mary and I set and clean up camp a bit faster.

Coming up next, San Francisco.... I hope its not hilly there.

Bike touring babies, Teddy age 12 mo, and Leo age 9 mo

There are two elk in this picture and only one is a statue.  I was terrified but "Just ride fast" Mary said.

An example of what we eat on the road

a diaper change with a view

Mary redpointed this stump she rated it a T2

Family of tree huggers

Avenue of the Giants.

This sign did not exaggerate, This was a halter top kind of road due to the lack of shoulders.

Add caption

Uncle Keith, has been super helpful playing with Leo around camp.

Ore... GONE!

Well, today we expect to enter California or come darn close. Washington and Oregon kind of flew by faster than we expected. I guess we are just used to really big states and coastlines... Alaska does that to you. But, Oregon did not disappoint. Rocky shores and miles of beautiful beaches, mossy forests and well, lets just say Mary  could not put the camera down and got pretty good at pulling it out and taking shots on the fly. Yesterday was our friend Jo's last day on the ride- she headed back to school. It was fun having her and Kona, they sure kept us entertained. But now its back to the terrific two, er, I mean three! We are excited and nervous about taking on California, but we cant turn away the Redwoods or Big Sur, and hopefully the beaches will warm up!!! Anyway, we will make this quick and get on the road- perhaps we will get feeling a bit more creative down the road. For now, enjoy some pictures!

brad wants a new bike...

wee wee wee all the way home

tide pooling!

Kona loved it

A hint of detail

Adventure cycling (adventurecycling.org) is a non profit that organizes bicycle routes designed for touring.  We bought one of their maps on our last tour that we used from Missoula Montana, to Yellowstone and we loved the route and information that the maps provided.  When we decided to bike the Pacific coast we instantly bought the set of 5 maps from Adventure Cycling and have been drooling over the waterproof pages. We have been mostly following their route and steering off occasionally and feeling totally lost which led us to finally  break down and get a smart phone.  Now with the combined powers of paper and electronics we not only know where we are and our options, but we can finally play Fruit Ninja when the scenery is getting old.

We are doing a self supported tour which means we are carrying all of our luggage on the bikes with us.  This is a slower way, harder way to ride a bike, but easier and cheaper logistically.  We love the simplicity of having everything we need with us and being able to change our minds about routes, breaks, and where we camp. There are those who we see touring with unloaded lightweight bikes and just a few credit cards in their pocket, but we can't afford that. So we justify this by saying the pictures look better with gear hanging all over your bike. 

 Our average day starts when Leo wakes us up about 8 am.  We then pack up camp and make a quick breakfast.  This is done with one person holding or watching Leo making sure he isn't eating to much grass and dirt, while the other one of us is running around packing everything up before the morning mist soaks it all. We eventually hit the road just as Leo is ready for his nap, which he does so easily in his comfortable trailer.  After a few miles we are easily exhausted and ready to hit a gas station for a chocolate milk.  We get Leo out every chance we can, who draws a crowd. Which results in the following conversation.

Random person- "oh there really is a baby in there"

Burtons-"yeah, he didn't want to stay home by himself"

Random person-"how far are you going?"

Burtons-"hopefully to the Mexican boarder"

Random person-"OH MY, you're brave"

Burtons-"Brave? No just stupid"

- laughs-

Random person-"Well good for you. Do it while your young. Good luck"

Burtons-"Thanks, please don't run us over"

Then we bike some more pulling over at various view points pretending to take in the sights but really we all just need a break and don't want to be the weak link of the group and admit it.  For lunch we make peanut butter and honey sandwiches or if we are near a town the various smells of Mexican food trucks and hot dog stands pulls us in.  We will stop in and get some ice cream at some point during the day purely for the nutritional value it offers us.  If there is a picturesque beach, we automatically find it hard to pedal and have to stop for a quick rest.  That quick rest easily turns into Mary putting on her swim suit, claiming that she is melting and needs a swim, but then cools off once her ankles hit the frigid water.  Around dinner time we start looking for a spot to call home for the night.  This can take the form of a RV park, State park, city park, patch of woods, or warmshowers.org host. That's when we realize how many calories we really have burned throughout the day and we become ravenous wolves, waiting for our dinner to re-hydrate. After a hearty stretch session we crawl into our sleeping bags and call it a night, dreaming of downhills and tailwinds. 

Our route plan, we are currently near Salem OR visiting some friends, which you will notice is not on our route.  That's the way we roll.

Winlock WA, I feel like this is a record that could be easily beat, but who would want to take that away from them.

Crossing the Columbia River

We ran into a boy scout troop from Maryland, on the last day of their cross country ride, as cool as that is they thought we were the crazy ones, with a baby and a dog.

I can't wait to show this to Leo's prom date.

There was visible amounts of sand in his diaper the next day.