The prep
You'll know from our earlier post, prepping for this trip was a bit of a mission. Bike boxes, skiing stuff, snorkels, hot weather gear and cycling paraphernalia had to be unloaded, shipped around the world and then all reunited in a dazzling Harry-Potter-esque finale.
We're now coming to the final bit of our adventure, which is to cycle the 1500miles (2414km for those metrically inclined) from Seattle to Los Angeles. We have packed everything we need for our bike trip (3 changes of cycle gear, 1 normal set of clothes, flipflops, bathing suit, charging cables for our various phones/bike computers, 1 toothbrush, Lisa's running gear, Will's laptop, and most importantly, Will's crossword book) into 3 panniers.
Will volunteered to be the sherpa for this trip, so he's taking the main pannier. When we'd finished packing, his bike and gear all weighed in at 24kg. Not bad for 17 days' worth of stuff - but still about 17kg more than he'd like!
We have packed everything else we had on our trip into our bike boxes, which are being picked up by DHL and shipped down to our hotel in Hollywood so they will be there waiting for us when we arrive (we hope!)
In order to complete this feat, we are planning on cycling 93.75 miles (150km) a day with an average elevation of 5,000ft (1,524m) for 17 days with one full rest day.
We bought a 1990's edition of 'cycling down the West Coast of the USA' book from a library before setting out and have meticulously planned our route and accommodation (we're staying in motels, hotels and RV's instead of hauling camping gear along with us). Here is a run down of our itinerary with our routes, in case you ever want to do this yourselves.
Day # | Date | Start | Distance (miles) | Elevation (ft) | Strava route |
1 | Sunday 29th May | Bremerton, WA | 108.5 | 3,450 | |
2 | Monday 30th May | Westport, WA | 102 | 2,800 | |
3 | Tuesday 31st May | Astoria, OR | 100 | 5,600 | |
4 | Wednesday 1st June | Pacific City, OR | 99 | 5,350 | |
5 | Thursday 2nd June | Florence, OR | 43 | 2,000 | |
6 | Friday 3rd June | North Bend, OR | 87 | 2,000 | |
7 | Saturday 4th June | Gold Beach, OR | 79 | 4,850 | |
8 | Sunday 5th June | Klamath, CA | 90 | 4,250 | |
9 | Monday 6th June | Ferndale, CA | 124 | 8,700 |
And here's another table because cool people who blog don't usually include lots of tables and the web editor only allows 100 cells
Day # | Date | Start | Distance (miles) | Elevation (ft) | Strava route |
10 | Tuesday 7th June | Fort Bragg, CA | 87 | 6,683 | |
11 | Wednesday 8th June | Fort Ross, CA | 92 | 7,192 | |
12 | Thursday 9th June | San Francisco, CA | 125 | 6,250 | |
13 | Thursday 9th June | Monterey, CA | 100 | 8,343 | |
14 | Saturday 11th June | San Simeon, CA | No cycling! | | |
15 | Sunday 12th June | San Simeon, CA | 93 | 3,850 | |
16 | Monday 13th June | Lompoc, CA | 107 | 3,700 | |
17 | Tuesday 14th June | Oxnard, CA to Hollywood! | 63.5 | 1,800 |
We'll be posting updates on facebook and instagram (see links to those at top of page) if you want to check on us along the way!
If you people are desperate for daily updates, the best thing to do will be to check our strava posts
handily linked via this widget (for Lisa):
and this widget (for Will):
(Sidenote: if our strava trails go different ways, we're in trouble!)
While we're keen cyclists back home in the UK, you may have noticed that our travels to date have rarely incorporated two wheels (barring a couple of rentals in French Polynesia).
This has been a source of some ongoing anxiety for us both: we're definitely not as 'match fit' as we'd like, but are hoping that, as they say: 'form is temporary, but class is permanent.'
We've also been sneaking in training rides wherever we've had the chance. A cheeky 50 miles here and there, just to remind the legs how to do this thing.
It was nice to be joined for some of those rides by Cliff, our host on Mercer Island, and Kirk, our St Helens tour guide. Seattle and the surrounding area really is so beautiful, and cycling is such a great way to see it all.
We left Mercer Island on Friday 28th May, to spend a couple of nights with our friends Gordon and Becca in Bremerton, which is just 25ish miles west of Seattle, across Puget Sound. From there the journey proper would begin, on Sunday morning.
We left in plenty of time to catch the ferry to Bremerton, knowing that if we missed it, we'd have a 2.5hr wait to the next one.
But miss it we did.
4 miles through the 8 mile journey from Mercer to the ferry port, Lisa got a puncture in her back wheel. To make matters worse, she got it right in the middle of the I-90 bridge over Lake Washington. The bike lane is pretty narrow there, trucks fly past with only a chest-high concrete barrier between you, and worst of all, it was a blowy day, and the wind was whipping across the lake and blowing us sideways.
Still, as quickly as we could, we dug out the spare inner tubes, and changed the tyre. It was now touch-and-go, but we might still make it!
I remain adamant that we would have made it, with time to spare, were it not for the infuriating network of stop signs and traffic lights which beset American cities downtown. It was certainly the shortest route from Mercer to the port, but as the time ticked down while we waited every 400m, I concluded it was not the quickest.
We pulled into the port to see our ferry still there. We got to the booth and got our tickets with the ferry still there, our chatty salesperson not quite ending the conversation as quickly as we'd like in the circumstances. We stamped on the pedals and raced down the parking lot to the ferry... just in time to see it move off.
But there was no point crying over spilled milk. Instead, Lisa quickly found another route, via West Seattle, with just an 8 mile cycle, a 45 minute ferry, a 10 mile cycle, and then a 5 minute ferry. Simple, right?
We decided we were here to cycle - and better to cycle than stand still on the shore for 2.5 hours, slowly freezing (it's nearly June, but the temperature is still in the mid teens, and the wind on the shore is not friendly).
Long story short - we made it, and were reunited with our friends, and have spent a lovely couple of days catching up, eating good food (shout out to Saboteur Bakery) and wine (likewise Olalla Winery, for giving us such a charming experience on a wet Saturday, with truly excellent wines).
Oh - and Lisa made a pitstop at a bike shop, and bought armoured tyres, and inner tubes with sealant in. We would rather not be changing inners every 4 miles...
Tomorrow is an early start (we'll be saying that a lot over the next few weeks...)!