Almost at the end

Hello Dear English;speaking friends. We re sorry its been so long since we informed you about our travels. We had a bit a hard time in central america because it was always so so hot. We loved kolumbia which has a great cycling culture and amzin people. Ecuadoir was good but a bit crowded and than the higlight of the trip : Peru. We cycled on tiny mountain roads trough beautiful little villages along the routes on the homepage andesbybike.com . Then in Bolivia we traveld great parts with an Us- Couple so you can find their Blog on http://bikesandbackpacks.blogspot.com.br/ and with Chris from the UK (https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=tS&page_id=442438&v=1j , https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=tS&page_id=442848&v=1b). Now we are in Brasil on a boat that brigns us to Manaus from were we ll fly home for christmas. Thank you all for making our trip such a great experience!! Merry Christmas and a Happy new year!

Hannes and Julia

WE love MExico

Hello our englisch speaking readers, we re sorry for not updating the englisch version lñately. We re just to consumed by enjoying mexico 🙂  We ll put our german blog into google translate and post it here soon. So sorry for the automatic translation… Pictures are on the german blog freiheitundfahrtwind.wordpress.com

okay it doesnt work, please but it there yourself 🙂

road conditions

We ll try to put up a kind of roadbook and try to remember which parts had a good shoulder, were gravel or pavement etc. of course we dont guarantee that it stays like that or maybe you’ll like parts a lot that we hated or the otherway round.

Yukon:

Klondike Highway> Dawson City to Whithehorse: narrow, no shoulder but little traffic, rough pavement, hilly okay

Alaska Highway: Whitehorse to Watson Lake: good shoulder, good pavement, less hills, good

British Colmbia:

Stewart-Cassiar HW: Watson Lake till Meziadin Juction: No shoulder, good pavement, till dease lake some potholes, relativly flat, not much traffic,  easy and nice ride, good

Stewart-Cassiar HW:  Meziadin Juction, Stewart, Stewart-Kitwanga: No shoulder, good pavement, more traffic, also logging trucks , but okay (Salmon Glacier, gravel , quite steep)

Kitwanga Hazelton> closed road with washout, steep but nice gravel, washout doable, if your allone you might have to carry panniers and then the bike but only for 200m

Hazelton to Quesnel: we hitchiked, but it looked quite busy, shoulder

Quesnel Wells, no shoulder , hilly , busy, once a week theres a shuttlebus,

Wells to Mc Leese Lake via Backroad: Super hilly, road grated in 2014 ( ther it was really bad ) from Caribou river for 40km, otherwise nice landscape no traffic, if you like backroads its a good ride.

Mc Leese Lake, via Williams Lake, Dog Creek, Pavillion on Backroads: road surface okay gravel, around dog creek super hilly, steep, but beautiful desert like landscape.

Pavillion Lilloet: small shoulder, traffic, but almost only downhill, okay

Duffi Lake road: Superhilly, traffic, partly no shoulder, be careful!

Pemperton via Whislter till Horseshoebay: Main highway, Shoulder okay, a lot of traffic , great landscape , but noisy

Twawassen Ferry till Hope:

Twawassen Ferry till Hope: Hw 7, flat, partly no shulder, but okay

Kettle Valley Trail: Choquihalla HW from Hope north: KVR doesnt exist in parts you have to go on HW wich is 3 lanes, no shoulder, but friendly Canadians, steep al together very bad! THen KVR first part with washouts (carry bike) then very deep gravel, then partly okay to princeton (very  bumpy), to summerland we took the road instead of KVR, wich was fine, HW Summerland to Penticton busy but shoulder, KVR Beautiful for 15 km, then deep shity gravel, we took gravel road, wich was very steep but onky 5 instead of 20 km, then okay trail, at hte bridges and tunnels very beautiful. After that shity again , but nice dirt road next to it, than we went on HW 33 wih was pretty shoulde rnot much traffic very gentle downhill

HW 3 east (Crowsnest HW): Traffic, but okay, Shoulder, beautiful landscape , some passes but in generel not super hilly,

USA

HW 6 / US 89: beautiful hilly medium traffic till browning then HW 2 and Interstate 15 to Great falls which was both with nice shoulder

US 89 to Livingston: hilly but very pretty, not a lot of traffic , only partly shoulder further into Yellowstone, there no shoulder relativly busy, but no other way!

Yellowstone in Late September/Okt.: still busy, roads super narrow but not as bad as we feared unfortunalty some roads were already closed, long detours, very hilly! And partly not very interesting, dense forest

Grand TEtons: Great bike path till Jackson!

Jackson to south of Saltlake City Hitchhiking, didnt look interesting lot of Suburb area, very busy HWs

Utah: Price to Moab 191,I 15, 191: great, with shoulder, I 15 uphill, 191 to Moab ok, very busy narrow shoulder (way back super dangerous because no shoulder and lots of semi trucks)

In Arches and Canyonlands, hilly, no shoulder, but friendly traffic

BAck to Green River, then on 24 ( no water till Hanksville): shoulder relativly flat

We didnt take the 12, but 62 wich was pretty , not spectacular, but no traffic, then 22 to bryce canyon, good as well.

89, 9 to Zion, good, traffic, shoulder, in Zion big downhill:) to st George

St GEorge to Mesquite on old HW not Interstate wich was super hilly and exhausting but no traffic

I 15 to Las Vegas: great, good shoulder, silent pavement

 

California

160 to death Valley, shoulder an dlittle traffic, hills!

Panamint Valley, rel. flat, no traffic

178 to Bakersfiel, beginning little traffic, hill, pretty, from the Hot springs on super narrow lot of traffic , windy (get a ride!)

65 North to Exeter, ugly, but shoulder, 198 into Sequia NP, narrow but little traffic, pretty again

Road was already closed because of snow, we just went up into NP to the big trees and back down, super beautiful!

Central Valley, small roads via fresno onto 33 north : disgusting! Ugly landscape, smog ( pesticides)  from orange orchards, lot of agressive big dogs like pit bulls, not leashed, coming after you, flat

152 west, beginning with shoulder, gets friendlier again but then

PAtchego Pass: Very Dangerous , 3 lanes NO SHOULDER and californian drivers are NOT friendly, dont give you space, we ushed the bikes up. Find someone to take you or a bus to go around somehow, before you start, we tried to hitchhike and no one picked us up!

after san juan bautista, stay on 101 for a little take first exit, go right and you ll find a nice road and street signsthat take you to one of the villages on the coast, hilly

HW 1 very beautiful but narrow and lots of traffic, mostly no seperate bike path

L.A. we got terribly lost, San diego is easy to avoid traffic with a little planning we took 94 to Tecate, hilly, little trafic

MExico

TEcate to MExicali (2): On pay road, space on shoulder, hard to find sleeping spot, very freindly semi trucks and genereal traffic, up hill for half of distance then the most beautiful downhillride we had so far! (WE are very happy not to have passed tijuana, heard lots of bad traffic stories)

Mex 5 via San Felipe: Mostly very wide, shoulder little traffic, beautiful landscape, in the south about 40 km gravel, not easy to ride but amazing landscape! Hilly

Mex 1 South, narrow, mostly no shoulder, but also little traffic, very firendly drivers only 1 time dangerous in genereal much better than US!

La Paz to Ferry in Pichilingue: Lot of traffic , little dangerou s, hilly but only 25 km

Los Mochis to San juan Bautista: BUS because we where in a hurry for christmas

California and the beginning of the Baja

Paul is a passionate beer brewer, and that’s how we got to taste

several homemade beers in Huntington Beach. My favorite was the Chili-Beer!
Lori and Scott welcomed us in their home in Carlsbad. We enjoyed a lot the good food and traveling stories and all the good advice for our route. It was nice to cycle with them out of town.
After cycling through San Diego in the night, the last challenge of the day was to cycle up an incredibly high and steep hill. But all the effort was worth it. Our great warmshower host, Michelle and Mat recieved us warmly, gave us a cold beer to drink directly under the shower, and surprised us with a wonderful dinner. We felt immediately at home and were happy to be able to relax before heading to the Mexican border the next day.
We crossed over at Tecate. Everything went well, the border official just told us that we should have a bath, because in Mexico body hygiene is more important. If he knew, that how we looked like, is nothing compared when we haven’t showered for a week or more…
The first days in Mexico were hard, we had strong headwind and a lot of mountains. But then we got to some beautiful mountains, found a great place to camp and had the next morning a long and very beautiful downhill.
We went through the desert, long, tiring kilometers with no shadow for several days.Getting water was quite a problem. Sometimes we had to take the cooling water for the cars in some dirty basins along the road… But the roads were lonely and the landscape very, very beautiful, and so we were happy. We also had the opportunity to talk to one farmer along the way, the interview may follow soon.
In San Felipe we met Leanne and Daren, who we talked to a day ago along the road. They invited us to stay with them in their RV camp. After many days in the desert this little break came just perfect, especially because we got taken care of as if we were their children. Clean, with delicious meals in the stomac we continued our way south.
Thirsty coyotes
We cycle through beautiful wilderness for a couple of days. Only the sound of the coyotes is what we can hear during the night. Once, we wake up, because we here them trying to bite our waterbottles. The guys take turns in chasing the coyote away, but je just keeps turning around in circles around our camp and keeps coming back. We wake up again when we hear them fighting just next to our camp. When Georg jumps out to chase them once more, the coyotes gets stuck in the next fence.- after that shock the coyotes stay away and the night is finally calm-although there is nothing much left of it.
The road isn’t paved all the way through, so we have to go over a very bad washboardroad with a lot of big stones and a lot of sand. But the landscape is a big recompense, beautiful cactuses with a lot of variety. It seems like we are in a different world..
In Rosarito we make a stop at the beach, some fishermen give us a huge fish as present which we prepare over the fire. Later in the evening the local youth drops over, with loud music and a lot of beer and tequila. The night gets long along the campfire, and we have a lot of fun.
The next morning, we have a huge hangover, but also the invitation for breakfast and for a visit on their ranch. Cycling through the village the next day, we meet our new friends. It’s 30 more kilometers to their little ranch, far away in the hills. We spent a very beautiful weekend with the family, riding horses, learning how to catch cattle with the lasso and enjoying family life.
After that, we ride on south,happy to be on roads that are almost traffic free, and happy about very friendly and coutinous drivers, almost always when someone wants to pass us,a nd they cant see far enough, they just stay behind us for some minutes and then pass with a lot of space, honking and waving. Unfortunally, Julia ran into me and fell, hurting her elbow and Knee, I got an open butt from riding the horse in Jogging Pants, Georg got an acing back, and veronicas Knees hurt every now and then. But apart from that, were fine, flying soth with the wind, through cactuses and Rocks. After some days in the desert, we were very happy to enter San Ignazio, an Oasis with Palmtrees and a very nice Plaza. There we also met some other cyclists and talked for a while, but they were afraid of wild camping and went to a campground while we founhd a very nice spot under palmtrees and the stars.

Viva Mexico

Since about three weeks, we are now cycling down the Baja California, and e enjoy it a lot. The Roads are empty, abnd if theres traffic, the People are very frindly and cautinous drivers, if they cant pass us savely, thell stay behind for some minutes and then pass us honking and waving. We also enjoy the diversity and the taste of alle the good Mexican food. And we had a phenomenous invitation on the Racho of a Fischer-Family we meton the beach. After we had a little Party with the sons, they invited us first for bereakfast and then for the whhole weekend n their ranch, where we played cowboys, went horsebackriding and catching Calves with the lasso. Now we ware going south under the burning sun and the vultures.

San Juan Bautista-Cayucos

(Veronica)

Pictures are here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/129198383@N06/

The winners of San Benito County

In San Juan Bautista we stay with Jim, who welcomes us warmly with an invitation to Mexican restaurant. We enjoy long evenings where he shares all his knowledge about the region. Jim has been very active in the anti-fracking campaign, and elections just have taken place. When were waiting for Jim on themarketplace, two excited old ladies came to us and said “ Welcome to San Benito county, which voted against fracking!”. For us, it was very interesting to learn how this was possible- to win against the oil companies, who invested millions of dollars to win the elections. But people in San Benito County care- about their groundwater, the resource for all the wine production and all other agricultural activity, many of it organic.

We were very lucky, that Jim took us to the celebration of the results of the elections. The Oholone Indians, also very engaged in the campaign, had invited all supporters and activists , to celebrate in a palce called “Indian canyon”, a cultural place hidden in the hills. We participated in the cleansing ritual and had the opportunity to talk to many people.

Memories

In Marina, we met my friend Noah, whom I met during my exchange year to Thailand. Together, we went to Calistoga in the Napa Valley, were his Moms received us with a great dinner. We were happy to toast with them to their marriage one month ago- which is now possible thanks to the new law. They have been together for many years, but a long time, homosexual relationships were not accepted. How wonderful to see, that sometimes things change for more tolerance and peace. It gives me hope, that maybe slowly the world really could become a better place.

Highway 101-Big Sur

From Monterey we ride south along the coast. We are impressed by the scenery and beauty. But we have bad luck, after one day we wake up in the night by the rain. Since it’s hars to find a good place to camp along the narrow road, we didn’t put a tent. Everything is wet until we can put the tent. The next days continues with fog and rain, and Georg breaks a part of a tooth It is very hilly, and it’s hard to move forward.

Luckily, we have some great warmshower hosts in Cayucos. Michelle and her husband host a lot of cyclists, and together with us stays another German couple.

Californian Coast from Marina to San Diego

We managed to visit one of the most beautiful parts of the Coast around Big Sur. Wild, rough, stunning coast. As everybody told us that the coast will be full of shops, we didnt take a lot of food and kind of ran out around Big sur, so we only ate oats for half a day and we re super happy to get groceries again 🙂 But on the way we could watch Elefant Seals, which was quite impressive.

San Luis Obisco was a really nice little town and we spent 2 nights at a really cool warmshowers host in los osos. THey told us about the hot springs in gaviota state park, so we went to hang out in another beautiful hot spring spot.

Thats where we managed to meet up with Vroni and GEoerg, witch was the best spot to do so. We where all supe rhappy that we finally made it! For cycling together we had to figure out how we’ll get along with our cycle habits, but so far so good.

We also found a couple of nice spots to camp out (mostly with the help of homeless people, who knew where you can camp without beeing chased away) and we had some amazing warmshowers host (Thanks Colin,  Paul, Laurie and Scott and Matt and his sister). So with their help we maneged to cross Los angeles and San diego without a lot of trouble. We re looking forward to mexico now!

10 flats, Hot Springs, horrible towns and beautiful forest

After crossing the Walker Pass, we decided to continue our ride towars backersfield. But first we had to repair a lot of lats because weve been driving trough a lot of throns. BUt takint that route we could pass by a beautiful hot spring. We arrived in the eveniong and spend our soaking in the warm water. After that we we re quite tired and didn’t pitch up the tent as we should have done it. SO when the strom and rain started we had to get out and fix more ropes. But it actually didn’t matter much, because in the morning we just went bvack to the hot springs:). WE wanted to start cycling in the afternoon, but another flat. We met a guy , that we met the day before, again and he offered us to take us out to Bakersfield. As he said the canyon road is super narrow (which it really was) we agreed.

So we all of a sudden aht to face horrible landscape: Oil pumps, dry empty land, orange plantations ware the only slightly pleasant thing in view. In th e towns there were dogs everywhere, ether pit bulls, or tiny rats that came out if their fencing and almost juped into the bikes. I was really angry at them and started to chase them al back in their yards and throwing stuff at them, that really heloed (to feel better 🙂 ) BUt soon we started to really go towars sequoia NP, so the landscape started to be nice again. And in the forest it was really amazing to see these huge trees, play in the snow, and then cycle down all the 2000m again 🙂

Wonderful people, wonderful desert, and Yosemite.

More pics you find here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/129198383@N06/

In Bishop we stayed with Adrian, an experienced and passionate cyclist and adventurer. He was one of the people that you meet, and immediately have a lot to talk about. He lives far up in the mountains and we enjoyed the beautiful view every morning. A swarm of pelicans passed by, and we watched them amazed for a long while.

Our next destination where the Hot Springs nearby. We took a beautiful side-route that Adrian explained to us, listened to music and just felt great to be on the road. Here many people pass with their car and stop, to have a chat, to give us some candy or a smile. And this is one thing we enjoy very much, to really havre the time to listen to people what they have to say. And not having in mind your own little problems of a stressfull day. Of course we have little problems, too. But they don’t bother us much, since we can’t think a lot in the future. It’s more about, where do we get water now, or what will we eat, and where are we going to sleep. Since most of that only can be solved in that very moment, our mind is free for a lot more.

Because of that reason, that we always meet so many people and stop to talk to them, sometimes we don’t get far at all. So we didn’t reach the Hot Springs, but were standing next to the highway, it was getting dark and cold. In this moment a car stopped, and Maureen came towards us. “ Do you need a place to sleep and a warm shower? You can come to our cabin, just over there. The beer is in the fridge, selve yourself.” – We are very surprised by this hospitality, it’s just incredible. We spent a very nice evening together, and soon we learned what the reason for their kindness was. Maureen and Kevin are themselves adventurers, spending a lot of time in the wilderness and so they notice people who are on the road. Again, we departed in the morning with warm hearts of meeting such nice people.

We wanted to cycle to th Hot Springs, meeting Maureen and Kevin who went with their car. The Hot Springs are away from the road in the desert, no signs lead there, and of course we got lost. After searching for one hour around, we went a small sandy path that seemed to go nowhere. We were just about to turn around, when we saw a truck and someone sitting next to it.

“You are exactly right!” he said. “No, we are not, we want to go to another Hot Spring, we have to meet our new friends”. But finally we stayed, because James offered us a freshly brewed coffee and turned out to be a very, very special person. In just some hours we had discussed all about our lives, with James sharing a lot from his experiences. He is 53, is a tree healer and is about to sell his truck to leave on a bicycle to South America, to start a new life there. The time that followed can’t almost be described. Just so far: James showed us a secret Hot Spot in the middle of the desert, awaited us after our bath with his “Turkish restaurant”, and finally decided to cycle with us up to the Tioga Pass, enjoying a magic ride up the mountains. It was getting dark, making the atmosphere in this incredibly high mountains very special.

What James gave us, in advices and beautiful little presents that we enjoy now every day ( the best mate-cocoa-maca-blend ever!) is much, and getting to know him is a big adventure!

With James still in our heads, we cycled the next day freezing down the pass. The snow storm was announced for this night, so better to get down! But we had to stop very often, to look at all the views Yosemite offers at each curve. What a great place! We underestimated (better, we didn’t inform us) the distance down into the valley. We kept riding and riding, the sun was gone, it started to rain, and we still didn’t arrive. We ended up cycling more than 4 hours in the night and pouring rain…Down in the valley we didn’t know where to go, so weput up the tent next to a public toilet (dry inside!!) and had a short, humid night.

Next day, it kept raining we made it to the famous Camp 4. We tried to dry our things and relaxed. Just the next day the clouds went away and we finally could hike and enjoy the beauty of this valley.

Las Vegas and Death Valley

After spending some relaxing days in Las Vegas at our wonderful hosts Laurianns Place and visiting “the strip” . We cycled in bad headwind over a big pass , met another toruing cyclist and went to Pahrump were we got hosted by donna and roger and could pet some cats:) And then the Desert experience started/ It was actuallt quite okay, Death Valley Np has pletny of water fillign stations. Only the towney pass is really steep and long, but it was beautiful anyway. The panamint valley, that we rode along to trona was acutally more impressive then the death valley itsself, wich was rather green. So now we re looking forward to see some trees again in Sequoia NP and finally meet Georg and Vroni.