Back Home To Mendocino

Pack up everything from camping and go up the 101 towards Mendocino.
Stop in Healdsburg and go to the river as it was about 90 degrees out. I set up the picnic table and my full setup and we go for a nice swim in the river to cool off and have some lunch.
My friend Johnny and his Fiance Lindsy take us out wine tasting in the Sonoma Valley. We all took a tour of winery and went into their underground cellar.
Back on the road and we settle back home in Mendocino at my house. It's great to be back!

Well this ends my trip, drove almost 3000 miles in the past month and traveled most of California. Besides a few rough patches everything went great and we really enjoyed it!
Now I will be back home until mid October until the next big adventure! Zev and I leave on the 17th to travel for 6 months in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Lous, Bali and wherever else we end up. It is sure to be a amazing trip. We will be doing a blog for this next trip as well so until next time......Thats all foks!!!!!!

San Fransisco

I called Zev and he said that he was going camping at some sweet spot on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge overlooking the bay with some friends so we took off towards San Fran to meet up. I guess you have to reserve this spot months in advance and they give you a combo to the lock on the gate so you can get down there. I had some trouble finding the gate at first as you could not really see it. The fog was coming in hard over the coast and made for some really cool scenery. As we entered the locked gate road we ducked under the fog and it turned into a beautiful day.

Parked and met Zev's friends who were from SF and had a nice campsite set up. The whole table was filled with food and they had about 5 coolers filled with beer and BBQ stuff. Really cool group of people.

They started up the fire and we headed down to the beach to watch the sunset by the Golden Gate. The view there was incredible, I had never seen the bay from this angle it was like something out of a movie. We had the whole park to ourselves as well which added to the uniqueness of this spot.

There was a old Military Bunker by the beach with gun turret towers and some creepy underground rooms.


We went back to camp and BBQ'd some steaks and corn. The two guys who reserved the camp where bartenders and made some crazy drink with raw eggs, nutmeg, lemon juice and brandy. It was pretty intense but good as a shot. One of the girls busted out some Mad Libs and we had some of the funniest stories ever. Well maybe it was because of the weird egg drinks a bit but we almost died laughing.


Later the racoons were in full force. When I walked back to my van I spotted at least 30 of them all plotting to steal our food. We would litterally turn out back for 5 seconds and one would be on the picknic table which we were sitting at trying to steal somthing, they had no fear at all.

Davis

Drive back down the mountain to meet up with my friend Bryce who is going to UC Davis. Get to his place and then decide to ride bikes onto campus and into town for a bit. His roomate had welded two mountain bikes together to make a ghetto fabulous tandem bike. Bryce and I hop on the tandem and Synne on the normal bike. Riding this thing around town was a riot. It seemed like we were always out of control and people looked at you really funny when you rode by on this frankenstien bike.

We rode around town for a bit and then headed back to his house because he had to go to Soccer practice. He let me take his XR250 dirt bike out while he was gone and Synne and I rode all over Davis. I found some trails down by the river and we explored some pretty technical trails for having two people on the bike. His rear suspention has no dampening so its like a pogo stick when you hit bumps.


We meet back up with Bryce and grab some pizza and play beer pong with his roomates for the rest of the evening.

Lake Tahoe

We wake up very late the next day (1pm) with the destination of South Lake Tahoe to meet up with Jeff and his friends from Scotland. My van has no AC and it was about 100 degree's driving through Sacramento. Absolutely brutal drive. As im driving up hwy 50 almost to Tahoe Jeff pulls up besides me and then passes me, probably blasting ice cold AC just to be a dick.

Get to Tahoe about the same time as each other and meet up at the hotel Jeff had reserved for him and the girls. It was really expensive without reservations so Synne and I walked around town for a while trying to find a decently priced room. Found a great place for only $40 a night and unpacked. Ahhh so nice to have a real room and have space again.
Spent the next 3 days going out to the Casino's, going to the theater and out to some clubs at night. The weather was not very warm and it rained one of the days but we still had a great time.

Santa Cruz

Pack up the next morning and head back up the PCH towards Santa Cruz. Stop in Big Sur for some breakfast burritos and then take a nap for about 4 hours because we were very tired from the night before. Get into SC around 4pm and meet up with Jeff who I did my last Central America Dirt Bike Trip with. We meet on the wharf and grab some drinks around sunset and then go over to Pint Night downtown and meet up with my other Dirt Bike Trip partner Shane. We all end up at a very weird bar with a funny gay bartender and a strange emo band playing in the other room. Synne and I ended our night here and went back to the van to go to bed.

Wake up and drive up hwy 9 into the redwood forest to go to a swimming spot called The Garden Of Eden. Walk along the train tracks for a while and find a tee-pee out in the woods made out of redwood branches.



Get to the swimming hole and jump in the middle. The water is so freezing but felt really good after a long hot walk. This spot is really cool with a sand beach and waterfall when its not summer.

We hang out here for most of the day and then go back into SC to meet up with my two friends from Mendo, Aran and Noah.
I had not seen Noah for over 8 years since I graduated from High School so it was really good to see him. All of us meet up at I Love Sushi and had a great dinner along with doing sake bombs with the restaurant owner. He was so funny, barely spoke English and his reply to everything was "ohhhhhhhh" with his eyes closed. I think he had been drinking prior haha.
Afterwards we all went out to the Red Room and had a great time just catching up with each other.

Big Sur

Off to Big Sur now. PCH has got to be one of the most beautiful drives in california. Every corner you go around produces a new awe inspiring landscape. We stopped for a bit and watched the Elephant Seals which can grow to be over a ton fight around with eachother and blob around the beach. I find the dirt road Molly was talking about but I did not think it would be so close so I had not picked up food and supplies so we backtracked to the nearest town and picked everything up and headed back to the dirt road. The road was pretty gnarly and very steep. There was some pretty deep ruts and big rocks you had to navigate through. The van handled it like a champ though and barely spun a tire even on some of the worst stuff. I guess it helps that I had a metric ton of stuff inside weighing it down and a posi-traction rear end. The views from up here are just incredible. Really like nothing ive ever seen and ive lived in California my whole life.

While I write this right now we are probably 2000 feet above the ocean camping over a 180 degree vista of the Pacific, its pretty amazing.

Pismo Beach

Headed back to Pismo Beach from the lake and went to a Still Time concert on the cliffs at a resort. The grounds there could not of been better with ocean views, BBQ's, a pool and good people.

I ran into my friend Molly from Mendo and told her I was going north to Big Sur tomorrow. She recomended a secret camping spot way up in the mountains that was far up a dirt road away from everything. I jotted down her directions with plans to hit it tommorow. After the concert we went down to Pismo Dunes and camped out on the beach with a nice fire and some Margerita's.