The end of the road

Days: 69
Distance: 5,728 km / 3,559 mi
Location: Stinson Beach, CA

We did it! We biked across America. Yesterday at 12:27 pm Amelia and I jumped into the Pacific Ocean, exactly 69 days 4 hours and 51 minutes after we tagged the water at Revere Beach in Massachusetts.

Here's the stories from California:

Lake Tahoe

We took a day off with Rob, who took us on a fantastic hike up to Lake Dardanelles. Our friend Phil Stevenson and Rob's two dogs also joined us for the hike. Everyone else enjoyed swimming at the lake while I hunted for rocks.































Descent into the Central Valley

We mistakenly believed that descending 7,000 ft into the Central Valley would be easy. However, we quickly discovered that there was quite a lot of uphill involved in going downhill! When we finally reached the valley floor we were relieved by the pancake-flat terrain.

















We hopped in the American River Bike Trail in Folsom and followed it over 30 miles to Sacramento. Amazingly, the entire Central Valley from Folsom to Winters is connected by bike trails, so we pretty much never even had to ride on a road.

Sacramento






















We stayed with our friend Alex Jordan's family, who live right downtown a few blocks from the capitol building. We wanted to meet Arnold Schwarzenegger, but it turns out the legislature had finally passed the budget the night before and he went home to Hollywood.

Wine Country

The ride out of the valley and into the North Bay was hilly as expected, but the scenery of California's wine country is gorgeous, with golden rolling hills dotted by vineyards and scrub oaks. We stopped to buy some fresh tomatoes at one of California's many roadside produce stands. Yum yum! Even better food came that evening at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Sonoma. And of course we enjoyed some of the local wine as well.


The ride to the beach

We left my Aunt and Uncle's house at 6 am and coasted down into the Sonoma Valley. The sun was just rising over the hills, and as is always the case in the morning here, the valley was full of fog.

















The fog got thicker and thicker! It finally burned off around 10 am.


Beach!
















Oh my gosh, the water is cold!

Our welcoming comittee included my Aunt and Uncle, my parents, my brother (visiting from Michigan), and Henry Hallam.


















Henry drove all the way up Highway 1 from Santa Cruz in his classic Jetta.



















Final thoughts

In some ways our arrival at the beach was bittersweet. While we're excited to have accomplished our goal, it's been an amazing journey, and we're both a little sad that its over. We've seen some amazing places and met so many wonderful people along the way. It's been really interesting experiencing the entire spectrum of culture and geography across North America. Below: Amelia's bicycle odometer, which read 3,559.4 miles at the time of our arrival.



















I'd like to sign off this blog by thanking everyone across America and Ontario who helped us along the way by hosting us, feeding us, giving us directions, refilling our water bottles, and cheering us on. We couldn't have done it without you!