Category Archives: XC 2015

XC Tour Follow Up

With 5,600 miles, 16 states, and too many donuts to count behind us, the trip is over, and we are now trying to re-acclimate to the routine of normal life.  Rachel was back at work only a week or so later, and I am realizing that my immediate job will be as an assistant wedding planner.  Hopefully I’ll find time for a new engineering job on the side soon, though!

A big thank you to everyone who followed us for this journey; your support always helped us continue on.  Another big thanks to the people we met along the way who were so generous.  We were so pleased to experience so much kindness from so many strangers; it was truly incredible.  For everyone that took us into their homes, gave us meals, and even those that cheered for us as they passed in a car along the way: thank you SO much! You made our trip amazing; you lifted our spirits, and you kept us going!

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Finish Line (97)

We procrastinated the inevitable by sleeping in and then getting breakfast and coffee at the Starbucks under the hotel this morning.  Thanks to the Hegarty’s for the gift card!

We contemplated leaving the bags on our bikes for the obligatory trip-end pictures, but decided not to, to save ourselves the trouble.  We aren’t sure we are strong enough, anyhow, to lift the loaded bikes overhead; our workouts have been pretty lopsided lately (every day for the past 100 has been leg day…)

Looking down Lombard Street.
Looking down Lombard Street.

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El Perro Negro (96)

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Leaving the Holiday Inn in Davis – next stop San Francisco!!

It was fun to see all the cyclists in and around Davis on our way out of town this morning.  We were very impressed by the bicycle infrastructure (including roundabouts near the UC Davis Campus), so it makes sense why this area is so well-known for cycling.  In addition to being popular for cycling, it is Rachel’s grandfather’s old stomping grounds (http://theuniversityfaculty.cornell.edu/memorials/HOGUE.pdf), so it was fun to spend a little bit of time here.

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Rachel’s grandfather, Doug Hogue, earned his undergraduate degree in animal science at UC Davis.

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The Gilded Hills (94)

Believe it or not, we are still enjoying riding after about 5,300 miles in 93 days so far, but it has never been easy to get back on the bikes after rest days.  We were so happy that Jim and Jeanette made the trek from Bozeman to South Lake Tahoe to spend some time with us.  It also felt nice to know that we had plenty of rest days very soon ahead of us, since San Francisco is only ~200 miles from Lake Tahoe.  So, we packed up the bikes for the last time and said our goodbyes.

Rather than backtracking for the first hour or two this morning, we bummed a car ride to Luther Pass from Jim :-).  From the top, it was a short descent to a meadow where the Sierra Cascades and Western Express routes intersect, and then we were on the way up to Carson Pass.  This was the last major climb of the whole trip :-/.

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Colin and I at a pull off near the top of Carson Pass.

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