Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.mntbikedude
09-02-06, 06:49 PM
This summer my 13 year old son and I began an unsupported bike trip beginning in Victoria BC. At the time we had no official ending date or location. Just that we would ride untill it stopped being fun. Early on my son started telling people we were riding to Mexico. And as we were then some 1600 plus miles away it seemed well quite impossible.
But mile by mile, challenge by challenge we ended having the summer of our lives.And indeed we ended up in Mexico. For me it was not only a great adventure but hanging out all summer with my son was so incredible. Mark was at the perfect age, where he could physically handle the trip but he is still young enough to think it was cool to hang out with dad.
He rode in the drafting position most of the way, and I loved to hear him just talk, all day. Stuff like hey dad did you know that....... sometimes he would just ride up along side me look over and say I love you dad. For the last 10 days of the trip we stopped putting up the tents. We slept under redwoods, under palm trees, under star filled skys, and we could hear the ocean as we would drift off to sleep.
We had no near misses or accidents, not a day of rain, no illness or injury. What we did have was 45 days of days I wish I could relive again and again. We biked all kinds of conditions, from nice highways with ample shoulders, to much of highway 1 with little or no shoulder, we biked some off road and even was routed onto the Ventura Freeway.
Along the way we met many awesome people and cyclist all the down the coast were willing to go the extra mile literaly to lead us thru some of the more challenging sections of the major cities. Such as San Fransisco and LA. We started to refer to them as our guardian angels.
Anyway I have posted our pictures in some albums at this address http://bikethewestcoast.spaces.live.com/ click on photos and then there are 6 or 7 groups of photos. If you are in a hurry one of my favorites is the folder titled Central California the lost coast. I'm still working on it so check back from time to time as we add things.
But mile by mile, challenge by challenge we ended having the summer of our lives.And indeed we ended up in Mexico. For me it was not only a great adventure but hanging out all summer with my son was so incredible. Mark was at the perfect age, where he could physically handle the trip but he is still young enough to think it was cool to hang out with dad.
He rode in the drafting position most of the way, and I loved to hear him just talk, all day. Stuff like hey dad did you know that....... sometimes he would just ride up along side me look over and say I love you dad. For the last 10 days of the trip we stopped putting up the tents. We slept under redwoods, under palm trees, under star filled skys, and we could hear the ocean as we would drift off to sleep.
We had no near misses or accidents, not a day of rain, no illness or injury. What we did have was 45 days of days I wish I could relive again and again. We biked all kinds of conditions, from nice highways with ample shoulders, to much of highway 1 with little or no shoulder, we biked some off road and even was routed onto the Ventura Freeway.
Along the way we met many awesome people and cyclist all the down the coast were willing to go the extra mile literaly to lead us thru some of the more challenging sections of the major cities. Such as San Fransisco and LA. We started to refer to them as our guardian angels.
Anyway I have posted our pictures in some albums at this address http://bikethewestcoast.spaces.live.com/ click on photos and then there are 6 or 7 groups of photos. If you are in a hurry one of my favorites is the folder titled Central California the lost coast. I'm still working on it so check back from time to time as we add things.