super rad. what camera did you use? the clouds look awesome.
This looks great. How was the traffic?
Awesome! Great write-up, great sense of adventure/ill-preparedness/determination.
Actual LOL several times.
I recently encountered someone else who hadn’t heard of growlers. I looked at them all confusedly.
iPhone4s believe it or not. Downloaded an HDR app so I could catch the range between ground and sky nicely. Not a totally perfect solution but it was small enough to fit in my pocket for easy access and the photos came out nice enough that I’m happy with them.
Man, traffic out there was amazing. It wasn’t at all uncommon for cars to pass you, but people have a really positive attitude towards cyclists. People typically would go completely into the other lane while passing, and I never once had a car pass me and leave me less than three feet of space. I’d take the center of the lane during descents and never felt squeezed right into the shoulder and people were always cool with it. Also had probably about a dozen cars give us thumbs up signs or cheer at us and we had a few cars applauding as well. Traffic was cool as hell, felt measurably safer than riding in the city.
I didn’t know this was at all common. It’s pretty much my new favorite thing.
What, seriously? Never heard of a Growler?
Come to California. We’ll take care of you.
Hell yea Smitty 
Pretty awesome. There’s something to be said for shitty planning, Had you known what you were up against you might not have done it.
You talked with touring partner since?
Nope.
It’s my brother though, so I know how he gets and he can be moody as shit when things don’t go his way. I think the difficulty of the trail combined with getting damp every night, and the constant headwind just broke his spirits. He’ll be alright I’m sure, had a lot of fun with him the first day and a half, but don’t know if I’d tour with him again after seeing how he responds to adversity
Rich that was an outstanding write up. thanks!
such a sick thread; looks so fun.
almost makes me want to get off my lazy ass and do something similar…almost
Surprised growlers are a new thing to people. Thats basically how I bought beer when I was first legally able to.
i’ve just been getting into the mini-tour myself and have had experiences that are somewhat similar, less the epic landscape and climbing, with heat being more of an issue that rain. learning a lot along the way.
we’ve been putting in long hot days with lots of beer. the whole experience has really opened up something in me i didn’t know was there, like that i actually like nature. it’s a lot different than any other type of cycling i’ve done.
fuck yeah you lived! I owe you a beer