Hi All,
Another great guest blog from Alex and Mireia! Check out the latest update and pictures of their adventures while they travel the West Coast of the US with their Montague folding bikes. They got a chance to explore Yosemite, San Francisco, Half Moon Bay, and the Redwood Forest on their Montague bikes. Next stop – Mexico – so keep stopping by to check on their journey.
Hi Montague Fellow Riders – Alex and Mireia here with an update on our travels,
These last two weeks have been amazing! We have finally crossed all the US! Since the last update we first saw LA and the amazing coast! We stayed in a State Park in Malibu relaxing after 2 weeks of hiking/biking all the national parks of Utah!
We decided to go to San Francisco by Hwy 1, which follows the coast. We had a lot of fun as the drive is extremely scenic during 100 miles.
From all the beautiful villages around the hwy 1 we decide to stop in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Redwood forest, Santa Cruz and half moon bay.
The first stop was Santa Barbara. The coast is very nice and well prepared for cycling so we decide to visit it by bike. There, we enjoyed the good views, the weather and also the best ice-cream we have ever tasted in the Pier of Santa Barbara (a bit expensive though!)
After Santa Barbara we continued the hwy to arrive to San Luis Obispo, a very beautiful and peaceful village. We stayed there for half a day visiting the Spanish mission and a curious street which is full of chewing gums! In general this village is very cozy and we would definitely recommend people to go there!
Our next stop was the redwood forest (Pfeiffer State Park), where we stayed for a night and we could hike through the forest. The sequoia’s here are enormous and among the tallest in the world. Santa Cruz was a small village, with a very nice attraction park, it was very beautiful but we were not allowed to use our bikes around, so we had to stop and continue by foot. What a pity! The best part was to find under the Pier some lazy Lyon seals lying under the sun!
After Santa Cruz we decided to continue and stay in Half moon bay for the night as it is very near to San Francisco. But when we arrived, there was no spot for us. However, after 5 minutes of our arrival a group had to leave due to an accident, one guy broke his arm, so we could get a spot there. Every cloud has a silver lining! Also, at the same time, someone else offered his spot to put a tent for us. People in this camping was super nice! The State Park is very known for the waves which are very nearby, the wave ricks – apparently there is a famous movie on the topic.
After sleeping in half moon we decided to go to San Francisco. We decided to stay there for 2 or 3 days. It was really worth to visit the city by bicycle, but also tiring as there are a lot of hills!
We enjoyed the good weather and we meet very nice people, which we met because they asked about our Montague folding bikes. With the bikes we could visit the city in a very efficient way, and do a lot of exercise. Overall, it was really worth it! 🙂
We visited the financial district, el embarcadero and all the Piers, the coit towel (which the hill is hard but we did it!) and the lombard street.
The second day we went to Alcatraz. We were very lucky as the tickets were sold out for the next 5 days! However, we meet a girl which was trying to sell her ticket, but at the end she gave us the ticket for free! After searching a bit we got a 2nd ticket for the same hour! Alcatraz was very interesting and worth it to see! After Alcatraz, we went to ‘twin peaks’ were we got a very nice view of San Francisco by night!
The next day, before leaving we went to golden gate bridge. We decided to walk a bit on it and leave to Yosemite National Park! Unfortunately, all the luck of the previous days turned against us…we forgot the keys of our car inside and we closed everything. We had to call a tow company to open it. But the views of the bridge are amazing!
Yosemite NP is a really nice place for hikers and climbers. We decide to park our car in the camping and ride our bikes in all the paths. The first day we decided to hike to glacier point (4 miles trail). We thought it was 4,7 miles as a round trip, but at the end it was just one way!! When we arrived on the top we could enjoy amazing views of the valley.
The next day we preferred to rest as we were expecting to do a difficult hike the following day. Also, as we are not that well prepared, we didn’t realize it was 21 miles of trail! When we came back our legs and knees where hurting! But the effort was worth it as the views were impressive and we found ourselves alone most of the hike! 
After Yosemite we went to Sequoia park were we stayed 5 hours enjoying enormous trees! And then we decide to go to Grand Canyon, where we did a hike on top of the rim and we entered the canyon to the panoramic view, where we could see the Colorado river! It was a 6 hours hike, but it was really worth it!
It has been all until now! Tomorrow we will cross the border to Mexico, where we hope not to have any problem and to enjoy the time at least as much as we have enjoyed the US!
Mireia & Alex
