The Band Of Biking Brothers: 8000 to 5000

Day 16 of the trip. Time is flying by, and the beauty of California hasn't ceased to amaze us. Today will be our last day in California, cause in about a mile we will hit Nevada.

Here is the general route we have taken thus far...

We have logged a little over 800 miles! We have decided against the Death Valley route(going south) and have also decided because of our time frame we will have to miss the Grand Canyon. But we are still going to hit Zion! Super pumped for the days to come.

Today started off perfect. Food. Lots and lots of food! We went to Nicely's diner in Lee vining. I hope this picture captures what I am talking about....

French toast, waffles, hash browns, toast, sausage, biscuits and gravy, and a giant cinnamon roll! So many carbs. We cherished every morsel(until we had to get on the bike, haha) but still it was great. We ran into a guy there who biked around in Jerusalem for an extended period of time. What?! I'm telling you, we are meeting some interesting people.

Very scenic again today. And all of the landscapes have been different throughout california. Coastline, to farmland, to redwood forest, to the Sierras.

After we gorged ourselves for breakfast we sllllloooowwwwly climbed 1000-1500 ft. This was the first of only two climbs of today. We descended the rest, going from our highest point of 8000ish ft-5000 ft! Twas a great day.

After our second climb, we met another biker touring, going the opposite direction. Stopped and talked with Chris for a second and found out he is from NC and might be in charleston SC the same time we are, small world. He had just ascended the 3000+ ft we were fixin to descend and is goin up tioga pAss in the next couple of days...best of luck to ya brother.

About to call it a day, but we realized we had to fill up water. Ran into a guy named Red. This guy is awesome, he had just recently come from Alaska and Puerto Rico to california serving as coast guard. so cool! well we asked him a place to fill up. He started to tell us how the area's water was not safe and had arsenic in it. Say what? Another testament to the Lords protection over us.

We are truly blessed to be on this trip. It has flown by so far and is a little hard to process all that goes on in a day. But we are loving it.

Also, we have raised over $1000 for the fighting blindness foundation!! I can't thank you guys enough for your support. It means a lot for me and my family!

I am heading in for the night. Within the next couple days Tom won't have to ride on a broken spoke any more, we will be crossing from California into Nevada, and Have an outside chance of riding over 1,000 miles for our trip!

Our view tonight on topaz lake...