Around Bakersfield, oil fields are replacing renewables. Rusty pumps squeak away, the area is criss-crossed by a network of pipelines and electricity pylons. Instead of taking the highway, we find our route through the plantations next door. Phenomenally well-developed agricultural roads - with perhaps twenty vehicle encounters in half a day. Making our way with the scent of citrus hanging in the air! Endless orange groves, mandarins, almonds, vines and cherries surround us. During a short break, we are amazed to hear the humming and buzzing almost like in Regula’s herb paradise - thanks to mobile beehives.
Huge, beautiful red and incredibly resilient. The Giant Sequoias, which can only be found in a narrow band of altitude along the Sierra Nevada, give us pause. We marvel at the sheer immensity and time that these trees have seen. Individual tree rings are marked with historical dates - the construction of the pyramids, the Colosseum in Rome, the advanced civilizations of Central America… and every now and then a fire of the century that has left its mark. In the early years of the park, all kinds of attractions were invented to attract visitors to protect and preserve the forest giants. Today, more value is placed on natural development and the rangers are concerned about climate change. It’s great that we can still encounter this habitat and that a few hectares have been saved from the loggers. Let’s hope that the two to three thousand year old giants survive our climate change better than expected!
From Grant Grove, we enjoy a unique descent almost all the way down to the Kings River. The vertical meters of half a day’s strenuous cranking up - rolled off in half an hour and 30km down the mountain 😀 Now we have arrived in a cosy green subalpine landscape. Sparsely populated, criss-crossed by streams, leisurely up and down to the next national park.
Sometimes a day on the bike can be a real pain. Especially when you’re patching the same inner tube for the seventh time, which has actually been irreparably damaged by a thumb-length nail. When the tube sealant dissolves the glue and the patches aren’t really any good anyway, but the replacement inner tube unfortunately had to go on another bike two days ago and there was simply nothing to be found in the last 200km… because of course the only bike store on the way is closed :/
Then at some point it’s simply time to call it a day, which is all the nicer at a cozy little river near Yosemite. At such a place - once again snowed in and pretty soaked from the hailstorm on the late evening journey - we meet Jan and Nikolett. The two of them are traveling in an off-road truck, almost at the same pace as us, only with longer stops every few days. The exceptionally high-quality equipment in their vehicle betrays the professional yacht builder, and the fully equipped kitchen has a feast ready for us: Sunday bread with a crust! We dry our clothes in the bright sunshine, have a nice chat and are soon back on the road in good spirits.
Yosemite Park itself is beautiful, no question. We especially like the waterfalls now in spring - we don’t find the uniqueness of the ‘thousands of granite peaks, so magnificent and everywhere’, which probably draws millions of Americans here, quite so extraordinary. We simply enjoy the two beautiful hikes and the familiar views which remind us of home.
We reach the sea again in Santa Cruz and enjoy an (almost) bike-free day with Len and Antonina. Our tent neighbors for one night in Yosemite, the two promptly invited us into their home full of music and gratitude. It's good to have a quiet day again, some time to look for hiker / biker campgrounds on the coast, and Antonina makes a great contact with a bunch of crazy bike enthusiasts - we definitely have to go to their art race in two weeks! Before that, however, we have an inspiring visit to the Twisted Fields research farm on our agenda.
The road to Arcata leads along a currently really foggy coast. The moisture stubbornly clings to the cliffs and - sometimes only - slowly lifts from midday onwards, but the weather is still rather gloomy and doesn’t match our expectations of the ‘Sunny State’ at all. In addition to seals, the Golden Gate Bridge (cloudy, of course) and fields full of deer, the region also offers lush, dark green fern forests. Whereas in the mountains we saw the most voluminous trees in the world, we now drive through enchantingly tranquil forests of the tallest trees on the planet - Coastal Redwoods. In dense groves, dark and lush, you can almost imagine a group of Tolkien’s elves singing and laughing as they head towards the sea. Invisible to us through the fog, other groups actually pass us heading north: the gray whales we encountered in Baja are on their annual journey back to the Arctic Ocean. Really impressive - the 10,000 miles we cycled full-time in one year as an annual way of life.
And finally we’re here, at the Kinetic Sculpture Race!
Two days of crafting and decoration at Basecamp, good vibes with great people, simply a lot of fun! A ‘bike race’ over 3 days - all sculptures are moved by muscle power - over land, sand, hills and on water. A mixture of carnival, family festival and bicycle demo. Inspiring details, creative works of art, choreography and adventurous welding right up to the last minute before the start. A festival atmosphere around the campfire, ridiculous prices for all kinds of curiosities, an official bribery culture, enthusiastic faces everywhere. For once - despite the hobby cave on our trailer - we hardly stand out in the crowd of admirable machines. Great fun!
