From LA to San Fransico, then to Yosemite Park

After spending over a week in LA, it was finally time to travel around on my bike!

I dropped of Brice at LAX airport and went back to get my stuff. Then I set of on the route that John had given me for California. Most of the time I followed the PCH, the Pacific Coach Highway, but sometimes I went inland for nice motorcycling routes. Between LA and SF I was planning to camp for 2 nights. On the second day however, I fell softly when I went through a corner in deep sand. I did hurt my arm a little and felt like a hot shower, so I pussied out of camping and found a hostel in a nice little university town called something like San Louis Obispo. Pictures of along the way:

The third day I got close to San Francisco. Just before entering San Francisco the weather turned really grey and cloudy. It was as if the area of SF was just the exact location of bad weather. (the 2 previous weeks I had seen nothing but clear skies and sunny days) The next day it was still cloudy and a little rainy, from what I understood from other people is that San Francisco is known for its bad weather. I don´t have much pictures of SF because once I went sightseeing it was already dark and the night pictures didn´t turn out well.

The next morning I left for Yosemite National Park. I was really looking forward to riding over the Golden Gate bridge.

After leaving SF I turned East heading for Yosemite. Just before entering the national park I stopped at at tourist information spot to ask what the best way to ride through the park was. When I was about to leave the girl gave me a energy bar for on the way. Not having any food with me and since the US is kind of expensive, I asked if it was ok if I took a few. She said I could take as many as I wanted. I ended up leaving with about 75 energy bars which were really useful so far. It might sound a bit crappy, but the energy bars are actually really good. They´re made of nuts, honey and oatmeal and definitely beat my other cheap US food option: hamburgers.

View from the road looking down into Yosemite Valley with Halfdome mountain in the background.

From the tourist information to actually being in Yosemite Valley, which is the centre of the park, is actually still quite a ride. About an hour orso. So by the time I got there it was already getting dark. I had passed several campgrounds along the road but saw on my map that there were a few in the Valley as well, so I headed for those. When I got there, all campgrounds were based on reservation only, except for one, which was full. Not that it mattered, because all were full anyway. I thought about just sneaking on and setting up my tent but thought it would not be that hard to go to a campsite from before. I did find out on that campground in the Valley that there are a lot of bears in the park. I didn´t know about it before. I also saw a sign that said something like "This year 200.000 USD in damage from 100 bear attacks." (I forgot the exact numbers, but both were quite high). I certainly didn´t feel that happy anymore about my 75 energy bars in my backpack.

After this I quickly rode to the other campground. Just before I got there I stopped for gas at a fuel station. The owner of it turned out to be a Dutch guy and when I told him about my energy bars he said I could leave them in his gas station and pick them up the next day. After this I went to the campground across the street which was full but since it was so late there was no one at the front desk anymore. So I just set up my tent. I found out here that there are metal lockers everywhere in the camp in which everyone puts their food and other bear-attracting items (like deodorant, toothpaste, all of these can attract bears). The lockers are just a few meters from everyone´s tent though, so I didn´t really get why that would help. They could still smell it and after being frustrated about not being able to get to the food, they´d be right next to everyone´s tent. Maybe bears don´t eat people?

The night was very cold and sleepless since the altitude was so high (230o meters orso), but that did help me get up early. I left just before 7, right before the front desk opened so I didn´t have to pay. I then rode up to a scenic high point up in the mountains. I think it´s called Glacier Point or Peak. Since I was up so early, I was the only person up there. After chilling there for some time, I returned and saw many people coming up by car. Was really nice to sit high up alone on the mountain and enjoy the view.

Some pictures from along the road after Glacier Point onwards to my next destination.