Roadtrippin'

Just couple days after my last blog update I moved out of my room into my truck. Since then I did quite a few travelling. But before leaving I celebrated the awesome time on the Nor Cal with my friends.

My first destination was San Francisco. Miriam from Germany visited me and joined me on that trip.

Next stop was Florida. It was a blast to spend some quality time with my girl Sarah. Sun, beach and BBQ! It felt really good to relax.

Back in San Francisco I teamed up with my good old friend Felix and my little brother Simon. The goal of their visit is a West Coast Tour road trip. After one day in San Francisco we hit the road. Via Santa Monica beach in L.A. and Joshua Tree National Park, where we spent one full day, we drove to Las Vegas. Here we met with another good old friend Nico. One evening in the casinos and one day in the Red Rocks National Conservation Area. Then it was time for Nico to head back to Houston, Texas.

Your next stop: the Grand Canyon National Park. Here we spent a full day hiking into the canyon and watching the sunset. This is an amazing place. From the Grand Canyon we wanted to drive to Sequoia National Park. Unfortunately my truck broke down in the middle of nowhere in the Arizona dessert. It was clear that the problem is the distributor but I do not have a big set of tools so we had to get towed and the part got replaced in a shop. This took pretty much half a day and so we ended up spending another time in Vegas. But this time we didn’t visit the casinos but went shopping in an outlet center.

The next day we made it to the Sequoia National Forest. Here I wanted to paddle Dry Meadow Creek. As the road was closed I didn’t want to hike so much we drove towards Sequoia National Park. On that way we tried to drive a closed road but got stopped by some road workers. Then we run into Tomass and Jared from the Adidas Sickline Crew. They had my new paddle. I was stoked to pick up my Kober Scorpion. We finally arrived in Sequoia National Park. There I raced up a hill towards a stoplight where we showed up just a little late but got waved through. There was one lane traffic cause of a roadwork every full hour only. Just around the corner a bear was about to crawl over the railing. The bear looked at us for couple seconds before he turned around and left. It was the first time for me to see a wild bear – and he was just a few meters away. Up in the park we looked at the General Sherman Tree, which is advertised as the largest tree known (large in volume).

On the drive towards Yosemite National Park we stopped in Fresno to watch the release of Fast Five. The next day we spent in Yosemite Valley and on the way back to our camp I paddled an easier 15mile stretch on the Merced River. After another day hiking and chilling in the mighty Yosemite Valley we headed back to San Francisco. At noon the next day Felix is flying back to Germany while Simon and I headed north on the coast.

We visited the Redwoods and stopped in Arcata. On Friday before the Cal Salmon Race I paddled the North Fork Trinity. This is definitely one of the best runs on the North Coast. Together with Dan, Ben, Orion, Martin, Russell, Paul and Chris it was a good crew too. Thanks to Dan for the photos and thanks to my bro for driving the shuttle.

The next day the race was on. I didn’t start due to a nerve pain in my left shoulder. Instead I was in charge for timing and Simon went in the winning raft. It was a great day with friends followed by another good party.

On Sunday Simon and I headed towards Reno. On that way we got forced to turn around on a dirt road due to a field of snow. Back on the road we where driving to Lassen National Park but realized that this park is closed in winter. So wanted to cross south from Hwy 44 to Hwy 36 to drive by some nice camp spots on a lake. The road turned into a dirt road and even worse. We had to cross at least three creeks and the road was washed out bad. In the end we got forced back due to a log jam. While turning the truck got stuck. With the help of some wood and a pulley we managed to get out of that situation and drove all the way back. This road was the most challenging I have ever driven. Later that day we drove through a snowstorm and also the truck run over the 100’000 miles on its odometer.

In Reno we visited the Patagonia outlet. Then we cancelled our plan to go to Zion National Park and Simon changed his flight so he is leaving from Reno on Thursday. We decided to stay in a hotel for the next days cause it was cheap and spent the next two days around Reno and Lake Tahoe.