2014 High Adventure

For our high adventure trip this year, the Teachers and Priests (14-18 year-olds) decided to do a bike ride across California.  Other groups from the ward had done it previously (about every 5 years or so) so we had a couple adults that knew the route.

After leaving Monday morning, our first stop was for lunch at Mel and Faye's Diner in Jackson.  To accommodate such a large group, they put us in the bar.  Notice the various bottles in the back -- the other side had some interesting ads with scantily clad women so we were right in the middle of sin.  The boys handled it well though.  One guy was sitting at the end of our table of 15 -- we told him we had a big group coming and he was pretty rude and said we couldn't just kick him out since he was there first.  We just said -- sure, just wanted to give you a heads up.  Anyway, once everyone strolled in, he finally decided to move to another table.

We drove up to Silver Lake (about 30 miles from the Nevada border) and camped there the first night.  It was a nice big area that worked well with our large group (except there were lots of mosquitoes).

The next morning we got up early and transported all the bikes to the border -- here we are getting evidence that we really did start in Nevada.

We borrowed grandpa's tent for the 3 of us, although after the first night, Parker slept under the stars with some of the other boys -- partly because he woke Conner and I up the first night talking in his sleep.

It sure was beautiful up there.

We had a couple flat tires on the first day -- plus, one of the boys got dirt in his gears so we tried to fix them but ultimately had him use one of the leader's extra bikes for the rest of the trip.  For the whole trip, we only had 5 flat tires for the whole group.  Parker, Conner, and I didn't get a single flat tire, which was pretty amazing for that many miles.

Just 50 yards or so down the road from the Nevada sign was the California sign.  Even though we hadn't done any riding yet, we figured we'd get a picture under that sign too.

The first day of bike riding was only about 31 miles; however, we started about 4,000 feet above sea level and, as you can see below, we had to climb over 4,500 feet in those first 31 miles.  It was a brutal climb but nice to have out of the way on the first day.  For just about every hard climb throughout the week, the first three to the top were the three Burrs.  We were kings of the hard climb.

As Conner was heading up one of the hardest parts of the climb, he heard Brother Chapman yell something.  He turned around and saw a bear run across the highway.  It freaked them out a bit but also got their adrenaline going for the rest of the climb.  By the end of the trip, as we told the story, Conner was wrestling the bear.  You know how those stories go.

At the end of the first day of riding, we ended up back at the same campground for the night.  The next morning, we got up early (we got up early every day to beat the heat) and had a hard climb for a few miles and then had about 45 miles of downhill.  The picture below shows Isaac, Parker, and Conner (in the background) at the top of the pass waiting to start the downhill portion.  Conner was amazing going up hills but his bike just wouldn't coast as fast as the others so it took him a little longer going down the hills.  This was a really fun part of the trip since the scenery was amazing and the riding was easy.

After the 45 miles of downhill, we stopped at a park in Fiddletown for lunch.  Here we are taking a rest in the shade and refueling for the rest of the day.

On both Tuesday and Wednesday, Brother Hopkins and Nathan Billeter took good care of us by stopping periodically and having water, gatorade, and snacks for us.

We took off from Fiddletown and headed towards Galt.  This portion was rolling hills (much harder than the downhill from earlier in the day) and the road was horrible.  It was really bumpy and we were riding into a headwind so it wore us down.  By the time we made it to Galt, we were pretty tired and it was getting hot but we only had about 15 miles to go so we figured we'd be fine.  The next 15 miles were, in my opinion, the hardest of the trip.  We were already exhausted and hot and we rode into a stiff headwind up and down some rolling hills.  The wind was so bad that even when you would get to the top of a hill and figured you could coast for a while, you wouldn't really move so you had to pedal on the downhill slopes as well to keep going.  We stopped quite a bit to gather our strength and eventually made it to a member's home in Herald.

Their home was amazing -- they let us swim (bathe?) in their pool (see below) and had basketball hoops and multiple BBQs for us to use.  We shot a few hoops but not many since we were low on energy at that point.  Some of the boys and leaders had a cannonball contest in the pool -- Brother Smith and Brother Chapman had some really big splashes.  The grass area above was where we slept and was much more comfortable than the hard ground at the other campsites.

This was the night I introduced Parker and Conner to Gold Bond since their rear ends were pretty chafed.  Both of them had the same reaction coming out of the bathroom.  That feels nice -- oh, it's burning!  And then, later, it feels nice and cool.  Anyhow, the next morning, they felt much better so they are now believers and they used it the rest of the trip (especially Conner).  That helped the chafing but there wasn't much you could do about that painful feeling each morning when you first got on the bike -- felt like the bones down there were bruised.  We used ibuprofen and that helped some but you really just had to fight through it for a few miles until it didn't hurt anymore (got numb?).

Nathan and Brother Hopkins went to the store that afternoon and got popsicles and those were awesome.  The hamburgers and hot dogs and corn on the cob were also amazing that night.

We finished off the night with a dutch oven dessert that was like a brownie with peanut butter.  It was incredibly rich but really good (needed some ice cream).

The next morning, we had overcast skies which was a huge blessing since it kept things nice and cool for several hours.  We had an early flat tire that slowed us down but we made pretty good time that morning on some fairly flat roads without much wind.  We drove along the delta for quite a while and it was nice to be that close to the water.  We also had to go across the delta a couple times on ferry boats and that was pretty cool.  Tyler Rossi missed this part of the trip because his jaw locked up on him the night before.  He went to the doctor the next morning and then joined us at lunch time.

You could easily spot the Burrs at any time by looking for the bright orange and blue Kaiser Live Well Be Well biking shirts.

Here we are getting on one of the ferry boats.

And riding off the ferry.

We had lunch in Rio Vista.  It was getting pretty hot at that point but we enjoyed the break.

After lunch, we headed off on another really brutal stretch.  We had to ride through a bunch of rolling hills in the middle of the windmills (see below).  As you can imagine, if they place windmills in an area, it's for a reason.  So, yes, we had lots of wind to deal with which wasn't fun.  For some reason, this part wasn't as hard as the day before (at least for me).  Maybe we were getting our second wind, pun intended.

Here we are at one of our many water breaks.

We eventually made it to Rush Ranch Open Space in Suisun City, which was a nice big area for us to camp in.  We were the only ones there that night which was nice.  However, it was pretty windy so we set up our tent right behind the white building below to get some relief.

Brother Mattson came that night and helped drive us down to the Round Table Pizza in town and we ate a TON of pizza.  Brother Lowder surprised us by showing up at Round Table and he joined us for devotional that night.  He also bought some ice cream and we had a repeat of the brownie peanut butter dutch oven dessert, but with ice cream this time.

We headed off the next morning (after Gold Bond and ibuprofen) and saw a lady that had driven her van into the fence next to the road.  Someone was there to help her so we kept riding and were glad she didn't veer off while we were driving past.  Around the 680/80 interchange, we were supposed to go on a bike path but the path was covered with barbed wire, weeds, etc.  We had to stop often and pick up our bikes to avoid a flat tire.

We had a nice ride that morning and were about to go over a bridge (a large overpass).  An accident had just happened and there were a couple police officers there.  One of them flagged us down and showed us the sign that says "No Pedestrians or Bicycles on the Bridge."  Oops.  They showed us another way to get around, which added about 5 miles to the trip.  In that 5 miles, we also had a bent rim (when Isaac accidentally hit Brother von Savoye's bike) and a flat tire for Brother Smith.  Needless to say, the 5 mile excursion took a very long time.  Here we are getting directions from the police officers.

We finally got back on our route and spent what seemed like hours winding through fields of grapevines.

We weren't positive how far it was until lunch time but people were getting pretty tired.  We had to drive along highway 12 with very little shoulder for several miles and it was pretty nerve-wracking to have diesel trucks whiz past you.  Eventually, we made it to the park below and the shady spots were quite popular.

After lunch, we drove through some pretty country in the Napa area and eventually made it to our final campground in Santa Rosa.  While in Santa Rosa, Brother Marquardson cut off a car and they were pretty mad.  We were all stopped at a stop light and I had the unfortunate honor of being stopped next to the mad driver.  The lady chewed me out and told me I needed to teach that guy how to ride a bike.  I assured her he has been riding for 30+ years but that didn't seem to be the right thing to say.  Anyhow, it wasn't our best moment but made for a few laughs.

The campground below was smaller than the other ones but still pretty nice.  The best part was they had pay showers and I begged Brother Smith for a few quarters so I could have a shower.  It was SO nice to get cleaned up.  We had KFC for dinner that night and it was delicious.

Each night, one of the boys was in charge of the devotional and they did a really nice job.  Here we are on the last night doing our devotional around the campfire.

On Saturday morning, we woke up knowing we only had about 35 miles left until we were done.  On the way out of the campground, Tyler took the downhill turn too fast (after being warned by multiple people) and crashed.  He was sore but fortunately was still able to ride.

We had some major hills to climb that morning but they seemed easier somehow.  We were either getting stronger or just knew the end was close.

We told our rides to be at Bodega Bay by noon to pick us up.  We went so fast that we made it there before 11:00!  Anyhow, the beach was amazing.  Per tradition, we picked up our bikes and carried them to the water and dipped the front tires to officially make it from the Nevada border to the ocean.

Here we are below sporting our bike shirts and knowing we were finally done.

The whole group.  Nice work guys!

All the boys, including our helper Nathan.

From left to right: Ethan Smith, Isaac Taylor, Parker Burr, Conner Burr, Spencer Barisof, Tyler Rossi, Nathan Billeter

The trip ended up being about 285 miles in total.  An amazing accomplishment for a great group of boys.  Now we can check it off our bucket list (not sure it was ever on there).