Bikepacking Southern California (SoCal Ep.1)

Four years ago, I returned to the UK after spending 18 months travelling the world on a bike. During the last four years, I've not done a lot of bike travel. I feel like I've been missing a crucial part of what makes me feel happy and complete. That's what's driving me to get back on the saddle, even if it's just for a couple of weeks. One of the places that captured my imagination on the world bike trip was the deserts of the USA. I previously cycled through Death Valley National Park, only that time I stuck to the roads. For this trip, rather than sticking to the roads, I'm going to be mostly following off-road tracks through the deserts and mountains of Southern California. I will be following the SoCal Desert Ramble, which can be found at Bikepacking.com. This 800km route will take me from San Diego to Los Angeles via the Anza Borrego Desert, the Salton Sea, Joshua Tree National Park and the San Bernardino National Forest. After building my bike at the airport, my aim was to cycle 1 hour 30 minutes across the city to Union Station, where I'd be getting a train to San Diego. First time on a fully loaded Cerny Bridge Club. Here we go! We're in America, baby! So I'm 30 minutes or so into my cycle to Union Station in LA, and I am tired. Real time, I think it's about 10pm UK in my brain, so I've just landed. I'm a bit jet-lagged, but I'll be okay. The sunlight and excitement of being in a new place will drive me on. I've made it to the Amtrak to get to San Diego. I've got here with like 15 minutes to spare, so not a lot of time. Great little spot for the bicycle. So in England it's 2am, so I'm a bit tired. I've just been cycling basically from midnight till 2am in my brain. I'll see you soon, LA. Be back in about 12 days, if the boat goes to come. Let's do it! I've made it to my hotel. The bike is safely inside, there's no issues with that. They were just like, yeah, have your bike in. Okay, good night. Tomorrow is really day 1. Good morning. Day 1, really. Let's count today. It's day 1 as I leave San Diego. It's a very misty morning. I do need to get some camping gas and a little bit of food. I'd like some breakfast before I leave San Diego. The jet lag has got me good this morning. I've been up since 5am. I'm on the road. I think I left at 6am. A lot of the shops I need to go to don't open until 9am. But I don't want to just stay in San Diego for 3 more hours. So I'm just going to get going. Just getting past this big old naval base. It's massive. It's a behemoth of a base. It's got a bike path here, which is very nice. Good morning. I've just been to Walmart and I've bought a load of stuff. This is all the good stuff. Simply because you can't get this flavour in the UK. I live on these, so I'm going to put these in a little dry bag. A big old container of trail mix with sweets in it. Black beans, cliff bars and camping gas. Meat wraps, tortilla. So it's just a basic shop. That came to about $45. I think that was quite expensive. Going to have some breakfast. Pop-Tart. Knicker Doodle. I'm guessing this is going to be peanut. Oh right, I was expecting frosting on the front. There isn't any. Oh, it's got cinnamon. Salty cinnamon. I've had better. I've managed to pack my food and put it in this dry bag behind me. It took a lot of reorganising to do that. More than it should. It's a beautiful day to be on the bike. Let's get out of San Diego. I think this is the end of the tarmac. And the beginning of the dusty road. I've nearly crashed into the side. Here we go. It's got beautiful very quickly. It's about 16km out of San Diego. It suddenly starts to feel quite beautiful. There's the road. Here's the bike. Nice. Looks like I've got to lift it over this fence. Let's do it. OK. Let's follow this grass. There's lots of spiky plants. It's going to be a good test of my tubeless setup. It's the first time I've ever gone tubeless. Hopefully no issues. That's not good. There's a big fence in the way. Let's see where this takes us. Let's do this. I'm tired. This is nice. Back on the bike after my stop. I've got a climb ahead of me today. Oh no. I've got a puncture. Let's test these plugs out. I need to take it easier. This is some zombie apocalypse style bridge. I'm exhausted. It's 31 degrees Celsius. It is just ridiculously hot and hard. But it's bloody good. Good riding. Flowy. Silky descents. The first day of anything is always hard. The first day of school. The first day of work. The first day at the gym. Anything. That first day is going to be hard. And I'm glad I've had a hard first day. It'll set the tone for the rest of this trip. Look at this. I'm sorry. I'm just taken away with this street. They've got an absolute coach of a bus in there. They've got about 100 cars. They've got a coach. Literally. A minibus. Hello skeletons. Halloween almost. Some money here. We've got ourselves a stretch of road. Which I'm not going to lie. I'm actually quite thankful for. I've got another 30 kilometres or so to get to Alpine. I'm not sure what I'll do tonight for sleeping. Maybe I'll sleep in the hotel. Maybe I'll camp. Look at this healthy bike lane. I do like this in California. Take note the UK. This is something we could definitely do better. That is farewell to the road. I really enjoyed that road. But now I'm going to enjoy peace and quiet. So it's 20 kilometres. With 600 metres of climb. It should take 1 hour 50 on a normal road. But these roads be bumpy. This is why I come here. It's for this isolation. Nothing. Just the crickets and me. The sound of my tyres against the sand. I'm thirsty. I keep drinking. But it's not quenching the thirst. I need to carry more water from now on. I carried 4 litres today. Not enough. I refilled once as well. I need to carry more. And at every opportunity refill. No laughing matter. Running out of water. Somewhere this hot. I've got a tough climb here. No chance I can cycle that. So I'm going to drag this bike up. One baby step at a time. This is steep. The sand is slippy. Very tough. I'm trying to cycle this. But it's tough. It's so steep. I've got it. Come on. The last bit. Oh my god. I'm exhausted. I'm absolutely spent. I'm knackered. I haven't got enough water. I'm jet lagged. I'm tired. The sun is setting. Which is a nice thing. It's making it cooler. I do have food. And I am in a beautiful place. Look at this. I've got a really steep climb ahead. And it's quite tiring just to talk. To think. But I wanted it to be tough. I feel good. I feel strong. I finally made it. Of that horrible, horrible climb. I think the hardest climb I've ever done. I think it's just because I'm sapped. Jet lagged. In my brain. Right now. Still in UK time. Which is half past one in the morning. I'm really struggling. Right now. I've got very little water. About half a litre. So I'm rationing that. I've got about 15 kilometres until the town Alpine. So I'm going to try and get there. Tonight. So I can drink. It's worth the discomfort. I'm just going to keep going until I get there. Even if it gets dark. Struggling to keep my eyes open. So tired. Heart rate is racing. Some beautiful views behind me. You might be able to see under the hood of me. Okay. Let's do this. Found a motel sign. It's not open. The only other hotel in town is 250 bucks. For a night. So I'm not paying that. I've just had a almighty burrito. So I don't know where I'm staying now. Well the only other option is to camp. So let's get on it. I'm in my tent. That's exactly how it feels. I'm so tired. I've managed to well camp in the town of Alpine. I'm like about 100 metres. Not even that. 50 metres away from people's. Someone's house. I'm just on a patch of grass. So I'm a little bit cautious about making this video. With my lights on. Alright. It's really warm. It's like 20 odd degrees. So. I think I'm just going to sleep on top of my sleeping bag. Alright. Big day today. Completed. But day one is always the hardest. I'm glad it's done now. Alright. Good night.