Day 220 - 226, Ventura CA, to Seligman AZ

Day 220, 100 km

I woke up in a orchard with lemon trees not far from Ventura. The valley going east was first very wide and there were growing lemons, limes, oranges and grapefruits everywhere. It was a very cold morning, actually there was frost before the sun came. I picked some oranges which were very tasty. Soon the valley became more narrow and the street more steep. I passed a field where a bulldozer recently had pulled out all grapefruit trees. There were gathered on several piles in the middle of the former orchard. The strange thing was that the owner had not harvested the ripe grapefruits before he let pull out the trees.

There were hundreds of fruits on the ground. I considering the mountains ahead of me I took only five of them.

Soon I got another puncture on my back wheel. On the new Continental Contact tire now I had got three punctures within three weeks. For the third time the hole was so big right through the tire that I decided to not only mend the tube, but also put a patch on the inside of the tire.

In the afternoon I passed a Best Buy-shop in Santa Clarita,(a suburb of LA) and stopped to buy a new camera. I examined all cameras they had but then I asked a seller if they had a demo-camera which he could sell for a special price. I told him that I was riding around the world for a very low cost and that I only had a budget of 15 dollars a day. He said he had a very good camera (a Sony Cybershot DSC-wx100) which had some scratches on the display and therefore was lowered from 220 USD to 142 USD. He said that he possibly could press the price even more and asked me how much I was thinking to spend on a camera. I said that I wanted to buy a camera for around 70 USD. He asked his boss if he could sell it for 80 and he could. I was very happy about the deal!
I continued uphill, mostly on very good bicycle paths.

At sunset I came to the historic route 66. Not many cars chose that route, so I continued some more hours in the dark. I slept high in the mountains, close to the road and the railway. Many trains passed in the night and they were shooting their horns all the time.

Day 221, 105 km

Soon I went over Soledad Pass, which is more than 1000 m above sea level. (3179 feet).

Behind the pass  I could see the Californian Desert.

The road did not go down so much at once.

I tested my cameras telezoom but it was too powerful for the "flimmer" of the desert

The desert was on a high flat with some mountains in the middle. But I rode close to the coastal mountains and passed a sign that I was very close to southern California's closest winter resort.

It felt a little strange since it was around 17 degrees Celsius. Outside I restaurant the thermometer on my bike  actually reached 28 degrees!

I rode in shorts and my reflective vest only but had a bad headwind and a bad headache all day. In the afternoon at least the wind calmed down.

In the evening I came to Victorville where Route 66 made a sharp turn north. On google maps I found a small road which made a shortcut. This road was a dirt earth road which was quite good in the beginning, but then it became worse and worse. I think it took me one hour to go the 10 km, sometimes I had to walk my bike because the sand was so soft. The road also showed me that there are places in the US where you can find as much litter as in Russia, Mongolia and China.

Finally I reached route 66 again.
What I did not know was that Route 66 went all the way along a heavily used railroad. Long Cargo trains were going about twice an hour and they could carry two big containers above each other!

In a Pizza restaurant I ate a delicious pizza for dinner. Then I continued one more hour in the dark and slept among shrubs in the desert. Besides from barking dogs and shooting trains quite a good sleeping place.

Day 222, 100 km

Soon I passed Barstow, an area (or widespread town) with about 22000 inhabitants. Then I continued on route 66 east.
Soon I passed Bagdad Café, where a movie with the same name was made many years ago.

I liked the movie very much, so I stopped to take some pictures. Everything was still almost exactly as in the movie, but it seemed to be much smaller than I had imagined.

In the movie you believe that the café is in the middle of nowhere, but actually there is the new highway only 100 m behind the café, There are also several buildings east of the café, for example this gas station.

During the next days I passed buildings like this everywhere. There are fences with signs KEEP OUT and NO TRESPASSING everywhere. Very often you also see signs FOR SALE. The buildings look like as if nobody lives there, still very often there are barking dogs which want to chase bicyclists.

Now the road was very bad, there were about as many cracks and potholes as in Russia.

The good thing was that there were no traffic at all. After some miles I deflated my tires so they became softer.

In the evening the headwind was very strong when I came to an area where black lava-stones interfered the yellow sand of the desert. When I finally arrived Pisgah Crater it was already dark. I made a fire and decided to climb up next morning.

Day 223, 190 km (!)

Next morning I climbed up on the about 100 m high crater of cinder-stone.

The stones had all kind of colors.

On the top there was actually kind of a crater. Some shrubs were growing there. The view south  showed wide fields of lava-flows.

I took a picture with self timer. After several tries I succeed to push the button and run to the rock within 10 seconds.

Can you see me?

Then I went down to my bicycle and had breakfast.

From the road I took some last pictures of the strange crater (when I arrived it was already too dark).

I also tested my cameras 180 degrees panorama function from the same spot:

Then I went further east on Route 66. After some kilometers I had a long downhill. The fact that I finally had tailwind made it even better. After one hour I saw a sign that it was only 102 miles to Needles, the next town. Although it already was late (11:00 am) I decided to try to go there the same day.

It was a wonderful day and I often stopped to take some pictures of the beautiful desert and the mountains around it.

I actually had mostly downhill and mostly tailwind all day (although the road was going like a S along the Freeway 40). I also passed some more craters of cinderstone.

The most famous landmark I suppose is Amboy Crater.

Not far from it I passed the ghost town Amboy with a closed school.

All students seemed to have thrown their shoes on this tree:
The shoes still seemed to be good but the tree had fallen down.

In the evening at 7:30 I had ridden 190 km with an average of 22 km per hour and came to Needles. Still I had stopped many times to take pictures.

I slept very close to Colorado River because I thought there I could find some shelter of the wind and I thought in the valley of the river it would not become so cold in the night.

Day 224, 50 km

When I woke up I took a picture of the river where i had spent the night.

I spent the morning in a McDonalds. Now I have no more Internet on my phone. Since I pass WiFi’s almost every day it is not worth it to pay 40 dollars a month for it. 

I also asked several people which road I could bike to Kingman, the next town. They told me to go on the Freeway  south to Route 66 and did not know that I was not allowed to ride on the freeway. For me it also seemed to be a detour. Anyway, I went south because there was a special shop where I wanted to buy food. At the shop I asked a guy with a motor-bicycle (which were not allowed either on the freeway). Although I already was halfway to the place where route 66 started, he told me it was better to go back to the northern bridge, then go north and the east. So I went back to the northern bridge. From the bridge I could see how crystal clear the water was.

After The bridge there was a sign which reminded me that I had come to a new state and a new time zone.

Google maps suggested several diagonal roads (directly to NE) which all had beautiful names as ‘Old Railway Trail’ and ‘Oatman Road’ and ‘co hwy 153’. Google maps had helped me many times before so I decided to try these shortcuts.

All these roads turned out to be very rough dirtroads. My wheels sank down in the sand so much that it was very difficult to ride.

And many hills were so steep that I had to walk the bicycle.
Two times the road was blocked but since I still had the gps in my phone I could find alternates. Finally I decided to go north to the paved road. There was a road made by atv’s which went in the right direction
which I decided to take. What I could not see was that the road was going through five very deep dips.

This dip does not look so deep but the hill was so steep that I considered to take off my panniers to be able to push up my bike. I passed about 5 dips like this.

I had to walk my bike several hours and when I finally reached the paved road it was already 4 pm. I had made a wonderful experience of the Arizonan desert, but I only had gone 35 km.

I continued on the paved road. Suddenly there were a group of wild donkeys which were curious about me.

At sunset I arrived Route 66 again and soon after I came to Oatman, a small town on the edge of the mountains.

I found a nice public restroom where I made my dinner and then I decided to sleep at the same place.

Day 225, 115 km

In the morning it was only minus 4 degrees Celsius outside. Inside the restroom where I had slept in my tent, it was 0 degrees but still I had frozen. I took some pictures of the restroom and the town Oatman,

then I continued up on the ranch. The road was very curved and had many steep hills so soon I was so warm that I could take off my thermo underwear. Although I had temperatures below freezing point the whole day.

The views were wonderful and changed all the time. I took many many pictures in that area where there were many gold mines. I think they can talk for themselves:

In the afternoon I arrived in Kingman, a quite big town.

I really liked the mountains around the town.

I stopped again at McDonalds to use the wifi and check the weather forecast. I found out that the temperatures were supposed to drop down to minus 18 the next days, so I decided to buy a blanket or a sleeping bag. At a thriftstore I got a very good and warm blanket for free. The workers wanted to sponsor my trip.

I continued some more hours.

When it became dark I stopped at a funny Café/gas station, which just had closed for the day. I used their tables outside and ate my dinner there.

But it was almost too cold to sit down. When I continued I became warm again and decided to ride until 9 pm. Then I pitched my tent close to the road. Now it was minus 10 degrees, so I had to take my water-bottles, avocados and limes inside my sleeping bag. Not many cars passed during the night because most chose the freeway and the new blanket was so warm that I did not freeze.

Day 226, 75 km

When I woke up it was only minus 15 degrees. I loaded my bike with all panniers and rode without breakfast 10 km. Then I found a restaurant where I ate a luxurious breakfast. Then I continued another 15 km to a place called Grand Canyon Caverns.

It was still about minus 5 degrees, so I decided to warm up in the caves under the earth. Actually the temperature was plus 18 degrees Celsius (=56 Fahrenheit) all around the year down in the caves. But not many people knew about it. Tours were going down once an hour and I was the only tourist in my tour.

There were also a lot of beautiful crystals of Selenite.

After the tour I continued 40 km to Seligman, where I rested a little. There were many Motels along the road and I was tempted to stay for the night although it was still daylight and I could reach Williams before 10 pm. Just when I decided to go there I found out that I had got a puncture in my front wheel. That made me decide that I stayed in Seligman anyway. It was wonderful to take a hot bath and my laundry had to be cleaned. I really enjoyed the afternoon in a house since it was several weeks I was inside a warm room the last time. And there was a WiFi, so I could write my blog!