Bios

Patrick Colleran
Hometown: Boise, Idaho
Bike: A 1976 Sam Braxton (#23) refurbished for it's second cross country trip
Favorite piece of gear: B17 brooks saddle
Go-to road food:Corndogs
Best touring specific trick: Poppin curbs and riding wheelies
Last employment: Field leader for citizen science backpacking trips for wilderness character monitoring in the HPBH WSA just north of Yellowstone
Most anticipated destination: Austin, Texas
Best bike related experience: Touring the San Juan Islands with Alison E. Riley

Max Horrowitz-Burdick
Hometown: Longmont, CO.
Bike:
Salsa Vaya
Favorite piece of gear:
spatula
Go-to road food:
snickers
Best touring specific trick:
on bike sunscreen application
Last employment:
Denali National Park trail crew
Most anticipated destination:
middle of nowhere mississippi
Best bike experience:
first wheely

Vince Roubitchek
Hometown: Mt. Prospect, Illinois
Bike: Surly Long Haul Trucker (Fatties Fit Fine)
Favorite piece of gear: Bear Spray
Go-to road food: Jalapeno Cheddar Cheetos
Best touring specific trick: Limbo under gates of closed campsites....while riding
Last employment: Raft/Backpack Guide in West Glacier, Montana
Most anticipated destination: Beers on the beach in MIAMI!
Best bike experience: Cruisin' Avenue of the Giants in Nor Cal

Kyle Lehman
Hometown: Corbett, Oregon
Bike: Surly Cross Check with a dented rear wheel and noisy brakes.
Favorite piece of gear: Michael Jordan tank top
Go-to road food: Corn doggies
Best touring specific trick: No handed jacket removal
Last employment: Wildland Firefighter for the State of Montana
Most anticipated destination: New Orleans
Best bike experience: Crashing so hard while dirt jumping that I shit my pants.

Danny Thuerer
Hometown: Boise, Idaho
Bike: Surly Long haul Trucker
Favorite piece of gear: GoLite nickers
Go-to road food: Milky way
Best touring specific trick: Riding forward
Last employment: Helena National forest
Most anticipated destination: The South
Best bike experience: Riding down hill

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Sittin' On Top of the World

We left Santa Barbara after an awesome Halloween rest day and headed south to Santa Monica. right on the beach, Santa Monica was a bit more like a concrete jungle than expected. Luckily, Pat chatted it up with John, a UCLA biology professor, who graciously offered his garage for us to safely store our bikes while we went out on the town and met up with MP buddies Charlie Houle and Justin Milos...it was great seein you guys and thanks for the beers! Not only did John hook it up with bike storage, he let use his patio to crash; and if that wasn't enough the next morning we woke up to an awesome home-cooked breakfast of eggs, veggies, beans, OJ, and coffee! We can't thank you enough, and I hope one day I can pay that favor forward.

From Santa Monica we pretty much followed the beautiful SoCal coast all the way to Dana Point, California. Lukcy for us, Pat's family friend and surfing sensei, Chicago Steve, was in town and took us out for a massive feast at a local burger joint. Steve treated us to burgers, fries, 6 appetizers, beers and great company. Since Steve couldn't join us for breakfast, he took it upod himself to give us a little something so that we could buy some breakfast burritos in the morning...turns out it was enough for some more beers AND burritos in the am...Thanks, Steve, you don't know how much we appreciate it.

From Dana Point it was only a short 60 miles until our final destination on the west coast, San Diego. The sun was shining way too bright and hot for us to just ride the stretch straight through. Just outside of Carlsbad, a beautiful white sand beach with some tasty swells was calling our name. We parked our rigs next to some Cali surfer dudes that happend to have a few extra stand-up paddle boards and some time to show us the ropes. After some epic body surfing and catchin waves on paddle boards (or tried to), we couldn't leave them empty handed so we helped em out with some dollar fish tacos at their local fish taco spot. Thanks, guys. Needless to say we rolled into San Diego a bit later than expected. Thant didnb't matter though, we had a 30 ft. sailboat to sleep on and Pat's high school buddy Danny Thuerer flew down to chill on the boat and join us for the southern tier of our journey(his bio will come soon).

The next three days on the boat in San Diego proved to be exactly what we needed. We were in super Cali chill mode with some Simpler Times(terrible beer), whiskey gingers, hot tubs and sun (with a bit of rain). Pat's Dad, Steve(owner of the Wild Rose...the boat) even drove over from Tucsan, AZ to take us out on the high seas of the Pacific Ocean. Everyone was a sailor this time, and we even got a show from a pod of dolphins. 2 awesome dinners (one at the hotel where the Green Bay Packers were staying to get ready for the big game against the Chargers), breakfast, boat to chill on with a ride included...Thanks, Steve, for hookin it up with an awesome 3 days in San Diego. I even got to meet up with a Cali Roubitchek...my cousin, Rachael, who I haven't seen in like 7 years. Thanks for an awesome dinner and drinks, Rachael; and thanks, Mitch, for that comfy couch and the good company!...and the JD.
-VFR

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