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Meike Grothe

Addicted to travelling. Openminded. Adventurous. Curious. Sportive. Different cultures and countries. Love the mountains. Exploring the world.
Living in: Ingolstadt, Deutschland
  • Panamericana adventure
    Day43

    Kings Canyon National Park

     October 20 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    Today, we went to Kings Canyon NP. We decided to take it a little slowly, have some stops on the way and do a smaller loop rather than taking the long, strenuous canyon road (which is a dead end road). So we stopped at General Grant Tree, a giant sequoia and the nation's official Christmas tree. (Fun fact: Its trunk would fit 159.000 basketballs 😉) Afterwards, we continued to Hume Lake. On the way, we could enjoy stunning views over the canyon. We ended up at Redwood Canyon where we hiked a little in a more remote area to see and admire more of the giant trees.Read more

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  • Panamericana adventure
    Day42

    Uphill with Tarantula

     October 19 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    I always thought, once we get to Central California, the mountains will slowly disappear and we'd have to climb less. Totally wrong, we are actually climbing more than ever, as some valleys are almost down at sea level and the next mountain rises up to 2000m.
    So today, we started at an elevation of 300m, went down to 100m, climbed up to 1300m. Luckily, there was not much traffic on Dunlap Road, so we could enjoy the views. Halloween is coming up soon and some houses are already decorated extensively. We also had time to watch a "little" Tarantula walking on the road. It didn't care but us at all.
    In the afternoon, we arrived at Daniel's and Marilyn's mountain cabin. We got a warm welcome, the gave us a tour around their amazing property and we had interesting conversations over dinner.    Read more

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  • Panamericana adventure
    Day41

    Flat tire #1

     October 18 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    This morning started with an unpleasant surprise: We had our first flat tire. So - after a yummy omelet for breakfast - Herbert fixed it and we only left Maggie's place around 10am. Good thing about the delay was that our totally wet sleeping bags from the night under the sky could dry before we packed them up...
    After some 3km, we had to stop again due to tree works along the road. However, the sheriff was eager to help us go through the roadblock as soon as possible, talked to the workers through his radio device and arranged for us to continue our route straight away. It was also a pleasure for him to lead us through the blocked part of the road with his car (we are preeeetty warm once we got through, the speed of the car is a little different ;)).
    The rest of the day was very nice cycling with quiet roads with almost no traffic. We passed Bass Lake, continued to Kerckhoff Lake where we stopped to eat our bagels for lunch and ended up at a campsite at Pine Flat Lake. The landscape gets significantly drier going down South and finding creeks is more difficult than before.
    We also met Kevin on the road, an English cyclist who is also following the Sierra Cascades route in the US and who we had shortly met in Quincy before. He is staying at the same campsite, so we exchanged bike stories over a beer.    Read more

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  • Panamericana adventure
    Day40

    3000

     October 17 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Leaving Yosemite was actually hard as the road pass El Capitan again, this time very close by. Obviously, we had to stop for pictures of the impressive wall and those crazy climbers in it.
    Out of the valley, we started climbing up - and passed 3000km, at a perfect spot with El Cap in the background.
    Again, we had some really great experience with the people here. First, we had to go uphill through a long tunnel. A car stayed behind us all the time (going about 8km/h) in order to protect us from speeding cars coming from behind. Second, when looking for a campspot, Maggie stopped and invited us over to her place for the night. So we could cook dinner in a kitchen, have a hot shower and sleep on the porch under the stars. So grateful to meet all the amazing people in this country!    Read more

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  • Panamericana adventure
    Day39

    Hiking in Yosemite - part II

     October 16 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    As we hiked up the North side of Yosemite Valley, we decided to go for a trail on the South side today. We chose "4-mile-trail" which led to Glacier Point which offered stunning views over pretty much most of the valley.
    To go down to the valley again, we picked Panorama trail. This one had great views on Half Dome and passed Emerald Lake and 3 waterfalls on the way. All in all, we hiked over 20km with an elevation gain of 1500m on our second day off. Our leg muscles are totally sore and hurt even on a straight path. No idea how we should get back on the bicycles and climb passes tomorrow 😕Read more

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  • Panamericana adventure
    Day38

    Hiking in the Valley

     October 15 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    We woke up after a cosy night under the stars. Luckily, there were no bears (we got an instruction from the park ranger that all food has to get stored in the bear boxes provided) and no law enforcement ranger who came to tell us that we actually had to STAND in the line and not SLEEP.
    We got our campsite assigned and decided to use some other muscles for the next two days. So today, we hiked Upper Yosemite Falls trail which starts right behind our camp. We stopped counting the turns going up, there were just too many. But when we got to the top, we were surprised by some nice pools and great views of the valley and Half Dome. At this time of the year, there is almost no water in the falls, so the hike was more about the views rather than the waterfalls - still very pretty. We climbed a little higher to Yosemite Point before descending again to the camp and taking a "shower" in the river. Back at the camp, we met a Swedish couple who are experienced bike tourers, so we exchanged some bike touring advice.Read more

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  • Panamericana adventure
    Day37

    Tioga Pass

     October 14 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    Today, the day has come that we reached an important milestone on our trip: We crossed Tioga Pass into Yosemite. The pass is the highest pass in California with its summit just above 3000m and we were eager to cross it before the snow came. And what a beautiful day we had!!
    It started with a frozen tent and - 5.6 degrees at 7am. However, the sun came out quickly and it warmed up. We then started the ascent: about 7% on average over 14km until we reached the top which was also the entrance gate to Yosemite. On the way, we stopped about 100 times to take photos, the landscape just blew us away. And in Yosemite, it was actually the same: so much variety of landscape, mountains, valleys, lakes... The first views of Half Dome and El Capitan!!
    All campgrounds on the North side of the park were closed, so we decided to go all the way to Yosemite Valley. Once we got there, we realized that you won't get a campspot, everything was full and by reservation only. So we did what we were advised to do: Go to Camp 4, put up your bivouac and wait in line to get a spot for the next day. Luckily, it's dry and not too cold...    Read more

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  • Panamericana adventure
    Day36

    Devil's gate to Mono Lake

     October 13 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

    Another day, another canyon road. The other day I was asked if I get bored of riding. But how can I get bored when I see so many cool things and meet so many nice and interesting people?
    We left our host John and his dog Lukey after breakfast and climbed on highway 395 which led through a nice canyon along Walker River up to "Devil's Gate". For lunch, we stopped in Bridgeport in front of the grocery store. There were actually some nice old houses from the 19th century. In the afternoon, we had to climb again. Up at the summit, we were flashed by stunning views of Mono Lake and the craters surrounding it. The lake is quite special: as water levels decrease, stalagmites are getting visible. We continued cycling to Lee Vining where we tried the famous tacoes at the gas station - yummy! On the last few kilometers to our campground, we already got a "warning" regarding the next day: Steep grades up Tioga Pass. But as it's only difficult for trailers, we should have an easy climb by bike 🤔 We tried to sleep as high as possible the night in order to have an easier climb in the morning. It was pretty cold already at about 2300m. Luckily, we could warm up at Olivia's and Philippe's fire before heading to bed.Read more

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  • Panamericana adventure
    Day35

    Cycling to John in Walker

     October 12 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    This morning, we decided it was too cold and windy to cook breakfast at our campspot. So we cycled to Markleeville and had yummy breakfast burritos and lattes instead.
    Our route then took us along the last stretch of highway 89 - probably also the most beautiful one: Monitor Pass. It was actually quite tough with an average of 8% climb over about 14km. But we really enjoyed the views. At the summit, we could see into deserty Nevada - and again, it looks like a different world. The diversity is what we like best about cycling in the US: You climb a pass and behind, there's something new.
    The rest of the day was an easy, very fast downhill until we reached highway 395 which then led to Walker, where we stay with our host John.    Read more

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  • Panamericana adventure
    Day34

    Lake Tahoe semi-circle

     October 11 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    When we started our day today, we had some company. Janet decided to join us for part of the way. So we got more or less a guided tour with many information about Incline Village, Nevada and the US tax system, the flume, the bike path project and lots more.
    We stopped at Sand Harbour, an absolutely stunning place with a sand beach and boulders in the clear water. Afterwards, we followed the road along the East side of the lake and climbed up to Spooner Lake. This is where Janet turned around and we said goodbye. For us, the route followed the 50 (mainly downhill) where we stopped at a stunning view point for more photos. There were quite some tourists from all over the world and all of them wanted to talk about our trip, so we had problems to continue.
    We bypassed South Lake Tahoe on pioneer trail. Before, we passed the Stateline between Nevada and California again. It was pretty obvious: Casinos in Nevada and a stereotype hippie car on the Californian side 😉
    In the afternoon, we climbed Luther Pass, followed by a downhill ride on a canyon road to our campspot for the night. This side of the pass is freezing cold and we were in bed by 6.30pm.
    Today was also a burn day. During the climb it was quite foggy from a prescribed fire nearby. In order to prevent wild fires to spread rapidly, they clean the forests by burning dry branches etc. in a controlled way.    Read more

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