BackOnTrack – reports

Back home!31216 km, Vienna.........

Heading to final destination30748 km, Merida (Yucatan)From Oaxaca i am starting again solo. Bine again is taking a bus to the coast. There are again a lot of mountains on the way to the Pacific. On the second day, i climb 1.900 meters by bike and spend the night in a small town high up in the mountains. I get a very simple and cheap room, but the view over the mountains is really great. Sunset and -rise is awesome! On the way down to the Pacific Coast i still have to climb 900 meters, but i am descending more than 3.300 meters. Not a bad deal! The landscape changes from pinetree-forest to tropical vegetation, until it turns into dry and brown surrounding just before the coast. After 110 km i arrive in Puerto Angel, and i am with Bine again. As Puerto Angel is not that nice, we move to t......

Mountains, mountains, mountains...29881 km, Oaxaca (Oaxaca)When Bine and me started cycling from Valle de Bravo, we had perfect weather and a clear view. Which we often could enjoy because for the first 55 kilometers it is a steady climb. The last 20 km on the highway were not enjoyable, we twice had to leave the road because of fast trucks which nearly hit us! In the forest at an elevation of 3.000 meters we found a nice campsite for the night. The last 6 km up to the pass we kept for the next day. And on this day we climbed up to more than 3.500 meters in elevation, very close to 4.highest volcano of Mexico - the Volcano Nevado de Toluca. A great mountain with still a lot of snow on the northern slopes. We cycle nearly around the volcano, so we can see also the drier southern part of t......

Tenacious cycling29154 km, Valle de Bravo (Estado de Mexico)Since Zacatecas quite a long time has passed, we did not really got very far. At the moment we are close to the capital Mexico City, in Valle de Bravo. The first days after leaving Zacatecas had been verz nice, dry and tranquill countryside and very nice weather. But this changed then, it got more green, more agriculture, more people, more traffic on the road. Not very adventurous or interesting. After staying for one week in Jalpa because Bine got sick, the motivation afterwards had not been the best. But since about 3 days we are back in great moutain sceneries again, whith a lot of up and downs all the time. I enjoy cycling again. Mark will stop cyling here, he wants to go by bus for the next weeks and he want to see if he ge......

On the Highlands28197 km, Zacatecas (Zacatecas)I like Mazatlan from the beginning. After leaving the ferry (coming from La Paz) we cycle through the old part of the town. Narrow streets, old houses, small plazas and cafes in spanish style. And also a very nice citybeach. Then we are heading off for the mountains. We take the awesome road to the highlands. The first to 2 days is a steady climb, but also on the highland we have a lot of up and downs. We in summary climbed nearly 6.000 meter with our bikes until we got to Durango. At the beginning we had some rain and fog But the weather improved, and we so had been able to see the great mountains scenery, and the spectecular road climbing all those steep slopes and mountains. A new highway is going to be built at the moment, with a lot of t......

Bye bye Baja, bye bye27554 km, Mazatlan (Sinaloa)The first town of Baja California Sur is Guerrero Negro, we stay there for one night. Mainly to have a shower after a long time und to get some stuff fixed. Moreover we use the opportunity to have some local food. Especially all those different variations of tacos and tortas are very good, including the spicy sauces. On the next day we tried to cycle about 30 kilometres to the coast for whale watching. But the road was by far too sandy, after a few hundred meters we gave up. What a pity, we were really looking forward to see some whales. But afterwards it turned out that this was also a good decision. El Nino sent a lot of rain to the Baja, we had 3 days of rain on the way to Santa Rosalia. But just north of us it was much worse. Three brid......

The Baja California!26701 km, Guerrero Negro.........

Heading to Central America26027 km, El Centro (California)Supported by "the bible", Mark's Cycling guidebook of the Pacific Coast it was easy for Doug from the USA, Mark from Canada, Bine from Germany and Uli from Austria to find a good and easy way out of San Francisco. The weather got drier now, but still quite chilly during evening and nigth. The coast around Big Sur has been great, the road is directly at the rocky coastline, no houses around. We observed a lot of wild sea elephants which are currently here at the coast. Great! South of Morro Bay the coast got more and more urban and busier, especially since Santa Barbara. In this area we met a lot of american "homeless" cyclists, who spend their time here because of the mild weather yearround. Nearly all of them are very nice and inte......

Rain&Sun - the Pacific Coast25088 km, Morro Bay, CaliforniaDuring awfully bad rainy weather we left - after 3 weeks off the bicycle - Vancouver to enter the USA a second time. This time the Immigration was a little bit more easier. We bot had been very lucky to have a new US entry stamp in our passport. Because of the bad weather we took the shortest route avoiding Seattle - heading down the east side of Olympic Peninsula. It was raining hard and very often. It was difficult to keep our gear "dry". Once we reached the border of Oregon we met several other cyclists - despite the late season and the bad weather. With Mark from Canada and Doug from the US we are now cycling since several weeks. This makes a lot of fun. The so-called Hiker&Biker campsite are unique here along the coast. For......

Vancouver - Canada nearly finished22601 km, Vancouver (British Columbia)It's quiet a long time ago, since i wrote the last news, and a lot happened since Smithers! With mostly very good weather we cycled along Highway 16 to Prince George. Coming from the north, this is the first place where "remoteness" ended - quite a lot of traffic and villages. What a pity! As the date of the visit of my parents had been fixed, we had some extra time. So we slowed down and took some detours, cycled logging roads, and then to Green Lake, where Bine and me celebrated my 37th birthday - perfect clear and warm night, fire and beer! Behind Clinton it was mountainous again. Cycling the Kelly Lake Road and the Duffy Lake Road has been great! Mostly very good weather, great sceneries and vistas! Via Whistler......

Cassiar Highway - done!21270 km, Smithers (British Columbia)Since leaving Whitehorse we had quite bad weather - a lot of rain and low temperatures. At Junction 37 we started cycling the Cassiar Highway which is leading quite straight south into British Columbia. Along this quite remote and beautiful road we saw some Black bears along the road. The detour to Stewart and Hyder was great. We observed Grizzlies catching a lot of Salmons, and i enjoyed the ride up to the breathtaking Salmon Glacier. Great! Back on the Cassiar Highway we cycled on to Kitwanga, the end of the Highway. More than 1.000 km and 9.000 meter of altitude and great wilderness behind us! ......

Back from canoe trip!19690 km, WhitehorseGreat cycling along the Alaska Highway heading south. Amazing weather along the Kluane Nationalpark. Bad weather on the road to Haines. Great mountain scenery along the way up north from Skagway to Whitehorse. Then we had a beautiful and unique canoe trip from Whitehorse to Carmacks. About 300 kilomters on the Yukon river in 7 days. Great!......

In Alaska again19393 km, Haines (Alaska)We had a beautiful ride from Tok to the border to Canada and on along the Kluane Nationalpark to Haines Junction! Entering Canada was not a problem at all, we got 6 months for staying here, great! The weather was fantastic, we had great views of the mountains. BUT - we had awful headwind for 7 consecutive days. And on the Haines Highway rain, clouds and cold were additionally things to fight with. Therefore we did not see a lot of the real beauty of the famous Haines Highway. From Skagway we want to cycle back to Canada.......

Alaska ist great!18630 km, Tok. AlaskaFor Bine and me Alaska is clearly one more highlight of our trip so far. Although we saw no sun and had some rainfall every day in the first 2 weeks. As we approached the Denali area, the weather got better and better. Therefore we were able to see the about 6.500 meter Denali Peak, the highest mountain in Northern America, several times not covered with clouds. It is just a 25 % chance to see the mountain like this! Also the detour to Denali National Park was well worth it. Wwe saw a lot of animals and a breathtaking landscape and scenery. After cycling back to Cantwell, we headed east on the beautiful gravel road called Denali Highway. Especially the first part along the Alaskan Range with a lot of snow covered mountains has been really great. In ......

New continent!!17254 km, Anchorage (Alaska)Surprise!! Bangkok has been our final destination on the asian part of the trip. After a long flight and some troubles with immigration at the U.S. border we finally made it to Alaska. The temperatures here are quite cool compared to SE-asia, there is 24 hours daylight, everything is 3 to 5 times more expensive than in asia... We are at last sleeping in our own tent, our bicycles are ready to start - tomorrow we start for a completely new adventure - adventure Alaska!......