 Hello, I just dropped you, didn't I? Oh, that's no good. Good thing GoPro's are tough, right? It would sound a little weak. You know what I love? I love when the sun comes up and hits my face and warms me up after a cold night. I actually slept really well. I think my rain fly kept the heat in nicely and I just had warm thoughts all night. It kept me warm. So today I'm heading up, up, up to the snow-capped peaks and then hopefully down into the backside of LA. What? Yeah, that's right. Let's do this, my friends. Thank you, soft sandy campsite. Thank you, fake cowboy town. Rock and roll time. No flaties, no crashies, no whammies, up to big bear, ease. Oh yeah, little uphill to warm up the body, warm up the core. Feels good. I'm going to be going a lot of uphill today, up to about 8,000 feet, which is, which is all right. I knew it was gonna happen. I knew it was at the end of the ride. And I'm from Colorado. I'm used to going up hills. I like the sign, slow down. You move too fast. Gotta make the moment last. I'm not a singer, but I do like the idea of going slow. That's why I ride a bike, right? To go slow and see the world and meet awesome people. I hit the dirt. Now I'm going up, up, up and away. Nothing like a sandy uphill to warm me up in the morning. It's time for my morning thoughts. And I always do my best thinking on the seat of a bicycle. It's kind of meditative. And I've been out here riding for seven straight days now. And I'm really grateful that I'm here right now in this moment. This has been very good for me. It's been good to push my body physically. I haven't done an extended bike tour this year, like I usually do. I did a little tour with John and Mira in Mexico. I did Rag Brie with Amelia. But I've mostly been focused on running, which was great, you know? My big focus was the Leadville 100. And I was happy how that went, but I really cherish these bike rides. And while I'm out here in the moment, I get to think about everybody I love, you know, and it's been great to have time to process the death of my grandma, my Nana, the deserts of very healing place for me. And I just get to think about everybody I love, Amelia and my mom, my brothers and their cute kids. And not only do I get to be out here, but I get to share this adventure with you. Yeah, you sitting on the couch or at your computer chair. I see you. I get to share it with the world and hopefully inspire you to go out and do something fun and challenge yourself and connect with wonderful humans. Being out here reminds me that humans are good. 99.99999% of humans are good and generous and thoughtful and they wanna help you. And I get more in tune with my body and just the sounds of nature and birds overhead and the sounds of my tire slipping through sand and you know, bike creaking here and there, it really is quite special. And then when I get home from a ride like this, I feel recharged and I feel like my heart is bigger and I'm more loving and caring and compassionate, which is always a good thing, right? And when I'm on a bike adventure, it really forces me to be hyper present in the moment at all times. Like right now I'm like, wow, the light is really nice on these Joshua trees, you know? I just get to appreciate it as I slowly ride by and look up at the sky and see the swirly clouds behind them. Look at that. Look at that. I mean, give me a break. It's so awesome. And when I'm in the present moment at any time, that's when I feel the most alive, for sure. You know, life is just really simple when you're on a bike. Everything that I have in life that I've needed is right here on this bicycle and that's pretty cool. You know, people talk about how van life is really minimalistic, but I say bike life is way more minimalistic. You know, and I love sleeping under the stars. I love getting out of my tent at two in the morning when I have to pee and look at the stars and just think, wow, look at this beautiful planet we get to live on. And when I'm out here, all those thoughts just get really enhanced. You know, I love life at home, of course, but I think I was getting a little too comfortable. This year I'd been home a lot. Usually I travel a lot more than I do, but you know, I have different priorities this year. I met Amelia this year and I've wanted to be home more, but this little week-long adventure has been exactly what I needed and I'm so grateful and happy and fortunate and privileged and all those things, even though I'm, you know, gonna ride up a big old mountain today and it's gonna hurt and my legs are sore after seven days of riding, that's all good. Reminds me that I'm alive, whoo! Okay, morning thoughts done. Oh, I see some white stuff on the top of those mountains over there. Oh boy, that looks like a straight-up wall. Man, might be walking that one. Whew, yep, this is the real deal. It's real steep. Most difficult, I'll say, that's where I'm going. Right there, up, up, up and away on loose rocky roads. Look what I found, snow! Nice little snow crystals. Tastes like Christmas. Crunchy! I like the California snow. Look how good that looks, don't you want some of that? It's called a chili mango, chili mango. It's one of my favorite Mexican candies. It's a piece of mango dipped in, like, chili sauce. And it's so good, mm! We're up high, yes we are. Oh, the air is crisp up here. Tastes like Colorado. Riding through some icy slippery patches here. I imagine with just a little bit more snow, this road is completely impassable. I lucked out, I'm here early enough in the season where the snow isn't causing problems. You're probably wondering why I'm in a jacuzzi. Well, here's the story. I was riding down the road, crazy traffic everywhere. I was looking at my watch and I realized that I still had over 40 miles to finish the entire route. It was about 1.30 p.m. I've been racing sunlight this entire trip. I thought I could get up and over and be done with it in a day, but I chose to just come here instead. I was riding by this hotel, Fireside Lodges, and it was one of those spontaneous moments where I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna go there. And so I'm sitting here, loving life. You heard me talking about gratitude this morning. Well, I'm very grateful to be here right now. And this is my Thanksgiving gift to myself. Best $150 I've ever spent. Thank you, patrons, for your support. And I think this was the right decision. Sometimes in life, you hem and ha over decisions, this is definitely the right decision. I feel good, I can be rested, I can wake up tomorrow and hammer out the last 40 miles and get into San Bernardino, find a bike box, do that whole thing and then fly home on Thanksgiving morning. And of course, my bike is right next to me. It has to be, right? My bike is my buddy, my buddy and me. You know, I've always wanted to be in a jacuzzi hotel. All my life, I see them in movies and stuff. And this is the first time I've ever splurged and done it. So I'm feeling good about my adult decisions right now. Look at that beautiful sunrise. And look at that cold snow. Okay, thank you, amazing bathtub and bed. It's time to finish off the SoCal Desert Ramble. Although it doesn't feel very desert-y right now, but I am returning to the desert. Gotta go up a little bit and then down about 40 miles. Yeah, it's cold. There's no doubt. I am at a ski resort and people are skiing today. Oh, there's the sun, please warm me up. Look at that, a bowling barn, that looks fun. Ooh, look, they're making snow. All right, I've gotten off the main road and I'm heading up toward the dirt road. And I'm hoping that it's clear. I'm seeing a lot of snow in the yards of these houses and I doubt they plow the dirt roads. So we'll see. Well, the good news is all this uphill riding is keeping me plenty warm. And the trees are quite big. Oh, and for the last day, of course, no crashies, no flaties, and no whammies. It smells really good out here. You know that pine needle smell, Christmas tree smell. That's what it smells like. And I'm really happy to be away from the busy road. Got a little nutty down there. This is my happy place. I'm still going, I keep on thinking I'm gonna turn around a corner and there's gonna be three feet of snow blocking the road, but so far, so good. And it is a beautiful morning to be out in the woods. Loving these giant trees. Oh, bummer. I finally hit an area with a lot of snow and now it's gonna be walking time. I hope this doesn't last long because this is gonna go really, really slowly. All right, nice day for a walk in the woods, I guess. I'm having flashbacks of my adventure in New Mexico. I can't even move my bike. Just like that adventure, I will go down in altitude and the snow will melt and all will be right in the world. I'm really, really happy now that I spent the night in Big Bear. There's no way I would have gotten through this yesterday afternoon. Good news is I have all day. Okay, some of this is packed hard enough that I can ride it. It's kind of like riding through the sand. Woo, well, that's slippery. Yikes. I'm not sure if it's worth trying to ride. So slippery after walk time. Well, the good news is there's no way I'm gonna get hit by a car out here. It's actually not too bad. The snow's pretty hard. Easy to walk on. Might seem weird that I'm taking my long pants off, but all this pushing has made me very hot. All right, I've stripped down a bit and I feel better. And I'm gonna treat myself to a Snickers. Back when I was a kid, the commercial was, Snickers does a body good. And I don't know if it's still the slogan, but I love these things. I only eat them on bike trips. I rarely eat this kind of stuff in regular life, but it's gonna taste so good right now. Woo, sun's coming up and it's warm and glorious. And hopefully I'm almost done with the snow. Vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom. Going top speed here. It really is about as fast as riding through a desert wash. I'm still going up too. I'm not gonna see this snow disappear until I lose some altitude. It's actually a very good thing. I'm riding through this snow in the morning while it's hard and crispy, because later in the day, this snow is gonna turn to mush and getting through it would be much more difficult. And wet. Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree. Man, got to the tippy top. I think I'm at about 8,000 feet of elevation and it's time to go down all the way down to I think the valley floor is about 1,000 dish. Woo, and hopefully the snow gets out of here soon so I can start cruising. It's like sledding, yeah buddy. Look at that view, right about there. Oh, it feels so good to finally be moving downhill. My body is warm and I'm loving this. And I might feel like I'm home free, like I'm almost there, but I still have 30 miles to go. And you'll see on this map have a lot of little squiggly squiggles to go. I'm the blue dot heading down there. Lots of fun between here and San Bernardino. Who put this tree here? I can't bunny hop that high. Okay, carry on. I thought I was done with you snow. I might be getting wet here. The snow has turned to water. It's not a free ride all the way down. So this is going much slower than I anticipated. You know, I figure, okay, I'm at Big Bear. I'm up high and I'm going down pretty low. That's going to be all downhill, right? But, oh gosh. But that's not how it's gone. There's a lot of uphill and as you can see, it's not easy uphill. But that's okay, that's okay. That means I just get to enjoy this route a little bit longer. Every time I think I'm near the top of whatever I'm riding up, it's not. It just keeps going. And the worst part is, there's all these little flies that are following me and they're biting. I need to go downhill to get away from them. But there just isn't any downhill. Back there, up those mountains. That's where I came from. And you know what today is? Thanksgiving Eve. Tomorrow's Thanksgiving Day. And I have to finish this adventure today because I have a flight early tomorrow morning. My mom would kick my butt if I didn't show up for Thanksgiving. I'm getting closer to civilization. That's a good sign. That is quite the wall of rock right there. Okay, up, up, up there and then over that little ridge bump. Hopefully that's the last uphill but that hasn't been the case at all today. I'm earning it. I'm earning this final day of the SoCal Desert Ramble. There's another good hill. Here we go. There really is never ending. I think I'm done and then I'm not. I go up, down, up, down, up, down. You know, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I want to give thanks to my bike. I love this thing. It's taken me so many beautiful places. And I'm not just saying that because I helped design it but I really love it. This is my dream bike. I designed it essentially after riding the Trek 1120 down Baja and all the flaws with that bike. I was like, well, if we have a drivetrain that can handle sand and snow and not need to be lubed 100 times a day, that would be awesome. And here we go with the pinion and gates. It's been solid, so solid. So thank you to this bike, the 600X. The Deuzer Cruiser. And thank you to Mother Nature, yeah. You know, I've always been told that the surrounding areas outside of LA are stunning and they sure are. Because LA is a city, isn't my favorite, but this is not far away. So I just looked to my right and I see this and I'm thinking, is that a mirage? Is the mountain cheering me on? R for Ryan. That's pretty cool, huh? Los Angeles. There's the dirt. There's the pavement. I finally made it. Today was way harder than I thought it was gonna be. I figured, seriously, three hours to go 45 miles downhill. That's pretty reasonable, right? But man, this took almost seven hours and it was beautiful and it was fun. And I got to reminisce about how wonderful this adventure has been in so many ways. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I'm full of gratitude and thanks. And now I'm here in LA at some, they're gonna be building some cookie cutter houses here it looks like. You know, it's fitting that I pop in on the edge of LA. And I'm not here alone. This is really, really the best part of today. I have a new friend, Dave. How you doing, buddy? Doing good, doing good. And this is Karen. And they came to say hi. They knew that I was in the area. They brought a bike box so I can pack my bike. And this means so much. And we have a cute doggie too. Look at the cute doggie. You wanna be on YouTube? You wanna be on YouTube? Yeah, buddy, you're on YouTube now. And look at this. We've got some new bags. So, you know how a lot of my bags that I use are Kai Venture Bags. You've heard me talk about them for years. Well, this is Karen. One half of Kai Venture Bags. And what did Kai make for me here? He gave you a fanny pack, two snack caddies. One for your girlfriend and one for you. He made one this one, especially because if your daddy was in the green, he was a green beret. Yeah, my grandpa was a green beret, yep. And then made a little doggie snack caddy for her. Oh, you're so sweet. Give Kai a big hug. Oh, well. I was talking to Kai the other day. The dozer code is good forever, right? To get how much percent off? 15%. 15% off. All Kai Venture Bags made in America, made by these two. Well, Kai's not here, but made by these wonderful humans. And they are awesome. I can't believe it. You're so wonderful. Oh, yeah, look at this. And look at that. Ah. Here we are, step two after burritos, boxing the bike. And we have a new friend. What's your name? Andrew. Andrew, where'd you come from, man? It's come to save the day. Down the way. So I'm unloading everything from my frame bag. And I noticed that my bag of beans here has a leak. And there's beans all in the inside of this bag. There's still some left if you guys are hungry. Whoa, we did it. You did it. Just barely. 29-inch mountain bike into a road bike box. Andrew and Dave, you're the heroes of the day. And it was so great to meet you and you. Now you have a friend in Boulder, come visit any time. Well, do, do. Hello there. I just took a shower. I'm feeling very relaxed. What an amazing nine days. Ah. I'm gonna fall asleep. Please like and subscribe. Please like and subscribe. Oh. Hey there, just a quick heads up. My book, The Long Way Home is now for sale at dooserbook.com. It's about my very first adventure from Honduras to Boulder.