Starting at a young age, my father introduced my brother and I to the outdoors. I was thankful to be introduced to mountain biking by my Uncle John when I was maybe 9 years old. We'd bike local trails like the Glendale Sports Complex or Cherry Canyon and sometimes bike around Mammoth. Uncle John was the only person in my close family who would do long bike tours but instead of camping in a tent, he'd camp in a hotel. Still, lots of stories and interest was planted in me at a young age which motivated me to get into cycling at a different level later in life.
I bought my first bike in 2023 which is a Surly Ogre named Monte after Monte Melkonian, an Armenian Revolutionary and Commander of the Armenian army during the 1st Artsakh War. Taco and Ali argue that it's a rigid mountain bike and at this point I'd have to agree based on the way I ride it and nothing else. I've built it out for gravel bikepacking but down the line I think I can take it on a road tour no problem. My goal with this bike is to be all terrain regardless of it not having a suspension. There's tons of modifications I want to make to it but maybe in a few months I'll have my fun.
My second bike came to me by surprise when I randomly was shopping at an estate sale in Altadena. I knew I wanted a more road forward touring bike one day and I was lightly researching different options. This would be the bike that I'd take on a long road tour to fulfill that dream. I came across a custom Soma Doublecross that fit me perfectly and looked pretty on the nail in terms of good touring geometry. I bought that thing for $500 and immediately texted a pic to my brother Patrick who's considered a "roadie." He began to roast this bike since it was steel and not worth that money. At the time, I didn't know the real value of this bike but I had to prove him wrong. This goes on and on but as someone with a younger brother who thinks he's the shit cuz he can measure his watts on his fancy garmin pedals, I had to push this bike to every limit and make it the best goddam $500 purchase ever.
This bike's name is Soghomon, yet another Armenian who did some badass shit back in the day. Soghomon Tehlirian was an Armenian genocide survivor who was a member of Operation Nemisis, a movement to assassinate the people responsible for leading the Armenian Genocide. He stalked and assassinated Talaat Pasha in broad daylight who was the head of the Ottoman Empire and was the architect of the Genocide. Soghomon was tried for murder in Germany and established that the stress and horrors of the genocide had such a profound psychological affect on him that he was mentally insane and was driven to kill Talaat. When asked if he felt some sort of remorse, he said, "I do not consider myself guilty because my conscience is clear...I have killed a man. But I am not a murderer." Believe it or not, he was found not guilty and lived a long life, eventually moving to Fresno where he eventually passed away. And with all of that, my bike named Soghomon was the bike I brought on my bike tour that I shall now share about!
For my first tour, I was originally going to bike from Tbilisi to Yerevan with my friend Shane but due to this fuckin war in Iran, flight costs skyrocketed and a potential looming invasion by the US or Israel was gonna make travelling to and from nextdoor neighboring countries risky. That whole plan is now gonna be reserved for next year so hopefully both countries exist by then. I had all this time off and still wanted to do a bike tour. I spent months prepping Monte for it since Armenia and Georgia don't have the best paved roads and most of our travel would be on gravel. I decided to do a modified version of the Pacific Coast Bike Route instead with extra credit in 2 sections. After a few days of mapping and planning, my excitement grew to the absolute max!
Soghomon the Soma Doublecross was built out pannier-less with all the bags positioned to be as aero as possible. I stuffed my seatpost bag with my quilt, bivy, pad, and pillow which weighed out to 4.1 lbs. For the frame, I used a revelate half frame bag which held snacks, repair kit, gu, weed, tube, and other misc things. Taco got me a fancy bottle cage mod that moved the mounting points down an inch or so, allowing the vertical cage to fit a larger 30oz bottle. That let me carry 2 30oz bottles below the frame bag which was pretty sick, highly recommended. On the top tube, I had a small bag that would hold bars and snacks for easy access. This bag didn't really serve much of a purpose since it was too small for bigger items. I think down the line, I'll buy a longer top tube bag that reaches the seat from the stem so I can move my repair kit up there and use the frame bag for more food. On the stem, I put 2 surly feedbags, one for my phone and trash, sunblock, and more weed. The other was used for more bulky snack storage but can be used for other things in the future, highly highly recommended. Taco also recommended this super sick stem cap that allows for a bottle mount to be installed. This allowed me to carry 3 total 30oz bottles on the bike at all times. The front bag is the jumbo jammer by roadrunner bags which is just the best bag I've used. This is where I stored my baselayers, windbreaker, high visibility reflectors, food, and extra water. The front bag was mounted to my handlebars and was supported by a massive front rack that could easily be replaced with a thinner rack in the future. I also bought some aerobars at the last minute which were a huge blessing in terms of comfort, but I learned the hard way on why you shouldn't descend hills on them.
I took the Amtrak Coastal Starlight up to San Francisco from Union Station in just over 12 hours which was always a dream of mine. Being able to just hand my bike over without breaking down anything was super convenient. I only spend $70 for the 1 way ticket which isn't bad considering you get to see all of California's coast. I also had lunch in the dining car while going through Lompoc and Vandenberg.
I spent a day in the bay hanging with my friends August and Ethan which was just a beautiful way to chill before this tour.
Day 1
I met my homie Yashar at a cafe called The Coffee Movement. The goal for the day was to bike from San Francisco to Santa Cruz where my brother lives. We began biking south along the coast after some croissants and espresso at around 7:30am. This section of the ride was a bit chilly but we rode on this closed section of road called the Great Highway. Eventually we made our way to Skyline Blvd where the most inconsiderate drivers were and we had 2 sketch moments with some close passes. Yashar took a fall on his knee the night before and started to feel pain again and debated bailing but pulled on through.
This road was winded around where we eventually were just south of Daly City which put us on the San Andreas Trail which runs alongside Skyline Blvd. This part of the ride was of interest to me in the planning phase since it was gonna put us next to 3 reservoirs with a ever so slight descent. Then we found ourselves on a series of walking/bike paths along the lakes and through some forests, all super stunning and kinda fast. Highly recommend doing this section since the paths are super smooth and foot traffic is mixed.
Our climb began as we met hwy 92 (half moon bay road) which we followed up into the mountains. The shoulder is tight here with fast moving semis and other trucks taking it. There were plenty of running springs along the road and some "sierra-like" smells that took me back in time. There's no room to stop and take a break on this road but it was a very very chill easy climb.
Eventually we connected with hwy 35 which was the main event of the day which was going to take us along a rolling hill climb across many ridgelines to the highpoint where it intersects with hwy 9. A few years ago, my brother Patrick moved to Santa Cruz to work for a company called Joby. On one visit, me and him did some bouldering at Castle Rock which is a top tier spot but not as good as the Arroyo Seco to be honest. Just driving through that road and mountains made me really wanna bike it on this tour, even if it was rolling. This road took us through some wonderful patches of fog which allowed us to eventually climb above us, revealing the sea of clouds below which is always lovely to see. Soon, the familiar redwood trees started towering above amongst farmland and different cattle. There were some very pretty properties out here.
We then intersected with hwy 84 which Yashar took down to Palo Alto to bail due to his knee. There was a great convenience store here where I resupplied at and got a bunch of snickers bars and pounded a soda. From this point onwards, I was gonna be alone. Patrick was planning on meeting me on his bike at the highpoint where we would then ride down to his place. For the first time on the tour, I was riding alone and enjoying pure freedom and bliss, deep in the Santa Cruz mountains. At some point, the redwoods disappeared and oak trees started to fill the view. I saw a few turkeys over here which were pretty cool.
At the high point, I got to experience one of the sickest descents of my life which was hwy 9 at skyline. 20 miles of descending through banked turns and barely any traffic. I was overcome by my emotions a few times on this descent. Definitely a moment when you're in unfamiliar beautiful mountains that you're discovering yourself alone. There was nothing like it!
At this point, I was climbing up for 4 hours and the descent took maybe 45 minutes. I finally bumped into Patrick at 4pm in Boulder Creek where we continued on the rolling 9 all the way to his place, completing my longest ride at 84 miles and elevation gain of just over 7000 ft. It all felt pretty good for the first day, especially when my bike weighed 55lbs. Pulling up to Patrick's house after leaving San Francisco and biking that whole ass range in a day felt so fucking awesome!
Patrick's house is built on the side of a hill overlooking the San Lorenzo River. He even has his own little trail down to the river where he catches fish and crawfish from. Anyways, since his place is situated on a hill and is 90 feet above the road in elevation, there's like 100 steps that you'd have to walk up to reach his place. There's no way I would carry my bike up that but luckily, my brother fixed the vernacular rail car that runs up the hill from a station at street level to a station in front of the house. So I loaded the bike up to it and took it to the house with no added effort by me!
Patrick had been getting into bird watching so after a carby pasta dinner, we lit up a blunt and scoped out some birds! Gotta love a man with niche interests. If anyone wants to bike tour through Santa Cruz and you want a place to crash, Patrick's house is pretty sick. Maybe he'll let you sit in his Mao Zedong throne nook and point out all the birds surrounding his yard. Maybe he'll even show you his rock collection or fancy garmin pedals that measure your wattage output. He's a man of class and just so happens to be my awesome brother I love very very much.
Day 1 of this tour was fucking dope! HELL YEAHH LETS GOOOOOO
