Editor’s intro: I met these two randomly a few weeks ago. They stopped into Golden Saddle while they were in Los Angeles and I took them up into the Verdugo Mountains at sunset one evening. They had been on the road for a week or so, soaking in California’s mountains and bikepacking around various trail networks. For me, seeing photos and reading, albeit brief, words from visitors to this great state is always entertaining. So, without further adieu…

Karerfornia
Words by Thomas Larsen Røed, photos by Hans Petter Hval and Thomas Larsen Røed

Up, up and up. The gravel road leading us from South Lake Tahoe towards Star Lake is ridiculously steep. And straight. Defeat is inevitable. With loaded bikes we have to resort to pushing. We’ve flown into Oakland from Oslo, thrown the bikes in a rental and headed for the mountains. We’re not on a bikepacking mission from A to B, but instead using bikepacking as a trick to get the most out of our 14 days in California.

Notching 9000 feet and Star Lake appears. It’s rugged and wild and we’ve been warned of bears. The most creepy thing we experience that night, however, is a man playing his guitar and not responding to our “yo!”. He disappears; we cook and check out the sunset.

After dark the music starts playing again.

Morning comes, we’re still alive and after breakfast and packing up, the descent starts with 6 km of single-track dropping 330 meters. It’s so good. It’s perfect. The bikes are loaded and they perform like they were built for going down that very trail. Or vice versa.

We’re only a few days in and the flight across the pond was already worth it.

Back in the car we head south for more. Yosemite, Mammoth, LA, Big Sur. The next ten days are a blast.

Thanks California, it was real.

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Follow Thomas on Instagram and Hans Petter on Instagram.