Hi everyone, been out of touch with the wifi and I know some of you are keen to know what has been happening.

So from Long Beach, we went out through Azusa, and up to the San Gabriel Mountains. We parked the bike at the parking lot, a mile long walk into 'base camp' Heaton Flats and then hiked 4 miles up into the mountains to camp overnight with a bunch of prospectors (Daniel, Jay, Fernando, Charlie, Ashleigh, Carl and Larry)- yes, really, true blue prospectors, panning and digging for gold, and yes they were successful at it. Don't tell my mum, but in the 24 hours we were up in the wilds, came pretty damn close to a bear, he was just standing across the crick (no, this is not a typo, apparently this is local for creek); a rattle snake was sun bathing out front of our tent; a tarantula joined us on our naturally provided rock seats for our evening chat before bed; and then next morning, a scorpion tried to stowaway in our tent as we folded it up.

From San Gabriel we rode to Castaic where I discovered that truckers and bikers are a neat group of people who look after each other. At the local Pilot truck stop, truckers gave us their extra shower vouchers, so we showered in luxury. Men beyond the age of safely riding bikes approached us to reminisce and happily discussed the lay of the land, best places to grocery shop, camp etc. Which is how we ended up at a free camp site with the same lack lustre amenities, rather than paying $20 a night, thanks Hippy Guy in Mercedes! We spent a couple of days in Castaic, resting and chilling out. We were camped out of town at a place called Templin and we met some fellow campers - Rick, Stephanie, Michelle, Angie, Chelsea, Josh and Chris. Spent a good part of an afternoon and an evening with them - swapping stories, there may have been mention of being careful on their dream trip to Australia - Drop Bears; Scott started it, I just verified the information and underlined the warning :)

So with clean clothes and a better idea of how to pack the bike, we left for Yosemite this morning. But we had been hearing about the fires up in Yosemite, something like 955 lightening strikes had hit and there are fires all over the park. Scott used to be a Type II Forest Fire Fighter, so he put his fireman's hat on, read all the reports filled with the lingo and even though there are some roads open, the interpretation is that it is not safe. So we have stopped Visalia, near Sequoia at a KOA (Kampground of America). We are doing it in style tonight, a very, super cute little cabin. We unload the bike and hit the pool straight away. Glorious :) We came back to our cabin to find our 'neighbour' Keith, an ex-biker, had seemed to have cooked way too much food and he had left on our table a whole bunch of grilled ribs, chicken, shrimp, baked potatoes and tomatoes. BTW - that man can cook! So with full belly, fire burning and the thought of a bed in air conditioned luxury, I am typing this up. We have decided to avoid Yosemite - for the time being. We will gradually make our way to Idaho and to our Wendi; we'll catch Yosemite on the way back, as the Ranger thinks it should be under control in a couple of days. We figure it will be much better to go once the smoke clears. So we will most likely drop in on the Sequoia National Forest to check out the Giant Sequoia Tress - the largest of which are 275 feet tall and 2,300+ years old.

Catch y'all later!