From Michigan to Northern CA & the Pacific Northwest (and back..... if I have to)

I get 2 1/2 weeks of paid vacation a year. I've put in for almost all of it for this one.
Some of my gear has recently been upgraded to make it more enjoyable for me. My main
interests on this ride are the Giant Redwood forests, the PCH, the Cascades, & the Columbia River Gorge.

I'm sure there's much more to see, but these are the highlights that bring me out there.
I'm leaving on 6-29 and planning on rolling back into my driveway on 7-13.

The ride out there is already planned out in 4 days of almost exactly 600 miles averaged per day of travel, putting me at
Lake Tahoe at the end of day 4 (2401 miles). Still surfing for stuff to check out once I get that far. I'm allowing for
6-7 days in the Pacific Northwest region before heading back home along the Northern tier of states for a
roughly 4 day trek back home.

Area residents, any suggestions? Try to keep me within 75-100 miles of the Pacific coast until its time for me
to head back along the Northern route. Northern CA, OR, and WA are all on my list to hit.

No suggestions from me, sorry... but I just wanted to say - ENJOY!!!! This should be some trip! (Pictures please, when ready...)

Check out the Avenue of the Giants if you want to see some amazing redwoods. Ft. Bragg is a pretty neat place to visit on the coast.

From Lake Tahoe I would drop down the 395 and go through Yosemite (the big trees are primarily in the southern corner) for sure, Sequoia-Kings Canyon (big trees right off the 'main' road) if you have time. Then across to the coast...the PCH near Monterrey is supposed to be the most scenic portion, if you head that far south, don't miss McWay Falls at Julia Pfeiffer-Burns State Park.
If you get far north in WA, ride the 112 along the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Was a lot of fun.

Unless your slabing it all the way 600 every day makes for some long days. I just went to borderfild state park (southwestern tip of California) avoiding interstate as much as possible. 450 to 500 is a good day on two lanes day after day. My trip ended up being around 5500 miles. The NC hadn't been out of IN before that trip

gpd211 said:

Unless your slabing it all the way 600 every day makes for some long days. I just went to borderfild state park (southwestern tip of California) avoiding interstate as much as possible. 450 to 500 is a good day on two lanes day after day. My trip ended up being around 5500 miles. The NC hadn't been out of IN before that trip

Click to expand...

That's a major voyage on 2 lanes! I bet that trip gave ya tons of stuff to remember.

I wish I could make the whole ride without hitting the superslab, but as a working stiff, I have time constraints to meet lol. Outside of the 4 days to get to Cali, and 4 more to make it back home, the rest is time to slow down and enjoy the sights.

When I retire, I plan on using nothing but back roads to see the U.S.A.. 'Til then, the freeway will let me see the scenic parts of America,
and allow me to keep my job heh heh.

Thanks for the suggestions so far! I decided to add on another couple days to this run. After doing
more surfing, and looking at the suggestions from members, there's way too much to see and I don't
want to be in a hurry. My new tent arrived today. Yaay! More room, easier setup, and better
rain protection for me now.

Rox 2" risers, highway pegs, and a new PR3 for the rear are on their way to me. Only have about
5,000 miles on my current rear, but i don't want to try to stretch it to the limit when I might be putting
6-7000 miles on over a couple weeks.

Heading out in a few hours. First stop for the night is Lake Macbride State Park in Iowa.
I haven't tried posting pics with my phone yet, but I will if possible. When I get back,
I will post the higher quality pics from my digital camera. Looks like rain is going to be part
of day 1, but at least its not 38 degrees like the last time I headed out on a long trip.

Tentative schedule for the trip out there:
Day 2 Lake Ogallala State Rec. Area, NE
Day 3 East Canyon State Park, UT
Day 4 Lake Tahoe, CA

Then its time to slow down and enjoy the scenery.
Gonna be filling in a buncha states on my signature map at the end of this one!

Ooo! East Canyon is a nice road. You will hit some heat going through Utah. We are having a HOT spell this week. Enjoy the ride, and watch out for crazy people on the roads

mpgandfun said:

That's a major voyage on 2 lanes! I bet that trip gave ya tons of stuff to remember.

I wish I could make the whole ride without hitting the superslab, but as a working stiff, I have time constraints to meet lol. Outside of the 4 days to get to Cali, and 4 more to make it back home, the rest is time to slow down and enjoy the sights.

When I retire, I plan on using nothing but back roads to see the U.S.A.. 'Til then, the freeway will let me see the scenic parts of America,
and allow me to keep my job heh heh.

Click to expand...

Oh I'm a working stiff too. Govt job where they don't pay overtime. We get comp time instead. Took 4 weeks of stored up comp time for the trip. Still have 3 weeks of vacation for "other" stuff

Crater lake is a half days ride from Crescent City. It's a must see. Highway 299 from Redding to Arcata is nice if you're going east to west.

Also, the high desert north of Madras, OR to Bend is pretty cool. That's where I picked up the Columbia River and headed east toward Lewiston, ID.

If there is any way possible to hit Beartooth Pass south of Red Lodge, MT DO IT!!!!!!!
Mike

Well, I made the trip! I wanted to keep updating this thread as things happened, but my cell phone wouldn't
handle it. Tried to log in at a few public libraries too. Didn't work either. I just got back about and hour ago
and had to break into my own house LOL. Plenty of pics and tales of what happened along this journey....tomorrow.
After i get some sleep. .

Waiting patiently (or something) for details and pictures...

Check out the albums on my profile. I have pictures of some of the best rides in the area there and I'll be adding another this weekend. If you want to call and have a chat, I'm around. PM me and I'll shoot you my info.

edit: Oops - looks like I'ma day late and a dollar short. How did I miss this thread?

Some numbers from the trip:

13 days, 6600 miles, 16 states, 2 national parks.

I kept to my stops I outlined on my way out (except for Lake Tahoe). Took my first pics in Utah. This is also where the heat
from the heatwave kicked in.

The Bonneville Salt flats, West of Salt Lake City.

View attachment 6263

Rock formation in Medicine Bow, Wyoming area.

View attachment 6264

My plan was to take I80 past Reno and Carson City and stay the night near Lake Tahoe, but the weather changed that. I stopped at a
truck stop in Fernley, NV to seek refuge from a powerful wind & sand storm that had kicked up. I could see the dark
clouds hanging just West of there. A guy asked me if I was headed West on I80. I said "Yes" and he said "Not anymore." He
told me torrential rains had caused a rock and mudslide that completely closed I80 down to the West.

Some footage of the wind/sandstorm I took at the truck stop.

MVI 0425 - YouTube

I chose a route that put me at a state park a few miles East of Carson City for the night.
The next morning I got on 395 and headed South for the Eastern entrance to Yosemite, Tioga Pass.

Some footage cresting a hill to an overlook of Topaz Lake, NV, just East of the California border.

MVI 0427 - YouTube

An overlook not far into California.

View attachment 6265

Later that day, I reached Yosemite. Don't have the words to describe the beauty on
display here.

View attachment 6266
View attachment 6267


Saludos El Capitan!




I said goodbye to Yosemite and headed West on 120. I stopped at a historical marker in Chinese Camp, CA
and noticed my tire was going flat. I found the leak and used my Stop-n-Go kit to put a plug in it. I started
using my bicycle pump to air my tire up. I was afraid to plug my 12v mini compressor for fear it would blow a
fuse and leave me up the creek. A good samaritan (sp?) stopped and let me plug the compressor into his truck
to speed the job up. After the tire was up to pressure, we had a few more words of conversation, I thanked him
and he took off.

This is the result of his exit:



Thank God my head wasn't in it! He never even slowed down! (He was an elderly gentleman in his 70's i'd say)
What did he think that big bump was he passed over when he took off??? Oh well. Nothing I could do about it
at that point. I saw that Sonora, CA was not too far away and looked big enough to have a Walmart where i could
buy another one. I got as far as Jamestown before a CHP officer pulled me over for not wearing a helmet. I showed
him this pic on my camera and told him what happened. He didn't write me a ticket and called a cab for me. After a
$20 cab ride to Walmart, I had a new helmet and was back on my bike. It was after 10 p.m. at this point and I didn't
have the energy to make it to the next camping spot, so I got a motel room in Sonora for the night.

I got to enjoy the company of a few vagrants at the continental breakfast the motel provides. It didn't bother me that
management allows them to come in an get something to eat. I think that others might not feel the same way about it
though.

I headed for I5 the next morning to move North to the start of the Cascades. I've never been in heat like that
before. It topped out at 113 degrees. Chugging almost 2 gallons of powerade along the way, kept me from dehydrating on the
all day ride in that blistering heat. The temp dropped like a stone as soon as I got into the Cascades North of Redding, CA.

At over 14,000 feet high, Mount Shasta towers over her surroundings.



The next stop was at Crater Lake National Park.



Check out that brand new helmet!!!! LOL

Same scene, without the NC.


From there, I headed for the Pacific Coast at Florence, OR and followed Hwy 101 North.
Yours truly, with the Pacific behind me.



I stopped at the Sea Lion caves and took the elevator down to see the animals doing their
thing. There were 30-40 more sea lions to the left of the ones in my video that I didn't
capture in the film clip below.

MVI 0483 - YouTube

Some shots of the Oregon coast taken at the sea lion tour place.





Made a quick stop in Seattle to check out the Space Needle.


A monument of sorts, built in dedication to the wild horses that roam Montana (I think its Montana lol,
at this point, the rigors of 600 mile days is wearing me down.).



Stopped to check out "Salem Sue", the world's largest Holstein at 40' tall.

Hmmm...some of my pics didn't show up and only have an invalid "attachment" label.
I wonder what the problem is. I see a couple got added at the bottom of that post, but some
more are still missing.

Nice helmet. +1 on 'how did he not notice that?' Great pics. Looks like you had pretty good weather once you got out of the heat.

Awesome trip. Hwy 101 is amazing!

To bad you weren't able to keep us up dated throughout the trip. I might have been able to have met up with you for a bit as you traveled pretty close to me. I took a ride not too long ago through Hwy 49 Angels camp, Sonora, Jackson. So I know there's no 4G or data coverage for cell phones out there. Look like it was a fun trip despite the heat and the storm.

On a sidenote, the NC took the heat VERY well. Even on the run up I5, in heat that varied
from 103-113 degrees, when I stopped for gas and fluids (for me), the cooling fan never
kicked on!!

Some more pics from the trip.






Can you spot the 2 rock climbers?