Three Dudes Do the PCH

[draco_1967]

The following is write-up that I have been working on for a little while. I'm still editing and fixing stuff, so I'll be posting it in installments...It's been much harder than it should be to gather pictures from my buddies.

Preparation.

Back in February or March, my coworker, Lars, and I started to discuss the idea of a long trip in the summer. One of the biggest challenges would be getting enough time off together to go anywhere interesting. After some negotiations with the boss lady, we were able to get Thursday, Friday, and the following Monday at the end of June. With only 5 days, we would have to choose our course carefully. We toyed with the idea of going East to NC, TN and running some of the roads in that area (I really wanted to meet up with the other riders her on the forum). Unfortunately, there are 1800 miles between Salt Lake and the Dragon, which would have meant some iron but days to make it out there and back. Alaska was right out.

Eventually, we settled on going west, to the PCH. I planned out a few different options and we picked one that we could pull off in that time. Instead of doing the whole length from Seattle to San Diego, we decided to go as far as San Francisco before heading back East.



At the beginning of the planning stages, we had 7 riders, and a wife who wanted to follow in the car. One of the guys has severe separation issues....As weeks went by, people started dropping out for one reason or another. One had family stuff going on. Another wasn’t confident in his bike (suspension or tires, I can’t remember which). Finally, it was just Lars, his BIL Erick, and me.

Eventually, we finalized the route, planned our stops for gas and sleep, and booked a few campsites in the areas that were filling up quickly. As we were finishing up the route, we realized that 5 days would make our schedule a little too tight for comfort. It would mean that the last day we would have to ride from San Fran to Salt Lake, which would be a little much. I was the only one of us who had done 500+ miles in a day.

I begged and pleaded with my manager to give us just one more day to balance things out a bit better. Finally, she relented and gave us the OK.

The final route would look like something like this:


Day 1: Downtown Salt Lake City,UT to Boise, ID
Day 2: Boise, ID to Seattle, WA
Day 3: Seattle, WA to Cape Disappointment, OR
Day 4: Cape Disappointment, OR to Crescent City, CA
Day 5: Crescent City, CA to Sebastapol, CA
Day 6: Sebastapol, to San Fransisco, to Western Nevada (we hadn’t set an exact location)
Day 7: Get home before it gets hot.

 

[misterk]

Subscribed,


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[NCSOTA]

Any further info about how the trip went?

What do the letters A through H denote on the map??

Thanks,

Joe

 

[draco_1967]

Hi Joe. The letters are just waypoints in Google Maps. I'll be posting information as I type and edit it together.

 

[draco_1967]

The Bikes

Lars - 2006 VTX 1800


Lars picked up his VTX 3 years ago off of a guy who dropped it in a parking lot. It took some damage, and the insurance wanted to total it. The guy fixed it up and sold it because he felt it was too big for him.
In preparation for the trip--and strong desires to tour more--Lars added a backrest, sissy bar bag, a light bar, engine bars/highway pegs, Hypercharger intake, Cobra fueling programmer, and a 12v/USB charger

Erick - 2005 VTX 1800


Erick went all-out on his Honda-Davidson conversion and bought hard saddlebags, a batwing fairing with stereo/GPS, Mustang seat, etc… Unless you look really close, it is hard to tell that it isn’t a Harley Bagger.

Me - NC700X “Serenity”





I had been working on adding some improvements to my trusty NC700X, which included suspension upgrades from Cogent, a custom seat, and added wiring for charging electronics and heated gear. I haven’t messed with engine “performance” upgrades, because from everything I’ve read, you can only gain around 5hp by doing exhaust, intake, and CPU flash, so the benefit did NOT outway the costs. She does well enough on the long highway stretches, and I love how she handles the twisty roads with the new suspension bits.

New rubber:

Reshaped seat


Electrical


Dash


Springy bits


The weekend before we left, I did an oil change, checked over the fluids, and put on a new Michellin PR4 rear. The front only had around 6k miles on it, so it had plenty of life for this trip. I had a Conti Motion on the rear, that only had 3k on it, but since it is the first Conti I’ve had, I didn’t trust it to last through the trip. Even with the low-powered NC, I tend to be rough on rear tires by accelerating quickly and engine braking a lot.

I made a tribute to my little sister, who is currently battling stage 4 cancer. She is a trooper, but she’s going through way more than any 26-year-old should.

 

[draco_1967]

I'll start getting to the good stuff soon, I promise

Day 1
June 21st

Lars and I work in downtown SLC. Erick works from home. He met us at the Chevron station on the north end of the city so we could hit the road together. We were on the road by 5:20. Did I mention that it was hot? The temp as we left was 96*. At least it’s a dry heat…

Here is our group: Lars in the beard-

Erick with the shorn skull-

I have some pictures of my ugly mug coming up soon...

We encountered a bit of traffic heading North on I-15 through Ogden. I anticipated that this day would be an exceedingly boring day. It turned out to be a little more exciting because we faced a stiff headwind for all 348 miles.



Gas stops

As the day drew to a close, the temperatures began to drop. Of course, the evening brought out all the bugs, so we were plastered in carapace and goo in no time. Cool, misty air provided by all the farming irrigation along the highway was a welcome reprieve from the heat of the day.

We tried find some decent camping accommodations, but we arrived in Boise around 12:30. I had a few spots picked on the map for potential campsites. We ended up going to Mack’s Creek, just North of Boise. It’s actually a beautiful spot, but it was also totally full. I was not expecting that on a Tuesday night, even during the summer. Because it was dark, and now 1am, we just parked in the lot and laid our sleeping bags down between the bikes.

There was a friendly gentleman who was camped just below the parking lot. He was chilling by the fire, drinking a few beers (there were lots of empty bottles around). He asked us what time it was when we rolled in, and then asked if he could help in any way. There wasn’t much conversation outside of that.

It was neat sleeping out under the stars. It was not neat having some stupid birds squawking back and forth between the trees over our heads for most of the night. I slept very fitfully, and was up before the sun. Not a great start to the trip.

Total Miles: 385

 

[draco_1967]

Day 2
June 22nd

We managed to roll up camp and leave before anyone really noticed that we were there. I don’t feel too bad about not paying, since we didn’t make use of any of their facilities. Before we left, we did get an inspection by this curious corgi, Rosie. She needed to make sure that her new neighbors weren’t too shady. She was content to chew on a stick with us for a few minutes, so I assume that she approved.









We hit the road by about 6am.



Our goal today was to make it to our hotel in Bellevue, WA, just outside of Seattle. Erick made contact with a client who lives in Seattle, and he recommended a slight detour for a more scenic route through Eastern WA.

We jumped back on I-84 out of Boise, and headed to the Oregon border. I steeled myself for another day of mostly highway miles. We wouldn’t be seeing much of interest until we got off of the slab.

Our first gas stop was Ontario, OR. Nothing interesting happened there other than breakfast.

After another 130ish miles, we stopped at a Chevron in Baker, OR.



We met a guy who was heading out west also. He wanted to see the PCH before he moved to Florida next month. He and his wife had an RV towing a little trailer with an old Triumph Bonneville (I think he said it was a ‘76). It looked beautiful from across the Chevron’s back lot. He said his brother restored it a few years ago, and now he takes care of it. He asked us a lot of questions--about how many miles we were doing, how long we would be gone, about our bikes, gear, etc… He was quite friendly, and I got the impression that he wished that he was on that Triumph right along with us.

Here is the gas station. The RV and Triuph were behind the semi in this picture.


The Bonnie owner headed back to his RV, and I went into the convenience store to fill up my Camelbak. I like to be courteous and ask the clerk for permission before stealing 3 liters of water from the tap. The clerk was a late-thirties lady, who was cheery. It must have been the beginning of her day. When I asked her if I could fill this (as I held up the bladder) she got a very confused and somewhat concerned look. I had to clarify that it is a Camelbak, you know, for drinking on the go...I think she thought it was a colostomy bag or something. I would have this confirmed days later in a similar situation in California. The clerk said sure, but I’ll have to charge you if you take any ice! No problem, I said. Thanks!

We mounted our steeds and continued on our trek across the northeast corner of Oregon on I-84. Eventually, we turned off of the slab and headed around Lake Wallula. The road took us into Washington, and across the first of many cool bridges this trip. Then up to Richland, where we took a little breather. We found a nice park, stretched out on the grass and relaxed after some long freeway miles. Eastern Washington is slightly more interesting than Western Idaho, but not a whole lot.



From Richland, we headed north on RT 240 toward Vantage, where we crossed another really cool bridge. As we got back on the slab (I-90) and headed West, things began green up significantly. We climbed in elevation, the temperatures dropped, and the scenery improved a ton! As I put this report together, I studied the map some more, and I think Erick’s client was directing us to the corner rich canyon between Yakima and Ellensburg, rather than the route next to the river. Dang, that looks like it would have been entertaining…

 

[draco_1967]

Some shots along the way






Picked up a bug on the lens



Bridges










Somehow the pre-programed gas stop didn’t make it into the route, and we rode right past the last stop within a safe distance, Cle Elum (how do you pronounce that?). We pulled off of the highway in Easton, and took a look at the map to find the closest gas. I think we were being overly-cautious to go back the 13 miles to Cle Elum, instead of going forward 22 miles to Snoqualmie, but we played it safe anyway.





Finally, we came through the pass, and headed down to our hotel. I guess I programmed the completely incorrect address into the map, because it took us to an apartment complex in Issaquah, instead of the Days Inn in Bellevue. We drove the additional 10 miles and began unloading our stuff into the hotel room. We were looking forward to showers, but food was in order first. Erick’s client, Jim decided he wanted to meet us for dinner and check out our bikes. He was on a Yamaha V-Star (I don’t remember the size, but it was on the large size). He brought his coworker, Mike, who rides a 2008-ish Goldwing. Mike said he bought the Wing from a guy in New York. I almost died when he said he DIDN’T do a fly-and-ride, but instead had it shipped. Now, he did buy it in March, so it’s somewhat excusable...but not entirely. At first, I had a really hard time figuring out if they were a couple or not. They just seemed to finish each other’s sentences, and know the details of the other’s lives so well…

It turns out that they are not, but whatever. We shared riding stories, talked about good roads we’d seen, and then we talked bikes for a bit. Dinner was at Lil’ Jon Restaurant. It was your typical diner fare, and best of all, just a 5 min walk from the hotel.

I realized as we were looking for a place to eat, that we were just around the corner from the LDS Seattle Temple. Being a (mostly) good little Mormon boy, I had to get a picture. It is a somewhat older temple design, and it shows it’s era (70s) well. One of the things that the LDS church does well is beautiful landscaping around their temples.




We don’t have hydrangeas like this in UT.



We then headed back to the hotel and showered, did some laundry, and slept.

Total miles: 526

 

[draco_1967]

It's been way too long since my last post about this trip. Sorry folks...sometime life distracts me

Day 3
June 23rd

Welcome to the Pacific North-Wet! We woke a little later than anticipated, and found the outstide world was a grey, gloomy, wet mess. Time to test the rain gear. I was a little excited to see how the Lattitude would handle the rain, but my cohorts were a little leery of their PVC suits from Wally-World (I didn’t blame them).

Looking down on our steeds:


View from the room:


After farting around in the room getting stuff together, the rain subsided to a very light mist. We decided that we wanted to backtrack a little bit to see Snoqualmie falls. It was only 20 minutes up the pass, so no biggie. In the final packing and pre-flight check, I discovered that my rear was a few lbs low, so I busted out the trusty little Slime compressor to top off. Lars and Erick decided to check theirs as well, and they were both in the low 30s. After about 20 min of fighting to get those VTX rears inflated, we were ready to roll. Honda didn’t give much space between the hub and the valve stem to get anything in there. I recommended that they get some 90* stems when they change tires next time.

Getting stuff ready:


I made sure that all my vents were zipped up, swapped out my tinted visor for the clear pinlocked visor; meanwhile Lars and Erick donned their PVC suits. We hopped on I-90 and headed East. Not 10 minutes into the ride, Erick reported that his rain pants were ripping badly. The left leg tore up to the waist, and the right was close behind. Lars’ also began to rip at the knee. When we took the Snoqualmie exit, we found a massive playground with a parking lot to stop and Gorilla tape the suits back together.

Blowout:


While Erick was fixing his badly destroyed pants, Lars decided to venture into the restroom to relieve himself. We still had the Senas going at this point. Suddenly, we hear Lars say, “oh no. Ooooooh nooo.”
I respond with, “uh...is everything OK buddy?”
“Oh no. Poop everywhere.”
Erick and I start laughing at this point, wondering what the heck is happening in there.
Lars came running out laughing. Someone previously didn’t flush, or tried and it didn’t go down. When Lars tried, the toilet just overflowed everywhere. We left the park PDQ after that.

Snoqualmie falls was worth the little detour. It isn’t massive, as waterfalls go, but it was beautiful to see the moss-covered stones, the cloud of mist coming off of the falls, and the green! Green everywhere! We took some obligatory selfies and panoramic shots.





One of the old turbines:


Can you see me now?


We hit the road again and headed for downtown Seattle. The whole variable speed limit thing is cool, but I don’t think anyone pays attention to it. We began fighting traffic through the city streets, making our way to the ferry station. Due to some construction, we had to circle around a few blocks to get into the station. The streets that we saw were typical downtown streets--small, boutique shops, trendy restaurants, and coffee shops. I read that Seattle is the Prius capital of the US, and it surely did not disappoint. Luckily, we managed to avoid the worst of them.

Lars was brave enough to risk his iPhone and take some shots through traffic:






After buying our tickets, we parked the bikes with (supposedly) an hour before the next ferry to Bremerton. Lars and Erick went to Ivar’s Fish Bar for some breakfast, while I watched the bikes. After about 25 mins, I could see the Ferry approaching the dock. It didn’t take long for everyone to de-boat, and then suddenly the nice lady in the neon vest was waving the bikes onto the boat. Lars and Erick weren’t back yet, so I called them. No one picked up. That’s no bueno...Not to fret, though. I could see them both running toward me from Ivar’s. We lost our spot at the front of the ferry, but we made it just before they buttoned everything up to depart.













We went up to the top deck to see the city as we chugged away from Seattle. The breeze was cool, but I felt pretty warm with all my vents zipped up. We cruised across the bay and wound our way between peninsulas and islands. I thought about what it would be like living right on the water in one of those beautiful homes and I swear I could hear my bank account laugh at me for being so ridiculous. Perhaps if I sold everything I owned, sold one of my kidneys, my left testicle, and half of my liver, I could afford one of the smaller shacks....But then I couldn’t afford to own a motorcycle.







After about an hour, we landed in Bremerton. It was a cute little town, much quieter than Seattle. Our route took us south on Rte 3 toward Shelton. Erick pointed out the dark clouds to the Northwest--his disappointment was quite apparent. Out of Shelton, we picked up the 101, and were officially on the Pacific Coast Highway!

 

[draco_1967]

Not too long into the 101 (I think it was somewhere around Eldon or Binnon), it started to rain. This was REAL rain, not the misty stuff we encountered in the morning. Within minutes, Eric and Lars were soaked from the waist down. The PVC jackets were still holding together for them. Thankfully, I was still dry except for my gloves. We continued on our way though, and after a few more miles, the rain turned into a downpour. Visibility went way down, and water was pooling up on the road. We talked about finding a place to take shelter, but we figured that since we (they) were already soaked, we should just press on to the next fuel stop. It didn’t help that there weren’t any options for shelter either. Eventually, my “waterproof” TCX boots began leaking at one of the seams around the ankle. I had good wool socks on, so it didn’t bother me too much. Our pace slowed significantly through the worst of the rain. The others were having issues with their sunglasses fogging or pooling with water. I respect everyone’s freedom to choose their riding apparel, ATGATT with a full-face helmet isn’t just for protection in a slide…

A while later, we finally made it to a massive Chevron in Blyne. Thankfully the rain had stopped. We gassed up, grabbed some food (I still hadn’t eaten a real meal), and took a look at where we were going next. The guy at the counter was younger (probably early 20’s) and was a rider. I wish I could remember his name. He was really friendly, asked us all about our trip, and expressed how he wished he could be riding with us. His bike is a Ducati Monster.

We discussed our options for sleeping accommodations. I had a campsite booked at Cape Disappointment (mostly because I liked the name). I figured campgrounds would fill up quickly when we were planning, and they did. Since they were soaked, Eric and Lars thought it might be better to get a motel and dry stuff out. I agreed. I tried to contact the campground to cancel the reservation, hoping that I could at least get some of the $48 back--Jeeze, Washington, your campgrounds are frickin expensive! Unfortunately, the phone number is automated and was taking way too long, and there wasn’t enough of a data signal to try going through the website. I said, “Screw it, let’s just go.”

Since my summer gloves were wet, and the temps were pretty cool (low 60’s), I decided to bust out the heated gloves. I was worried that they might be too warm, but they weren’t. We mounted up, I stuck my phone back into the RAM mount (it was in a plastic baggie during the rain, not plugged in to power), plugged it into the charging cable, and we went on our way. Later in the day, I noticed that my phone was not charging. The USB outlets I have are both 2A output, but my phone was only recognizing a slow, 1A charge. I unplugged it and plugged it back in, and the phone recognized the 2A again, but only for a few minutes before reverting to a slow charge. The phone was also getting abnormally hot. I had PowerAmp playing tunes, CoPilot navigating us, and Glympse sending tracking info to BookFace and my to SOQS back home. So, I turned everything off that I could, so I could run CoPilot only. I was able to run the phone like this for the rest of the day without issues.

Once moving, my hands felt perfect. I had the heat on low, and my hands were so happy. I kinda felt bad for the others, but only a little. I knew that we’d be going through the Pacific North-wet, so I was prepared. This was their first rodeo, so they learned a lot about what kind of gear they need for the next one.

Our first real view of the Pacific!








Our next stop was Quinault. On the previous day, Erick’s client, Jim, warned us that there wasn’t any gas between Quinault and the next stop, so we gassed up there. While fueling up at the tiny station there, a guy pulled up in an old, early-90s suburban and started talking to Eric and Lars. I was on the other side of the pump, and I had my earplugs in, so I couldn’t hear what he was saying. I have tried using the “ambient” feature on the 20s, but it never seems to work for me. It turns out that he was hoping to get some gas, but only had cash. The convenience store was closed, so he couldn’t pay for the gas himself. Lars helped him gas up, AFTER the guy ponied up the dough. Lars ain’t nobody’s fool.











Lars and Erick had dried out pretty well throughout the afternoon and evening. We stopped at a few spots along the 101 once we got back to the coast. It was nice to see the ocean again. As the sun got low and finally set, we started looking for places to stop. We didn’t want to stop too early, since it would add extra miles to our next day’s ride. In Raymond, we found a couple pretty shady looking motels. One was the Golden Lion Inn. After some discussion--a little heated at times because of how miserable the wet day had been--we decided to take our chances and push on. The CoPilot app gave me several hotel/motel options either in Aberdeen (back 22 miles) or Long Beach (ahead 26 miles). Long Beach was a better option, as it wouldn’t affect our mileage for the next day as much. We rode on into the darkness. Being on the coast now, we encountered a bit of fog creeping in off of the water. This slowed our pace a little. Erick’s 20s battery cut out at this point, so it was just me and Lars on the comms. Then raindrops began falling. It quickly turned into a pretty solid rain. My first thought was, “oh man, Erick is going to be so pissed!” He had the hardest time with the weather on this day. Lars chimed in on the headset and echoed my thoughts. Luckily for us, the rain lasted no more than a minute or two before stopping. We rolled into Long Beach at around 11:30. The first motel we saw had the “NO” lit over the “VACANCY” sign. What a disappointment. We rode by a few others with similar results. These were all small, family owned places. I started to get worried that we wouldn’t find a place.

Lars spotted a monstrous building that looked like a big chain motel, so we headed that way. It turns out that it was some weird timeshare thing that Windham owns, so no joy on a place to stay. I think someone was looking out for us on the trip, because we met the nicest, most helpful people when we had troubles. The kind young lady at the front desk took the time to give us a list of places in town that would likely have vacancies AND that would not be too expensive. We ended up going to the newly remodeled Best Western just half a mile down the road. It was such a good choice. When we arrived, the receptionist began getting us sorted with a room. Then the night manager, Bob, came out. Bob must have been in his early seventies. He asked us all about where we were coming from and where we were going. Turns out that Bob is also from Utah originally. We talked about how Salt Lake has changed in the fifty-some-odd years since he left. He was nice enough to let us park the bikes under the overhang at the lobby entrance. Bob said that he had an older couple come through on a white Goldwing trike with a matching trailer. He said his dream was to get a rig just like that, ride for a couple years, and then kick the bucket so he wouldn’t have to pay it off!

The warm room, soft beds, and hot shower were welcome after such a long, wet day. Sadly, we would have to go without dinner, since everything was closed now that it was past midnight. Well, I’m sure there was a McDonalds, but I’m glad neither of the others were up to searching for fast food.

Total miles: 392 (-16 on the ferry)

 

[yearroundrider]

Great stories! I live in Olympia WA so I know all about riding in the rain around here. If you don't, you don't ride much.
I have thought about doing this route because 101 starts a mile from my house and ride all the way to the border of Mexico or close to it. I've gone as far as Garberville CA so far on the NC.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[draco_1967]

Day 4
June 24th

Even though I was in the third roll-away bed that slept like a bad hammock, I slept hard. We woke up to dry clothes and a warm breakfast downstairs. We went through our now routine morning packing and hit the road.

The steeds in the morning, under the overhang:

Sticker love:




This day would be an awesome one! First stop: Astoria, OR, home of the Goonies and Kindergarten Cop!

The morning was gray, and a little drizzley, but not too bad.


We crossed the Astoria bridge in a light rain. The others resigned themselves to being wet again for the day. Fortunately they wouldn’t need to be. The only rain we saw for the day was in the AM. The Astoria bridge is really cool. From the Washington side, you go over a small rise, then go across a long stretch that is flat. Then you see the bridge suddenly rise up ahead of you (at least it seems sudden when you are going through the fog and rain). After crossing the bridge, we gassed up to prepare for the famous spots in town.




One of the drawbacks to using a point-and-shoot on the move is that you end up with a lot of shots like this:


It’s amazing to see the bridge rise up so high



The rain reduced to a mild drizzle--just enough to be annoying. Finding the Goonies house was pretty easy. There are a whole heap of no parking signs and even a few signs put up by the owner. I guess they weren’t to excited about the 30-year anniversary of the film and closed the whole thing up. They are very clear about not wanting any visitors or lookie-loos.

(from the 30th anniversary last year -- kifed from the googles)

We stopped against the neighborhood wishes and took a few pics. There is a realty sign on the property, so it looks like the owners finally had enough. I hope someone awesome buys it and turns it into a Goonies museum.

My pic of the house:



And the friendly signage:


After goofing around in Astoria for another few minutes, we headed back to the 101. The moisture falling from the sky stopped for us shortly after we got back on the road.

Our next stop was Cannon Beach, where you can get a look at the famous rock formation from Goonies. This would be the first of so many beautiful views of the coast that included amazing rock formations out in the water. Some of them look otherworldly, almost like little islands in the sky.



The largest rock in the background of the shot from the Goonies below, Haystack Rock, is off to the left of my pictures. I stupidly managed to delete my picture of it

We didn’t have the same viewpoint as the movie, but oh well…

We learned something very interesting on this trip: Oregon has a ton of sand dunes. I was surprised by the first sign I saw for a sand dunes park. Then I saw the dune itself. The thing was pretty dang high! It seemed that we passed mile after mile of sand dunes along the Oregon coast. I would have loved to take a ride up one, just not on my fat pig of a street bike... The little NC does great on fire roads and even some Jeep trails. It carries its 500lbs low, so it doesn’t feel as heavy as it is. I think that I would instantly regret taking that bike in the sand though…

Some pictures along the way:




I also get a lot of shots with the camera focused on the wrong subject…

Better:


We rode through alternating sand dunes, beach overlooks, and little coastal villages for a couple hours, getting gas somewhere along the way. We rode through Tillamook, and I instantly regretted not having more time on this trip. I would love to get some cheese, ice cream, or yogurt straight from the plant. I love that stuff. Sadly, we had to keep moving, and the lot was packed.

Tillamook Air Museum (again, we didn’t have time to snoop around):






We decided to get lunch at the original Mo’s in Newport, based on a recommendation from a coworker. The clam chowder was amazing, and I don’t like clams. The only other clam chowder that I have really enjoyed was at Legal Seafood in Boston. All the little shops along the wharf were very cool, and the salt air mixed with the smell of fish was quite nice (if you’re into that sort of thing ).
Our booth had this picture hanging above it. For a minute, I wondered if it was a boat that my wife told me about that crashed against the rocks somewhere along the Oregon coast. Her great-great-grand aunt (or something like that) was on this ship with a traveling circus, and the crew got drunk one night and crashed into the rocks, killing over 100 people. It turns out this is a different ship...

 

[draco_1967]

It was here that I discovered that my phone was boned. I tried to charge the phone using a battery pack during lunch, but it wasn’t taking a charge. The phone would recognize the plug, then say it was only slow charging. That lasted about a minute before it wouldn’t recognise the plug at all. We debated on what to do next, since I was the navigator for the trip. The combination of the GPS running the display at full brightness, the Glympse app sending tracking info to my wife and to Bookfaceland, and my tunes playing were too much for even the intermittent slow charging to help. Since I was the navigator for the trip, running the GPS with all of our stops programmed in, we were a little concerned. I knew my phone had wireless charging capabilities, so my next move was to find either a wireless retailer or a Walmart. I tried a Metro PCS location that was close, but they didn’t have one. We spotted a Verizon store a few miles down the main drag. On the way there, we spotted the Wally-world, and decided to give them a go. After fighting my way through the usual zombie hoards that frequent Wally-Worlds nation wide, I made it to the electronics section. I looked around in the mobile electronics aisle for a few minutes without much luck. I decided to take a chance and see if the cashier would actually be useful, and I’m glad I did. He actually knew a few things.
“I remember that we were carrying those for a while, but no one was buying them. Lets see if we have one still…”
A few keystrokes on his computer later and, “well, you’re in luck! We should have one in stock!”
He walked me over to an endcap and dug through the clearance/closeout stuff.
“Here it is.”
Jeff, you under-appreciated Wally-World employee, you! I could kiss you! Don’t worry, I refrained.
The “clearance” price on it was $40. Not great. I’m sure I could have found the exact same thing on Amazon for $20, but a Prime membership only gets you so far in a situation like this.

I went back to the bike and plugged in the wireless charger. The phone made that magical “Boop-beep” indicating that it is charging. I figured it wouldn’t charge as quickly as a 2A charger would, so I kept all the GPS stuff of for a while. It’s hard to get lost when the only direction you need is South on the 101. We would be good until the California border. I would miss my music, and I texted my wife to let her know that she wouldn’t be able to track my every move (I am seriously considering a Spot or InReach now).

Having wasted about an hour on this escapade, we got back on the road. I had no idea what to expect on the Oregon coast, but it wasn’t the crazy number of sand dunes that we saw.

More pics, including some awesome bridges:






Nothing really eventful happened for the rest of the Oregon portion of the ride. We gassed up again in Gold Beach, I think.

Weeeee!




In our usual fashion, we were running behind schedule (have I mentioned that I really wish we had more time for this trip?!), and it was almost dark before we made it to the California border. As we approached the border, it looked like someone cut the lines to the irrigation to California. Washington and Oregon were both so green, but as soon as we got close to CA, the effects of drought were apparent.

I turned the GPS on once we reached Crescent City. I knew that we were stopping close to the city. We topped off our tanks and continued south. The campground that I arranged was Deer Creek Campground in Del Norte Coast State Park. This was our first encounter with the mighty Redwood on this trip. Sadly, it was quite dark (I think it was around 11:30), and we couldn’t see just how high those suckers go. The road to the campground was dark, narrow, and windy. The campground is quite large. I forget how many spaces, but there were a lot, and the place was booked. We managed to find our spot in the darkness. I didn’t have a place to hang my hammock--Redwood bark is actually really soft, and they don’t allow hammocks--so I rolled out my sleeping pad and bag. The others set up their cots. We were all pooped.

It didn’t take me too long to fall asleep, but I didn’t sleep solidly. Sometime in the wee morning hours--I’m guessing 2 or 3am--I heard one of the most terrifying noises I’ve ever heard in the wild. If you have never heard what a mountain lion sounds like, youtube that crap. There we were, three tasty human burritos just sitting on the ground ready for some big-kitty takeout. I knew we weren’t really in danger, since it was in the distance, and we didn’t have any food on us, but it was still quite unnerving. There were a lot of other campers who would have been targets before us, so I tried getting back to sleep. Sadly, it didn’t work so well. I suppose there is, somewhere deep inside of me, a primal “holycrapgetthehelloutahere” button that was activated when I heard that scream. Luckily, I had a lovely view of the stars through the redwood canopy to entertain myself all night.

Total Miles: 406miles

 

[draco_1967]

Great stories! I live in Olympia WA so I know all about riding in the rain around here. If you don't, you don't ride much.
I have thought about doing this route because 101 starts a mile from my house and ride all the way to the border of Mexico or close to it. I've gone as far as Garberville CA so far on the NC.


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I wish we had an extra 2 weeks to tack on to the trip. There were so many great roads and sights in the Northwest that I wanted to see. I guess it leaves me with several excuses to head back on another trip or two!

 

[bellyrub]

I wish we had an extra 2 weeks to tack on to the trip. There were so many great roads and sights in the Northwest that I wanted to see. I guess it leaves me with several excuses to head back on another trip or two!

I could join you next time from beaverton, OR if your'e ok with that

 

[Deleted member 5383]

Eastern Washington is slightly more interesting than Western Idaho, but not a whole lot.

I thought there was lots to be interested in eastern WA and western ID -- maybe route selection is partly why ; }

 

[draco_1967]

Day 5
June 25th

After the wonderful night’s sleep that I had, I woke to the lovely smell of the forest around us. Dang, was this place beautiful! I guess the others slept much harder than I did. They didn’t hear the mountain lion. They, of course, assume that I did not hear any such noise. Whatever.

Woke up to this view:



It’s a really nice campground, but a crappy picture:


We packed up our junk in the usual way. There was a guy in the campsite across the road from us who seemed to have an unusual amount of morning phlegm, who couldn’t help but attempt to clear the mucusy obstruction quite loudly every 10 seconds. It was quite obnoxious.

As we left the campground, we let the nice ranger lady know which site we were staying in. “you only stayed the one nigth?” she exclaimed.
“Yeah, we have to get back on the road. But I will be back, for sure!”
“Well good. make sure to stay longer next time!”
I probably will be back, though I don’t know that I’d stay all that long. At $35 each night as an out-of-stater, I don’t think I would stay more than a couple days.
It is nice to see people enthusiastic about their jobs, and most of the park rangers that I’ve encountered are.

Once we were back on the 101, we set of to the South again. California, though drier, was still gorgeous. Those massive redwoods, the more frequent ocean views, and even more of those beautiful rock formations in the water made the ride so much better. This is why we came. There were some beautiful sights along the way to this point, but a lot of the road through Washington and Oregon is much further inland.

We continued for a little while, until we randomly chose Trinidad for a breakfast stop. It is a cool little fishing town, and we had several options for food. We decided on the Trinidad Bay Eatery and Gallery. It’s a cool little cafe with lots of local art on the walls. One artist really liked tessellated images and glitter, but it is always nice to have places that support local artists. The food was fantastic (sorry, I don’t do food pics). I had a California style eggs benedict, with tomato, avocado, and provolone cheese. The hashed browns on the side were perfect: crispy, not greasy, but not burned.

With full bellies, we mounted the hogs for another few hours of open road. Of course, even in California, the coast highway veers away from the coast. As we headed into Humbolt Redwoods State Park, we turned off of the now-freeway to ride through the Avenue of the Giants. It is crazy how big these trees are. Riding on that tiny 2-lane road among those giants made me feel like an insect. It is comparable to the feeling of being in Zion National Park. When you are standing down in the canyon, looking up at those massive temples of stone, you get this feeling that you are nothing more than a speck to this Mother Earth.

I took many pictures while on the go, but most were too blurry or dark since the trees block a lot of light. Here are some of the OK shots:





There was no way we were leaving the park without driving through one of the trees. The Shrine is right off of the Avenue, and it was $5, so it seemed good enough for us. The tree is a little gnarlier than the famous trees at Klamath or Drive-Through Tree Park, which I think is a lot more fun. The family or organization that runs the Shrine has a lot of other structures made from old redwoods. They even have a fallen tree that you can drive up on for photo ops.



I had a kamikaze bird attack me just before entering Humbolt. I captured some of the carnage. It was just a little guy, but he left feathers everywhere:



Once we got out of Humbolt, we headed back to the highway version of 101. It started to get hotter the further inland we went, so we were excited when the GPS directed us off of the freeway and onto the 1. This road is absolutely fantastic! It starts climbing through tight turns almost immediately. As we increased altitude, the temps dropped down to comfortable levels again. With the tight, technical nature of this section of road, our pace slowed significantly. It seemed like we were winding our way through those hills for hours. I loved it. Erick and Lars were slighly less enthused. I guess wrestling muscle cruisers through canyons isn’t as awesome as it is on the relatively svelte NC

Finally, after we dropped back down in elevation, we rounded a bend to see the Pacific again. We pulled off at the overlook to snap some pics and make a minor adjustment to Lars’ bike. Then we got back on the road. Route 1 straightens out significantly once along the coastline. We cruised along for a while, got gas, and kept on going. Again, we were treated to fantastic vistas from high on the cliffs that skirt the shore. I do wish that I had taken a few more good pics on this trip, but I went to RIDE, not to lollygag and dink with a camera!




Then we rode through Salt Point State park, and the never-ending curves began. I was in Nirvana. The roads were mostly smooth, there were almost no other vehicles on the road, and the cool sea air was just perfect. As I leaned into each curve, I started pulling ahead of Lars and Erick. They actually did pretty well keeping up--I wasn’t dragging knees or anything--but the further we went the more often I would hear things over the comm like, “man, do these curves ever end?” My thought was, “why would you want them to?!”

There was this weird section of the road that was exceptionally twisty, which took us up pretty high in altitude. The view was fantastic, but as we rose higher, the temperature went up significantly. It went from high 60s to almost 80 in just a few short minutes. The road would drop us down a couple hundred feet, and the temp would drop too, but it would always send us back up into the heat. It was really bizarre.

We stopped for gas in Point Arena, at The Zen House garage. There were some sweet bikes parked there:



Dinner time was upon us, so we stopped in a tiny town called Guarara. We ate some over-priced Mexican food. I had a combo of beef and El Pastor. It was pretty good, but at a little over $3 per taco, way too expensive. I can get street tacos for $1 each all day long in Salt lake. I guess cost of living in California means inflated taco prices. After the food, we hit the road again.





The nights accommodations were provided by an inmate from the tentspace thread on ADVrider. He was kind enough to let us lay out our bags in his yard. The location was Sebastapol, just a short way north of San Francisco. The area was a little higher elevation, which meant slightly cooler temps. I think it was down in the mid to high 50’s shortly after dark. I found a nice spot to hang my hammock, all snugged in my underquilt, and I had the best night’s sleep of the trip!

Total Miles: 332 miles

 

[draco_1967]

I could join you next time from beaverton, OR if your'e ok with that

That would be awesome!

I thought there was lots to be interested in eastern WA and western ID -- maybe route selection is partly why ; }

I know there is some good stuff in Western ID, I rode through a lot of it last year. ON I-84 though...
I do still want to explore more in WA and OR.

 

[EMFL]

Wonderful trip! Making me want to hit the road