Our ride today was all coast, all day. Pockets of sun among the fog. Thank goodness for heated gear !
We had breakfast around 7:15am in the hotel, where we had to listen to a woman who clearly wanted attention telling horrible stories of her childhood loud enough so everyone could hear. Public Service Announcement - therapy. By a professional.
We also met a woman who was on her way out for a run - and get this - she is heading to Banff. How bizarre would it be if we ran into her in Eureka AND Banff !
Kickstands up at 8am, heading out of Eureka, hugging the coast.
Klamath, Crescent City, and finally into Oregon.
We spent a lot of time in the fog, but it finally lifted so that we could enjoy the coastal beauty.
The bikes are handling really well on the trip !
See the two people in this shot ? Gives some perspective on how HUGE the beaches on the Oregon coastline are.
We thought this rock looked like a shark fin...
What is that dorky thing on top of my helmet you ask...? My GoPro.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull, surveying the beach domain...
We stopped in Bandon for a quick snack and to walk around the historic beach town - highly recommend the Bandon Brewery. The nachos (seen below) and Soft Pretzel (which I could not get a pic of because we devoured it, with beer cheese, in like 47 seconds) were amazing.
We parked in front of the Raven Grille - Kate's bike's name is Raven !
Before we left town, I went to the old timey candy store and bought a big bag of malted milk balls. I ate WAY TOO MANY of them after dinner and now I have a food baby named "Malty".
There was an odd phenomenon we noticed with Oregon drivers. This is something we first saw like 5 years ago on a moto trip where we traversed the entire state for like 4 days. And it is still true today....
People here consistently drive 5 mph under the speed limit. It is bizarre. The most compliant drivers ever.
But that was of no help when some dummy tried to make a left from the right hand lane and almost took me out in Florence.
We finally arrived in Newport around 5pm, and our hotel is spectacular !! Elizabeth Suites, right on the water.
This is the outside lounge, with fire pits, Adirondack chairs, and sand.
This is the view from our deck in our room:
We decided to hang in the room tonight, so on the way thru town we got a bottle of Seghesio Zinfandel wine, and ordered a pizza and salad. It was wonderful to just hang out, sip some vino and not have to be anywhere.
We did have one critter incident today; Kate ran over a recently deceased (and very bloody) fox on 101. She was unable to avoid it, and ran directly over it. I am positive there are fox bits in her wheel well, but neither of us are willing to look.
There were no "off roading" (intentional or not) incidents today thank goodness.
This is my first year of traveling with the GoPro - hope you all enjoy these 2 videos I took with the camera mounted on my helmet (they are safe to click - had to load them up on YouTube given file size limitations of this blog):
Look Out Canada, Here We Come ! This year's ride will take us from San Francisco all the way up coastal California, Oregon, and Washington, on our way to crossing the border north of Seattle into Canada. We will be hugging the Canadian Rockies, making our way through several of Canada's National Parks. On the way back home, we will (finally - tried last year and failed) ride thru Glacier, taking the Going to the Sun Road thru the park. Montana & Idaho are also on the route. A new twist to the ride this year is our Moto Club Name. Kate and I decided we needed an identity and logo this year. After several attempts (with and without tequila) to name our small but mighty group, we landed on "Daughters of Defiance", with the logo below. What will we be defying ? You will have to wait for the daily reports to find that out ;-). One last thing - there is ALWAYS SOMETHING that goes haywire before a trip. This time is was the intercoms in our helmets - they just went won...
Clinton to Lone Butte to Kamloops to Clinton BC Loop - 250 miles We had to adjust our plans a bit give the huge wildfire in and around Jasper National Park, which has closed roads in/out of Jasper and the surrounding area and done some devastating damage. So we spent 2 nights in Clinton and had an easier day today, sleeping in, enjoying a leisurely breakfast, and taking off around 11am for a loop ride around the Clinton, British Columbia area. But before we left, we got a photo of our new Moto Club t-shirts in the lobby of our hotel: Our route took us past MANY lakes - a theme in BC. There is a lot of water here; seems like we pass 10-15 lakes or rivers on every ride. The scenery is spectacular and photos do not do it justice. Below are a few shots of Lac De Roches. Seen from Hwy 24 and n estled within the heart of the BC wilderness, in the “Land of Hidden Waters,” lies Lac Des Roches, known for its trophy Gerrard Rainbows and freshwater cod (burbots) that are prevalent in the win...
The Crossing to Banff, Alberta - 120 miles Today was a light riding day, with the majority of it spent riding thru the Icefields Parkway, which was absolutely spectacular ! The photos posted do not do this area justice. None of the photos are filtered - the colors are unnaturally natural. We headed out from the Crossing around 10am, and immediately were awed with the spectacle of lakes at elevation and ancient glaciers. Kate taking it all in.... Alice soaking it all in.... Unfortunately, a large wildfire has destroyed the town of Jasper and large parts of the park. Hoping the town rebuilds and comes back even stronger ! Kate Alice I need to find a way to photo shop the GoPro out of these selfies... Onward to Lake Louise. To be honest, this place is overrun with traffic, tourists, and a pain in the rear end to get in to. All of the parking lots were full and they were turning people away. The only reason we got in was because they had a motorcycle only parking area. Also - $35 Cana...
Amazing!!!
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable scenery! Looking forward to more GoPro footage
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!!!!!
ReplyDelete