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):
San Francisco to Eureka, CA - 309 Miles The day started kind of chilly and drizzly as we headed north over the Golden Gate Bridge. Welcome to summer in the City - Karl the Fog is ever present. After a quick gas stop in Mill Valley, we rode as fast as we could up 101 north to make it to Cloverdale, where we hopped on 128 West toward the coast. This 60 mile stretch of spectacular twisties cuts through Alexander Valley, a wine region that produces some fantastic small batch wines, and redwoods that are hundreds of years old. Kate and I soaking in the super fresh air in the redwood forrest: 128 terminates on Highway 1 in Albion & Mendocino; the coastal cliffs are just gorgeous and the wildflowers are bursting with color. Here are some shots from the cliffs close to Mendocino.... Alice (poser): Kate (Serious Biker Chick): Coastal Beauty: ....and 2 other kinds of "coastal beauties" lol Highway 1 stops hugging the coast a little north of Rockport, where it turns northeast toward...
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...
Boise ID to Alturas CA - 394 Miles After a crazy long day yesterday, we were looking forward to shorter day, and gaining back an hour as we entered the Pacific Time Zone. Here is the morning view from our hotel in downtown Boise (the Grove): After a quick 50 miles on the freeway north, we broke off to Highway 20 west, which starts out VERY DULL. Of course, we had to stop for several one lane traffic controls (the amount of road construction in Idaho, Oregon, and California is insane). Here are a few shots from a stop on Hwy 20: We didn't stop to get a lot of pics on Hwy 20, but the video footage is AMAZING. Unfortunately, the wireless was not reliable or fast enough for me to upload the videos, so I will try again tomorrow. From Hwy 20, we got onto 395 south in Oregon. The first 100 miles were pure monotony. One straight line of 80 mph in 80 degree dry heat. Ew. It got a little interesting when we hugged Lake Abert: After another hour on 395, we finally crossed back into Californi...
Amazing!!!
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable scenery! Looking forward to more GoPro footage
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!!!!!
ReplyDelete