More beautiful driving along California's
coast. I started out in Santa Rosa a little before 10 and took the
128 west to the coast. 128 led to Mountain View Drive and both were
great on the bike. A few washed out roads and a few 16% grades, but
overall a fun stretch of road. Mountain View put me on the coast near
Point Arena and I took Lighthouse Road out to....yep, the Lighthouse. They
wanted $5 to go all the way to the lighthouse so I stayed back a little ways and
enjoyed the view from the free land. There were a couple of guys running
out to the lighthouse and we stopped and talked for a little while. There
names were Ben and Kaleo and I enjoyed the chance to hang out and take a break
from riding. After a few minutes there, I turned North from Point Arena to
take the 1 and 101 all the way up the coast. It was everything I had hoped
it would be. Dramatic scenes of mountains gradually giving way to the
ocean, beautiful lagoons, redwood forests, and more. I caught a view of
some Elk north of Eureka and met another biker there. His name was Adam
and he had been on the road for over 18000 miles. His journey had begun
close to two months ago and had taken him through most of the continental U.S.
and was leading him to Deadhorse, AK, of all places. I'd ride up
there with him but he's going up a little quicker than I'm planning to. We
road together to Crescent City where I stopped for dinner. After dinner
and a few phone calls I decided to look for a camp site. It was after 10
and as I got back on the 101 I decided that I'd save my first night of camping
for a different night. I had ridden almost 400 miles and didn't feel like
fumbling with a tent in the dark at a yet to be determined camp site. So I
found a cheap motel, unloaded the bike and got a good night's sleep.
Overall, it was a great day. I felt like I became a better rider
throughout the course of the day, and got to do it while viewing some amazing
scenery. One of the best parts was riding along the coast near Klamath
while the sun was setting. Beautiful beaches meeting dense forest...hard
to describe. Ok, I need to get back on the road. Below is a video of
some of my riding today. In order, the four excerpts are from Mountain
View Road, Point Arena, Somewhere north of Eureka, and Klamath at Sunset with
Adam riding in front of me. The first two are sped up and the last two are
normal speed. Some GPS files here and here, and a few pictures
below as well.