June 27: Santa Rosa to Crescent City

More beautiful driving along California’scoast.  I started out in Santa Rosa a little before 10 and took the128  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, butoverall 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.