I’m just into beautiful sunny California about 5 miles and I get tagged by radar. The fine officer Randall was all business and was giving off attitude like you wouldn’t believe. Oh well, it takes all kinds to make this world go ’round, and now I get to test out how well the pre-paid legal works for me. The ticket is for 70 in a 55 and just about everyone was doing 65… not that it’s a defense at all, but rather just pointing out he probably has a hard on for busting sport bikes. So be careful up there in Northern California.

Anyway, I started to cheer up as I get some great curves through the Redwoods, but my radar is constantly going off with radar from the roadside. I don’t know if it’s those camera tickets or just speed indicators, but whatever it is I’m not ready to take the chance. I keep in at the speed limit pretty much all the way to Arcata as my radar detector goes off every few minutes.

Once leaving Arcata, I took the Avenue of the Giants just off hwy 101. It’s an amazing experience! You’re constantly traveling between these huge Redwoods. It’s so quiet and beautiful. I’d been through the Redwood National Park, but this road is twice as cool to travel through. As a child I had a recurring dream of these enormously huge trees towering over the roadside and usually something bad happening while driving through them. I now think it’s based on a memory of driving through these trees as a young kid. I saw almost the exact image from my dreams while traveling through this tunnel of trees. Interesting to see this come up from my past.

Out of the redwoods I headed down 101 again until I hit hwy 1. I just LOVE this road!! It’s a constant 22 miles of switchbacks, many which are 15 and 20 mph curves. It’s very technical and I can tell a huge difference between when I’m completely ready for a corner and when something is off. An amazing time! After 22 miles, it straightens out a little, but is still an incredible road all the way until Ft Bragg which is another 20 miles away. I stopped after I got out of the hard corners and checked my tires. I was using the whole tire and had slight heat marks all the way to the very edges. Even the front tire I’d used completely out to the edge.

After fueling up at Ft Bragg, I went onto hwy 20 and found a nice place to camp out in the state forest and settled down for the night. It’s my first night of camping. It was so quiet at night you can hear the slightest noise from 50 yards away, like the rustle of little creatures in the leaves. It’s a peaceful feeling to be nowhere near any other humans and just have the sounds of the night woods to put you to sleep.

Day 4

Miles driven 215 – Ft Bragg, CA to San Francisco, CA – 6 hours on the bike

In the morning I am gently awakened by an increasing light and the sound of birds singing. After such a good nights rest in the woods, a quick breakfast of a protein bar and some water, I was off again.

The roads in Northern CA are amazing. One after another, each road surprises me. I cut across to the east from the coast now to get into wine country, and each road over the many small mountains are beautiful switchbacks with amazingly maintained roads. I haven’t seen any other motorcyclists on these roads, just cars, but the cars are hauling ass for cars. In fact a few of the trucks were taking the curves at almost 75% of the speed I was. Once over the mountains I started to head south again to head towards San Francisco. It’s warm and dry over this side of the mountains. And the towns and scenery are beautiful. Finally I stopped in Middleton, CA at a little mom and pop diner called Beulah’s Kitchen. I had a wonderful breakfast/lunch, spent a little time updating my notes, and chatted with three other bikers who were on a trip of their own heading towards the mid-west I believe.

After eating, I continued on down the road and followed some other sport bikers over another mountain pass. One was on a 600 and another on a 900 Ducati. It was really enjoyable to ride hard with some other sport bikes for a few miles. We reached the end of that particular pass, and they were going north while I was headed south, so we waved and parted ways.

I rode on down to San Fran, and stopped at Golden Gate Recreational Area to grab a couple of shots of the Golden Gate Bridge and the city. One thing about San Francisco is that there are great spots to get some of the most amazing views of all parts of the city. This Rec area is one of those spots.

I headed to Susan’s house who was hosting me for the night for couchsurfing. She lives in a beautiful house up on on a high hill on the west side of the city and the view is absolutely amazing!

Went out for a couple of hours and drove up to the radio tower as the highest point in the city to get some pictures, then down to the Golden Gate Park. I wasn’t even aware that there was this huge park in the middle of the city, and this is the exact reason that I love couchsurfing… you get the advise of a local who can show you or tell you about what they consider to be the best parts of their city.

Back at Susan’s I helped her set out some food for us and two friends of hers who came over for dinner named Joyce and Sarah. We had a great little dinner, some wine and a lot of great conversation. Such great people.

Day 5

Miles driven 364 – San Francisco, CA to Porterville, CA – 9 hours on the bike

I slept late today as I’d had about 3 glasses of wine and we were going to do a later breakfast. Once I got up, I met Turi who is Susan’s boyfriend. Such a great guy, who’s done a similar trip to the one I am doing years ago in his truck and carrying a canoe and bike. Plenty of great insight and advise from him. We had dim sum for brunch, which was fabulous. Chicken and pork rolls, shrimp and pork wraps, and pork pot stickers. So delicious!

By the time I was back on the road it was noon. I rode on down to Fresno then on to Kings Canyon National Park and Sequoia National Park. Even after seeing the mighty mighty Redwoods, the Sequoias are to my eyes even grander. They aren’t as tall, but are so large and thick that they seem almost unreal nestled in between the thinner trees.

The roads both up and down into the National Park are incredible motorcycle roads. I was entering the park around 6pm and leaving around 9pm, so the number of cars on the road was maybe 10 total the whole time. I was having a blast again with tight curves and weaving straights. Up at the top it’s over 7000 feet so I was getting pretty chilled and wanted to get back down to warmer temperatures. Coming down the south end of the park it was dark and the roads were amazingly curvy again… switchback after switchback after switchback. I think that was my first time ever really pushing it hard through these type of curves in the dark, but I found it exhilarating all the same. I just can’t say no when I come upon great roads.

At the bottom it was warm again, and I found a little restaurant to grab some coffee and spend some time catching up on my posts and pictures…….

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