Day 34...a hundred miles of twisties

Today, day 34 on the rod, July 13th...

I went from Grants Pass, OR to Santa Rosa, CA today.  It was about 430 miles and a long ride, but probably the most technically challenging ride I've had on the ride so far.  I'm torn between two songs to post with this blog entry, so I'll just append them both.  The Winding Road.  Mendocino

When I left Grants Pass this morning it was 75 degrees and the sky was sunny and blue.  I said goodbye to the carved Tiki figures that watched over my tent site all night long and moved out of the camp grounds.

I headed west to link up with HWY 1 and ride alongside the ocean.  The closer I got to the ocean the cooler it got until finally I saw 53 degrees.  I put on two additional layers and finally got comfortable.  From the time I got onto Hwy I to the time I got off over 100 miles later I rode between files of giant redwoods and cedars.  There were also the red barked madrona trees that are beautiful, but messily shed their bark all year. 

At Liggett, CA, I switched to highway 1 and saw the sign saying there was 35 miles of continuous turns ahead.  That wasn't true.  It was more like 100.  I'd like to share a photo of that first 35 miles or so, but honestly I couldn't have snapped a picture on a dare.  For the entire length I was either leaning left or right in a turn.  The max speed I saw was 45mph and many times I had to slow to 15mph for the hairpin turns.  There wasn't too much traffic and the few vehicles I overtook quickly moved to turnouts to let me go on ahead...a very motorcycle friendly bunch.  I couldn't see much of the countryside for the trees.  The monster redwoods and huge cedars grew so tall and so big they covered the road like a green roof and obscured any view but straight down the road.  After an eternity of 'not falling over' I suddenly popped out of the rain forest and onto an overlook just a few yards from the Pacific ocean. The change was sudden and dramatic.

Now that I was by the ocean it the road continued to wind dramatically.  Between the small towns (Fort Bragg, Mendocino, etc) the road was either lined with more giant redwoods, or offered a sudden drop to the beach, or (towards the end) wound between vineyards and other agro fields.

By the time I finished with this stretch of road I was a tired scooter rider.  For the most part car drivers were polite and let you go around them, but there was still some white knuckle passing to get around some trailers and cars that were going much slower than a motorcycle can comfortably go.  Towards the end, the farther I got from the ocean the hotter it got and I saw 104 degrees before I got to Santa Rosa.

 

In Santa Rosa I linked up with my cousin David and his wife, Ingrid.  Tomorrow we'll ride together all day and spend one more night together on the road, then they'll return to Clovis, CA, and I'll continue towards San Diego.