Alaska Sojourn Part Two (Long)

[Guest]

Part Two, The Road Calls!

Barking wildly, Shadow, Mark’s mini schnauzer, wanted on Mark’s bike. Shadow was to accompany us on the ride, and she wanted to get started. So, without further ado, Mark hoisted her up onto the tank of his 96 RT, we thumbed the starters, and off we went! Sort of. What would an epic ride be without an epic breakfast at the “24th St. Café” in Bakersfield. After an artery-clogging plate of eggs, hash browns, and bacon we were off!

By nine o’clock we were motoring out of Bakersfield, and the temps were getting warm. I stopped and took off my heavy jacket and strapped it to the back of the GS. Aaah, comfort. Maybe not so much rider safety, but I was cooler and happy!

Soon we were cruising at hyper speed through the oil producing hills north and west of Bakersfield. We stopped for a cold drink and a guy in a new ‘Stang pulled up and yelled, “Hey, dudes, did you lose this?” He held up a beautiful Tourmaster Cortech jacket, which looked suspiciously like mine. A quick glance at the back of my bike confirmed my thought. “Yep,” I said, “that’s mine.” The guy laughed, and I hurriedly stuck the jacket back on the luggage rack before Mark could see what was up…

Back on the road, the big beemers racked up impressive miles, while transporting their human cargo in great comfort. We were both grinning under our helmets, and Shadow was dozing contentedly while the miles flew by. Now the scenery was changing as the Central Valley gave way to the central coast. Big Sur, Carmel with it’s $2.20 gasoline, and Monterey flew by. Soon we were camped in Santa Cruz, wedged into a very expensive KOA.

That was ok, because Chris Goodfellow, a good friend of ours had ridden down from San Francisco to meet us and ride for a bit. We ignored the raucous generators and the crowds of children, and spoke into the night of rides past and future.

So far, the ride had been great, and the scenery superb. From how on, it just got better and better. Chris, Mark, Shadow, and I slipped quietly out of the KOA early in the morn. Overcast, cool skies were the order of the day, so on went the Tourmaster suit over bike shorts and a capilene tee shirt. In fact, this became my uniform for the remainder of this ride. I don’t believe a more comfortable gear combination could be found, at least for me!

Bodega Bay was a hoot. Hot bread bowls filled with clam chowder at the Café where the restaurant scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” was filmed. A never-ending stream of cute girls stopped by to ooh and ahh over Shadow. I told Mark he had a gold mine in that dog! It occurred to me that I NEEDED a dog like Shadow…After lunch we were in full deer watch. Tons of the big rats all over the roadway. The signs said, “Watch for Deer.” We did. Just prior to our ride the minister of one of the local towns was killed on his Harley after he hit one of these big animals.

Dinner and camping was in Fort Bragg CA. A great little town, Fort Bragg is located high on the California northern coast, and is a working lumber town. We eagerly wolfed down dinner at a local Perko’s, dutifully answered questions about Shadow, and we went to hunt down a camp space. We finally settled on a combo RV Park and campground south of town. Not a bad place, but did you ever see “Deliverance?” Some of the locals who seemed to have taken up permanent residence here looked as if they might have been extras. Not wanting to hear “Squeal like a pig!” in the middle of the night, we zipped up our tents and set the trusty Shadow at the foot of our tent as guardian.

Of course, we had no problems that night, nor did we have any serious problems with humans on our entire sojourn. You get out of it what you put into it, I think. Being friendly, courteous, and respectful of the locals helps insure a great trip, in my opinion…

Now we were well up into Northern Ca and the weather reflected that. We awoke in Fort Bragg to a steady, chilly rain. After packing up our wet gear, we were on the road very early. Lots of miles today, and lots of great scenery. We stopped in Ferndale to check out the incredible Victorian homes, and the highly unusual cemetery in town. Later, it was the “Avenue of the Giants” and Eureka, CA. for coffee. Leaving Eureka we passed many signs warning us of the dangers of this particular stretch of US101. We slowed down a bit and kept a sharp eye out for errant motorists, deer, and big puddles!

As we sailed into the Oregon, the rain stopped and the temps rose. This part of the Oregon coast is called “The Banana Belt.” No wonder, as the sky turned blue and the heat rose to nearly 90 degrees! We were amazed. Here we were on the Oregon coast, and we were hot! Once again, the jacket came off in favor of long sleeved capilene. Fortunately, the temps began to decline a bit as we entered Bullard State Beach for our next campsite.

Enough cannot be said about the state park system in Oregon. The parks are beautiful, green, well kept, and the showers are hot! In fact, incredible state parks became the norm as we motored into Washington and then British Columbia. I wondered why California could not have a state park system like this? Sure, the parks in CA are ok, but they are often over crowded and fairly dirty. I guess there are just too many people down in my part of the neighborhood!

Know this about me: I’m not the camper I used to be. I’ve trekked, bicycle toured, backpacked and car camped. Now, I can be happy with a soft bed, a hot shower, and 100 channels on the set. So, I had to bargain, and yes, whine to Mark about our evening destinations. After a bit of the former I wrung an agreement out of Mark that we would stay in a motel in Olympia Washington, our next evening’s destination.

What a beautiful ride this was…No fog, no traffic, sunshine and incredible, eyeball popping scenery in every direction. 375 miles today. We sped past the touristy places, took lots of pictures and ended up in a place where there were clean sheets and 100 channels. I was in heaven! The next morning we planned on speeding to Kirkland Washington to pick up Jeff, the third member of our group, and to put new tires on my Beast.

Cascade had the tires, but I had to put up with the derision of their wrench in order to get them. See, I thought I’d be smart. I had a set of Contis that were brand new, so I had them shipped to Cascade BMW. This rubber had a pretty aggressive tread pattern. In fact, the mechanic laughed, and said, “Heck, you’ll be lucky to get 4K outta these tires!” Oh yeah, I thought….

Well, within a few miles of riding these tires I knew I’d made a terrible mistake. First I ignored a major rule of touring. Never start a tour with an untested, novel accessory. I did, and I was to suffer with it for about 3K miles. These Contis would have been better in an all gravel/dirt environment even though they were dubbed “street/dirt.” They were noisy. They were squirmy. And, worst of all, they flexed while cornering. To make a long story short, I had a couple of scary moments on this rubber. (In fact, as soon as I could change them out, which was Anchorage, I spooned on a couple of Bt54s…)

To make matters more interesting, the temps zoomed back up to the 90’s. The humidity was incredible, and once again, off went the protective gear! I felt like a clam in the microwave as we threaded our way through endless Seattle commuter traffic. What a great day-sweaty and expensive!! I was really looking forward to getting into Canada, as I’d never been there before. In my mind, this was were the vacation would finally start! Riding through Washington was truly beautiful, with roads that seemed to be designed by motorcycle lovers, yet it was strange too. We constantly had to be on the alert for Troopers intent on enforcing the “letter of the law” speed limit. Jeff, a 30-year resident of Kirkland warned us local law enforcement was serious about the speed limits! With Valentines on, we pressed on…

Plusses so far:

Scenery

Meeting incredible people

Great roads

Feeling that emotion of adventure

Hot showers

Tillamook Ice Cream

Riding through the fog

Feeling alive…

Deltas so far:

Riding through the fog

Deer

Thinking about the past

No lane splitting in Washington

Washington State Troopers

One migraine headache

$2.25 per gallon gasoline

Stay tuned for more of the “Alaska Sojourn 2000”

 

 

 

[Bikist]

Write On Steve! Write On!

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Bikist

1150RT AQUAMINT-the candy RT