Lifes2short....Ride the World

[l84toff]

Yosemite Valley




Since we were so close, we decided to visit Yosemite National Park. I had actually been debating hiking Half Dome, something I've wanted to do since first learning about it years ago. However I decided to take a pass due to logistical reasons . For starters you have to book a permit to hike Half Dome a couple of days ahead of time which meant that we'd have to stick around in Yosemite Valley till then. Not exactly a hardship but Mike, who we met at the HU meeting and who offered us his garage to store our bike, also invited us to tag along with his wife, Kati and him on their bike trip for a few days. Something we both felt was an opportunity not to be missed. Besides, my legs have gotten a bit soft over the last several months from all this riding and sitting, so I wasn’t sure how I’d fare climbing up a mountain for most of a day. Not to mention there is just so much good hiking around here that I couldn’t begin to get it all in over the few days we’d have here. Alas, my bucket list continues to grow.



Yosemite valley is absolutely stunning. It's one of the more amazing places that I've been to, and even though it's packed with tourists, I somehow find it peaceful. I could easily spend days here just hanging out getting lost in the natural beauty. About the only disappointing thing was that we were here in the fall so all the incredible waterfalls were all but a trickle.



Much like a good action movie reeling you in with the opening scenes, El Capitan's 3000 foot vertical granite wall kind of captures your attention as you ride in.



Half Dome continues the assault on your visual senses with it’s 4700+ foot vertical rise from the valley floor. It’s almost surreal looking.



Tigger posing with Half Dome in the background.



Not exactly afraid of people or cars, these guys kinda did their own thing.


[video=youtube;R_f8L1vjCPw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_f8L1vjCPw[/video]
We were riding along enjoying the scenery in Yosemite Valley, when I see this lady at the side of the road waving her arms all frantic like. I wonder why?



The roads weren't too bad either.


We were also feeling the effects of being in each others skin nearly every single moment over the last 5 months. We were having a few Venus & Mars days and our buckets seem to be filling up more quickly these days, something that luckily doesn’t seem to happen very often. I have to tell you it’s kind of annoying to be in such a crappy mood in a spectacular setting like this.



Closest campground with available spots was all the way in Wawona, about an hour away from Yosemite Village.



It was our first campground with a bear locker at every site. The thing was large enough for us to sleep in, never mind the food, or maybe that's the idea.



The morning sun filtering through the trees and fog made for one spectacular sunrise.

We heard Glacier Point offered some of the best views of Yosemite Valley so after some warm beverages, we saddled up and backtracked a bit.


Great views? Check! You can barely make out a small waterfall towards the bottom of the valley.



In fact as we zoomed in some more, we could see hikers at the top of Half Dome. Cool!






We pulled over at an overlook on the east side of Yosemite Tunnel.



El Capitan directly behind my head and Half Dome visible off in the distance. It's hard not to be a little awestruck being here.



Say cheeeese! Or "Mai Tai" as they say in Hawaii before taking pics.

 

[MacDoc]

Re: Yosemite Valley

cool - was going to ask if you got to Glacier Point - the 180 with no guard rail is errr a thrill!!??....

 

[l84toff]

Re: Yosemite Valley

cool - was going to ask if you got to Glacier Point - the 180 with no guard rail is errr a thrill!!??....

Well worth the ride there. A little busy right at the end but we had a few nice folks who slowed down to let us go past them.

That reminds me, I forgot to add that when we pulled over at the first parking area we got to at Glacier Point (not quite to the end), there was this van parked, both front doors wide open, Beastie Boys emanating from within with no one inside. After about 10 min this long haired hippy dude, arms and legs completely covered in tats comes back to the van, then sees us and comes over. Very friendly guy, starts showing us pics of him scuba diving in Costa Rica a few weeks ago. As he left, Lori says to me "was he smoking a joint?" Yup, sure enough buddy was smoking a little reefer (medicinal no doubt), not only walking around the overlook but then gets in the drivers side and takes off, thankfully in the opposite direction.

 

[Supernam]

You do meet the nicest and strangest people on these journeys. This reminds me of the guy I met who quit being a truck driver after a serious accident and is now in the business of setting up private grow ops, in Colorado of course.

 

[l84toff]

California 202


A day later, we found ourselves at Mike and Kati's place for an overnight stop before heading back on the road in the morning.



Mike rides a BWM R1200GSA - hey no one's perfect and Kati rides a Can Am Spyder. As much as Lori loves riding on the back, a Spyder has just always managed to rev her engine when she thinks of riding her own bike.









Kati working her Spyder out of a turn here. Lori and I test rode one of these guys last year. First turn I took I almost got thrown off, I didn't realize how much you as the rider have to actually lean compared to a regular bike.



Stopping at Busters BBQ for breakfast. Ok so it was more like brunch, even though it was the first thing I had to eat. Cool place though. I'd just like to point out that when they say that their sauce is HOT, they kind of mean it. A trend I'm seeing more and more of as we head further south. In Canada, HOT typically means MILD-MED...if that.


We took mostly back roads north through wine country (to avoid all the tourists), super twisty and a lot of fun. Much to my delight, Mike was taking a more exuberant pace through the twisty stuff. At first I was even surprised to see Kati keeping up. It was very nice to play follow the leader all day. We ended up at Navarro Beach Campground for the night, perfect spot right on the ocean. Funny enough Lori and I recognized the road we had turned off to get here as we had ridden past on our way south. After setting up our tents, Mike and I went scavenging for some fire wood from the beach and nearby bushes. FREE! All this time, Lori and I had been paying for the stuff. Duh!






Mike then pulled out his saw and tiny axe and Lori & I took turns cutting the wood into smaller pieces with Kati’s help. While Mike...



Well, he supervised the job site.



Even had a local pay us a visit.



Can't go wrong with this campsite view.





Armed with some extensive local knowledge in the form of our very own tour guides, we continued our take 2 of Northern California the next morning. First it was breakfast in Fort Bragg followed by lunch at the Avenue Cafe along the Avenue of the Giants in Miranda. Mike then led us down some interesting roads towards the middle of nowhere, also called Honeydew. What’s in Honeydew?



Besides a general store and some stupid expensive gas ($4.869/gallon), not a heck of a lot.


We arrived at Mattole Beach campground nice and early and had our pick of sites. Another stunning spot right on the ocean.



Starting our day with a beautiful ride along the ocean on Mattole road before making a very sharp turn UP!



Looking back near the top.



Welcome to Happy Camp. We had wanted to ride down Route 96 through here on our way south but there were road closures due to the wildfires. Thanks to all the firefighting efforts, the wildfires had been contained and all roads around Happy Camp were opened again.


We stopped at another very basic (as in Pit toilets only) state run campground right along the Klamath river. Of course as we were about to set up, Mike noticed fresh bear scat about 30 feet from our site right along the path we all just rode down. Apparently we all managed to miss it. After discussing it for a few minutes, we all decided to stay anyway. I have to say that I was pretty impressed that Lori was ok with staying. A few months ago, she would have ran, not walked but ran out of the place.


After setting up, Mike pulls out his camp shower, looks over at Kati and asks "so what temperature do you want the shower water?". "How about 110," she says. Lori and I looked at each other "A hot shower? Really?" Mike fired up the Jetboil a few times and 15 minutes later we're all taking turns showering behind a big tree. Nice!


The next morning we continued east on 96 for a short time before turning south onto Scott River road. A very narrow and twisty road that serpentines through the mountains and what appeared to be ground zero for the Happy Camp fire. We rode past a house that had been burned to the ground, cars parked in the driveway also completely scorched. It was quite a sight. We would see other houses like it. Everywhere we looked, trees were completely burned up, the entire landscape was black. The air still heavy with the acrid smell of smoke. The road itself was absolutely mesmerizing. One of the most twisty roads I have ever been on, blind corners with several hundred foot drop offs to the valley below on our left, rock walls going straight up on our right. As if the ride wasn’t exciting enough, on our descend, we encountered a transport truck coming the opposite direction. WTF? We all came to a standstill. Now what? The truck moved over to our right as much as he could while motioning for us to move closer to the edge on our left. I guess the one with the biggest toys gets to call the shots. Luckily there was just enough room for all of us to squeeze in together. Mike and I pulled up beside each other and Kati right behind us. Had we met 10 seconds earlier, the three of us would have had to turn around and go back up the mountain to a spot that was wider. The road was that narrow. Lori and I just scratched our helmets wondering how he ever made it up here and how he was getting out. Judging by the confident pace he was moving at when we met, he had done this before. Good Luck buddy!



Not only did Mike and Kati not stop often but Mike was really keeping up a blistering pace riding. Even at the campgrounds, they always managed to have everything set up before we did. They were up before us, even had coffee ready for us when we finally managed roll out of our tent. Camp showers, saw, ax, free firewood, these guys were schooling us in the art of camping. We were starting to get tuckered out while this retired couple seemed to be running on fresh Energizer lithiums. Zoom Zoom Zoom!


We camped at Cooper Gulch campground, located on Trinity Lake. It’s a small little campground with just 5 sites, but what a view! Kind of reminds me of Ontario a little.



Such a beautiful evening we didn't even bother with the fly. In the morning we got up to a stunning sunrise coming up over the mountain across Trinity Lake.


With our flight already booked for the following morning, we made our way toward the dreaded but much more direct I-5 which would take us back to Mike & Kati's place. We arrived in time to re-pack our gear while our hosts put together a little care package so we wouldn't go hungry during our flight home. They then dropped us off in San Francisco where we booked a hotel since our flight was at 6am and we had to be at the airport around 4-ish. Yuck!


It would be a gross understatement to say that Mike & Kati are AWESOME!

 

[l84toff]

Getting Soft in California


Our flight home to Ontario went by pretty quickly even with the one layover in Chicago, and to no ones surprise, rain greeted us upon arriving in Kitchener. Kitchener you say? Yup. Apparently KW offers international flights, who would have thunk it? Here’s a tip for you cheap, I mean savvy travellers. When we booked our car rental online, we booked the cheapest car that was available - a Chevy Spark. Sadly (ok not really) when we arrived to pick it up, none were available and they offered to upgrade us to a what they called an “economy” vehicle. In car rental parlance, this turned out to be a Hyundai Sonata. They initially wanted to give us a fully loaded Chrysler 300 but on inspection one of the tires was showing a low pressure reading.





We even managed to find a couple of nice days for a hike on the Bruce trail.



It was strange but seeing all the fall colours made it seem like we had somehow missed the summer. Both because we had spent summer on the road away from home, from the normal routines we typically have during the summer but also because we never really experienced a hot summer on the road that we typically have at home. We had a couple of warm days in Idaho and then again in northern Washington. Of course California was perfectly warm but it was already October there.


Had to make an obligatory stop at Saffin Grill in Hamilton for some SHWARMA!

It was wonderful to see friends and enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving with family but we soon found ourselves back on the plane heading west.

Back in California, we appeared to have some difficulty getting back on the road. We were pretty tuckered out and decided to take Kati up on her offer to stay with her. It was nice just to relax and we took the opportunity to go through the rest of our gear. On our flight home we managed to bring about 25lbs of "stuff" as carry on, and now we were about to put together another 26lbs of gear to send back. Most of our camping gear made the packing list although we decided to hang on to our tent, air mattresses and sleeping bags since we didn't know where else we were going to go before Mexico. Utah, Nevada, Arizona? Straight down Baja? No idea. My thought was that if we were going to spend another few weeks in the states I wanted to have our camping gear as hotel stays add up very quickly. We had however decided to ditch the tent once we make a break for the Mexican border. Our logic? Decent hotels can be found in the $20-40 range throughout Mexico and all of Central America, including secure parking for the bike. I admit it was nice to lighten the load on the bike a bit.

In the meantime Mike was away in South America on a motorcycle trek of his own; 2 weeks with Rawhyde Adventures through Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. Kati was getting daily updates from Mike on his (mis) adventures, everything from menu items such as guinea pig, border crossings, broken down bikes, 16 hour riding days, trying to buy gas or riding the Death Road in Bolivia. It sounded like Long Way Round on crack, the only thing missing was a film crew to document everything.

I took advantage of our mini vacation and had Tigger in for another scheduled major service at a local dealership, CalMoto in Livermore. I left my bike and rode off with a loaner BMW GS700 for the day. Not exactly my favourite machine to be honest, and not because it’s a BMW. I was actually pretty excited to ride it when I found out I’d have it as a loaner bike. After my short little test ride, here are some quick thoughts on the bike: definitely a smaller and lighter feeling bike. Everything about it seems…precise - from shifting to braking. Suspension is MUCH more firm than on the Tiger. So much so that I’m wondering if our suspension is starting to show wear from all the weight we’ve had on it. It’s hard to say since I don’t have another Tiger to compare it to and I don’t really recall what it felt like new. I was repeatedly tossed up off the seat during a rough stretch of highway on the little GS, while the Tiger seemed to absorb the same rough road infinitely better. Even the bimmer’s steering seemed stiff, granted this was a brand new bike and obviously would loosen up over time. I know this is very subjective, but overall I though the GS700 lacked character.

In a complete twist of dealership experiences, CalMoto was just amazing. Staff are super friendly, knowledgable and honest. Much much different than has been my experience with Triumph dealerships so far. The shop called in the afternoon to tell me the bike was ready and also to let me know the brakes were essentially shot. Since I already had brand new brake pads with me, I told them not to bother replacing them. I was planning on doing some of the maintenance myself since we had a few extra days here. At a savings of $100+ an hour, why not? The only reason I’m even taking the bike in for service still is to maintain the warranty. When I picked up the bike later that day, I discovered they not only replaced a missing spacer and bolt on the crash bar (which another dealership had neglected to either put back on entirely or forgot to tighten so it fell off), but they had also replaced another broken part (about $500 worth) for free. I’m sworn to secrecy on the details but WOW! Can’t say thanks enough to CalMoto or to Mike for steering me their way.

The surprises continued when I went to do my oil change a couple of days later. I reached down to remove the filter and was greeted with a perfectly clean oil filter. Even the oil looked to be clean. Hmmmm?! I had asked the dealership to forgo changing the oil during the service since I was going to do it myself but it appears they did it anyway, at no charge. Thanks CalMoto! Now why can’t all dealerships be like these guys?

Yikes! Definitely got my moneys worth out of these bad boys.

That's better. Hey the squealing sound is gone...go figure!

Lori even got in on the action and installed her own Powerlet socket by her seat.

A few days with Kati turned into a week, and our indecision of where to go next grew that into nearly 2 more. To be quite honest, we were both also enjoying the downtime and decided to wait till Mike returned to get a first hand accounting of his trip. We are after all heading down to the very countries Mike was riding in, so the more first hand knowledge we have the better.


In the meantime, we dog sat and got to know the neighbours enough that we got invited to a grade 8 Halloween concert by one of the kids. We were becoming regulars at the Panda Express and the staff at the local REI were starting to get to know us by name. Kati took us into town to check out Adventure Designs - another very cool moto-shop, where we picked up some short cuffed summer gloves and some RAM mounts.


Lori even managed to get some baking in.


"Live in New York Once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft", from Baz Luhrman’s 1998 Everybody’s Free (to Wear Sunscreen) song. The lines popped into my head one chilly evening as I reached for a sweater. It was 18 degrees out. Kati laughed and agreed that I was indeed getting soft. Hey at least I wasn't like some of the locals who were wearing down jackets and toques.

 

[l84toff]

San Francisco

Last month we had seen the Golden Gate but never actually made it across the bridge into San Francisco. We decided to make a day of playing tourist and took the BART into the big city one day. Getting off at Embarcadero we walked through Chinatown before hiking up to Coit Tower.






Not sure who's winning…but it was a fantastic place to people watch.



Every Chinatown needs a bad *** dragon.






There were supposed to be 400 stairs to the top of Coit Tower, I think we must have ascended a different wall or something as I don’t think there were more than a 100.



There was this unique (to us anyway) single serving bathroom at the top. Dude was trying to figure out how to work it for like 5 min. It seems he walked in as the person before him was leaving, which is a no-no because the thing needs to go through a cleaning cycle in between uses. Lori tried to explain it to him but he wouldn’t have any of it and continued to look for the button that would close the door, surely it must be hidden within. Sigh! I finally took a shot at coaxing him out, suggesting that perhaps a new course of action was needed since this one wasn’t working too well. Persistent bugger but he finally came out and let it do it’s cleaning thing. It was pretty funny except for Lori doing the pee-pee dance the entire time.



Coit Tower in all its glory.






There were some pretty cool murals inside.



Besides the outdoor pooper, you get a great view of San Francisco, Alcatraz and the Golden Gate from Coit Tower.









Saw a few classics while walking back down.



Always remember to stop and smell the flowers along the way.



We stopped at Boudin Bakery & Cafe for some lunch. It was way tempting to get something deliciously bad for us.



Never stuff your face with more than you can fit in I always say...or something like that.



Saw a few earning their keep...



Others….well...



We met a few celebrities…

 

[l84toff]

Re: San Francisco




Ahhh, put a cork in it!



And for all you single guys out there who like long walks by the water...this ones a keeper. SF has just about something for everybody it seems.



The not so famous SF-Oakland Bay bridge. With the sun beaming on the residential area across the bay, it was quite a view. Not sure it turned out as well here in the pic though.



Oh and congrats to the Giants who won the World Supercup or something like that the day before. Hey I haven't watched baseball since the first strike. Lucky for us we hadn't picked the day before to visit SF, I'm guessing it may have been a little busier...

 

[l84toff]

The Vortex of California


By the end of the 2 weeks we were itching to get going again. Mike got back, took a day off and said “OK LET’S GO!” Part man, part machine, I thought I could hear the Six Million Dollar Man sound effects as he packed up his bike. Just like that we were back on the road with our energetic tour guides leading us south.



Mike and Kati wanted to take us down the 17 mile drive in the Monterey Peninsula but checking online ahead of time we discovered motorcycles were prohibited, something about motorcycles being too loud . Ah, the 'loud pipes save lives ideology strikes again.



We stopped for a picnic lunch on the beach at Carmel Bay instead and got treated to some seals fishing for their own lunch along the breaking surf and a very large pod of dolphins doing the same a bit further out in the bay. I didn't realize till later when I looked at a map that the famed Pebble Beach golf course is located off 17 mile drive. Thanks to Tiger Woods golf video games, there was a time when I could tell you every break on every green on that course. Except for the prohibitive cost, playing here was at one time on my bucket list.



Dude in the background reminded Lori of Weekend At Bernie’s for some reason. But don’t worry, this guy was still breathing…we think.



Alas we continued south along the incredibly scenic highway 1 past Big Sur to Limekiln State Park campground where we camped out for the night. This absolutely stunning stretch of road turned out to be a fantastic consolation prize.












This little tunnel just outside Limekiln State Park had a very European feel to it.


After setting up our tents at Limekiln, we hopped back on the bikes and Mike led us to another gem down the highway, Nacimiento road.



Nacimiento road snakes it's way away from highway 1 climbing steeply up the mountain through Los Padres National Forest.



The setting sun casting an warm orange glow on the mountain as we rode up.



We pulled over and enjoyed a spectacular sunset.


The following morning Mike took me for a hike through Limekiln State Park to see the remains of several kilns from the late 1800's that were used to harvest limestone from the area. What was interesting was the redwood forest we were hiking in had been completely eradicated during that time when they used the wood to fuel the kilns. Yet here we were walking through a beautiful fully grown forest, gotta love how nature takes care of itself. Sadly no pics as my iPhone ran out of juice. On the way back we passed another camper packing up his site, I couldn't help but chuckle at the winter parka, hat and gloves he was wearing. Here I was in short sleeves sweating. It was about 16C out. Proof I guess that I wasn't quite 'California soft' yet.



A little further south along highway 1, we made a pit stop at the Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery. Although they can be found all over the world they seem to like this spot in California. Nearly hunted to extinction in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for the oil in their blubber, their numbers have managed to skyrocket from around 50 to 175,000.






Male Elephant Seals can grow to 5,000lbs! That's the size of a Ford F-150 pick up truck!



The males fight for breeding rights and dominance over a section of beach. It appears beach front property is highly sought after even in the animal kingdom. The battles can get pretty bloody leaving them with serious scars on their chest. Apparently these 2 males were just practicing for the main event later in the season.



While the ladies spend most of their time pregnant or nursing.



Nap time it seems, also plays a very important role in the Elephant Seal world. I think I like these guys.

 

[l84toff]

Re: The Vortex of California

We had a fairly short ride to Morro Bay for brunch and to set up our tents again. We also made reservations to play tourist for the rest of the day.



Welcome to Hearst Castle. 65,000 square feet, 165 rooms & 127 acres of gardens of pure opulence.









Everything here is imported from around the world.



Restoring the smoking room. Estimated time of completion...oh about 10 years, for real. This guy was using a Q-tip to clean the ceiling and the lady doing the tour said it was a 10 year project to restore this one room.









The entire property is really quite something.






Mike & I chillin' by the (outdoor) pool.






The detail has detail.






The indoor pool.



Oh and this was the road getting up here. Sadly we had to park the bikes and hop on a bus to get up here.


The following day the four of us went out for some very early morning coffee. Due to previous commitments, Mike and Kati had to make an early departure and head back. A few weeks ago we met a complete stranger who opened up his garage, his home and his heart to us. Today we said goodbye to two amazing individuals that we can only describe as...family.


We really can't thank you guys enough for everything.

 

[MacDoc]

Re: The Vortex of California

Nice ....never did make to Hearst Castle on my two PCH trips....maybe third time lucky. Thanks for pics....somehow think kid will be bored....sigh.

 

[MacDoc]

Re: The Vortex of California

Might be a useful item to have along.
No fuel to carry.

http://www.biolitestove.com/products/campstove/

Watch the video.

 

[l84toff]

Re: The Vortex of California

Nice ....never did make to Hearst Castle on my two PCH trips....maybe third time lucky. Thanks for pics....somehow think kid will be bored....sigh.

Not sure about bringing a kid to Hearst Castle unless they were very much into that sort of thing. In fact now that I think about it, I didn't see any kids there during our visit.

Might be a useful item to have along.
No fuel to carry.

http://www.biolitestove.com/products/campstove/

Although they seem kind of cool initially I don't think it's for me. First I think they are a bit big for packing on the bike. Charging electronics wise...I can accomplish that on the bike while on the move with the two 12V outlets I have and 2 x dual USB plugs (so I'm able to charge 4 USB devices at once - and that's just from the tank bag. There's another Powerlet at the back of the bike. You're right, there is no need to carry fuel, but you do have to "find" your fuel.

You might think that it's good for hiking, but it's far to big to put into my backpack and at 935 grams far too heavy. There are plenty of battery packs that are much smaller and lighter. I saw one at MEC last spring that offered 10,000 mAh of power and was smaller than the one I got from ZAGG a while back. I also had a SOLIO solar charger that I quickly sold, the main beef I had with it was that it was difficult to charge up while hiking - not enough sun getting through the trees.

Car travel? Again lots of ways to charge USB devices in a car.

So when would you actually use one of these? I suppose if you're camping in the same place for a while and really need to charge up, which I think is their target market, otherwise it seems like a gimmick (to me at least). Not even going to mention that some go camping to unplug from it all. Just my 2 cents

 

[Roadghost]

Re: The Vortex of California

I have to agree. It looks pretty trick, but a little unnecessary. I have a USB charger on my Harley, and you can't beat an open camp fire - keeps the bears away.

 

[l84toff]

You're still in California?


From Morro Bay, we headed south to San Luis Obispo where we took a little detour Mike suggested, See Canyon Road. It actually starts out as Perfumo Canyon Road and ascends the mountain in typical twisty fashion.



Near the top we had a pretty nice view of Morro Bay behind us.



Pit stop in Avila Beach for some ice cream. Total tourist town, pretty beach with a couple of very long piers. It was a spectacular day so it was strange to see the beach so empty.


A short ride south we came across the Monarch Butterfly Grove in Pismo Beach. This small eucalyptus forest is home to about 10,000 butterfly’s at the moment, a number that will swell to about 30,000 by the end of November. It turns out that most of the butterflies west of the Rockies call this home in the winter, while all the ones east of here, including all the ones we have back home in Ontario during the summer, head to Mexico for the winter. Of course it’s not quite as simple as packing up the family and flying south for the winter. These guys go through several generations just to get there, it’s pretty impressive. They weren't super active on this day however, I think we may have come during siesta hour. For weeks we’ve been smelling these intensely aromatic trees down the coast and I only recently discovered they were eucalyptus trees. The visit here only added to our excitement of heading into Mexico to see the Monarch Biosphere. Patience grasshopper…er…



Looking up initially, it's easy to miss all the butterflies as they blend in and look like tree branches.



But a closer inspection reveals hundreds of them on each branch. Because they were quite high, it was difficult to get a great shot without a good zoom lens.






The sky was on fire in a thousand shades of orange as we pulled into Jalama Beach. Instead of setting up the tent, we went to the beach to watch the amazing display of colours. It meant that we set up our tent in the dark, something we typically dislike doing but we both agreed the sunset was totally worth it. Our days had gotten shorter and losing daylight savings meant we were now watching the sunsets happen before 5pm. A far cry from having daylight at midnight up in the Yukon. The long days are so nice when you're camping and we were now finding ourselves in our tent before 8.


As strange as it seems, Lori and I spent the next couple of days seriously bummed. We were missing the company of our friends more than we imagined we would and decided a couple of days at Jalama beach was just the ticket to cheer us up. With a store/restaurant right on site, it’s the closest we’ve been to an all inclusive campground. They served up a pretty delicious Jalama burger and a huge very yummy breakfast burrito. It was tempting to stay longer. We ended having to move our tent the second day to a more open area as the site we were in had already been reserved by someone else the following night. The wind picked up overnight and we woke up with quite a bit of sand inside the tent and all over us. Yuck! The joys of camping at a beach I guess. Sand in Lori's hair did not make her a happy camper, lemme tell you.



Drying out the towels and shorts and keeping drinks out of the sun. Tigger is a true workhorse!


We got an early start the next morning and were on the road just after 8am, stopping for breakfast in Santa Barbara. We were hoping to do some Moto-sightseeing in town but discovered a big race going on and roadblocks setup everywhere we wanted to go. A bunch of people were running everywhere, Lori pointed out that no one was chasing them....



Map,map, on the wall, which is the twistiest of them all? After careful measurements and curve counting, I concluded that the one on the right just past Malibu seemed like the most twisty of them all.


Passing Neptune's Net we turned North on Latigo Canyon Road. Man what a seriously fun road. It looked kick A-$-$ on the map and turned out to be even better in person. Chock full of S-bends and blind corners, it's the type of road to put a biker driving a cage into serious misery. Being on two wheels, I was all smiles. "Lori? You still back there hun?" Lori gets a bit quiet on roads like these and I usually have to make sure she's ok every a few minutes. I'm not sure she shares my passion for the twisties, or maybe just not to the extent as me. But I do think she's learning to appreciate it more, not unlike someone being thrown out of a perfectly good airplane learns to appreciate skydiving.



We made a right onto Mulholland Highway looking for the Rock Store where we heard Jay Leno likes to hang out. No Jay Leno here but we did get to talking to someone who was really curious about our trip. Also along the way, we passed a cool spot I had seen many times on YouTube, a particular 180 degree curve that plays host to a lot of crashes. You know it's a fun spot when there's a camera guy taking pics at the side of the road. The place attracts bikers, not unlike the Tail of the Dragon, although I think Deal's Gap seems to offer a much more of an atmosphere compared to the Rock Store. As we went around the curve, it was hard to miss all the gouges in the pavement left by scraping pegs no doubt.


LA traffic is as crazy as I had imagined. Love the fact you can lane split here although being about as wide as a smart car, it's not something we took advantage of frequently. Now lane splitting in stop and go traffic to me makes sense, even in very slow moving traffic. But some of these bikes were lane splitting around vehicles that were already travelling well above the posted speed limit. Huh? Welcome to LA! After an unforgettable afternoon riding, we found ourselves on the east side of LA staying with family for a few days.

 

[l84toff]

Whirlwind tour of LA




We ended up spending a few days with family in Los Angeles. I've never really had any interest in LA before this, although surprisingly we enjoyed our whirlwind tour of Tinseltown anyway. Can't argue that seeing where the Oscars take place, Hollywood Boulevard, all the studios and Rodeo Drive wasn't at least a bit cool. Still, the highlight of the day was watching all the buskers perform at the Santa Monica Pier and dinner at the very British Ye Olde King's Head pub. Oh and let's not forget all the exotic cars around LA. I spied six, count 'em SIX different Aston Martins while cruising around town. I've seen two on the road in my entire life prior to today. Six here in one day - crazy!




Keeping the selfie streak going. Hey is it still a selfie if someone else is in the pic?


Hollywood's finest keeping the peace.


I found it kind of eerie to read the words <em>carpe diem</em> next to Robins name at the Chinese Theatre


Boldly going where others have been...


That Jimmy Kimmel guy seems to be getting pretty BIG.


The very first Oscars were held in this room at the Roosevelt Hotel back in 1929.




Woody is more famous than I thought.


Some more sights of downtown LA, or is it uptown? The place is so huge it's hard to tell. This was just around the corner from Union station.


We stopped by at an outdoor market, sure was perdy!


Avila Adobe was built around 1818, it's the oldest existing house in LA.


Dating back to the late 1800's, this is the original fire house in LA. Back in those days the fire truck was only two horsepower. When they arrived back at the firehall, they would drive straight in, unhook the horses and manually turn the pumper around on the turntable (seen under the wheels). Pretty high tech stuff.


Checking out Santa Monica Pier.


A display on the beach for Veteran's Day was also bringing awareness to the number of military suicides. A sign indicated that number tops 154 every week. Very sad.


You can easily tell the Canadians apart from the Americans here. The really pale looking people in the water...Canadian!


Me? I was getting soft so I put on a sweater.


I didn't know route 66 ended here, cool.


This is what you call juxtaposed...

 

[l84toff]

Re: Whirlwind tour of LA


We found this beast at the Hard Rock Cafe at Universal Studios.


I bet it would make an awesome RTW tourer.


Welcome to Rodeo Drive dahhhling!





You might recognize this hotel from Beverly Hills Cop…


A thick layer of armor, this guy was well protected, kind of how I envisioned my wallet looking as we walked around Rodeo Drive.


We did a tour of Lake Arrowhead another day. Meh! Nice enough lake with a lot of incredibly expensive homes around it. I think this was supposed to be Sammy Hagars place here.


Ryan, careful, most things in there don't react well to bullets...Not wanting to spend a small fortune to go aboard, we viewed the Queen Mary and a really old Russian sub from afar.


So we goofed off at the gift shop downstairs instead. Hello this is your Captain speaking...

What do Michael Jackson, a stunning massive stained glass mural of the last supper and the Art of Motorcycle exhibit have in common? All were on display at the Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Ok, maybe MJ isn’t exactly on display, but I understand he’s laid to rest here. We came to the moto exhibit purely by accident when I noticed the sign as we were leaving. Quite a few very unique and classic bikes on display here, custom painted helmets and fuel tanks and even a Valentino Rossi Ducati race bike signed by the legend himself. Seemed like a very unusual setting for the Moto exhibit to be honest. No pics from the exhibit as signs everywhere said no photos and well, we were the only ones in there at the time.


We found this right next to the bike exhibit.


On the way back we made a stop at the Griffith Observatory. I recognized it immediately from at least one movie I had seen. The place was absolutely packed for a Tuesday, maybe it's always like that I'm not sure. There's a great view of the Hollywood sign from here and also of most of LA.




Hey, what are you guys pointing at?


Oh I see.

Thank you Casey and Ciocia for taking good care of us while in LA and showing us the sights.

We decided to finally pack it in and send the last bit of our camping gear home as we departed LA. That's it for camping , we're hotel bound from now on.

We doubled back a bit leaving LA and headed west to pick up Angeles Crest Highway - what a stunning road. Wow! Twisty doesn't begin to describe it. I was surprised to find out we were up over 7100 feet.


Seeing the clouds gently roll over the mountains as we looked back towards LA was just stunning, it looked almost surreal. We passed the Pacific Crest Trail marker along the way - cool! I hope to one day return to that spot, hiking instead of riding, from the Mexican border all the way to Canada. That will be a very different trip report though.

Angeles Crest Highway is easily in the top 10 riding roads I've ever been on. I know we haven't seen everything in the states, or every amazing road but I have to say that California in general is my most favourite state to ride a bike in. There is definitely no shortage of amazing twisty roads. I have to be honest that the thought of spending the entire winter in California did cross our minds.


Just a spectacular view up here.

 

[MacDoc]

Re: Whirlwind tour of LA

California has WAAAAY to much natural wonder for one state..they need to bust it up to be fair

Back home....by contrast you are missing glorious weather and Ontarios superb twists

Lovely out sunny and 10 - only one other rider at the Forks



big south wind bringing the warmth...got up to 11.5 on gauge on the way up...8.5 earlier



sigh....Australia soon...hey - if you are riding the world....when will we see you down under?

 

[l84toff]

Re: Whirlwind tour of LA

California has WAAAAY to much natural wonder for one state..they need to bust it up to be fair

Back home....by contrast you are missing glorious weather and Ontarios superb twists

Lovely out sunny and 10 - only one other rider at the Forks



big south wind bringing the warmth...got up to 11.5 on gauge on the way up...8.5 earlier

sigh....Australia soon...hey - if you are riding the world....when will we see you down under?

Although 10 degrees at the end of December at home is pretty exciting and I'd definitely be out riding, to say I'm missing the weather is a bit strong.

Oh and the pic lies, I only see 2 clouds outside at the moment.

Australia and NZ have always been on my radar. One day...

 

[MacDoc]

Re: Whirlwind tour of LA

You missed the

It's 31 in Cairns now according to GF