Once again another great ride under our belts.

Mine started on Friday when 6shutr came by my place and we made our way to Barstow to meet up with Wayne and Jim Dale. Although it was warm is wasn't to bad with cool vests and plenty of water. We stayed at the Rodeway Inn in Castaic so we were well rested for Saturday.

We has 7 bikes meet up at Ihop Saturday morning. Mike, Miriam,  Paxton and John G show up although no one had breakfast. Greg R came to see us off in his 39 Ford hot rod. We got off on time for a wonderful ride up the coast. With one stop for gas in Buellton we ha no problem making it to Cambria for lunch at the Main Street Grill. Loner and Leatha from Porterville met us there for lunch and to continue up the coast to Gilroy. They had no problem keeping up with us on their Valk trikes. Paxton had to turn around and head home but it was nice of him to join us for lunch and to meet him. Hopefully we will see him on more rides.  Traffic was light on hwy 1 and the weather was beautiful. We made a stop at one nice view point and at the Bixby bridge. One more stop for gas in Carmel and made it to our motel around 6:00pm. We had dinner at Sandy's dinner next to the motel. They had changed ownership last march and treated us very well. After dinner we hung our for a bit before turning in.

Sunday we split up for our own way home. I believe Mike, Miriam, Wayne and Jim when back via hwy 25 through Hollister. Loner and Leatha made their way back via the outlet mall. John and I took off for points north along the coast.

Sunday the first day for John and I.

When we left on Sunday our first stop was Alice's Restaurant. It's like most biker places with many bikes in the parking lot. Met some nice people who of course like to talk about their bikes. From there we made it to the coast  for the ride up to San Francisco. We thought we would ride right through but the traffic was terrible. I think it took up over an hour over the Golden Gate Bridge. We would have liked to stop by Fort Point under the bridge but the traffic made it to time consuming. Then we though about stopping on the north side for a view but tourist crowd made that almost impossible. We took the first exit to hwy 1 toward Stinson beach. Then the fun began for us as the roads we great and the views wonderful. We made a few stops along the way to see and take pictures. Bodega Bay we stopped for gas and since it was 4:00 we decided to stay there for the night. Found this nice little 15 room motel called the Bodega Harbor Inn. There was some nice places to eat right across the street and had a nice meal of fish and chips with some clam chowder. When we got back to our room we planned the next days ride.

Monday the second day,

We slept in a bit on Monday  and I don't think we got on the road until almost 9:00am.  Our plan was to ride until we got tired and then find a place to stay. Instead we would make a motel reservation about 250 miles up the coast and shoot for that. That way if we were running late we didn't have to worry about a room. It worked out quite well as on Monday night we didn't get into Fortuna until 7:00pm. We stopped at the Battery Light house in Crescent city which can only be accessed at low tide. Fortunately it was low tide and we could explore it for a while. It was a long day because we found the lost coast ride. We stopped for a late lunch in Garberville and headed west for the lost coast. It's an 89 mile road that is very rough with some tight switch back and even some dirt as well. It took us 3 hours to do 89 miles. It comes out in Ferndale just a few miles from Fortuna.
Although rough and long it was worth it to see but I don't think it is something I would take a group on.

Tuesday the third day,

Leaving Fortuna it was back on 1 for a beautiful day. We stopped at the Trees of Mystery for a while and had an ice cream and talked to a few fellows on their bikes. These 2 older guys were on their way back from Alaska on Harleys. They had been gone for 7 weeks and had a ways to go. Boy were their bikes dirty! From there once again on the road we stopped to see the Sea Lion Caves. They were very interesting and if you ever get by there check it out and take the elevator down to see the sea lions and caves. Our goal was Coos Bay Oregon which was no problem. Got in around 5:00 at the motel 6. Since it was an early day we decided to do our laundry.  Seem like everywhere we stayed we met bikers going up or down the coast from all over.

Wednesday the fourth day,

Coos Bay to Woodland Washington, what can I say? More of the same beautiful Oregon coast riding. We stopped at a Subway and grabbed a sandwich and took it to this nice beach picnic area to eat it. It's a whole lot better than eating in a dinner or something. We did this a couple of times along the way. Took this nice twisty hwy from Tillamook Oregon east and crossed the Columbia River near Longview Washington. It was just a short way down the 5 to Woodland Washington for a stay at yet another Motel 6. This one was much nicer since they took it over from another owner. It has a fridge, microwave and the room was much larger. We stayed there for 2 night since we wanted to explore Mount Saint Helens the next day.

Thursday the fifth day,

We had a great night sleep and got up and made our way to Mount Saint Helens. Had a nice breakfast at Rosie's dinner and talked to yet another biker on a road trip. He was on a Kawasaki KLR and took a off road trip.

Mt. Saint Helens is a wonderful place to see. If you have never been there it's something I would plan on doing. We spent all day checking out the views and visiting the park. You really have to see it to appreciate the power of the mountain blowing up. We took a break at this nice lake that was formed by the eruption.

Friday the sixth day.

Well it was time to think about coming home. We knew it was going to be hot most of the way back so we just decided to get through it as fast as possible. We left Woodland Washington at 5:30am and rode 600 miles to Woodland California. It's just north of Sacramento about 25 miles. We would have hit it at 5:30pm and I knew the traffic would be bad. It was a good call. We found a nice motel with a dinner within walking distance.

Saturday the seventh day,

Another early start as we had around 470 miles to go. We did stop at my friend Terry's house around 10:00am and had breakfast with him and his wife. By 11:30 we were back on the road for the last leg. It was hot and the cool vest came in very handy. One last gas stop in Frazer Park for the last 2 hours home. John said he hit some traffic as I did on these horrible LA freeways. Got home around 4:00 and it felt good to be here.

What a great ride and it was nice to ride with John. He's a good roommate and my snoring didn't bother him too much.  We are already planning on something for next year. The weather couldn't have been better. Between 54 and 70 degrees most the way up the coast with a little mist now and then. In the 80s around Saint Helens.

See you in August.

Dave

Check out the pictures on the links below.