For the past five days for the four of us, this journey from Victoria down the west coast of the United States has been ridden at a rather leisurely pace. On several occasions we made less than three hundred kilometres in a day. But oh, the things we have seen. Giant redwoods, the wild Pacific coast, roads that are a motorcyclist's dream, and sometimes, nightmare, and all sorts of people, all of whom have been friendly and open. In a word, this week has been incredible. And to add to it all, in the almost two thousand five hundred kilometres we have ridden, we have always managed to end up at the same place each night. No one has been lost or left behind. That is probably amazing too.
Surprisingly, this morning was sunny and warm because the forecast told us to expect overcast, although there was still the slight nip that the marine air brings to places along this coast. We tend to think of California as a warm place but along the coast of northern California, the cold ocean currents from the north moderate the temperatures so that it never seems to get too hot. However, once you move inland it' is a different story.
As we were preparing to leave an English gentlemen began talking to Kerry about his bike and about the scooter that he was riding. He had to give up motorcycles because his left hand couldn't handle using the clutch when he had to change gears. Rather than give up motorcycling he bought a scooter and was using Fort Bragg as a base to take rides up and down the Pacific Coast highway and inland. Yesterday he actually took the same road that we did from the Chandelier tree to Fort Bragg on his scooter. It was rather humbling to see that he did what we did on our big bikes with brutish power while he rode the same route on a small scooter. He has just retired from being a school night shift janitor and says that he's never going to give up riding. I like his attitude!
As an aside, the motel here is own by a man from India and the décor of the office is, shall we say, ornate. Lots of golds, silvers and ornate carvings. In our room one of the walls was covered with a fabric that actually moved when I pushed against it. However, outside our door was a planted with a beautiful calla lily which was in bloom. Seeing this was a great way to start our day.
A blossom from the calla lily outside our door.
The plan for the day was to ride east across the pass to Willitts, a distance of about eighty kilometres on Highway 20. Then we would ride on to Williams, a further 130 kilometres where we would turn north on I-5 and head home. The ride from Willitts was an amazing one. For the whole ride there was never a stretch of more than a quarter of a mile that was straight. I think I probably spent more time on the sides of my tires than on the middle during this ride.
At one point a big Ford truck pulling a fifth wheel was right behind me so I pulled off into a turnout to let him go by feeling embarrassed that I couldn't ride faster than a guy pulling a fifth wheel! When we stopped at the viewpoint below, Jim said, "I can't even ride faster than a guy towing a fifth wheel!"
The mountains that we crossed from Fort Bragg to Willits.
This flower is similar to the ones on the tree in front of the Shaw House in Ferndale, CA.
After fueling up and taking on some Starbucks coffee we headed toward Williams. I had never heard of the place so I didn't know what to expect. The road wound through terrain that was not as severe as the previous section, so although we had lots of curves and hills, they were not as extreme. One section took us along the north side of Clear Lake, a reasonably large lake for California. We stopped for a break at Davis Park before resuming our ride.
Clear Lake, looking west
Clear Lake, looking south
On the way in to Williams we passed several miles of fruit trees, probably apples, then rice paddies before we arrived at the town. After stopping for lunch at the Black Bear Restaurant where Jim changed into his Hawaiian type Harley shirt we headed north on I-5 passing miles of trees with small green fruit on them. It took me a while to figure out that they were olive trees. I've never seen an olive tree before. The scale of these farms is immense and only a large corporation could afford the land, the labour, and the time it takes for these trees to mature before the produce their first crop.
Jim with his doo-rag and his Hawaiian Harley shirt in Williams, CA
When we arrived in the valley where Williams is situated we noticed that it was quite warm. In fact it was warmer than at any previous time during our ride. As we rode north it seemed to get hotter. When I checked the air temperature gauge on my motorcycle it read close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Jim and I stopped at a rest stop for a brief break. I realized that I was becoming dehydrated so I drank most of a bottle of PowerAde. A man that I was talking to at the rest stop told me that the thermometer in his car was reading 94 degrees! With my chaps and black leather jacket, it wasn't surprising that I was feeling the initial stages of dehydration.
We were also reminded that there are rattlesnakes in this area by a sign that was posted in the play area of the rest stop.
As we rode north the highway began to rise past the 200 foot then 2500 foot level. At one point we crossed a bridge over a narrow part of Lake Shasta. The rocks on the edges of the lake were a beautiful combination of yellows and oranges, but those rocks are usually covered with almost ten metres of water. If there was ever a good visual representation of the drought in California, this is it.
The next rest are we stopped at was a viewpoint where we could see Mount Shasta, one of a series of volcanoes which include Mounts Baker, Rainier, Hood, Addams, St. Helens, and Lassen that run down the west coast of the US. They are all quite beautiful and Shasta is impressive. Beside it is a smaller volcanic feature called Black Butte.
Mount Shasta
The Harleys with Mount Shasta in the background.
Black Butte, near Mt. Shasta, in northern California
The ride was going smoothly and we were covering a lot of ground quickly. However, just when things are going smoothly along comes someone who does something to mess everything up.
Just after crossing into Oregon, about ten or twelve miles south of Ashland, we came upon a sign indicating that there was a wreck ahead. Further on traffic slowed almost to a stop but crawled along at under ten kilometres per hour it took us more than an hour to go about eight kilometres there was so much traffic backed up. Fortunately, we were on a downhill grade so we were able to shut off our engines and coast down the road using a our brakes to slow us. I shudder to thing what it would have been like had we been stuck on an uphill grade. I suppose that was the only good thing about the whole episode.
Truck wreck south of Ashland, OR
Eventually we came upon and passed the wreck. apparently, at about four o'clock a tractor trailer rig loaded with what looked to be boxes of produce flipped over and slid down the highway spilling boxes, pieces of the trailer, and insulation down the northbound lanes and across the median into the southbound lanes. By the time we arrived the workers had filled a garbage truck with just the stuff that was on the other side of the highway while more were shoveling stuff into the overturned trailer. It was quite a scene and the first serious incident we have seen on our trip. Garry and Kerry were ahead of us so they saw the whole thing as well.
Eventually though, we arrived in Grant's Pass, OR, after dark and found Garry and Kerry already at the motel. Once again, we all arrived at the same place at the end of the day so it was a successful one. Today we were on the road for almost eleven hours and with the mountain roads and traffic delays we still made a respectable 642 kilometres today. That is the greatest distance we have travelled in a day on this adventure.
Tomorrow is Jim's 64th birthday, and we have a shorter ride planned, hoping to end up in Wilsonville, OR, just south of Portland.
This has been a fantastic experience and now that we are running back north it's end is becoming much closer and real.
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