By elrader, on June 9th, 2010
So here’s the story.
My (Elliott’s) bike is currently at Geoff’s house in San Diego. In fact, I bought it from a guy in San Diego and Geoff has been storing it and working on it at his house. It’s a 2004 BMW GS Adventure.
On June 18th I fly to San Diego and we will get everything prepped on the 19th and on the 20th we ride. We’ll be making our way up to San Francisco where I have to stop for a couple days for a work conference. On the 24th we will depart San Francisco and begin the long journey north.
By elrader, on June 20th, 2010
There’s no turning back now…
I arrived into San Diego on Friday night. After a pit stop for a beer I was able to see my new motorcycle for the first time and the ridiculous amount of other knick-knacks I’ve ordered (and sent to Geoff’s) over the past few months. It was like Christmas but better.
We spent most of Saturday getting our bikes ready. It’s amazing the amount of stuff you can find a place for on a motorcycle. Coolers, fold up chairs, Geoff’s doll collection, etc.
We eventually got everything packed and then drove out to Geoff’s friend’s house about 30 miles outside of San Diego (and only a few miles from the Mexican border – go to the “Track Us Live” tab to see exactly where we are at any given time). Anyway, it was a great party at a beautiful spot in the foothills? small mountains? and it’s where I’m currently writing this from.
So that brings me to today. The bikes are packed, the goodbyes have been said, and we are hitting the road soon. First stop: Mexican Border for pictures then north to Kernville, CA. I think it might be a hot day of riding…
By elrader, on June 20th, 2010
Little bit of a late start today but we got where we were supposed to be so just chill out ok?
First of all, it was hot today.
We left Geoff’s friend’s house (the party host from last night) around 10:30 this morning and took a nice winding road down to the Mexican border. We thought it would be cool to say we started this trip in Mexico but the thought of actually going into Mexico, turning right around and waiting in customs line in the blistering heat was just too much to bear. So, instead we just went to within a couple hundred feet of the border of Tecate, Mexico and took some pictures that you can see below. Muy bien!
After doing the u-turn at the border we just figured we would make up for the lost time and hop on the interstate, which wasn’t fun but was a necessary evil. Once we were north of LA traffic thinned out and we got into some nice desert scenery. Geoff had taken this route before and he suggested we stop in Randsburg for a break. Long story short, stopped for a beer at The Joint and yes we met Olga and yes we promised to be back for her 100th birthday next September. Also, for all you gold prospectors out there, we now know everything about Burro Schmidt and might be able to point you in the right direction if you want to follow in his footsteps.
From Randsburg is was a beautiful drive through some great scenery and up along Lake Isabella and into the sleepy/rustic/charming town of Kernsville (where we’re camping for the night).
Good night.
Here are the pics from today
By elrader, on June 23rd, 2010
Day 2
O6:00 hours – the Girl Scouts in the campsite next door are singing happy bday. WTF.
Anyway, yet another sunny day in California.
Started the day off with an incredible ride up a raod called the Sherman Pass which has switchback roads all the way up the 9200 feet of elevation. Great views at the top including Mt Whitney (the highest peak in California). You can see in the pictures that Geoff was making a snow angel at the summit. It’s strange that you can reach out and touch snow when a few minutes earlier you’re were sweating it out in 90+ degree heat on the valley floor. We got up and over to the other side of the Sherman pass which had wide sweeping turns all the way to the bottom. So fun.
We stopped for lunch and then headed towards Yosemite National Park and stopped at a place called Manzanar which was a relocation camp for Japanese Americans during WWII. Was I sick the day they taught us about this in history class? I did not know this existed but after Pearl Harbor, the US government basically rounded up 110,000 Japanese Americans and put them into these camps that were scattered around the US. It’s a horrible piece of American History.
After that we motored north again as we had plans to meet up with Geoff’s friends Antonias up at a campground on Twin Lakes – which was about 40 miles north of Yosemite. For the first time this trip we hit some bad weather. You could see a storm system moving through the mountains up ahead. It didn’t turn out to be much rain but it got really windy and really cold – Geoff’s hypercolor tshirt turned back to just plain white. We survived, the hypercolor regained its pink hues and we made it up to the Twin Lakes where we met Geoff’s friend Andreas and Andreas’ friends the Gerard Family. The Gerards treated us well. They grilled up about 20 fresh trout they had caught in the lake just earlier that day and we all sat around the campfire and had some beers.
It was a great day.
By elrader, on June 23rd, 2010
Woke up early to another gorgeous day. This is how things are in California. It makes me mad and happy at the same time.
The Gerards prepared another glorious meal and we packed up and got on our way. We headed south for about 40 miles to the entrance of Yosemite and then drove all the way through Yosemite National Park on 120. It was stunning – tons of snow still on the ground still up there. I guess California got a lot of much needed snowfall this year so it’s still melting up in the mountains.
I had to get to San Francisco today for a work conference so after Yosemite we headed towards San Fran but it looks like our arrival time was going to coincide with rush hour so we took the long way around and dropped in to the city from the North. We ended up going through some really picturesque rustic country on highway 4 and then Geoff dropped off and headed to the East Bay.
I’ll be in SF through Thursday afternoon and then heading back out again and meeting Geoff in Berkeley and heading north to Lassen National Park for Thursday night.
Unfortunately I’m having problems with the pictures from Tuesday – seems like they got corrupted on my memory card but I’ll get Geoff’s pics and post them.
Got the photos off Geoff’s camera:
By elrader, on June 25th, 2010
Spent a couple days in San Fran for a work conference and then headed out Thurs afternoon to meet Geoff in Berkeley and get going north again. What’s awesome is that my buddy Tad from Portland had been driving his motorcycle down the coast since Monday and met up with Geoff and I in Berkeley.
I had had a *slight* problem with the bike in San Fran – it just wouldn’t be the same if I wasn’t having bike troubles. When I had taken the fuel tank off to do a little work at Geoff’s house, I must have knicked a little o-ring on a fuel line connector. It was fine for the first few days but then I started smelling gas when I got into San Fran and found the leak. Geoff did some quick thinking and we swapped out the o-ring from the reserve side of the tank and it worked perfectly. We got up to Chico, CA and went to a BMW dealership and got some replacements. Most expensive tiny piece of rubber I’ve ever bought at $3 a piece (but still counts as a very cheap trip to the BMW dealership).
We stopped at the Sierra Nevada brewery and had a really nice meal and a couple Sierra Nevada’s – so good. After that we got on 32 up to Lassen National Park (supposedly the least visited National Park). The 32 was a scenic, twisty, pristine road that was the most fun road we’ve ridden so far.
Eventually arrived in Mineral, CA and found the general store and restaurant already closed but got to a nice little campground. Unfortunately due to the general store being closed our beer was slightly warm (but we did seriously consider going a couple miles up into the mountains to get snow).
By elrader, on June 26th, 2010
Got off to another late start today. In the mornings we end up sitting around the campsite making coffee through various methods (none of them working that well) and looking at maps and opining on various routes.
Anyway, finally got on the road and the routes we wanted to take, mainly the 89 through Lassen National Park was closed…due to snow. Like I said, there was so much snow in CA this year that even though it’s mid-summer, they haven’t cleared the roads yet.
We ended up spending some time on Interstate 5 and made some good time on our way north to Bend, OR. It was nice to finally get into another state and we stopped to congratulate ourselves in Klamath Falls, OR (which, much to our chagrin, doesn’t actually have any waterfalls).
From there we motored all the way into Bend – it was a long day of riding and the last 50 miles really wore us out (see pic of Tad laying in grass). Getting into Bend was awesome though – what a cool town! I think any city where you pull up and people are floating through the middle of town on innertubes and drinking a beer says a lot.
Geoff has a cousin in town (Shauna) and her family happened to be away for the weekend so there was room for us to crash. She was a great host – we had dinner at 10 Barrels Brewery, saw a big bike race downtown, and then went out for a few drinks.
Now, it’s Saturday morning and we’re getting ready to leave for Tad’s house in Portland.
By elrader, on June 27th, 2010
Another day, another late start…bad habits are hard to break I guess.
At least we didn’t have far to go today. Our goal was to get up to Tad’s house in Portland which we we’re using as our next to last stop before Canada (and probably our last chance to sleep in an actual bed for a long time).
It was a fairly uneventful day – stopped to get some more oil in Bend – Geoff’s and my bike tend to eat up oil pretty quickly so we have to keep an eye on that. Then about 100 miles later we stopped at the base of Mount Hood where the ski resort is still open. Then drove through Portland to Tad’s house (he actually lives across the river from Portland in Vancouver, WA).
We pretty much just chilled up in Vancouver the rest of the day. We went up to a store where Tad helped me pick out some basic fishing equipment as I plan on doing some fishing in Canada and Alaska.
By elrader, on June 28th, 2010
Elliott’s Post
Tad and I tried our best to get an early start, and Jeff was taking a different route so we planned to meet him at the campground at Lake Quinalt.
We rode up by Mt. St. Helens – about an hour from Tad’s house. You can see it in the pictures, but the clouds around the top prevented us from getting a good view of the blown off crown. We took some really fun twisty roads up to some lava tubes called Ape Caves. These tubes were found in the 1960s and you can walk the length of them and then pop out the other end. It was quite an experience as you descend about 20 feet and the temperature drops into the 40s. It took about 2 hours to do the full loop.
We then took some other back roads which turned out to be in pretty bad shape and Tad had a rough time on his bike but the GS was soaking up the bumps without much problem. We pretty much had to motor from there all the way to Lake Quinalt. It took forever – probably close to 400 miles for the day – but we made it and Geoff had a sweet campground right on the lake (see the pics). We’re getting up early as we have to ride another 100+ miles to catch the ferry at 12:45 to Vancouver Island.
Geoff’s Post
Alone time
So we decided to split up today- I wanted to hit the coast (and sleep in) and Tad and El wanted to see Mt. St. Helens (which I will see when I come back through in a few months).
The coast started quite nice but quickly got overcast and then cloudy. I totally love this part of WA- the greens are everywhere and the coast is rugged and beautiful at the same time.
One of my highlights from yesterday (leaving Bend) was the guy who was riding the home made Caterpillar diesel motorcycle. 15HP diesel and had a clutch from a Polaris snow mobile… awesome! Thanks so much to Shana for putting us up and taking us out on Friday night in Bend! The bike races downtown were awesome.
Also got to go past one of my favorite place names. Remember at Kalamath Falls, the marketing department too some liberties in naming the town as there are in fact no falls at all? Well the marketing department apparently all took a vacation when it came to naming the bay of Dismal Nitch! Clearly they weren’t looking for developers to move in! Nice stop for a break though.
Anyway, got to Lake Quinalt in Olympic National Park about 7 and set up camp and had a vey nice solo dinner in front of the lake on the camp stove and had the fire going and a glass of wine by the time that the other two showed up at 9:30 and absolutely exhausted! They had a heck of a ride, I’m sure Elliot will write about it more.
By elrader, on June 28th, 2010
Elliott’s Post
Finally, out of the USA.
We made a *cold* 110 mile ride up to Port Angeles, WA this morning and caught the ferry to Vancouver, BC.
As you can see in the pics, we have a new addition to the group: Panis the Sheep. Geoff lost a bet and and that was the penalty for losing. The best was just a simple question: How many national parks are there in the US? The answer: 58. Geoff said there was more than 100, I said there was 15. We were both wrong but Geoff was the *wrongest*.
We said goodbye to Tad at Port Angeles and caught the ferry to Victoria, Vancouver Island. Of course, with the sheep in tow we got pulled over for *extra questioning* at Canadian customs but they eventually let us go. We hopped on the road and drove about 60 miles up to Nanaimo to catch another ferry (where I’m writing this from) to Horseshoe Bay and then driving 60 miles or so up to Whistler where we will spend the night.
Update: Arrived in Whistler. Frickin amazing ride up the Sea to Sky highway. Pretty tired.
I updated some other previous day’s (and today’s) pic galleries with photos from Geoff’s camera and also added in some posts from the man himself (that would be Geoff).
Geoff’s Post
So I lost a bet
We woke up early this morning to try to make it to Port Angeles on time for the ferry out of the country. Last year I was late and had to speed to make the ferry and I wanted to enjoy this ride a bit more. Oh well… failed that again but oh well.
This is where the trip really starts in my mind… leaving the lower 48 behind us and into the wilds of British Columbia!
The ride through Olympic NP is absolutely stunning- I did this run last year and wanted to repeat it this year. It was colder and wetter than last year was but still gorgeous. We couldn’t stop for more than a few minutes as we were late (again) and this really was one of the few hard times on the trip that we have to make. I can’t say enough just how beautiful Crescent Lake is north of the park- I snapped a few moving pictures but I am sure they don’t do it justice. I definitely want to come back and spend some time exploring the area more.
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