2010 California motorcycle diaries

One thousand twenty five miles and five days later we were back at San Francisco. Everyone was still in one piece both physically and mentally and even the motorcycle survived with no scratches. It was a monster like I’ve never handled before, almost a thousand pounds – Harley Davidson Ultra Classic Electra Glide. But first things first…

Day 1

The first thing I thought when I saw it at Eagle Riders rentals (waypoint 1 & 22) was, “It’s huge! I hope I can handle it.” And the first thing Arina said, “This blue one does not match our red gear! Can we get a black one instead?!” Luckily, both of us were able to get over our fears and move on with our lives. Getting over fears though does not always solve all the problems and the first thing I did when I tried to move the monster a few feet… I dropped it. All the bikes I had before were almost twice lighter and with this heavy one you couldn’t make any mistakes. Luckily for everyone the bike had rails and nothing got scratched. Thirty minutes later we set off toward Monterey on the famous Pacific Coast Highway #1.

I gotta tell you, strong and especially gusty side wind is a total bitch! For thirty miles of straight road north of Monterey winds were pounding. They were strong enough to move the bike and I had to constantly compensate. Lunch time over at dollish Carmel-at-the-Sea (waypoint 3) and we were onto the twisty and cliffy and scary part of PCH. The turns were blind and linked at 15-20 mph, the cliffs were high, the side railing was missing and it was my first day on the one ton bike with a passenger and fully loaded trunks. If you’re a thrill seeker I highly recommend this. Understandably, I did not have much time to think about anything at all and I was somewhat surprised to learn at a stop that my girlfriend Arina was dreadfully scared. It was very prudent of her to realize that she should not disturb me and upset my emotional balance… But after putting myself in her shoes I realized that it must have taken incredible willpower not to kill me at the spot.

Rolling into a completely desolate Cayucos (waypoint 4) for the night was somewhat eerie and comical at the same time. It reminded me of both a horror movie and a western. At the only gas station in the town we were greeted by a lonely Mexican sitting in a rocking chair. At least he didn’t have a shotgun by his side :) The town proved to be pretty nice after all and we really liked our overnight stop choice.

Day 2

The next day my newly bought Harley Davidson North America Motorcycle Road Atlas came in very handy as we changed our route to avoid the really cool stuff (Yosemite and Sierra Nevada nation forests). Route 41 East of Morro Bay (waypoint 5) however proved to be a marvelous empty country side road gently twisting among California hills. Paired with a nice mix of Russian and English metal, hard rock, alternative and even some electronic trance (yes, our bike had speakers and 3.5mm input jack) it was a lot of joy for both of us.
In the end I did persuade Arina to visit Sequoia National Park as I truly believed it wouldn’t be as scary. And it wasn’t… at first. Two thousand feet up the road turned into a perpetual 10-15 mph U curve with a light drizzle. Another two thousand feet up and the drizzle turned into a full-fledged Christmas style snowfall with elements of hail. But we made it to the sequoia trees which were even bigger than I could imagine! Luckily for us a ranger drove by and told us that it was even worse up top so I put Arina into a passing car to save her from going crazy and took a nice faster paced ride down all on my own.

Being mentally tired and somewhat frustrated that we didn’t make it over the top we wanted to stay in a small town called Three Rivers by the mountain base but all the hotels were booked in all the nearby towns except one room. That was strange, we started asking and then it all clicked. The reason we saw so many bikers was because there was a national Hells Angels meet there! After a short debate we decided to leave the area for the better :)

Day 3

Probably the most enjoyable ride of the whole trip was on Route 25 (waypoints 10 north to Hollister). The road was completely desolate with excellent pavement, predictable 40-50 mph sweepers and marvelous hilly nature. Music blasting, we took it a very decent pace for a 1-ton HD touring cruiser. Both of us relaxed, kicked back and enjoyed the ride. Getting there on Route 198 (west of waypoint 6) was a different story however. This was a long straight road that ran for miles into the horizon with dusty winds blasting non-stop. I still liked it though as a novel experience.

Day 4

Getting out of San Jose was your typical highway ride. We were lucky, however, to escape the rain. Route 160 proved to be pretty interesting, especially north of waypoint 13, however it paled in comparison with route 25. A quick lunch stop at Sacramento (no, we did not see the Governator) and we are on our way to North West California. Route 16 (waypoint 16) was such a pleasure! But then what isn’t compared to Illinois? It gently weaved itself around hills with gentle 40-50 mph turns. We stopped overnight at a nice little quite town Clearlake (waypoint 18) with surprisingly amazing desert in the local Irish bar.

Day 5

This day was not like other days for we had to make it back to the rental agency by 4:30pm sharp else we they would close, we would need to wait to the next morning and hence we would miss our plane. It started out nicely with a hearty American breakfast but turned into a ride-with-your-rain-suites-on within minutes of our departure. The road was still beautiful and the rain wasn’t hard enough to be more than a nuisance. Soon we hit mountain passes into Napa valley with beautiful nature, great vineyard views and tight 15 mph turns. The rain never stopped and at time it turned pretty heavy. However at this point we had no option but to go on. Staying on interesting local road we finally reached our final stretch – the PCH (waypoint 21). Until about 10 miles north of SanFran the road went through a pristine forest with zero traffic and incredibly fresh air. However the real home run started 10 miles before the city and consisted of everything we’ve seen on this trip – high cliffs, narrow road, linked blind 10 mph turns on cliff edge with no guard rails, fog and rain. This was the real test of character for me and Arina and we both passed it with flying colors.

The trip was a great success and in the end we both enjoyed it. Well, maybe I did enjoy it a little more :) We overcame bike handling problems in the beginning, navigated some truly hard roads at decent pace and even scratched the metal several times during the trip.

post scriptum

The trip photo album is located @ http://public.fotki.com/jenya/2010/california-bike-trip/ and the trip video is @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qtn64jdLi8.