Four states, 3,700 miles creates a lifetime of good memories and new friends
By Jeff Welch

Part Two

On Day 4 I left Bishop for . My goals for the day were to meet up with Ryan, a Ninja 250 forum member in Placerville along 49N and then somehow make it up to Red Bluff to find a campsite.

Though I like Bryce & Zion they don't even compare to Yosemite. Both the size and the views aren't even in the in the same category. Personal opinion of course, some people absolutely love Zion. I had some difficulty with the photography due to the angle of the sun in the early morning and the haze created by the fires to the South.

I thought Yosemite would take 1-1 1/2 hrs to go through, that park’s nothing short of huge. Took over 2 1/2 with stops.

I was lucky to find a shaded parking lot in Placerville and was able to sleep for about an hour while waiting on Ryan to show.

I met with Ryan after he got off work in Placerville; we talked for about 35-40 minutes. This was the first of several board members I'd meet along the rest of the route and was real happy about being able to make the stop to meet him. Ryan's really a great guy, offered me a place to stay even though it would be an inconvience with his roommate. We decided to ride together maybe 40-50 miles into Sacramento to the I-5 turnoff. Doing so let me get back on schedule to Red Bluff though I had to ride for a while on I-5 at night. Pretty sure I cleared all the bugs out for the rest of you guys.

I made it to a campsite in Red Bluff a little after 10 pm. A long day but an enjoyable one.

Day 5 - Unfortunately I didn't get many pics of this days ride. Along Route 299 into Eureka there aren't many pull over points for photography. Soft sand, gravel, bad slopes and the traffic make it
pretty iffy on bike drops and truckers running you over. However the next days post has quite a few to make up for the lowered photo count.

I was headed to Eureka then up to Redwood National Forest. Having only read the name on the map, I made the assumption that there was a 'redwood' forest lol. Apparently the giants are south of Eureka in Humboldt park & the drive through tree is in Leggett.

When I finished with Redwood Park I headed back down to Eureka to stay with Gil & Becky (and their awesome dog Elizabeth). I found them through the forum on sport-touring.net. Two of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet. With only 4-5 emails between us, they invited in a complete stranger.
They gave me a room, shower and food. I got my laundry done and we had some great conversation. They even offered to let me stay an extra day or two to relax and take some local rides. Hard to say enough about such great people.

Day 6 - After leaving Gil & Becky's in Eureka I headed down to Humboldt State Park to see the Avenue of the Giants. A little farther south thanks to Gil's advice I found the drive thru tree in Leggett. The goal was to meet up with another Ninja 250 forum member who offered me a place to stay in Oakland.

I met this guy Joe at the drive thru tree, keep forgetting the people pics Just graduated from college and bought a BMW 650 Dual Sport. He had spent the last 2 months traveling from his home in Alaska to all 48 lower states, over 19,000 miles in that time. Really cool guy, offered me a place to stay up in Alaska if I made it up there. He's also the only way I got pics of me in the tree.

Somehow I missed my turnoff in Leggett to Pacific 1 and wound up in a little town called Laytonville I believe. This woman at the gas station gave me the nearest route to 1 which was a small road used by logging trucks called Branscombe/Bransdown? anyway, it’s an amazing road. 26 miles where the curve of every turn is the start of the next. Just watch out for the damn logging trucks. They must have assumed no one would be on that road in midweek during the morning. I came around the corner and had to do an emergency swerve at the last second, huge semi loaded with logs had decided to take up the entire road right down the middle. Missed me by about 6 inches, worst part is I could see the driver knew he was in the wrong (wish I had a photo of his face lol), yet he made no attempt to see if I was still on the road or had gone over the 60 ft drop off on the shoulder. The view when I came out of this forest road however made up for it. About 75 yards past the tree line, you’re just dumped right on Pacific 1 with one hell of a view.

I had not yet been to a lighthouse so when I saw the sign at the last second I ****ed off everyone behind me by slamming the brakes and turning into this really cool lighthouse with a heck of a view of the coastline. Don't you just hate friggin' tourists?

It was getting late in the day and I still had to get to Oakland, and I wasn't happy about not being able to photograph San Francisco, Golden Gate, Oakland bridge (which is what I took in Oakland). Hopefully however I'll get back out that way and be able to spend a day or two just taking local rides.

I want to thank Tony (AKA kiwi_outdoors from the Ninja 250 Forum) & his wife, I came in about 2 hrs late and they made sure I had food, a shower and a place to stay. Once again very few points of contact between us, just the interest in bikes and yet nothing short of awesome hospitality to be found.

Continued Next Issue...