The Third Corner, Cape Flattery

I took the long way from Portland to Seattle along the coast. I wanted to reach the next corner, the NW most point in Washington. Neah Bay is the closest town and is on a Native American reservation that charges a tourist tax of $10 (per year)to enter. From Neah Bay I followed signs for a twenty minute drive that started as fresh blacktop and quickly became packed gravel as I began the climb up to the high point over the ocean. I stopped to take a picture next to the sign, which was less impressive than the bell in Key West but more descriptive than the park in SW California. From there I took the "1/2 mile" hike which I’m sure was longer. I arrived just before sunset and was greeted by a red sky peeking out from beneath the ribbon of cloud cover. I looked down at the gushing water full of kelp and remarked how different this is than the ocean in Florida.

Another 1,000 miles down

Just before crossing the bridge from Astoria, Oregon to Ilwaco, Washington my odometer added another row of digits. I’m now over 10,000 miles for the year and 8,000 for the trip. The last thousand miles took me from Half Moon Bay up the coast of California and Oregon along some of the most beautiful roads I’ve ever traveled. From lush coastal redwood forests, the tallest tress on earth, to sandy beaches, to rocky hills, to secluded townships, the ride from the metropolitan San Francisco to the coastal wilderness will stay with me for a long time to come.

Seattle Bicycle Tour

Yesterday, Andrew, a buddy from Denver who lives in Seattle, took me on a bicycle tour of Seattle.

We started at his place on Capitol Hill and rode down to breakfast at a coffee shop named Glo’s. The pastel brick pattern on the outside really set the tone for this eccentric restaurant.

From there we visited a few key buildings downtown including the Koolhaas designed Main Public Library and the Venturi Scott Brown designed Seattle Museum of Art (SAM). Both were closed given it was Memorial Day, but just seeing the exteriors was great.

Even though SAM was closed, the sculpture garden along the waterfront was not. Under a blue sky dotted with cottony cumulus clouds, Andrew and I walked amongst sculptures by the best and the brightest sculptors, including Calder and Serra. I’d like to learn more about the landscape architect who created this park. It zig-zags through several levels in a very fluid fashion which gives all of the works enough space to express themselves, while at the same time occupying a narrow swath of earth in between downtown and the Puget Sound. The use of concrete was fantastic, looking at the detailing along the paths, the whole park itself had the feeling of a large earthwork. Because yesterday was a holiday, Memorial day, not Father’s Day like the man outside the closed library suspected, families gathered all over the hill to sit in the grass, walk on the paths, ride in the bike lanes, and all-in-all enjoy a beautiful summer day.

Seattle is famous for the Pike Place Market where at one of the stalls whole fish are thrown. It’s certainly a sight to see a whole salmon hurling through the air. In an interesting organic growth of small restaurants, market stalls, and knick-nack shops, this building couldn’t be replicated be design. It is one of those structures that gets its identity not from the grand plan of a designer, but instead from the countless modifications all done for necessity’s sake.

After riding around downtown, we rode to the Elliot Bay Marina where we hopped on the sailboat that Andrew’s splitting 4 ways with a couple of friends. Thanks to some good connections and perceptive friends, they got the deal of the century on this yacht which was oceanworthy and fully stocked. We went for a leisurely cruise (the boat is called the Slow Belle, after all) out into the Sound and after our rum and cokes were dry, we turned around and headed back to shore. With downtown Seattle including the iconic Space Needle I couldn’t think of a better way to spend the afternoon.

From the boat yard, we rode to the Wooden Boat Center to visit Zach who went to CC. Because of the holiday, he was super busy, so we decided to catch up over dinner.

Seattle has a piece of history I found quite interesting on the Seattle Underground Tour. The original city was built on a very large tidal flat that flooded twice a day when the tides came in. So it was routine for the city to have ocean water visit the streets when tides were high. In an amazing feat of engineering and reconfiguring of the surrounding hills, walls were built around the buildings downtown making little islands. Then the streets were filled with dirt and debris wash down from the hills above. So the second storeys became the new ground floor. I heard that more earth was moved here with the water canons than in the Panama Canal. The tour took us under the sidewalk in Pioneer square to see the walls and what remains of the original first floor. There wasn’t much to see, but the idea of raising the ground 10 feet is a big thought.

Chef lives up to his name

After calling Brian Chef for at least 6 years, I finally got to experience his culinary prowess. Chef works in a restaurant outside Portland called the Joel Palmer House which specializes in locally harvested mushooms and truffles. The weather in Oregon is very conducive to their growth and these guys can really find them. Jeremiah and I both took the Mushroom Madness Challenge, a 5 course palate explosion including sugar-cap icecream made from real ’shrooms.

Photoset

More route info

I ran an update on my GPS and am now able to log more of my trip (there was an error that the update fixed).

Here are links to my two most recent GPS downloads.
Route part 1
Route part 2

3 Storey Hotel Room

The first day Jeremiah and I rode together we started in San Francisco and went up the coast on the PCH / CA 1. We stopped before dark in Mendocino looking for a place to crash. We decided to try the inn behind where we parked to get a feel for the room rates in the area. When I did my usual ask for discounts, I threw in the “cute guy discount” after student and AAA. The receptionist smiled and said, I can do that. She gave us “the Water tower” a three storey room with an ocean view from the top level. The first and third floors each had a queen bed with the softest sheets I’ve ever slept on (with an uncountable thread count I imagine). Sandwiched between the two was a luxurious bathroom complete with big bathtub and private sauna. In the floor on the ground level was large cicle of glass covering an old well. Not too bad for $70 each.

Another round of photos

Jonah (Jeramiah’s girlfriend’s housemate) was kind enough to let me use his Mac to upload some more pictures, so here’s another round.

Photo Collection for Northern California and Oregon

The best roads yet: mountains, redwoods, and ocean

I’m looking out over the 101 and Pacific from the kitchen of the Redwood Hostel in Redwoods National Park. Even though we only covered 250 miles, they were the twistiest, most scenic, and least trafficked.

At the Bjork concert on Saturday I parked next to another R1200GS in the small motorcycle parking area. After the show I talked to Jeremiah, the rider. After seeing a Portland sticker on his luggage, I mentioned that I was planning to stop there on my way north. We quickly figured out we were planning to take the same route north on the same day, Monday, we decided to meet up.

Starting in downtown San Francisco, we picked up the 1 as it crosses the Golden Gate bridge. At a gas station we were introduced to a windy mountain pass detour that we gladly followed. The rest of Monday went well as we followed the coast up to Mendocino were we asked for (and got) the “cute guy discount” of half off. (More about that room when I can post pictures)

After a leisurely (included) organic breakfast we set north with a vague idea of what lay ahead. Shelter Cove was starred on my atlas, I believe from 50k Bil so we headed there. The last section of the 1 had an amazing series of turns that I will seek out again. Fortunately, the there were plenty of pull-offs so the traffic could let us by.

Shelter Cove itself wasn’t that great but the roads that followed were amazing. I noticed a regional map on a signboard which showed a dirt road going to direction we were headed. So when the GPS told us to turn from the pavement to a very narrow rocky dirt road, we figured we’d be ok. The Kings Road is part of a network of dirt roads in this part of the Lost Coast. It’s barely more than a lane wide, smooth in places but mostly rocky, and worth the extra time. This road creates a contour line that travels up and down in a densely shaded redwood forest.

The R1200 GS is designed for pavement and the occasional dirt road, so it was great to give it a little workout. Even though it’s a heavy bike, it has enough torque to pull through when it gets bogged down. I almost lost control when I was crossing a small stream when trying to keep going straight nearly took me off the road, but managed to keep it rolling long enough to get it on track. The rocks and mud in the water and branches on the road were no help. I knew that if I went down, picking up would be a pain. So like Charles from Louisiana told me, stay on as long as you can; ride it out. I stopped to catch my breath, rolled backwards so I wouldn’t hit the branch that would have knocked me down, and continued the first-gear challenge.

After more than an hour on the most challenging road I’ve ever ridden, over a series of hills with loose switchbacks and steep declines, Jeremiah and I emerged on a stretch of road that alternated between pavement and gravel. It led to the no stoplight, watering-hole town of Honeydew. With no cell coverage and a 3:1 pick-up to car ratio (surprisingly mostly Toyotas) we knew were in the sticks. The general store which also carried bootleg dvds, a post office, and county maps updated in 1993, was the local watering hole judging by the large crowd of people and dogs. I wanted to pet a cute bulldog that was begging for attention in the back of one of the trucks, but the electrical wire leash and chocker collar warned me to stay away. With two BMWs and full touring suits, we definitely stuck out. Judging by the looks and the distance kept by the locals, not many riders crash this party.

Further on we found a desolate stretch of road where the only vehicle we passed was a FedEx truck. The road was definitely less used than the 1 as it had a dotted center line even though it was as twisty and the blacktop was certainly patchy. We followed a river down to the ocean crossing it several time before the final bridge which took us to a straight stretch along the ocean. On one side cute cows chew their cud and on the other waves continually create more sand from the shore.

We stopped by the funniest house to put on some warm layers as the sun approached the horizon. This house would fit in any suburban neighborhood, but instead sits on a long stretch of ocean with only cows for neighbors. It’s right against the street in a place where it could easily be set back a long way. I guess there’s so little traffic that any sign of life is welcome (as long as it stays on the road, there was a sign that said "no water, no bathroom, no phone").

We turned inland through another agricultural region stopping to stare into a flock of blank eyed sheep who’s pasture the road bisected. Our adventure into the wild untraveled ended when we entered Ferndale, a Victorian remnant of the American Main Street. There we picked up the 101, and although we made much better time, the best miles had already passed.

The legendary Laguna Seca, plus something you probably haven’t seen

This weekend I went to a Grand Am Rolex series race at one of the coolest tracks I’ve ever visited.

Situated in the hills outside Monterey, surrounded by what looks like a military testing site based on the explosives signs, Laguna Seca twists and turns around a central hill. From the sizable hill, which creates the famous "Corkscrew," the whole track as well as the ocean can be seen. Unlike a Nextel Cup series event, where a lot more is on the line, the atmosphere was relaxed. With stands in a few key places and a perfect shaded hillside for viewing the twists and turns, everyone could find a spot to watch without being too crowded. I even took a quick nap under a tree during a caution.

As I was leaving the race a motorcycle cop pulled up to talk bikes, which I was happy to do.

We talked about touring, Beemers, the KTM and Buell enduros, and about how the crash bars protect bike when it goes down. We talked about laying a bike down and the technique for picking them up (usually with the help of a bystander). Shortly after that a trailer came around the bend, inching closer and closer to the cop. I figured he was a good driver and had it under control, but I figured wrong, the next thing I knew the police bike was on its side and the cop was jumping off. I couldn’t believe my eyes, a trailer had just knocked this officer on the ground. I thought, do people really hit cops? My "radar" is always on, often making me think that Crown Vic is under cover… Anyway, the trailer had the winning 997 from the sports car class which had lost the points for the win because it was caught revving too high (above the factory limiter), so this team was having a long afternoon already. I was only able to snap one pic with the bike on its side which I’ll put up next time I get to a computer.

Bjork (improperly known as Bah-Jork)

Saturday night I got a chance to see the Icelander Bjork for the second time this trip (Coachella entry has pictures). Across the street from the main Goolge Office, the Googleplex, the Shoreline Amphitheater has both seats and a large green for general admission. It reminds me of the Blossom Music Park in Ohio I visited with Jen in 2005.

Bjork played an awesome set and thanks to the projection screens above the lawn, I could actually see her. The costumes reminded me of a fairy tale, including an awesome cape. I think the entire band/backup was from Iceland, an island I want to visit again.