Big Sur. The Redwoods. Yosemite.
Following The Front Wheel North…
In the summer of 2013 I hadn’t started school yet and my wife, Mary Claire, was back east in Rhode Island for a week long class. With nothing else to do I decided to take a ride north on my motorcycle and see more of the state of California.
Earlier in the summer I had ridden my motorcycle across the country when I moved to California and I kept a diary of where I went, what I saw, and who I met. I published that as an ebook in the Kindle and iBooks store and titled it Following The Front Wheel West. I kept the same format for this shorter trip.
Because some people might be curious, I ride a 2007 Harley-Davidson Electra Glide Standard. I love Harleys, but I don’t care what you ride as long as you ride. There is no better way to experience somewhere new than to be on a bike and hopefully this will be an encouragement to people to get out and ride.
All the photos were taken by me with an iPhone 5.
Hopefully some people out there enjoy this.
Tuesday 8-13-13
Day one on the road, 266 miles. I left San Diego today shortly after 1200. I like getting on the road early usually, but I had to take care of a few things in regards to my classes that are starting soon. I still have to take care of one thing with a class, but the great thing about living in 2013 is that you can get a lot of stuff done on the road these days.
My plan for this trip is to see a little more of California. I want to see some truly unique California stuff. I’m going to ride up to the Big Sur area, see the redwoods, and maybe get over to Yosemite and hike Half Dome. I left San Diego and blasted north on I-5 past Camp Pendleton and up toward Los Angeles. I really didn’t get into L. A. because when I got that far north I jumped on the 405 and headed north-west, to the ocean. Eventually I found myself on the Pacific Coast Highway and enjoyed a few stretches of that. It is right on the ocean and had some beautiful sights, but it was also congested and hectic in some spots. I think I will be seeing prettier sights the closer I get to Big Sur. I’ve never heard a bad thing about that part of the country, and I can’t wait to get up there to see it myself.
Tonight I am camping at Gaviota State Park. It is a campground very close to the ocean. I’m glad I found it because the three prior campsites I came too were full. It was $45 to camp here; that seems insanely high to me. I’d hate to see what a hotel costs around here. The air here is thick with smoke. I love a campfire as much as the next person, but when there are dozens of fires smoldering all over the place it gets to be a little much. I’ll probably smell like a chimney when I leave here. I went down to the ocean and poked around out there for a little bit then went out on the pier. There were a fair amount of people of all ages out there fishing. I hung around a little while asking folks if they were getting any bites and most said no or they were to small to keep. Since there wasn’t anything exciting going on out there I decided to not be the weird creeper hanging around while they were fishing, so I went back to my campsite. I think I am going to get in the sleeping bag and read a good book before I go to sleep. I’m tired and don’t think I’ll be up late at all. I also want to get an early start in the morning.
Wednesday 8-14-13
Day two on the road, 297 miles. I woke up early this morning and packed up camp quickly with the intention of getting on the road early but a friend from back home called. Earl Ogburn, who played the bagpipes in my wedding, called; he was on the way back from Warner-Robbins Air Force base. He was down there for some chaplaincy training. It was good to talk to him and catch up. After I hung up with him the gentlemen who had camped next to me last night approached me and we started talking. He saw that I had my SDSU sweatshirt on and asked if I was going there, and he told me he was an alumni himself. You never know who you are going to meet on these trips. This guy told me that he was a journalism major at SDSU also and was a cameraman for years for a TV station in Los Angeles. He gave it up after the Rodney King Riots. He said he got tired of being sent to these crazy, dangerous places. He was also fed up with the way some news organizations painted people and he wanted to get away from it. This is where his story got interesting to me. So, after leaving that job he said he went into debt up to his eyeballs and bought all his own filming gear and started a filming company of his own. Since the 90s he has been filming Jay Leno’s “Jaywalking” segment on his show! He said it’s been a great job for him and Leno has been good to him and all the other people who worked for him. He was a cool dude who had some funny stories.
Big Sur near Bixby Bridge.
After leaving Gaviota state park I went north on Route 1. This road runs right up the coast and is a beautiful ride. The mountains along the coast are not what I expected. When I think of mountains I think of jagged, sharp rocks. The ones along this road were soft and lumpy looking, something like you would see in a Dr. Seuss book. Since Dr. Seuss lived in California, in La Jolla, maybe he did get some of his inspiration for his quirky books from the California countryside.
I continued to push north on Route 1 until I hit the Santa Cruz area. I then found Henry Cowell State Park as a place to bed down for tonight. The ranger there, after talking motorcycles with me and telling me about his Ducati, suggested I go a little farther north to Big Basin State Park. I’m glad he did. I plan to walk around some tomorrow morning and see the redwoods. This place is beautiful.
I’ve got my camp all set up and I’ll probably be turning in soon. I need to figure out where I’m going tomorrow too. I’m headed east. Maybe to Yosemite and maybe try to see my cousin Josh and his wife Robyn who are out that way. It would be great to see them. It’s been too long.
8-15-13
Day three on the road, 252 miles. I left Big Basin this morning after I went for a short walk through the redwoods. I got to see the tallest trees in that forest, the “mother” and “father” of the forest. They are taller than the Statue of Liberty, and truly impressive.
Last night before I went to sleep I was in the bathhouse brushing my teeth and washing my face when I heard two voices in the stalls next to me. They were singing California Dreamin’ by The Mommas & the Pappas. It’s a great song to sing with two people. They got stuck in a point of the song where they didn’t know the words so I helped them out. This whole time we cannot see each other, only hearing our voices through the wall. I got them through the part of the the song where they had trouble with the lyrics and by this time I was ready to leave and head back to my tent. When I walked out and came around the corner I saw a young boy around 15 who was standing there with a big cheese ball grin on his face. He must have been one of the singers. I smiled at him and went on my way. Later that night I think I heard the family or group that he was from. Through the woods I heard a ukulele playing and what sounded like a whole host of people signing. They were singing some good ones. John Fogerty’s Bad Moon Rising is the only one I can recall right now. They sounded great and I drifted off to sleep listening to them.
I left there and followed my phone’s directions to Yosemite. I stopped in Groveland, which is just outside the park in the hopes of getting in touch with my cousin Josh who is camping in the area. No luck, his phone is off or out cell range like mine is now. I’m camping in Yosemite tonight at the Yosemite Creek campground. This campsite is remote! I like it! I rode down a dirt road to get here that I doubt many dressers (touring motorcycles) go down. It was rough and one time I bottomed out my front shocks. As I was going down to the campsite a dual-sport motorcycle came by me headed up. I could see him smiling inside of his helmet. I think he got a kick out of seeing a big Harley come down that hill.
As usual I met some nice folks here. I met two brothers who are out here camping while also celebrating the life of their other brother who died in a motorcycle accident a few years ago. One brother has lived out here for a few years and the other one made his first trip here from the east coast. He made a trip very similar to mine. He flew into San Diego then drove up the Pacific Coast Highway and met his brother in Oakland. This is the younger brother’s first camping trip. His older brother picked a good spot in Yosemite to take him for his first camping trip.
I had intended to hike Half Dome tomorrow but that isn’t going to happen. They are only so many permits given out for a day and they were taken days ago in a lottery. It is a very popular hike. Instead I will hike Clouds Rest. The rangers assured me it is a great hike and it is actually a touch higher than Half Dome, Clouds Rest is at almost 10,000 feet elevation. It doesn’t have the elevation change though of Half Dome. So, tomorrow morning I will be getting up early and hitting that hike up. Depending on when I get done I will either stay here another night or start home tomorrow. I’m looking forward to getting home. Mary Claire will be flying in on Sunday and I have missed her. I think we should try to come back up here for our anniversary. It will be in the fall so it will be cooler and the crowds will not be as thick. I think I should be able to get us a permit for Half Dome by then, now that I know what needs to be done to get one.
8-16-13
Day four on the road, 114 miles. All my riding was done in Yosemite today. This park is huge! I hiked Clouds Rest today, it was around 14 miles round trip. It was a tough hike but it was a good one. It was almost 10,000 feet at the top of it and the views were awesome. I was at the end of Yosemite Valley and you could see all the way up it and seemingly right in the middle of it was Half Dome. I can see why it is one of the most popular hikes in the park. Looking at it is something else and makes you want to climb it. I was told by a few other people today that Clouds Rest is a much better hike though. It is much less crowded, and I can probably count on both my hands how many people I saw on the hike. On Half Dome that would not have been the case. There are hundreds of people who go up that hike per day. I still want to hike Half Dome one day.
Yosemite Valley.
I met a nice gentlemen today from England on the Clouds Rest hike. His name was Simon and he was probably in his 50s. He was bald so he kept a damp rag on his head to keep himself cool and prevent sunburn. He and his family were here on vacation seeing the sites in the States. We kept each other company and cooled off in a lake at the end of our hike together. I like Brits and the ones I have met have always been easy going with a good self-deprecating sense of humor. Simon was no different. We were filthy by the end. My legs looked positively brown from dirt. It felt good to take off my shoes and go out into the water. It wasn’t freezing and felt just right. Thankfully we had somewhere to do this, I was told this part of the year the park is a lot drier. I imagine in the spring after the winter thaw, all the lakes and waterfalls are full and gushing. There were no waterfalls going today that I saw. After I washed up in the lake I headed toward the valley to grab dinner at the one of the restaurants in the valley. They have a very swanky restaurant and then a more affordable cafeteria. I went with the cafeteria even though it was still pricey.
When I got back to my campsite I found that I have some neighbors. There are about ten or so college age kids next to me. Right now they have their hip hop music blasting and are generally being loud. I hope they quiet down. There is another couple next to me that came over and offered to let me crash at there campsite if they were loud all night. Hopefully it won’t come to that. If they do stay loud I’ll just crank my BBC Big Band album and tell them to keep it down or everyone will be listening to my music.
I was completely wrong about the folks next to me. Just after I had finished writing what I did in the paragraph above they came over and invited me to dinner with them. They had a huge spread of food, hot dogs, hamburgers and all the fixings to go on them. They are all mostly friends from school and they all attend church together in Los Angeles. One of them asked if I had any prayer requests and then prayed right then and there for me. I asked for a safe trip home for me and Mary Claire. Such classy, nice, folks that I would have never met if I was staying in a hotel room. I had the completely wrong impression of them and it was a good lesson for me.
8-17-13
Day five on the road, 479 miles. I left Yosemite this morning at 0700 and didn’t get out of the park till after 0800. This alone is testament to how big this park is and every bit of it that I saw was beautiful. The valley did seem a little more crowded but this didn’t take away from its beauty. I was glad to have stayed where I stayed, it seemed like it was more off the beaten path. What a place. The filmmaker Ken Burns made a documentary called “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.” I haven’t seen this documentary, but I have to agree with the title whole heartedly. Anyone who goes to places like Yosemite cannot come away from them and not agree that it was a great idea to preserve these places for everyone.
After I left the park I headed south on Route 395. This is the road that goes between Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. It is mostly high desert country and it goes through the Sierra Nevada mountains for a long time. It is also very hot. I came down this road in May when I first came to San Diego and it was much cooler but still hot. In August is was nuclear hot. It was over 110 degrees. I stopped several times to chug water and to poor it over me. I would soak my shirt and riding jacket and it would give me some relief, but after only a few minutes I would be dry as a bone after riding through the hot dry air. 395 was a huge chunk of my trip home and the rest was on the “super slab” (interstate) till I got back to San Diego.
This was another great trip where I got to see a ton of beautiful sights. It only made me want to see more of California and to do some more great rides in our beautiful country.
