Friday, June 02, 2006
Pacific Coast Highway
Buellton to Ukiah, CA
This is a little out of order and I will have to go back and fill in the leg from Yuma to SD to Brea to Buellton later.
At any rate, I ended up stopping Thursday evening at Buellton, a small town a little bit north of Santa Barbara. There was a very nice Days Inn with a downstairs room, outside access and poolside as well. I had intermittant Internet access, but was able to make it work. Slept for 10 hours again as my body must have been worn out from the previous 3 days hard ridng.
Got a little bit of a late start because of maintenance things - top off the oil, fix right Highway Wing (it's loose),check and inflate tires to proper pressures, etc. Oil in Buellton was damn expensive - $7.64/qt for Mobil 1 5W-50. It's frustrating to get ripped off like that, but it's also important that Tigress stay in top form. I also discovered that the low beam on the left side is out, so I'll need to replace that soon, but that's easy - almost any auto parts store has replacement bulbs. The right side PIAA 1100 is also out - it went out in Maine - but those aren't nearly as easily available and I'll have to wait until home for that repair.
Anyway, I got onto California Route 1, also known as the Pacific Coast Highway, or PCH and it was a ball!!! Several sections in the Los Padres National Forest reminded me of Colorado - 20mph switchbacks, sharp turns with no room for error, tremendous scenery - incredible!! All along the way, the ocean is on the left and mountains and grasslands are on the right. At some points, the monutains met the road, much like Colorado and you're riding the ribbon of road between the two. There are lots of rock slides in this area and the DOT has a continuing job of keeping the road clear. One thing they are doing is to put wire mesh over the rock face to try to prevent the falling rocks from getting onto the road surface and that seems to be working. They have rockhounds climb the face and place pitons into the rock, then have a helicopter fly in with the net and drape it in place over the pitons. At one point we stopped for a work crew for about 20'. When we were allowed to go thru, the tar hadn't even cooled so there are tar stripes along the fenders and bits of bitumen all over the bike.
Stopped for an early dinner at Tres Amigos in Half Moon Bay, on my daughter's recommendation and it was worth it - excellent food. Unfortunately, the cloud bank that had been on the horizon for some time came onshore and the sun was gone for the time being. At Half Moon Bay I also discovered that Rte 1 was closed going north because of a rock slide some 8 miles up the road and the only option was to take Rte 92 over to the Interstate. It was only 6 miles and easy running going my way, but the folks on the other side were having an ugly Friday afternoon commute - it was backed up the entire 6 miles. I can't imagine tolerating that drive every day just to get to/from work. On top of all that, I'm thinking, here I am, heading into San Francisco on a Frday afternoon at the peak of rush hour. I should severely discipline the navigator for such acts of stupidity...
One thing you notice very quickly is that the temps swing wildly from the coastline to the other side of the mountain range. On the coast, it's cool because of the ocean and 5 miles inland, on the "other" side of the mountains, it's 20* warmer. This is where the 'stich really shines- on the "cold" side, simply zip up the arms and you're good to go; conversely, over the mountain, reverse the procedure and it's comfortable with the wind blowing thru the jacket.
As it turned out, getting thru SF went pretty well and there were very few stops. Got across the Golden Gate Bridge (no tolls going northbound) and started rolling on some speed.
About this time I learned what lane splitting (or lane sharing...) is all about. Cars in all three lanes are slowed or stopped and you just put your bike in between the lanes - usually riding the white lane markers. There is enough room and a lot of drivers have come to expect it and give you even more room. You don't have to go fast, but if you keep moving, you can pass many, many cars and still keep in motion. I saw a guy doing it on a HD Road King and figured that if he can, so can I.
From Santa Rosa and north the scenery is simply beautiful - more hills, covered with trees and grassland or immaculate vinyards. The 4-lane divied highway was well designed for speed with wide sweepers left and right and you could get into a rhythm even at a good rate of speed - great fun! I saw lots of cows grazing and wondered if they were "Happy Cows" as portrayed in the commercial..
No stamps today because I got into SF too late and all the sites were closed. Will get one a Redwoods NP tomorrow for certain.
Daily stats
GPS 431.7 miles
Driving avg: 50.4
Overall avg:40.2
Drive Time: 8:34
Stopped time: 2:10
Total Time:10:44
Cumulative miles: 7589
Hard to believe that I've gone amoust 3/4 of the way around the country!!!
Later,
Mike
This is a little out of order and I will have to go back and fill in the leg from Yuma to SD to Brea to Buellton later.
At any rate, I ended up stopping Thursday evening at Buellton, a small town a little bit north of Santa Barbara. There was a very nice Days Inn with a downstairs room, outside access and poolside as well. I had intermittant Internet access, but was able to make it work. Slept for 10 hours again as my body must have been worn out from the previous 3 days hard ridng.
Got a little bit of a late start because of maintenance things - top off the oil, fix right Highway Wing (it's loose),check and inflate tires to proper pressures, etc. Oil in Buellton was damn expensive - $7.64/qt for Mobil 1 5W-50. It's frustrating to get ripped off like that, but it's also important that Tigress stay in top form. I also discovered that the low beam on the left side is out, so I'll need to replace that soon, but that's easy - almost any auto parts store has replacement bulbs. The right side PIAA 1100 is also out - it went out in Maine - but those aren't nearly as easily available and I'll have to wait until home for that repair.
Anyway, I got onto California Route 1, also known as the Pacific Coast Highway, or PCH and it was a ball!!! Several sections in the Los Padres National Forest reminded me of Colorado - 20mph switchbacks, sharp turns with no room for error, tremendous scenery - incredible!! All along the way, the ocean is on the left and mountains and grasslands are on the right. At some points, the monutains met the road, much like Colorado and you're riding the ribbon of road between the two. There are lots of rock slides in this area and the DOT has a continuing job of keeping the road clear. One thing they are doing is to put wire mesh over the rock face to try to prevent the falling rocks from getting onto the road surface and that seems to be working. They have rockhounds climb the face and place pitons into the rock, then have a helicopter fly in with the net and drape it in place over the pitons. At one point we stopped for a work crew for about 20'. When we were allowed to go thru, the tar hadn't even cooled so there are tar stripes along the fenders and bits of bitumen all over the bike.
Stopped for an early dinner at Tres Amigos in Half Moon Bay, on my daughter's recommendation and it was worth it - excellent food. Unfortunately, the cloud bank that had been on the horizon for some time came onshore and the sun was gone for the time being. At Half Moon Bay I also discovered that Rte 1 was closed going north because of a rock slide some 8 miles up the road and the only option was to take Rte 92 over to the Interstate. It was only 6 miles and easy running going my way, but the folks on the other side were having an ugly Friday afternoon commute - it was backed up the entire 6 miles. I can't imagine tolerating that drive every day just to get to/from work. On top of all that, I'm thinking, here I am, heading into San Francisco on a Frday afternoon at the peak of rush hour. I should severely discipline the navigator for such acts of stupidity...
One thing you notice very quickly is that the temps swing wildly from the coastline to the other side of the mountain range. On the coast, it's cool because of the ocean and 5 miles inland, on the "other" side of the mountains, it's 20* warmer. This is where the 'stich really shines- on the "cold" side, simply zip up the arms and you're good to go; conversely, over the mountain, reverse the procedure and it's comfortable with the wind blowing thru the jacket.
As it turned out, getting thru SF went pretty well and there were very few stops. Got across the Golden Gate Bridge (no tolls going northbound) and started rolling on some speed.
About this time I learned what lane splitting (or lane sharing...) is all about. Cars in all three lanes are slowed or stopped and you just put your bike in between the lanes - usually riding the white lane markers. There is enough room and a lot of drivers have come to expect it and give you even more room. You don't have to go fast, but if you keep moving, you can pass many, many cars and still keep in motion. I saw a guy doing it on a HD Road King and figured that if he can, so can I.
From Santa Rosa and north the scenery is simply beautiful - more hills, covered with trees and grassland or immaculate vinyards. The 4-lane divied highway was well designed for speed with wide sweepers left and right and you could get into a rhythm even at a good rate of speed - great fun! I saw lots of cows grazing and wondered if they were "Happy Cows" as portrayed in the commercial..
No stamps today because I got into SF too late and all the sites were closed. Will get one a Redwoods NP tomorrow for certain.
Daily stats
GPS 431.7 miles
Driving avg: 50.4
Overall avg:40.2
Drive Time: 8:34
Stopped time: 2:10
Total Time:10:44
Cumulative miles: 7589
Hard to believe that I've gone amoust 3/4 of the way around the country!!!
Later,
Mike
