dry, trees, and drier

So this marked the beginning of my most favorite day of riding. With a late start we headed on southward. 

on Ladybird Johnson trail among the redwoods

i climbed the side of a redwood to get the pic

stopped and cooked lunch on rt 1

We road on the avenue of the giants that was amazing, then hit the famous rt 1. lets just say our bikes got lighter as we scraped and ground our way around some of the best corners ever.

It was just glorious riding. Chad was leading for quite a while and after nate said it was amazing to watch all the bikes snaking along through the cornings chad came on the radio and said in a sad pouty voice “I want to ride in the back” so he did, and Dwayne continued to lead us through the slithering maze of corners and on to rt 40 that was more of the same.

we met this couple (Mark and Katie i think) along our way. they have been on the road for 4 months as a honey moon. and they also are headed to panama. hopefully our paths cross again.

We camped north east of Sacramento for the evening then headed into meet Hannah Carlsons (former trip team member/blog updater/chads ridding buddy) uncle, Mr Kent Carlson and family. Kent came and met us a few miles from his house and then escorted us on his nice and clean Harley Davidson. It had to look funny having a clean classic bike followed closely by five tall dirty and just getting broken in adventure bikes. The Carlsons put us up for the night, after taking us out to a very sweet local pub for dinner.

in the van on the way back from dinner.

breakfast with the Carlsons

work day on the bike

The next day we worked on our bikes and had some very good meals prepared for us. So a special thanks to Kent and his wonderful family for allowing us to crash in his house and making things dirty and smelly. We then headed out toward Yosemite NP. So I’d like to take this time to vent a bit about national parks. Lets just say I’m not a real big fan. Way to many people, way to commercialized and the sticker selection leaves a bit to be desired. to be honest the camp sites are all blurring together, and it gets hard to remember where we camped even the night before. But this evening we headed back to a reservoir that was feed by creeks. And along the way we kept seeing these spiders that were the size of my hand!

this evening nate had like 5 drops in an hour. i think his total is 15

bones dry campsite

Yosemite

note the large spider in the lower left corner!

a little swimming

my breakfast sandwhich. yummmmmm

We did get to camp by water even though it was a little creek we rambled down it looking for something big enough to dunk our heads it. This is also the site that I must of bumped into poison ivy at some point, then I used the “bathroom” so you can assume the places that got itchy. Not good. The worst part is that when you get poison its best to keep it cool and let it have air. Well as we were headed to death valley and Nevada the first one is not really an option, and as for giving it air that one is basically ruled out as well due to having to wear pants while doing basically anything. So anyway we drove through sequoia national park. We checked out General Sherman the largest tree in the world (by volume) then of course because it was a national park we hit road construction. And sat for an 40 minutes in the sun waiting for construction to let us through.

playing hearts while in road construction

We had planed on driving over to death valley and possibly camp there but it was WAY further then what we thought and I tried to find a short cut with map quest and it took us to roads that where gated and impassible. So we headed out and around a bit and somehow didn’t get terribly lost and got some directions form ladies at the gas station. Though it seems that we do quite a few U turns when I lead. We found a decent camp site. Though it was crazy dry

the second part of the last post

continued from last post.........We changed our route a bit to get south of the rain. I did not wear my rain gear, and I didn’t get very wet either. Chad comes over the radio and asked if I could find a site with a view of the ocean that it would be good. While looking for chad site nate and I had some near death experiences (always watch where you are going when riding on a narrow road with a large chasm to one side). Anyway after going around a gate to find an amazing campsite (with a view of the ocean I might add). 

sausage that Daveys sent along with us

my camp dinner of mash tators sausage and a beagle

camptsite

a banana slug right out side my tent/hammock

getting around in the morning

i road to the top of a ridge and looked back at the guys way down

looking out at the pacific ocean from on top the ridge

headed down from campsite in the morning

It either was the heaviest dew that I ever saw or it rained a bit. Either way I had my hammock on the round be cause there was no trees around. I stayed dry but I don’t like sleeping on the ground at all. Anyways I awoke to look out my front door to a massive slug crawling around. Sick. So we after enjoying our view and nate and chad worked on chads bike a bit we headed out and down rt 101 and towards crater lake. We had one of our best camp sites though not very private, we did camp along a rushing creek that was begging to be kayaked, and some very large redwoods. As it was nates birthday we sang a little ditty for him, had some good talks about respecting each other among other things.

nate looking at his bike in disgust

some good roads. i think RT 1

cooking up a storm

to chilly fog on the way to crater lake

In the morning we headed for Crater Lake. It was cool and getting colder as we climbed up through the foggy roads. Once at the lake we paid our fee to get in and then sat and waited for a while well they used a helicopter to lift a truck out of the lake that had slid in a few days before. We snapped a few pics got some stickers for the bags and headed out as it was still on the chilly side. 

some little crater we saw

We headed for the place I was looking forward to the most. The giant redwoods. It was sweeter then I remembered them being. As we drove through and around the massive trees it was impossible not to feel small. It was also impossible to capture even a hint of there majesty with some piddly little camera. Though I tried over and over again to no avail. 

one word: BUFFET!! and no it wasn't a food chain

the twisties

redwoods

more trying to no avail

We had planed on camping in the redwoods only to find the campsite cost over $35 plus $8 a motorcycle! Oh and the camp ground was full. So we headed to the out skirts of the national park and up some little paved road with some crazy semi drivers ripping around like they were in race cars. We hunted around for a bit to find a spot to camp when all the sudden we found a small logging road that headed down into the valley. Bingo, I was sure we had found a winner. We had a number of casualties on the way down. Laban did a slow motion dump in a little bit of slimmy mud, and while looking over my shoulder to watch him go down I ran my bike up a small bank and tipped over as well. Dwayne soon followed suit with a drop in the same spot as laban. After a bunch more rain runoff ditches and some sparks off chads bags we made it to the end of the road.

nap time!

a little slim

dwayne in a little slim

Literally to road ended in a bit of a flatish spot that we decided was good enough. I had to scail a small cliff to get to trees that might be of any use for my hammock, since the night before I had slept on the ground (if you can call it sleeping) and woke up stiff and sore I was set on using my hammock as it was intended to be used. Which in this case meant getting a running start to get up the very steep and probably 15 to 20 foot high bank. Then clearing enough dead trees to have room for my hammock, all while on the steepest hill I have set my hammock up on. It was a bit interesting and after a bit of huffing and puffing I had things set up. After returning to base level for some fine dinning and chats, it took me not once, not twice, but three tries to get back up to my sleeping quarters in the dark. Once I had arrived and weaseled my way into my cocoon all I could think about was that mountain lion sitting and watching me till I was sounds asleep. And as there was nothing for me to do but try and sleep and hope that the thin layer of bug netting would keep the sharp toothed kitty away. After a nights sleep and almost rolling down the steep bank during my little midnight adventure to got tinkle tinkle little star, I awoke to the sun shining and packed all my stuff up and tossed it down the bank as I had no desire to scamper up there again. 

my perch

We had a quick breakfast and headed up the trail stopping to video people falling over, ok so it was just Dwayne this time we continued up the trail only to have laban ummm shall we say “tip” his bike over the edge of the road. It took all of us one and a half hours to set her on the road again but with some team work and a lot of grunting and groaning she was ready to continue on.

the rescue

not very impressed with himself

So this marked the beginning of my most favorite day of riding. With a late start we headed on south ward. We road on the avenue of the giants that was amazing.........to be continued...........