Jonesin for a Ride!

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Cause I don’t know where I’ll be going next.

Ben and Kate’s home is a slice of heaven. It’s like walking into a themed area of Disneyland’s Tom Sawyers or Huckleberry Finn. Beautiful natural garden areas with wood chip paths meandering around. I even got disorientated finding the outside bathroom, thats how well layout this little piece of paradise is. Chicken coop area, a garden harvest area, and plants all over the grounds. The house is being engulfed by a large grape vine. Ben and Kate built this redwood house and maintain its rustic beauty. Ben builds his furniture with rustic wood that he finds. We even grab some choice pieces along the railroad ride yesterday. Tables and benches are littered through out the garden to stop and take in the sites.

Shai slept inside the cabin and I slept on the cabins porch on the couch. The cabin has a sink, wood burning stove and an outdoor shower.
Truly amazing time here. Thank you Ben and Kate!

Fry Land:

Finally left Erueka at 11:00 a.m. And headed slowly back south. It warmed up S we continued and the marine layer burned off and we again, exited off and road the 30 pr so miles o f the Avenue of the Giants, stoping to take some more photos and read the signs along the way. At the end we merged back on highway 101 and continued south. By the town of Garberville they were wrapping up the 29th Reggie on the River festival, and the traffic was a bit heavy through there, but not bad. Soon after that we exited off for Route 1 again from the part we bypassed before. This is one of the twistiest roads passing through stands of redwoods that I have ridden in a while as we decended to the Pacific Ocean once. This part of the pacific coast reminds me a lot of New England’s coast with lots of coves and rocky jagged coast lines.

We continued south and stopped in Fort Bragg to call Ben, who lives in Hopland. Ben just got back from the Reggie festival and said “Come on down!”

We continued south on 1 to 128, and started heading inland again. 128 was an absolute beautiful road with about 30 to 40 miles of redwood groves which led us into wine country-beautiful ride!

We arrived at Bens place and this place is just a wonderland of plants and rustic woodworking of Ben. We slept out in the “Hopland Hide-a-way”, a cabin on his property.

The next day Ben treated us to a ride on some abandon tracks. Check it out.

After that adventure we went in the Russian River and hung out at the Dirty Dawg and did a little swimming.

Then it was harvest time to go in the garden and collect potatoes and veggies for dinner. It was great to pick you food, then eat it for dinner.

It appears my map add-in isn’t working right, but you can follow at SPOT website. Also, if you click on an image, you can see a bigger picture.

After our tremendous breakfast that they served up at the Elk Inn, we finally loaded up the bike and got started at 11:00 a.m., lol we keep getting later and later, but this is niiiice! It was also socked in with fog and Patty at the inn said it should burn off about 1:00 p.m.

So we put all our gear on and headed north towards Fort Bragg. After talking with Patty, her suggestion was to take CA 20 just south of Fort Bragg and cut over to Highway 101 that way, as oppose to riding all the way up route 1 to Rockport and then winding up to Legget and Highway 101. She also mention not to stop along the stretch heading to Legget from 1. This is the second person to mention this. Sign of the new economy here in Mendocino County.

We arrive at junction 20 at noon, and to me, it sure didnt look like it was going to burn off in an hour as heavy fog didn’t even look like it was lifting. So I opted for route 20 and told Shai maybe we will hit the other section on the way back, and then maybe take highway 128 from 1 to 101.

Highway 20 was another fine road, lots of twists, climbs, descents, and warmer weather as the sun came out quickly as we headed inland.

We hit Willits CA around 1:30, gassed up, and headed north on 101, also known as the Redwood Highway. This stretch of the 101 goes from a 2 lane highway to 4 land highway to 2 land highway and then 4 lane divided highway, then back again to 2 lane highway , and the cycle continues till we past Legget, where it stays a 4 lane freeway through some great country. It is also at this time we branch off and catch the Avenue of the Giants road that parallels 101. This is where the big boys are. We take our time meandering along this road, taking in lots of stops and relaxing.

By 6:30 we reach Eureka,CA and it feels like winter as we are back along the coast and much further north. It is a heavy marine layer that is engulfing the area, but we have checked into our Comfort Inn to warm up and relax. Enjoy the pics of the day. Tomorrow? Who knows….

It appears my map add-in isn’t working right, but you can follow at SPOT website. Also, if you click on an image, you can see a bigger picture.

Had a great breakfast meal from Julia to send us off with eggs, waffles, rosemary bread and juice along with a bottomless cup of coffee. Great hosts and I threaten to stay with that hospitality.
Prior to leaving and since it was Friday I wanted to book a room somewhere along the route as I know it can be challenging. Julia suggested Airbnb.com as her daughters have used it. Elk Cove Inn and Spa looked nice so I send an email to find out availability. Minutes later a reply with the offer of 25% discount to motorcyclists. I called and talked with Patty and received more info on route/places I would need to commit to move further north, etc before I made the decision.

It was clear when we left but when we crested the hill the marine layer was there along with the constant headwind of about 10 mph. This part of SF seems to always be cold, even in August. We skirted most of the city and caught route 1 again just before the bridge to cross the bay.

Since it was still foggy by the bays edge, I opted to skip the first part of the coast route right after the bridge. I know that it is real slow going and twisty, and we would have plenty of coast to see ahead, and headed towards Bodega Bay to continue along route 1. Once we got to the coast it was cool, but sunny and clear!

This part of the coast is gorgeous with lots of twists, overlooks, climbs and descents and very little traffic. Did not take any pics along the route, but we eventually made it to Elk and our destination by 4:30.

This was my first time staying at an Bed and Breakfast place and what a treat. The place was awesome! (Click on image below to see it as a slide show and larger image)

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing, checking out the beach and small town. We walked to dinner around 7:30 to a small pub in town to have a great home style cooked meal.

Foggy this morning, after breakfast at the inn, we may alter our route.

Some parting pics: