Jonesin for a Ride!

Archive for the ‘2013-07-31 WTF Tour’ Category

 

Overall Map

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 7

Day 8

Shai and I are home now and have been for a few days. I usually don’t finish my blog on my trips. bu my sisters always remind me, so here it is.

We left Ben and Kate’s place at abut 11:00 a.m. after both Shai and I had breakfast and showered up one more time with the outdoor shower. Loaded up the bike, said bye to Kate and the dogs (Ben had left at 6:00 a.m. to head to the ranch to finish up on a job) and headed out of Hopland, not really knowing where I was going for the day. The weather was cool, as was this whole trip’s weather, basically was cool. I was thinking of hiting the stretch of route 1 that we bypassed (from the Golden Gate bridge to Bodega Bay). I pulled off highway 101 only several miles from Hopland off of Comminski Station Raod to put my jacket on. This was also the spot (across the river) where Ben thought there was a railroad station at one time along the tracks (we stopped at a spring here). I guess with the name of the road, he is right.

So as we headed south on 101 and as we approached San Fransico area, the weather was getting cooler and I could see fog creaping over the hills. SInce it looked like it would be foggy and cold (as it ussually is) I opted now to try and get past San Fran and south of it before rush hour.

We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge about 2ish and made it to the city, where we had to deal with downtown city streets for a bit before the freeway re-appeared. Little bit of lane splitting, past the airport, into the carpool lane and we were moving through heavy traffic. Silicon Valley was next and we breezed through that. At Gilroy, the “Garlic Capital of the World” we stopped to have a bite to eat at subway, which it was about 3:30 now. Paso Robles was only about 100 miles from here, so I made reservations and looked on my phone for another way to get there off the 101. I choose a route through Hollister CA, and on route 25.

Once we got past Hollister, the two lane highway was beautiful – found another treasure road to bypass the 101 in this area.
By 6:00 p.m. we were checking into our hotel and relaxing. THe next morning we left at 11:00 a.m. and made it back to O.C. by 3:00 p.m.

Another great trip!

It has been a long while since I have toured in California. I usually avoid it because of the helmet law and take my money elsewhere, but CA has a lot to offer, and I may have to return. It is so diverse. But it is also about 25% to 30% more expesive to travel I find. Food, Hotels, Gas…. and also more to compete with as a lot of tourist come here too.
We found several new cool roads (Highway 46 from Paso Robles to Route 1, Highway 128 from the coast to Fry Land and Highway 25 out of Hollister). This trip was also VERY relaxing – slow starts, early finishes, and more touring and just putting along. The most we ever did in a day was 300 miles.

Highlights of the trip:
⦁ Paso Robles I always enjoy this little town and the fine restaurants by the park
⦁ Big Sur
⦁ The MacNeil’s – visiting with Julia, Ross and Larry – and looking at the future pet that Ross wants to get.
⦁ Bodega Bay and the ride along the coast to Elk, CA – better than Big Sur.
⦁ Elk Cove Inn and the town of Elk.
⦁ Route 101 from Willits, CA to the Redwoods
⦁ The Avenure of the Giants
⦁ Route 1 from Leggat, CA to the coast
⦁ Route 128 from the coast to Hopland. There was about 30 miles of canopy redwood road here – just as good as Avenue of the Giants
⦁ Ben and Kate’s house and Ben’s Railroad – that was a topper!

Yes, a very relaxing trip indeed. One of the most relaxing trips on a bike i have taken in a while.We were gone 8 days, on the bike for 7 and traveled about 2,000 miles. Shai, this was fun!

Thanks for following. We enjoyed all the comments even though we may not have responded – it always brought a smile to our faces

You can follow at SPOT website. Also, if you click on an image, you can see a bigger picture.

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.