Exploring the Pacific Coastline of the USA by motorcycle - Episode 14

In this episode, I head south along the coast with incredible views. I explore a redwood forest. I camp on the beach and get visited by a seal. I travel through San Francisco and ride through Big Sur. Good morning. It's taken a while for the sun to come up. It's well after seven. Luckily there's a full moon last night so I could actually pack up the tent with some light. Time to get on the road. I rode through Cannon Beach with its beautiful looking wooden beach houses. I got back onto the 101 highway then came across deer grazing on the side of the road and they weren't at all concerned by me passing by. Now that's a coastline. Now the layers of mountains. Lots of mist. It's a little sort of point surf here. I'm not sure. Definitely not big enough swell. Stunning. I love being out for sunrise. I pass through another small town. I gather I'll be passing through a lot more of these over the next couple of days. There were a lot of fishermen out early in their boats. I rode into another town where I saw a car park right on the beach. I saw something in the water way in the distance. I thought it might be worth having a closer look so I continued a bit further and I found a side road that I thought would get me the closest. That's not a bad spot for a house. When I pulled into the car park before I'd noticed this in the water. Actually from there on the side angle it looks like an elf tusk coming into the water. Probably a better picture a bit further up but I just kept trying to find a spot to pull into see it. But this coast is really stunning laid back. All these little villages and homes along the water. It's good. They had an old steam train on display in the town. There was also a rather large smokestack. I'm not sure if it was from a timber mill or maybe an old brick works. I spotted an old train carriage. I'll stop for all kinds of weird things to take a photo. I pulled over once again as there was a picture postcard looking small farm with a field of flowers and some cool old school looking barns. This area seems to be made up of a lot of farms which seem to be dairy farms and there were even more old cool looking barns. I passed through more coastal towns, more forests, more river mouths and estuaries. I spotted a turnout that had a view of the coast. There was a small road that seemed to hug closer to the coast than the 101. So I thought I'd see if it continued through and joined back to the 101 further down the coast. It was a one-way road that ran right on the edge of the cliffs while ducking in and out of the forest. This coastline is stunning. That's the only bear I've seen on this journey. I never realized that there were this many river mouths along this coast. I pulled over at Devil's Churn. When the waves are big it can throw sprays several hundred feet into the air but obviously wasn't happening today. The road climbed higher along the cliff line. A quick look on the map showed there were massive sand dunes here so I took the next exit to see if I could find them. There didn't seem to be a place to view the dunes from and with my lack of sand riding skills, the lack of knobblies on this tyre and all the gear on the sand track to get a closer look. I just pulled over in this rest area which is just beside the stream so I thought I could try and get a better view of the sand dunes. The sand dunes were nestled between the coastline and waterways behind. It's been a good day. It's been very relaxed. Just cruising some of those roads were just a lot of fun. A lot different than going up I guess the west, sorry the eastern side of the states and going up through these areas where it was all about off-road and always having to be on it and concentrating but here it's just bliss really. Seeing there's still quite a lot of sunlight left. I think it's 1 30 or so. I'm going to keep heading down towards the California border along the coast. More Oregon coast and I don't think I'll make California today but northern California tomorrow. Let's get on with it. Something caught my eye so I pulled over. There was a ship on the dock with an insane amount of logs on it. It makes you wonder how much timber comes out of these mountains each day. Now that's a lot of wood chips. Oregon legend Prefontaine. I turned off the 101 as there was a state park camping ground. This campground was a no-go as the sign summed it up so I continued on. Well found a campsite. Went to the state park campsite and it was full. That's the first one I've seen all day. They've got signs out the front either closed or it says there's availability. One I pick? No. So this one's actually cheaper. I think it's like $15. Although my bike has to say the other side of the creek which is I'd rather have it beside me but it will do. Soft grass this one. It's probably a better grass than the last night's one that cost eight times as much. All right before the sun goes down I'm going to get tent set up. Straight onto the beach. The sky was reflecting off the water. The sand looks quite volcanic. Very black. I think I scored compared to the other place. Well I still look good but lots of RVs. They love an RV in the United States. Like taking home with you. I'm more about just a bare minimum. Different strokes with different folks. TV show mindset. Sun's just about to go down. I'll see if I can get one. After a long day on the bike I laid back and watched the color fade from the sky until dark. I got on the road for another day of exploring the west coast of America. I had actually crossed the state border into California yesterday evening as the campsite I was at was about a mile into California. I'd spotted something on the map not that far down the 101 highway and there was a dirt road through it so I went to check it out. Morning. It's a brisk one. Hands are still trying to warm up. I did see that there was a dirt track through Redwood Forest and I'm pretty sure I found it as these trees are massive. I thought it'd be a good thing to cruise through early and then get back onto the 101 and head south along the coast. It's big but I bet there's probably bigger ones in here. There was a speed limit of 15 miles an hour through the Redwood Forest and that was fine with me. It gave me more time to take in these majestic trees. I made it out of the Redwood Forest and back to the 101. I turned off the 101 as there was something else to check out. This is the big tree. Definitely a big tree. A little bit bigger than the black butts in New South Wales. A bit smaller than the trees in the Sticks Forest in Tasmania but they're all insanely huge and beautiful. This one's, what is it, 1,500 years they estimate. 87.2 meters worth of stop I think. From the sign it looks like there are a lot of other large trees around here. I got back onto the 101 through more forests and back out along the coast line again. I passed a rather large log hauler and a massive lumber yard. I pulled over to fill up but I also needed to do some running repairs. When I went over the edge of the ravine a few days ago it seems it knocked the pin that the clutch lever pivots on hard enough to loosen it and now after all the dirt tracks and road vibrations it had fallen out. The clutch lever didn't feel like it was going to fall out but just to be sure I threaded a piece of wire I had through it. I came across another grove of redwoods. I turned towards the coast again and found myself on the smoothest strip of tarmac. It seemed to rise up over range and descend down the other side. Constant turns and hairpins snaking its way through the forest. How good was that black strip of hot mix actually? It was perfect, not a blemish on it. That was worth coming this way anyway. But the reason I did come this way is on the map this road runs right along the coast whereas on the 101 it sort of was inland a bit so I thought I might as well try here see if I can get a camp spot along here too hopefully. All right let's get on with it. That hot mix was really good. I checked my map and had spotted what looked like a place to camp on the beach next to a river which sounded kind of ideal. The day was getting long and I saw a camp site so I pulled in. This one's on a river mouth and looks pretty good actually. I did my evening routine with the tent set up. I'm gonna throw my gear in and go for a wander. There was a lot of driftwood on the beach. Look at the angle this tree stumps. It'll be a stump. It's not a stump it's the whole whole thing is buried into the ground. Everybody just got creative and put up other branches against it. It's definitely not small. I came across more huge trees buried in the sand. Here's my theory how they got this way and it's only a theory. They've been washed up and when they're washed up the beach was actually at that angle. Maybe. It's just a theory and then obviously it's We have a furry sea friend. The seal was pretty chilled out but he did keep one eye open just to check on me and then had a bit of a stretch. I left early in the morning as there was rain on the forecast predicted to hit about 6am. I thought I'd take the lesser of two evils and ride the twisty roads back over the hills in the dark and take it slow rather than ride through the twisty roads in the wet. The fog engulfed the top of the hills. Morning. Mission accomplished. Got out of there before the rain and stayed upright. It was cold. Really cold. Just stopped off before the 101's just there in front of a lumber yard, timber yard. I was just trying to warm up before I got onto the highway again. That was a lot of fun though in the dark. I love riding in the dark. Just the fog came in. It was like super slow. All right. The fog had rolled in again and there it was. San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. The sun's in the absolutely wrong position but that's okay. Now to ride across it. Out of all the bridges I've crossed on this journey this is the most impressive. You can see why it is so famous and that is where I was heading over the other side. I dropped by Santa Cruz and their famous surf point break Steamer Lane but today there was no swell to be seen. I was riding into the last place I wanted to check out. Big Sur. But it seemed everybody else was here to check it out too. Big Sur. A renowned 90 mile stretch rugged mountainous coastline famous for its dramatic scenery where the Santa Lucia Mountains meet the Pacific Ocean. This is iconic Bixby Bridge. It is one of the most photographed bridges in California due to its design and its stunning location. If that's a house they're building someone has scored a prime location. I rode back over Bixby as I saw a dirt trail in the canyon behind the bridge. Much better up here. What can I say? Big Sur is a lot more popular than when I last came through here but that was 20 years ago. I tried to book somewhere to camp and I never think it's full. It's actually Friday leading into the weekend so one of the popular places. That's what happens. So I'm gonna end it all here and with that it has been an epic journey on the west coast of the United States up through the Sierras across the top a little bit into Canada and then back down the coast. From here I'm just heading back to get to the airport but I might just try this one until next time you're such a fragile thing I know and with the winter comes the iceless snow but I'm here