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| North to Fortuna
The crash only put a slight damper on our ride. Roger was fine and that was all good. We rode north a few miles to Garberville to visit Roger at the hospital. After that, we headed north for another 40 miles to our motels in Fortuna. Sean lead our slightly smaller group up the 101. This portion of the 101 was wide open with big sweeping turns surrounded by giant redwoods and mountains on both sides. Sean set a blistering pace again. We were cruising near 100 and I watched Chris on his poor SV650 get smaller and smaller. Everyone else had the motor to keep up with Sean except Chris. And on this big road, horsepower and displacement was needed to maintain Sean�s pace. We arrived at Fortuna around 7:30PM. 12 hours of riding, most of it twisties. I was beat. So while everyone went to a planned barbecue/party somewhere in Eureka, I stayed behind and watched Star Trek in my room. No more riding for the Rogue Biker that day. |
| Day 3: The Lost Coast 101 Miles
Had breakfast at 7:30AM at the local Denny�s. Hmmmm......good! Even Denny�s tastes good, especially when there was no dinner the night before. Hah-hah! Met several more Sport-Touring.net members. Stefan(Stefan), Dogboy(Steve), VFRfan, Ole Rocket(Mark), Betamax, CDN(Todd), B12Bill(Bill), Dr. Gil(Gil), Becksuzi(Becky), Katzke(Karl), GTSRider(Rick & wife Leah), KingKrantz(Mike), ZXGreg(Greg) & his buddy Vernon, Bluepoof(Caroline), DantesDame (Coleen), and a few more I spoke with but don�t know their names. I actually met Zarly the Hyperspace man without even realizing it was him! Bluepoof (Caroline) was the only Bay Area member who attended both 2001 California Meet & this meeting in 2004. Although I made it known that I had no real plan to go anywhere that day, what I really wanted to do was go sea the Lost Coast. To get there, I needed to take a road called Mattole Road, which I first read about in Pashnit�s California Motorcycle Roads. Ever since I read that article, I�ve been itching to go see it for myself. Unfortunately, all those who have taken the road and actually been there offered similar opinions: it�s bumpy, very tight and twisty, with some gravel sections. These are descriptions that discourage sportbikers like myself, riding a VFR800 on street tires designed for relatively smooth roads. Mattole Road sounded more appropriate for Dual-Sport motorcycles. Thus, I was hesitant and highly doubted anybody would actually want to go. Much to my delight, Caroline(Bluepoof) informed me she and another rider were planning on going to that very road. She too was interested in seeing the Lost Coast. Bling-bling! Me too! Me too! I told the group I was suppose to ride with I was breaking from them and joining Caroline and Karl (Katzke) on their trek to the Lost Coast. Well, within an hour or so, word spread amongst the other riders and Caroline�s 2-rider group turned into a 9-rider group! The riders were: Caroline(Bluepoof), Karl(katzke), Jordan(Me), Ken(Ksann), Russ(01GreenSprint), Jim(the Explorer), Gil(Dr.Gil), Gil�s wife Becky(Becksuzi), & Chris(NakedSV). The Napkin of Death On our way out of the Denny�s parking lot, Gil ran over a napkin, that�s right, A NAPKIN, with his front tire just as he was braking, subsequently lost the front end of his bike and dropped his beautiful, black Triumph Sprint ST at 1 mph! Talk about bad luck! Duct tape to the rescue! Only thing hurt was Gil�s pride, but geez! A napkin! Imagine having to explain that each time! Avenue of the Giants That aside, Gil lead us out of Fortuna, south to the Avenue of the Giants. Quite frankly, I�ve seen it years before when my family and I toured this area by SUV. So, the gigantic Redwood Trees definitely looked big and imposing, but it was not what I came there for. The road around the Avenue of the Giants is Highway 254 and the area belongs to the Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The road was smooth, somewhat twisty, always shrouded under the watchful shadows of the giant 300+ year old Redwoods. Mattole Road After our short stint on 254, we jumped onto the 211, otherwise known as Mattole Road. This road wasted no time in living up to its reputation. It was very, very twisty and very, very bumpy. In fact, I have to admit it was THE bumpiest road I have ever ridden over. It had dips, potholes, a bit of gravel in portions, and it was narrow. In its defense, the ground below it sits smack dab in the middle of two tectonic plates that are constantly grinding at each other. That and the high annual rainfall means underneath the asphalt was constantly shifting dirt, which created the breaks, dips, holes, etc. on the road. Finally, Humboldt County doesn�t necessarily elect to maintain the road on a regular basis. Thus, the results are obvious. Bad pavement. But at least, there�s pavement. All along Mattole Road were the redwood trees of the Humboldt Redwoods State Park, and it climbed up and over the Kings Mountain range. This mountain range stretches 150 miles from the coast which presented a near insurmountable obstacle to early settlers & explorers of the 1900's. The three rivers of the Kings Mountain Range, the Eel, Mad, & Trinity, all flowed northwest to the Pacific Ocean. Even today, these same obstacles contribute to the isolation of Humboldt County, not to mention the condition of the roads and its infinitely tight switchbacks that discourage campers, SUV�s, and ordinary tourists from exploring it. |
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