Motorcycle Trip - 2009: Day 4

Day 4

To continue a bit of the Hayfork CA saga. After showering, getting the bikes packed up and unlocking them; this was the first night we felt compelled to lock up the bikes, the surroundings didn't make us feel too comfortable, we went to the office to settle up for the night. The crazy woman running the place, still with weeds in her hair, looked at John's Billabong shirt and thought we were quite a pair. Me with my Hare Krishna shirt and his seemingly marijuana based "bong" shirt (I don't think she was familiar with the brand or the Australian word). She had a few words to say about that. We asked for a recommendation for breakfast. After directing us to a local diner she informed us that she wouldn't eat there. It seemed a bit of a contradiction and it took a bit to get out of her why she would tell us to eat there but wouldn't herself. It turns out she's Jewish and they don't prepare their meat in a Kosher manner. While having breakfast we saw the same Harley group with their yellow support truck roll into town. This seemed a little odd because Hayfork isn't really on the way to anywhere, you have to have a reason to get to Hayfork, just the same, here they were.

Hayfork turned out to be both a very strange town as well as rather friendly. I had been having trouble with the spring falling off my motorcycle's kick stand and needed to tighten it up. I asked the waitress where I could find an auto shop to use a wrench. Several of the locals having breakfast immediately offered up their tools. One gent directed me to get in his truck and use his tools. He didn't seem to worry a bit that I'd be anything but honest with his truck or tools. Everything worked out and we were soon on our way.

After a brief ride we were back on Hwy 36, riding the rest of the way out of the Santa Clara's. As expected I enjoyed the ride this morning MUCH more than I had the night before. Pretty soon we came upon the first stand of Redwoods. I have never seen them and have always wanted to see them since I saw pictures when I was a kid. We rode through them for a while then found a good spot to stop. We took some pictures and just took our time hanging out. Soon the Harley group came riding past us, for the third time in 2 days. Just as we started down the road John quickly turned back. It took me a minute to realize and turn around. When I got there he was looking around on the ground and showed me his camera which looked like it had exploded. Apparently it was on the motorcycle or an open pocket and flew off the road, perhaps even being run over. Somehow the memory card had popped out and hadn't been crushed, now I just need John to email the pictures to me (hint).

As we got closer to Eureka CA and the coast it started to get pretty chilly. We turned onto Hwy 101, a highway both John and I had always wanted to ride a motorcycle on. It winds along the coast from near San Francisco up through Oregon. It was great riding along smelling the sea air. We stopped somewhere near the Oregon border to take some pictures of the coast. When I got off the bike I noticed the couple across the road on the edge of the coast taking pictures. It turned out to be the same English couple we met in Lassen National Park. We had a fun chat with them and laughed about the coincidence. As we headed up 101 there were a number of Tsunami Warning signs. It was a little odd and made me wonder if we were in some sort of danger zone, as you can tell we made it out alive. The Tsunami's apparently weren't the only things to worry about. We stopped on a beach for some more pictures, we were using John's phone camera now(at least when it wasn't in trippy mode). We spotted a sign warning us of "Deadly Sneaker Waves." The sign indicated that so far 4 people had been killed on that beach by sneaker waves, crazy! Along 101 we saw lots of other motorcyclists and even a pod of Vespas(a group of Vespas is a pod right?) John was sure to give them the motorcycle wave because Noelle is quite happy to get recognition from proper motorcyclists when she's at home on her Vespa.

We stopped for dinner in Brookings Oregon. Seemed to be some sort of port town, lots of boats and a big harbor. We had been eating relatively cheaply thus far and decided to have a good dinner tonight so we went into an actual restaurant. I had some non-spicy Cajun chicken soup and a steak, it was great. We walked next door to a store to buy a camera, map and phone card. After that we had to fuel up and I had my first experience in one of the two states that won't let people gas up their own cars. However, since they don't want the responsibility of making sure they don't drip gas on the gas tanks of motorcycles they take your credit card, run it through the pump then hand you the gas pump to do your own gas. Here's a tip Oregon and New Jersey, people can pump their own gas.

We made our way to Humbug Mountain State park. Although it would have been fun to camp on the beach I was actually quite happy that this particular park was cut off from the coast by a small mountain(maybe it's a hill). It was getting somewhat chilly right along the coast so the protection from the wind was welcomed. Oregon has a large number of state parks along the southern coast, they all look like great places to stop.