There's nothing to "wine" about

These are two pictures of a particularly curvy undulating bits of Highway 1. and this is the River's End Restauarant where I had lunch. The impression from the roadwat isn't much but the view out the back and the food are amazing.

This is one of those views that no picture can capture. And yes P-A, I was stopped when I took it.

This is a small part of what i could see from the balcony off my second floor room at the Beachcomber Motel in Fort Bragg.

Started off at around 9:15 this morning along Highway 1. The speed of the bike accentuates the coolness of the air to the point that I had to turn on the heated grips and the "bum warmer", as Jane calls it, for the first hour or so.

I stopped for lunch at River's End, a highly rated coastal restaurant in Stewarts Point where according to their own flyer "a mystical river ends (and) a celebration of food and wine begins". I must say that the fish and chips and the glass of fine Chardonnay.

I had thought I would then take a small road marked on my map to go over to Geyserville (I mean how can one resist a place with that name) but, after a kilometre (or maybe a mile) on the roughest curvy surface I've encountered so far and with the prospect of another 20 miles of it, I turned around and drove further south on Highway 1. But, fear not keen reader, I did make it to Geyserville, a quiet place, by following route 116 from Jenner. Having taken note of Chuck Shields suggestions I found the square in Healdsburg and stopped to walk around a bit. I'm afraid the wine tasting tour will have to be some other time as motorcycling on winding roads and sipping wine, either before or during, don't mix very well. I then made my way via routes 128 and 29through St Helena and Younville to Napa. The last part was very slow but it did afford me the opportunity to look at the scenery more closely. To say that there are wineries in these parts is like saying there are redwoods in the Redwood Forest; its vines everywhere and as in some places as far as one can see. I assume the local constabulary must be quite busy as there are signs along the road that encourage people to call 911 to report drunk drivers. From there it was on to Sonoma. I had another excellent meal of oysters, the black cod and a couple of glasses of local wine at the El Dorado Kitchen.

After dinner I walked around the town square, even if it was only 8:30 neraly all businesses, including many of the restaurants were closed, and returned to the Best Western where I had a room for the night.

Today I'm riding back to the coast and following Highway 1 to San Fransisco.

Redwood National Park and Highway 1

The view of the coast looking North as one emerges from the northermost twisty forest bit of Highway 1.


Big bear and cub carved from redwood at Trees of Mystery tourist attraction. Relatives, Phil?



Cathedral Trees at Trees of Mystery. There's an actual small alter at which many weddings are held every year.

Self-picture of moi, and a big tree.

Greeters at Trees of Mystery. You'll recognize Paul Bunyan and his pet bull Babe.

Left the Hampton at around 10:00 after a stroll on the shore behind the hotel and the complimentary hot breakfast. The weather was cool, around 16 degrees. I soon entered Redwood National Park. The trees are giants!!

I stopped at the tourist attraction, The Trees of Mystery which is on Highway 101 just north of Klamath. The walk through the woods with particularly interesting growths named is about 1 kilometre long and very interesting.

Highway 101 is very odd. There are sections of divided four-lane superhighway which are immediately followed by narrow, windy, barely 24 foot-wide two-lane rough asphalt roads bordered on each side by huge trees, where the posted speed limit for some of the curves is 15 to 20 mph. Fortunately these slower sections are well announced so there's no screeching of tires or tire marks on the pavement.

I stopped for lunch in a café in the City of Eureka where a guy on a horn and another on an electronic keyboard played some nice jazz pieces as I ate my seafood salad.

I then rode down 101 to Leggett where I veered left onto Highway 1. Now that's a TWISTY road!!! There's no such thing as a straight bit; sharp rights and lefts and hairpins in both directions (well not at the same time, but in quick succession). There was very little traffic on this 44 mile piece of road that first is deep in the forest and then hugs the coast. I must say that one sees a lot of the road but little of the vistas because of the continously undulating serpentine nature of the road.

I arrived at Fort Bragg and was able to easily find a room for the night at the Beachcomber Motel which is right on the beach just north of town. Since this is a Bell cellphone signal-free zone I called Jane using my notebook and Skype. The quality was very good and the cost is cheap; an excellent back-up system as most motels have wifi for free.

I've programmed a route for today which will take me inland to Napa and Sonoma. I'll raise a glass to all of you.

The Oregon Coast to California

One of thousands of vistas.


Though you probably can't make them out very well there are dozens of sea lions on the rocks in this grotto at Sea Lion Caves.


Top of the lighthouse at Cape Meares.

"Octopus Tree", a 250-300 year old Sitka Spruce. at the Cape Meares Lighthouse and Wildlife Refuge.

Another beautiful view that this photo can only hint at. The white band you see is cloud cover hanging above the ocean and completely below yhe level of the road at this point. So one rides above, through, and below the clouds at different times. On a motorcycle this is magical.

I've spent the last two days driving down the Oregon coast along Highway 101, and it's been a spectacular ride. The weather has been perfect, from high fog-covered mid-to-high teens along the coast. to sunny highs of as much as 30 degrees when the road curves inland. In the areas where there is fog it never reaches down to road level; which means it's like you're driving in a cool tunnel. The vistas out along the cragged rocky shoreline with beaches below in many, many places are amazing. If one was to stop at all of the viewpoints one would never reach destination.

Friday's little detour off Highway 101 to the Cape Meares Scenic Viewpoint and Lighthouse was well worth it. I was told by one of the guides at the site that when the lighthouse was commissioned in 1889 it was the 8th in the US. It has been lovingly restored as is being cared for by a group of local "Friends of".

I checked into the Crown Pacific Inn and had a wonderful dinner at the Tidal Raves Seafood Grill accross the street.

Yesterday I got an earlyish start at 8:00 and continued down the Oregon Pacific Coast. After a strong coffee and a croissant at a packed roastery in Newport, my next stop was at a tourist attraction called Sea Lion Caves. Apparently this site is the only place, on mainland USA where sea lions congregate; and there were hundreds on a few ledges, and more interestingly in a grotto 300 feet below road level that visitors access in an elevator which has been installed in a shaft on the cliff. The sight and the sound of these large creatures on rock outcrops jutting from the water in this enclosed space is quite dramatic. Those who run this business have, to my mind, done a very good job at maintaining the balance between protecting the environment and providing access to the public; a good example of sustainable development. Judging by the number of people there and the size of the parking lots at the site this attraction is very popular. I would certainly recommend, especially for children.

While my original tentative destination for the day had been Brookings Oregon, I decided to continue on and cross into California and stop for the night somewhere close to the state line. Last night I had a lovely steak and crab dinner at Beachcomber, a popular establishment right on the coast in Crescent City. As I read Game Change on my Sony Reader and enjoyed the good food and wine I thought of how blessed I was to be able to undertake this voyage, and to have friends and family who love me back home who were interetsed by what I was doing and wished me well. I thought how nice it would be to do this trip again with Jane, possibly in a car. I thought of a cousin of mine whom I have learned from my older brother has just been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer who would never have a chance to do what i was doing. All this makes one very thankful.

This morning as the smell of waffles cooking downstairs wafts up to my room at the Crescent City Hampton Inn and Suites I wonder what I will discover today.

A cruise and a ride through the forest

The Coho Ferry that sails between Victoria and Port Angeles.

Port Angeles and snowcapped mountains of Washington State

This spuce tree along the Hoh Rain Forest Road is over 270 feet tall.

But one spectacular viewing location along the Hoh.

Another glorious day yesterday; weather mostly in the mid 30s.

The Black Ball Ferry Coho left Victoria at around 10:30 but we had to be there 90 minutes before to go through US border security; and it really took them that long to process all the passengers with their vehicles. Well it did give us motorcyclists waiting to board time to chat. The drill here, has it had been at Horseshoe Bay, is to have all motorcycle together in one spot at the front of the pack so that they can embark and also leave the ship first. I chatted for some time with two retired Ontario Harley drivers, one towing a teardrop carrier behind his bike, and his brother (turns out he'd been a real bad boy when he was young and had been convicted and done some time) who was given a bit of a hard time by the border folks before being given his permission to board the ferry. They had ridden from Ontario through the USA to visit their 90+ father in Victoria and after the one with the trailer had deposited his wife and "at least 200 lbs of luggage" -shoes said I- at the airport they were going to be riding back using a different route. I also spoke with the Director of Pacific Fleet for the Canadian Coast Guard, a BMW R1150RT owner, who was going to Seattle with his wife to see a Mariners baseball game. He had noticed the CCG t-shirt I was wearing so we talked about the coast guard.

The distance between Port Angeles and Aberdeen, where I had decided I might spend the night, is some 175 miles but, as I would find out, because the road is very twisty in parts - a good thing for bikers - it takes a fair bit more that the 3 hours or so one might think. But the scenery is unbelievable. I can see why the Michelin Road Atlas lists this route as one of its Scenic Drives in North America. While there are many clearcut areas along the route which extend right to the side of the highway, the forest in the Olympic National Park is untouched and magnificent. Trees are easily over 100' tall and the lakes and rivers that were shimmering under the sun are emerald and turquoise.

It seemed appropriate and therefore I stopped for lunch, a good seafood salad, along the highway in Forks. 15 miles later I veered left and drove into the national park along the Hoh Rain Forest Road. The road follows the winding Hoh River up to a visitor center some 12 miles upstream. the views of the river, the trees and other forest growth are beautiful. I spent a few minutes walking around on a trail at the visitor centre and chatting with one of the forest rangers who worked there.

Reversing my route I returned to Highway 1 and continued heading south. Even before I reached the part of the road that hugs the shore of the Pacific Ocean I could feel the air getting cooler. Indeed the temperature dropped by half from over 32 to 16 degrees and there was even some fog coming in off the water. I stopped and added a shirt to warm up a bit. The temperature would again climb back up to over 30 degrees when the road again moved inland after the village of Queens.

I arrived in Aberdeen around 7:00 and easily found a room at an America's Best Value Inn. It had been another great day of riding on my faithful Beemer, and of seeing wonderful things.

Today I drive down the coast; south, still further south!

Back on the road after Vancouver

Approaching the dock in Nanaimo

Jane, Cam(eron) and Jake before I left Vancouver this morning.

A heron just next to the seawall in Stanley Park.

An arrangement of totem poles in Stanley Park

This one if for Gerry Maffre and Gisèle because they will both of course recognize the Canada Place Convention Centre in Vancouver.

Well dear readers,

I'm back on the road after three glorious days in Vancouver with Jane. We were able to visit, and have drinks and dinner with family. The dinner was at a wonderful seafood place in West Vancouver. We also visited Granville Island, including the great market there and the Vancoouver Art gallery where there was an exhibit of prints all on the theme of women in art. Yesterday Jane and I walked the seawall around Stanley Park; what a treat such amazing views. And for our last dinner in Vancouver we were joined by our dear friends Bob and Sue Evans and Kim and her husband Chris.

After dropping off Jane at Kim's i retrieved my motorcycle from one of her friends garage and headed out to the ferry to Nanaimo at Horseshoe Bay. The 90 minute crossing was under a hot sun. I met a biker from Vancouver who was out for a couple of days on his 1979 750 Moto Guzi. We talked about bikes and trips while waiting to board the ferry. As it turns out he is originally from Port Elgin in Ontario and his spouse is from Aylmer Quebec. We wished each other safe travels as we left the ferry in Nanaimo. Rather than take the fast route to Victoria, I meandered on side roads and drove through small towns like Chemainus, where I stopped for lunch. I arrived at my hotel, the James Bay Inn at around four, annd after a quick shower I went out for a long walk on the shore trail, from Mile 0 back all the way to the inner harbour of Victoria accross from the Empress Hotel. It was another great day!

Tomorrow I take the ferry from here to Port Angeles where I will beging the 'American' part of this journey.

Kelowna to Kamloops

Here's a picture of Phil on the model of tunnel mountain which we saw yesterday.


One of the magnificently restored cars at the antique car museum we stopped at this morning.



And here is jane with a 1957 Chev Belair

While the shortest distance between these two cities, the one my GPS wanted me to follow is less than 100km, we decided to take a somewhat longer route that had us going North back through Vernon and then through Salmon Arm back on Hwy 1 and following along the shore of Lake Shuswap and the South Thompson River. This was a a good choice as the scenery all the way to Kamploops was spectacular. Jane's exclamations, carried from her helmet to mine via our bluetooth units, were often repeated as we rounded curves and crested hills along the way.

A few kilometres outside of Salmon Arm, where we stopped for coffee at the local Tim Hortons, we noticed a sign for an antique car museum a short distance up the road. Thinking it might be fun to look at the cars and since we had a lot ot time we stopped. We were not disappointed. The collection well restored vintage cars, including several model Ts, and a number of 1957 Chevrolet Belairs, and of auto parts was impressive. I took a number of pictures inside the museum. In addition to dispalying cars this establishment also restored old vehicles so there were a number of cars and pickups in various states of (dis)repair.

After about 45 minutes we got back on the road and headed for our hotel room in Kamloops. Our room was not quite ready so we drove into town to have lunch. We had been told by the women on the desk at the Hampton Hotel (a definite step up from the Super 8) that there were many choices downtown on Victoria Street. We settled on a small establishment, the Commodore, and had a very good meal and Kokanee beer; damn fine, all of it.

Our plan is to return to the city centre for dinner later on.

Canada Day through the Rockies

Jane arrived in Calgary at around 11:30 yesterday. We rearranged the luggage on the bike and proceeded to Kirsten and David's (daughter and son-in-law of Neil and Glenda) to pick up the key to the condo in Canmore. They were getting ready to leave with their adorable son Micheal and their new daughter Annika for a trip to the UK. The trip to Canmore was uneventful, though the gusts of wind on along Hwy 1 were sometimes quite heavy. It's good at those times to be on a motorcycle of some substance like my R1200RT. We stopped for lunch at the Bear Claw in the village of Canmore before heading to the condo. Jane and I had a wonderful dinner at her friend Christie and her partner Jeff's home.

Happy Canada Day!!

We were back on the road early this morning. the temperature was quite cool, 9.5 celsius according to the thermometer on my bike. We drove to Banff where we stopped for breakfast. Once back on Hwy 1, with a new Canadian flag attached to the back of the bike, we were immediately caught in a traffic back up that we subsequently found out was due to bridge construction some 5 kilometers down the road. We were detoured onto the Bow Valley Parkway for a stretch; it was a nice diversion as I don't think we would ever have experienced such a nice piece of motorcycle-made road.

The temperature rose steadily during the day but it was never really hot. Pretty well cloudy all day wwith occasionnal sprinkles of rain. Highway 1 through the Rockies has to be one of the most beautiful routes in the country; the mountains, rivers and streams are impressive. We arrived at tunnel mountain just as a train was entering the series of tunnels that reduce the angle of climb. It is an impressive piece of engineering. We stopped for a soup, drink and a few photos at Roger's Pass.

Having put on our rain gear we made our way to Kelowna where we had dinner at a restaurant overlooking Lake Okanogan, and afterwards we went for a walk along the waterfront along with the crowd that had gathered there in anticipation of the Canada Day fireworks. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the spirit of the day, some more then other because it seems that they had been infused with other spirits. We took a cab back to the Super 8 hotel where our romm awaited us for the night.

Jane and I agreed that a trip through the rockies on canada Day was not bad at all an alternative to spending in in Ottawa around Parliament.

Bonne fête Canada!!