I jumped on my Mighty Triumph Sprint Sport, deciding while doing so that my destination should be to head up the coast, up Highway 101 North and ultimatly to Crescent City (the inland mountains are still pretty much covered with snow so I’m resigned to travel the narrow coastal corridor) to do some lunch.

The trip up the coast was lovely. It was all about mild breezes, moderate temperatures and light traffic. First stop, the Trinidad lighthouse for a photo op and where I hook up with the “edge of our continent.”

Then pushing on up the coast I really couldn’t resist the almost empty parking lot at the "Trees of Mystery" where I could pull up directly in front of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox (generally this landmark is covered up with tourists and it’s difficult to get a clear shot of bike/ox genitalia).

This was a leisurely trip up the coast in the sunshine for me so I stopped lots of bike-at-the-edge-of-the-world shots.

I found a seafood restaurant down on the docks in Crescent City (right up next to the Oregon/California border) that had been recommended to me by a friend, ordered up the obligatory fish and chips and iced tea and I must say the buzz were right, it truly was a delightful meal and just what the doctor ordered for a case of the winter-blues Caught-the-same-day fish in a homemade batter with homemade tartar sauce and wonderful homemade coleslaw! I was the only patron…the evil-temptress, elderly but still lovely waitress MADE me eat their made-just-that-morning huckleberry pie. While scarfing it down I must admit that to thinking about Val Kllmer in one of my favorite movies, “Tombstone” (“I’m your huckleberry!”).

Back on the road and heading home (with a mighty full belly) I decided to take the road less traveled down through the redwoods to Prarie Creek.

Ack! Out of the corner of my eye I began noticing some green stripes in the center of my lane (see photo). I stopped to check them out and sure enough, it's MOSS! It's totally slippery here here in the forest primeval where the sun never shines! I turned the bike around with my feet slipping a bit on the road’s surface. When you only have two wheels on the road you really don't want to deal with anything slippery so I headed back for the coast and the sunshine.

I stopped at the Klamath River Bridge to visit the golden California Bears who reside at the both ends of it. I gave in to their pitiful begging and let one sit on my bike for just a moment.

I had been hoping to run across some of the herds of Roosevelt Elk that roam freely across this area but hadn’t seen but a couple on the way up…now on the way back I ran into a large group right alongside the road. Elk are big…HUGE even! They are even more so when unprotected on the back of a motorcycle. They have become somewhat used to the cages stopping and gawking but were VERY suspicious of my Mighty Triumph (perhaps they just aren’t used to triples…or maybe it’s because of the newborns traveling with them). It took nerves of steel on my part to shut down the bike, act nonchalant, step back away from my quick getaway and snap a pic of two. Immediately after this photo the bull in the foreground hustled the herd away from the road and me and my all too-exotic-looking-and-weird-sounding-British ride.

...and then down the coast and back home again. Glorious!

Total Mileage: around 200
Ride Rating: A-

I can't believe this weather was still holding. THREE DAYS of sunshine and warm weather in early February! Unthinkable! And the weatherman tells me that today it may very well reach SEVENTY (fricken' ) DEGREES today! I'll tell you what boys and girls, it rarely reaches SEVENTY (fricken' ) DEGREES here on the northernmost coast of California even in mid-summer.

All plans are once again put on hold. Deep in my heart of hearts I know that WINTER will undoubtedly raise its ugly head at least once more before it's done with us. But today, ahh today...the sun is shining, the local roads are dry and it's a truly glorious day! To waste a day like this surely must be a sin...today we ride!

The day before yesterday (Edge of the Continent vol. I) I went north up Hwy 101 so my choice was simple, today I'm heading south. First stop, our meeting place for the Sport-Touring.Net's 2005 West Coast Regional meeting place at the Eel River Brewing Company 20 miles south in Fortuna. Sadly there is no time for any of their award winning brewski's just now. It's simply a photo op. We have bigger fish to fry; we're heading for the edge of das continent once again.

Heading a bit further south on 101 I stopped to snap a photo at the "vista point" overlooking the Eel River.

At Redway I veered off to the west on Briceland Road. Here I should point out that the Briceland Road between Hwy 101 to the coast at Shelter Cove is a piece of crap. It was in HORRIBLE repair (lots of nasty winter storms in December) what with wash-boarding, potholes, gravel, tar snakes, water (most of it exists on north-facing slopes and doesn't dry this time of year) and that's not even going into the 10 mph corners, off camber, 8% slope, etc., etc. 20 something miles and I was exhausted when I finally caught sight of the Pacific!

Finally I arrive at Shelter Cove. Shelter Cove is basically one of those real estate scams dating from the 1960's where unscruplous developers sold California coastal land at a premium price but when the purchasers went to build found that they could not for a number of reasons (mostly septic).

Here I am posing with a statue of one of those developers (upon closer examination I determined that that was NOT his middle finger he's showing us).

...and here is my bike posing with the Cape Mendocino Lighthouse.

...and here is "Tsunami's"...an unfortunately named business in Shelter Cove.

...and finally, here is the place where I purchased my fish n'chips and iced tea. This place was kind of like the "Bizarro World" counterpart to my lunch two days ago...BAD fish n' chips (calling them "fishsticks" would not be far off) and a Snapple/diet/peach-flavored/ iced tea (ACK!). I "stealthed" this photo trying to capture some of the ambiance inside the store/restaurant.

While waiting for my order (in full riding gear and feeling like I was from another planet) I perused the inventory and found these t-shirts which made me laugh...I managed to resist them though but did end up buying a pair of socks with the Mendocino Light House on them for my beloved Becky ("Beck-zuki"-who was sadly slaving away at her day job while I was out having a "good" time).

Worse yet my wildlife experience on this trip, instead of majestic Roosevelt Elk were simply VERY large, VERY hulking and VERY aggressive sea gulls! The restaurant/general store offered outdoor seating and in as much as the weather was fine and the view lovely I went there only to find these Hitchcock-esque sea gulls actually attacking the patrons. They would wait for people's attention to lapse or for them to move away for a moment then descend and try to steal their food. The guy at the next table literally lost 1/2 his lunch to the gulls...much to his credit he ate what they left.

I downed my lunch as quickly as possible after actually having to actually lunge at one of the more brazen gulls who landed on the end of my picnic bench and then had the nerve to threaten me ("I pity the poor gull who tries to take MY food...").

Firing up the Mighty Triumph, I made a brief stop to do the obligatory "Edge of the Continent" shot and then beat it back up the same 20 something miles of ugly road back to Hwy 101.

I was totally exhausted after the ordeal. I gave myself a treat by traveling the much beloved Avenue of the Giants (a scenic alternative paralleling Hwy 101 though old-growth redwood groves) on the way north. It made me feel MUCH better about the day.

I made it home just in time to vacuum the floor, dust and make a big pot of chili before Becky got home from work. ;)

Upon rereading this I realize that I have painted far too gloomy a picture of the day. In retrospect it was glorious. The sun was shining, I was on the bike, I had a new road to ride...what the hell have I got to biatch about

Life is Good and the sun is shining in February

Total Miles: about 200 (50 of it quite hard-fought)
Ride Rating: B

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