Yuck Morning, Let’s Just Get Rolling 🙂

As stated in Day 1, I arrived at the hotel in Martinez, California at about 2 AM, it was about 4:30 AM by the time I actually wrapped with the nightly chores for preparation for the next day, ate a little bit, and just let the road adrenaline wear off enough where I actually could fall asleep. I forgot to mention that check in took a little bit longer than expected. My reservation I made with an online travel service somehow magically cancelled itself. Not a big deal, but the extra 15 minutes was grating on me after a long hard day / night.

I allowed myself the luxury of sleeping in to about 8 AM. So with about 3.5 hours of sleep under my belt I proceed to get myself ready and pack up the last little bit of gear. Speaking of gear, you may have seen photos of my bike packed like a stubborn mule. When I stop for the night at a motel / hotel (what exactly is the difference these days?) a large portion of the gear needs to come off the bike and into my room for security concerns. I have a large Saddleman passenger seat touring bag that is secured with four ROK straps on the bottom, an adjustable strap towards the top rear of the bag and a bungee cord that is used only to prevent the bag for leaning forward so I don’t have to fight with the bag during mount and dismount of the bike. This bag is awesome and holds a ton of gear, which at the beginning of a 16 day journey where I am largely self sufficient in regards to supplies means it was also very heavy. I also have Saddleman bags that are shaped to fit into my hard saddlebags. One is full size and I keep most of my clothing in that one. The other saddle bag are my tools and emergency equipment and is half the size to accommodate space for my 1 gallon of extra emergency fuel I carry. My trunk has mainly camping gear but also holds my electronics bag where my HP Windows Tablet is stored and charged and other electronic gear. So, when I stop for the night at a motel / hotel, the Passenger bag (heavy, the top roll that sits on on the passenger bag, clothing saddlebag, electronics bag, tent, sleeping bag, and water all have to come inside, again for security concerns, it is amazing what people will steal.

I am The Stubborn Mule

So back to the morning with 3.5 hours of sleep. Bringing all this gear up to my third floor room was not too bad as I used a luggage cart and the elevator. In the 5 hours since I had checked in, now the one and only elevator was out of service. I found this to be not likely but, what are you going to do (I complained to myself feverishly but that didn’t seem to help) So I made the multiple trips, down the end of the long hallway, past the “broken” elevator and down three flights of stairs trying not to knock the other poor souls down the stairs as they were lugging their gear as well. Great bonding moments were share in collective bickering and sweat. After four trips of playing the suborn mule (normally I am just stubborn) I packed up Dexter and was ready to roll out at about 9:30 AM. It was a great feeling knowing that I spent about $130 for 3.5 hours of sleep and the privileged to haul my gear down three stories. I was trying to stay positive but it was a fairly crappy start to this trip thus far (Day 1 issues). But, I was determined to leave all this negative crap behind and roll on.

Back on the Interstate (Mileage Disposal Unit)

For many motorcyclist and myself included riding on the Interstate only serves one purpose, that is to cover more miles in a reduced amount time, hence Mileage Disposal Unit. I find riding on most interstates to be pretty boring. The are few if any curves, the scenery is typically lack luster and just the drone monotony of it is a little numbing. This is when my brain will wander to all kinds of thoughts (why do we park in a driveway but drive in a parkway). I do go into a trance like state while still paying attention. The late Neal Peart (A great drummer, motorcycle touring enthusiast, and entertaining writer, I miss him) described this as his brain dividing itself allowing the “main brain” to wander off into imaginative thoughts of what is to come on the current trip, past events, philosophy, life, anything really while “secondary brain” is handling the mechanics of operating the motorcycle, controlling the throttle, corners, slight adjustments etc. Only when there was traffic or poor road conditions would “main brain” snap back into the present when full concentration was required. The majority of the trip up to this point has consisted of Interstate riding mainly for the reason I label Interstates, Mileage Disposal Units. Since I had ridden the coast and sierra foothills in past trips, my intent was to “launch” as far north as I could with scenery at this phase not a priority (excluding the route once off the Interstate).

So, it was back on the slab heading North first on I-680. Then East on I-80 and North again on I-605 until California State Highway 16 at Madison, California for a total of about 60 miles on the Interstate..

Off The Interstate and onto Proper 2 Lane Highways

I picked up CA Highway 16 in Madison, California in Yolo county and headed Northbound rolling through the small rural towns of Esparto, Capay, Cadenasso, Guinda, and Rumsey with the scenery steadily improving the further I went. I was very impressed with Esparto, California. With it’s clean and tidy streets, nice city park and of course a promptly displayed railroad caboose, I felt the town was warm and inviting

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Shortly past Rumsey, California (I mistakenly called this town Ramsey in the Day 2 video) you enter Cache Canyon which was carved out over time by Cache Creek. This area saw the beginning of some hill country again with trees clustered in areas where they had access to water. I stopped for a rest along the side of the road near Cache Creek Regional Park and snapped a few photos as well.

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After swapping out GoPro batteries, water intake for myself and some fresh gum, I was rolling again along CA Highway 16 until the junction with CA Highway 20 which is when……….

Second Breakdown of Trip (2 Breakdowns – 2 Days)

As I attempted to downshift while approaching the junction of CA Highway and CA Highway -20(stop sign) I noticed that something seemed missing, I couldn’t find the shift lever with my foot…I looked down and briefly noticed that it was there but looked like it was laying on the floorboard, well this doesn’t seem good. To make a long story slightly less long, The Harley OEM shiftier rod had broken at the ball joint where it connects to the inner shift lever. Unknown to me, this apparently is a pretty common problem with Harley Davidsons. It is actually a pretty crappy design where the socket where the ball joint resides just simply wears out with time. Considering the age of Dexter (15 years old at the time of this trip) it is somewhat amazing that this problem had not happen sooner.

After I sat in disbelief for a moment, stunned that I was having yet another shift related breakdown (third one if you count the breakdown in Utah last year, the one on Day 1, and now this one). I dismounted Dexter, cussed a little bit, and then turned off the GoPro to start the task of figuring out how I was gong to MacGyver the shift rod back together. I had some plastic zip ties in my tool bag and some crappy thin wire. I was leaning towards the zip tie solution. .

About five minutes had transpired since I had taken off my helmet and jacket and began working the problem when two good Samaritans (fellow motorcycle riders) stopped to render me assistance. One of them, Chris and his wife, were returning from a group ride themselves towing their Harley Ultra Classic in their trailer. Chris suggested using a bungee instead of the zip-tie to temporarily bind the shift rod so that I could follow them to their home where Chris had tools to work the problem. We considered mechanic wire, drill a hole in the rod and using a bolt, and Chris even offered the shift rod off his bike but had an aftermarket one installed (I was blown away by this offer, just wow). We decided that wiring it up with mechanic grade wire would be the best solution and if need be, allow me to wire it up again if the wire were to break, fall off, etc. Chris wired it up for me and insisted that I relax, cool off and drink some ice water (it was hot ) The wire held up great for a large portion of the trip all the way to the morning of Day 12 in Texas.

Here is a video of the breakdown. There is some swearing from yours truly (not allot but some) 🙂

Shift Linkage Update

As soon as USA West 2020 Trip was complete, I went to Revzilla.com and order replacement parts and installed them. In theory, I should be free form shift linkage breakdown for a bit.

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Back on the Road Again

With the shiftier rod freshly MacGyvered, I was on the road again heading West on CA Highway 20 riding in some amazing scenery along the shores of Clear Lake.

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I continued Westbound on CA Highway 20 until I reached US Highway 101 and then proceed North. I rode North on US Highway 101 until I reached Humboldt Redwoods State Park.and my campsite not far from the Dyerville Train Trestle. The scenery along US Highway 101 in Northern California is truly epic with the California Redwoods towering over you as you wind your way through the Forrest on a 2 lane highway. This is my second time riding in the Redwoods. The last time was in late May 2018 when I spent a few days explore the area to include the Lost Coast. There will be a blog about that trip in the future as I play catch up 🙂

Camping

My original plan was to return to the Burlington Campground in the State Park where I stayed in 2018. Terrific campground nestled into the towering Redwoods with running water, showers and nice bathrooms available, luxury camping. However, with COVID-19 the majority of campground along the west coast had been closed. Knowing a few days in advance of my trip which reservations had been cancelled allowed for me to come up with some alternative options.

Camping Option 1 – Centerville Beach County Park
Centerville Beach Count Park is a public beach on the Pacific ocean in Humboldt county not far from Ferndale, California. My plan was to park Dexter in the small gravel parking lot and camp somewhere right on the beach. I decided not to pursue this option because it actually can get quite chilly at night near the ocean. This area of the Pacific Ocean is very cool from the Artic current that runs south along the west coast of the United States. It is why along the coastal areas of Southern California that the heat is not unbearable like it can get east of the coastal mountain ranges. For example, today is July 28, 2020 at 1:31 PM Pacific Time. The current temperature in San Diego is 73 degrees Fahrenheit. In El Centro, California the temperature is 109 degrees Fahrenheit. El Centro is only 114 miles East from San Diego. I also was not looking forward to lugging my gear off of Dexter and across the deep sand to wherever I was going to pitch my tent. This location was also a slight detour off of my planned route. If Option 2 and 3 were a bust though, this was going to my next choice.

Camping Option 2 – Disperse Camp in Humboldt Redwoods State Park near Founder’s Tree
To disperse camp among the Redwoods sounded like a great idea. However, within the State Park, camping was currently prohibited due to COVID-19 My thought was that maybe I could find a spot and be inconspicuous. Well the ground here is very soft and a bit muddy due to the constant shade and ocean moisture. So there was no way I was going to take my big heavy, loaded bike on the soft soil. That meant I would have to camp, park the bike, not far from the road. As I was rolling the park I came across several park rangers who were patrolling. There was no way I was going to get away with it and was not worth the risk of fines, etc.

Camping Option 3 – Disperse Camp near the Dyerville Train Trestle / Eel river.
Dyerville, California was a small town / settlement that used to reside on the banks of the river. It was completely destroyed by the flood of 1955. I remembered when I was last there in 2018 that there was a dirt / gravel road that you could drive on that took you right down to the river near the bridge. Yep, that will be a great place to camp, I thought to myself. Upon my arrival, the access gate across the road had been closed with dire warnings not to proceed (part of the park still I guess). However, not far from that spot is no longer part of the State Park (not directly next to the river) was an open rocky area that once served as a small rail yard for a now long defunct railroad. Perfect! One of my other interests / hobbies is railroads and model railroading. So, this was a great spot to camp. The rails were still there overgrown with full sized tress. Also, there was an abandoned boxcar still at this locations. Sadly, I could not determine any marking information on the rail car to learn of it’s history.

So, I setup camp among the abandoned right of way next to a huge pile of earth and cinder rocks. Private, out of the way, and not far off my route.

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Day 2 Summary:

Miles: 267
Time: All Day

It was a low miles day and it took the entire day to do it. When I had planned this route I had originally thought that I was have allot of down time to relax and explore the Redwoods again (I love the Redwoods). But with the breakdown, I lost allot of travel time and arrived at the campsite with just enough daylight to get camp setup and make dinner (Mountain House). But hey, I was here and another day completed 🙂

Check out the Video for Day 2 on my YouTube Channel