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Taking the Long Way Home - Atlantic to Pacific and back


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May 18 Day 20

I packed up at the KOA and headed north on mountain highway 99 which is just incredible twisties most of the way. Unfortunately we had the first casualty of the journey... a58486686c350686d537392d682a0f70.jpg

The little guy just ran out before I could react and that was that. Within 2 miles of mounting back up I passed my first cattle on the road. I was surprised that cows were allowed to walk on a road with such a steep drop off into the raging river below. A little after the cattle I passed a pretty cool little waterfall0282b12b909fa350028b04ac19c0db13.jpg I entered southern sequoia and found an awesome little alpine road 23S16 and turned down it and just kept going because the riding was incredible. Boulders all over the road which was thick with a mat of pine needles. The surface beneath wasn't asphalt but something else nice and grippy. It made for an extremely fun ride at a good clip through some pretty cool places 2ccb5e5f4d963a7bdb4faf42fb3cc52e.jpg I've got more pics of this little jaunt but the camera is charging right now so I can't wifi them over to my phone. After a while I backtracked my way out realizing I had killed at least an hour in the wrong direction though it was great riding I still had not seen any truly gigantic trees yet.

So I got back on mountain highway 99 and headed north got turned around for a bit near jonsondale but pulled out the trusty butler map and figured it out. From mountain highway 99 I headed north again on the m90 which becomes 190 after a good bit of twisties. 190 turned west and is awesome up to Portervill then it's still nice but not as scenic, north again on 65 which is long and straight with traffic lights but there's all sorts of local fruit for sale along the roadside and I picked up five of the best blood oranges I've ever had for $1.03 with a giant bucket of cherries for $5.00. 9de1d0806294ff8ccd77821c228e9212.jpg I don't have a pic of the cherries because I literally put them between my belly and tank bag and ate them on the rest of 65 and beginning part of 198 up to Kaweah lake area. Damn good snack for the road if you ask me. I've got a video of that Somewhere I'll post later on.

Somewhere along the way I stopped at the trail of 100 giants, which was closed but as soon as I cut my engine I heard a 45 second long thunderous cracking crashing sound that ended with an actual earth shaking crash. The park ranger stationed at the trail head to prevent people from sneaking on explained that was a full sized sequoia being felled because it had died and was a risk to other trees around it. The sound had been the tree tipping crashing through the canopy shattering and cascading downhill. I found it sad to realize I had just heard the end of a multi thousand year old giant sequoia, but also glad that there are people who protect the remaining trees and lucky to have heard such a rare event... A fully grown sequoia falling in the forest. I wonder how rare an event that actually is. The ranger was cool after I told him where all I had been and let me cross the road and run just a couple yards into the forest and snap a pic.

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198 turned into twisties just a little after Kaweah lake and took me into central Sequoia to the hospital flats campground which is small secluded and right down by the river. It had clean bathrooms and a big outdoors slop sink to wash your pots out in. I set up camp, ate my blood oranges talked to some nice people around the camp ground and a bunch of teenage boys who liked the jawbone beak ornament on Furiosa. An older guy who was also from NJ and here to do one of the big hikes through the giant forest. And a guy from Texas came over to take a picture of Furiosa and I to send to his buddy back home who also rides a bimmer. Still one of the best aspects of traveling is the people you meet.

May 19 Day 21

I had wanted to sleep in just a little bit this day but was woken up by an arguing couple at the site next to mine. It was pretty much the first bad morning I have had on the trip, but the good side is I just wanted to get away from that bs so I packed up and headed towards the giant forest 17 miles north of my camp site. The bad side was I had forgotten to turn on my spot tracker for the first time.

I entered the giant forest and was awestruck by the size of the trees. 1f6a77b97704324101c76ede32e3174b.jpg71b88559f93940d673ee6581a50c225f.jpg059d58587c728a42d170d6bccd48f6d9.jpg6fddd27da2534434cea072b5e9233b58.jpg674682089e50252b2a052101f9492cb2.jpg

Unfortunately the camera just can't do justice to the enormity of the sequoias when your up close to them. I spent some time relaxing under one of the largest ones and pulled out my map to pick a route towards the coast. I pulled out my butler map and decided San Simeon would be a good spot on the coast to shoot for then work my way north up the 1 for a day or two. So I headed west on 198 to 180 to 41 south to 46 east to the 1. At 3:54 pacific standard time, after 21 consecutive days on the road I had reached the coast and officially crossed the United States of America traveling solo by way of motorcycle. What an epic moment to see that incredible Pacific blue expanse. ffed0b7906448b65f7e2bfbdee1c1c60.jpg I felt suddenly exhausted as if the cumulative fatigue of the journey had finally hit me. I pulled off at the first campground along the 1 and set up camp, cooked up some beefaroni + ravioli and decided to actually sleep in for a change in the morning. Just before bed I met an older guy named Larry who is from Carmel. He called me a modern day cowboy and wished me safe travels and told me Big Sur would be crowded and that I would probably have more luck in Monterey or Carmel. He also warned me of the construction on the Bixby bridge which I had badly wanted to photograph. I wanted to text some friends and family and tell them I had reached the coast but had no service, so I updated my journal and called it an early night.

May 20

Day 22

Finally I got to sleep in until 930! I packed up my camp relaxed in my Hammock in the morning sunshine until 11 or so then headed out north on the 1. About 20 minutes north I pulled over at the elephant seal viewing area, parked in the bike section, and was pretty shocked to see hundreds maybe thousands of elephant seals resting on the beach, honking at each other sporadically. a55ff5d36b0dd492c636ceec3970822d.jpg36616e568243e8677dafaf993b112ba7.jpg

Seeing he seals was an unexpected gem of the journey. I had no idea I would see those incredible creatures and so close in such huge numbers just sunning lazily. It was a great start to the day. Then on my way back to the bike I met a French guy about my age who was on his way from KC to Argentina on his Super Tenere. He had already mounted up and was about to pull out so we only talked for maybe 3-5 minutes but he seemed like an interesting guy and spoke great English. I just wish I had gotten his social media information to follow his journey.

I mounted back up and headed north again towards Big Sur had some traffic through the twisties which was a little frustrating but not horrible. Big Sur was cool but crowded, no campgrounds had open tent sites and everything was no vacancy, a gas station I stopped at was even out of gas! Another 30-40 miles north into Carmel I decided to get a room, shower up, get some diner and take advantage of some wifi. Nice little cabin for 160 at the Carmel resort inn between first and second street. I called up and scheduled the 18k mile service and new tires at Santa Rosa BMW on the 25th giving me time to head inland to see Yosemite and maybe check out travertine hot springs which Madelinn had recommended to me back in Joshua Tree.

I spent an hour waking around downtown Carmel looking for food everything here is either way to fancy or like weird crystals, wine tasting, art galleries, hand crafted Himalayan silver yuppy places and I didn't meet any nice people in the entire hour of walking around. Don't get me wrong I'm all about being who you are but this was the first time I felt like an outsider during the entire trip. Finally I found a burger place. 400 degree burgers I believe it was called. Turned out this too was some sort of ultra cultured burger place. I got a bison burger fries and a coke for 21 bucks! Seemed a little steep to me. It was damn good though. Headed back to my room to update you guys and check out the map to plan out the next few days.

Edited by AdventureHunter
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Yesterday

May 21 Day 23 I headed towards Yosemite from Carmel hoping to go through Yosemite take pics and ride over the Tioga pass and north towards travertine hot springs. Decent day on the interstate considering I had a hot shower, a big bed and a half a pot of coffee before setting out. It's amazing what a good nights sleep can do. It was a pretty uneventful day. Though I dropped my iPhone and shattered the screen. First really I really annoying mishap of the journey. Panda Express for lunch, which was awesome and along the way I picked up a bag of plums and apricots for 8$ that was some of the best fruit I've ever had. e04db008f658564efd7ca0f893f66e22.jpg

I made camp that night at The Pines campsite off 120 on the western edge of Yosemite. As soon as I set up my tent a quick 2 minutes of pretty good peanut M&Ms sized hail then clear again. I took it as a warning and stashed most of my gear inside the tent and threw the tarp over the bike. While there I set up my hammock caught up on my journal, took a nap and realized that the outlet I had "charged" my Nikon battery on must have not been working because my camera was flat dead. That really annoyed me considering Yosemite is tomorrow's destination, and there is nothing to do but charge it off the bike once I start moving tomorrow. I had dinner of canned stew, plums and apricots and went to sleep early.

May 22 Day 24

I woke up early and there was a very heavy dew and everything was soaked, so I made coffee finished off the last two plums and two apricots dried and packed my tent and hammock which I knew I shouldn't have left out overnight, then headed into Yosemite. The entrance gate was jammed so I knew the park would be crowded. Very crowded indeed. I also saw that Tioga pass had closed overnight so I pulled over and whipped out my Butler map and figured out if I wanted to get to travertine hot springs or mono lake area, which was the plan, I would have to take the more northern Sonora pass over the mountains. So I took 120 into the park 140 out then 49 north towards the Sonora pass which also was closed. So I backtracked down 49 to the Moccasin Campground on Don Pedro lake. df8618a88a7af1c9301ec78a4b15fc52.jpgee60c519d78ad5484ef217d86153d494.jpg Really nice campground with beautiful sites, water, a nice bathroom and right now there is only one other occupied camp site besides me in the whole place. Tonight I have not set up my tent and am going to try out the hammock I've dragged all this way and only used twice so far. 8a8e32250f0245f8dbd01bcf579a3a61.jpgI've got my camera charged up and tomorrow I'm going to give Yosemite another go, Monday should be a lower traffic day and the weather looks clear so hopefully Tioga pass will be open and I will be able to make it to Mono lake/ travertine hot springs.

https://vimeo.com/167684647https://vimeo.com/167684884

Thanks for reading everyone hopefully tomorrow will be a great day for pictures! Check out my tracks below

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0vOdQ17Gkzl75o9nCrbjzbmjyUZI7hDtx

Edited by Eric Hall
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May 23 Day 25

The hammock was great and slept like a baby all night. Packed up and left Don Pedro lake headed east on 120 towards the Tioga pass.

38281ae29fede491144ce968adc3abac.jpgd93345a5570ea2f880e9b05b91df242a.jpg0d802d02173daba0b23de6d043e75d13.jpg67e64cffe6973d8aef1f0b59a48fe414.jpg50a6a48c32cca0ca316c374514d5a112.jpgc324d9da9af78878831a22bce882d29b.jpghttps://vimeo.com/167839951

Tioga pass was awesome but got down to 45 degrees for a while but just a beautiful ride the whole way. 120 ends at 395 and I hooked it north towards Bridgeport in search of travertine hot springs, and after a little searching and asking I finally found it.

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Travertine Hot Springs is a very cool place. Hot water just bubbles out of the ground flows through tiny rivers 2-10 inches wide and fills up these steaming pools. I found that spring in the middle of a field a ways away from the other people in the park and had a nice soak. After a bit I dried off suited back up and headed north on 395 again going to make my way west over one of the passes, which ever is open and closest Tioga, Monarch or Luther pass. It's raining pretty hard here in Walker where I've got a room for the night, so I'm sure it's snowing on the passes. If they are all closed I'm sure I can make it north around Tahoe to 80 and West towards Santa Rosa worst case.

Oh yeah and in either Bridgeport or Lee Vining I saw this wild Adventure machine

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I hung around for a little bit and tried to see if the owner would turn up and talk but no luck and after 10 or so minutes I moved on. That Honda had stickers on it from all over North and South America. I was pretty bummed I did not get a chance to meet the owner.

Edited by Eric Hall
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May 25 day 27

Yesterday Monitor and Luther pass were both open but high 30s with snow and rain. So batten down the hatches and power through. Once I got through the mountains and reached i80 it was an uneventful ride to a KOA south of Santa Rosa.

This morning I slept in till 9 broke camp took a shower and headed towards BMW Santa Rosa in Windsor. I am really glad I decided to go to these guys to service the my bike. The service department was really great, they did the 18k service and put on a set of anakee 3s for 715 and they gave me a loner g650gs free and replaced my out headlights for free. They let me stash my boxes and gear safe in there garage.

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I had a lot of fun thumping around on the 650. While riding it I realized BMW should have put that wider 650 seat on the 700 I ride. It's a comfortable enough seat but really should be wider like on the 650. I had time to kill so I cruised around for a while, got lunch at a nearby Panda Express and went back to pick up Furiosa. Loading her up took 35-40 mins which wasn't too bad because all the people at the shop were so interested in where all I'd been and how the bike had done. Still one of the best aspects of traveling is meeting nice people interested in your journey. I mounted up and headed for Reno. A lot of lane splitting through rolling traffic and I caught some icy rain over Donner pass on 80... In the dark... I was more than a little sketched out. I pulled into Reno looking to get a cheep room and start out early tomorrow headed towards Colorado Springs

https://vimeo.com/168158884

I've just woken up in Reno should take me a couple hours to find food and get moving. I've been feeling so exhausted at night recently I've been falling asleep while typing theses or writing in my journal. I'll try to get another update out tonight but if it not I'll be in Colorado Springs by Friday night and will update from there.

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Oh yeah and in either Bridgeport or Lee Vining I saw this wild Adventure machine.

a1637568f3ec720c0f76b5e7b6b9e17b.jpg

 

That bike is great! I love people that do stuff b/c it makes THEIR heart go pitter/patter, not b/c they feel the need to fit some ADV rider ideal that includes a 25k bike with 25k in farkles. Not that there is anything wrong with those that have the means to do everything up to a tee. I just love the character of those that do it their way. Too bad you didn't get to have a beer with the eccentric owner. I bet it would have been interesting.

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That bike is great! I love people that do stuff b/c it makes THEIR heart go pitter/patter, not b/c they feel the need to fit some ADV rider ideal that includes a 25k bike with 25k in farkles. Not that there is anything wrong with those that have the means to do everything up to a tee. I just love the character of those that do it their way. Too bad you didn't get to have a beer with the eccentric owner. I bet it would have been interesting.

Though I love my bimmer, I feel the same way. That ole Honda was oozing adventure stories.... And don't call me crazy but I actually had considered eating the squirrel for a sec.

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May 31 day 33

Hey guys sorry about dropping off the face of the Earth!

Reno to springs was a two day ride, and as I had hoped I was able to reach Colorado Springs by 7 Friday night. This leg had turned out to be a pretty long ride across 50 and 70 east. 50 is a seemingly unending series of mostly moderate altitude mountain passes (7-8k) and huge valley plains with straightaways, some over 20 miles dead straight leading into the approach to the next pass. There are some very remote stretches of 50, 80 miles to next gas is common out there.

70 is pretty normal until you hit the last 150 miles into Denver then traffic picks up a bit and the passes increase up to 10k foot or more. There was lot of off and on rain, hail and snow over the passes and high 30s low 40s and strong winds. When I arrived at my friends house in springs I was happy to be off the bike.

While in springs I'm just crashing with a few friends and having my chain and sprockets replaced by Catamount Powersports tomorrow or Thursday then 4-5 days back to New Jersey. Catamount is an awesome shop with a couple really cool and knowledgable dudes in there. The older guy who seems to be the owner, Peter told me about his ride from Amsterdam to CapeTown in the 80s. Awesome guy with incredible adventure stories. He told me he performed the maintenance for the bikes in A Story Worth Living which I though was really cool. Here's a couple videos from the past couple days.

https://vimeo.com/168803364https://vimeo.com/168803610https://vimeo.com/168804006

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You should stop by Woody's Wheel Works if you go through Denver

I've got to pass by Denver on weds late afternoon or Thurs morning depending on what time the chain and sprockets get done. I may have an opportunity to stop in there. Do you think they could fix the dent in my front wheel?

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I've got to pass by Denver on weds late afternoon or Thurs morning depending on what time the chain and sprockets get done. I may have an opportunity to stop in there. Do you think they could fix the dent in my front wheel?

 

http://www.woodyswheelworks.com/BMWTubelessSpokedWheels.html

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Thanks for the link. They can fix my wheel it's just a matter of if I've got time to hang around while they do. I've got a friend in Denver I could crash with for a night if I had to, I think I'll probably end up just leaving it because it's not leaking air or affecting the ride.

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I've got to pass by Denver on weds late afternoon or Thurs morning depending on what time the chain and sprockets get done. I may have an opportunity to stop in there. Do you think they could fix the dent in my front wheel?

Yes, they can definitely fix it.  I can give them a heads up for you.  Woody's in Vietnam right now working with their paralympic team (something he'll never talk about) but Jerrod is the guy I deal with there mostly.

 

Don't forget your eye and ear protection when you shoot.  I do that frequently and then my shooting buddies point it out when I post videos ;)

 

Yeah that chain is toast.  Your rear sprocket looks okay but it's not a bad idea to replace both sprockets when you do the chain.  How often do you clean/oil it?

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Yes, they can definitely fix it. I can give them a heads up for you. Woody's in Vietnam right now working with their paralympic team (something he'll never talk about) but Jerrod is the guy I deal with there mostly.

Don't forget your eye and ear protection when you shoot. I do that frequently and then my shooting buddies point it out when I post videos ;)

Yeah that chain is toast. Your rear sprocket looks okay but it's not a bad idea to replace both sprockets when you do the chain. How often do you clean/oil it?

I think I will probably end up just dealing with the wheel when I get home and I always where ear pro I had in my surefire plugs but ya got me on the eye pro. That scar 17 is pretty sweet I've got to say. The chain I oiled and cleaned regularly at home but on the trip I probably oiled every 1000 and have not cleaned it since home.

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June 6 Day 39

Hey everyone sorry for the lack of posts. Nothing really exciting has been happening. Catamount Powersports did not get my chain and sprockets until Friday afternoon so I ended up leaving Colorado Springs Saturday and taking 70 east. It was great to see my buddies from high school, I'm seriously considering moving out there permanently. Tonight I'm camping at the buckeye lake KOA that I had stayed at on the way west. Tomorrow I've got an easy 250 miles to my aunts house in Oakland Maryland and I'm planing to be back home by Wednesday night.

My bike, Furiosa, will click past 20k miles tomorrow. When I get home, after re-acclimating to the real world, I want to make a video/review of the bike how it's held up and it's load out, possibly what I would do differently about the bike/trip.

Since this will probably be my last post from the road I just want to say that at the beginning of this this journey I had been so worried about the possibility of some unforeseen obstacle or incident that would leave me stranded or unable to continue because of injury or cost. I had been uncertain of how I would handle 30-40 days solo on the road, and so many days and nights outdoors exposed to the elements. I felt apprehensive about what kind of people I would meet and if I would be able to find safe places to pitch my tent or get a room. I had been daunted by the prospect of pulling off a ten thousand mile motorcycle adventure as a total noob. The whole month leading up to this trip I was painfully conscious of my lack of experience(this 700 is my first and only bike and I've had it for less than a year and a half). I was hoping I had put my faith in the right bike, riding suit , protective accessories, luggage and gear.

Though some of these are legitimate concerns my current advice to someone in my previous position would be to not sweat the details and just go for it. Dive in headfirst, immerse yourself in the natural world and seek out the unfamiliar, it will only enhance your unique perspective. Keep an open mind because 99 out of 100 people I've met were incredibly kind and generous. Have faith that you'll make it; as the obstacles increase in difficulty so will your skill, determination and confidence.

This journey has been more to me that I could ever have imagined. So much so that I feel as though the end of this journey is only the beginning of the next even bigger adventure. I hope you all have enjoyed the ride report as much as I've enjoyed sharing my journey. I'll give a final update from home but, anyone out there feel free to hit me up any time with a question, to talk adv stuff/swap stories or to ride.

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