The West Coast

After all that to and fro around California the next part of the route is pretty straightforward. Head north up the coast using California State Highway 1 and interstate 101. The road follows the coast line along deserted beaches and around towering headlands. From time to time you divert inland through the magnificent Redwood Forests, winding up and back down through groves of trees hundreds of feet tall and thousands of years old.

To my mind the road is as good as the Adriatic Coast and better than some alpine passes. Not as tightly twisting, more open and sweeping which is fine for me. The bike eats up the miles and it is easy to do 200 to 300 miles a day with a couple of stops for coffee, lunch and petrol.

The first day took us from Jenner through Mendocino (Willie Nelson) to just below the Oregon State line at Ferndale. A sleepy Victorian dairy town on the flood plain of the Eel River. There wasn't any tumble weed blowing down Main Street but that's only because the Town is house proud and tidied them away. A beer in the salon, a cheery wave from the op in the black and white and a fine steak in the Victorian Inn made for a pleasant evening.

The second day we cross over into Oregon and were immediately offered medicinal and recreational cannabis from roadside shops. I guess it must be legal here but not in California. Further north we ran through the Oregon Dunes National Recreational Area. Enormous sand dunes between us and the see with dune buggy rental every few miles. Looked like fun. Overnight about half way up the coast in Florence, Oregon.

Today we did the "other half" of Oregon, north through Rockaway Beach (The Ramones) up to Astoria on the Columbia River. The whole Oregon coast has been one long sandy beach. Where the rivers come down from the mountains, there is a town, a sandbar across the river entrance and a high, green, steel girder bridge. Astoria is simply the biggest of them all.




Each town we have been through shows evidence of its founding. In Ferndale there was Portuguese Week going on and a Danish Hall. No one mentioned whaling but I suspect that's why they were here. In Astoria there is Suomi Hall, founded by the Finns who came here to fish and work in the canning factories.

Comments

  1. Graham13 June 2017 at 00:09

    Sounds like you're having fun. Coming to getcha - see you in a couple of days

    ReplyDelete

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