Day Nineteen: Petaluma, California to Crescent City, California

About to start the northward leg of the journey.  Photo by Ma.

This morning I packed up my gear and headed out Bodega Avenue for Highway 1.  It's a route I've taken many times by bicycle and car, though not (as far as I can recall) by motorcycle.  It's a fantastic road, twisting, rising, and falling as it negotiates the Pacific shoreline.  At Bodega Bay I gassed up and had brunch at The Tides restaurant, then continued north, passing through Sea Ranch and Gualala, Elk, Albion, Mendocino, Caspar, Fort Bragg, and a few other tiny communities.  After Westport the road heads inland to meet up with Highway 101 at Leggett.  This stretch is pure motorcycling heaven -- incredibly twisty with near-perfect pavement and very little traffic.  I remember being overjoyed with this road in my Honda Fit; on ths Triumph it's much better still.  The tires are now fully scrubbed!

One striking thing about Humboldt County is the huge number of apparent vagrants, especially in Eureka and Garberville.  I imagine I would have seen many more had I traveled up Highway 101 rather than the Shoreline Highway.  I feel extremely fortunate in comparison.

False Klamath Cove, Highway 101, south of Crescent City.

After joining 101 there are pretty long sections of two-lane (in each direction) freeway with posted limits of 65 mph, interspersed with narrower, one-lane-per-direction sections with lower limits.  The latter are far more fun.  Traffic has generally been light, and cars seem amazingly eager to pull over for motorcycles -- a very different experience!  The approach to Crescent City is also a familiar one, as our family has camped in the area for many years at both Mill Creek and Jedediah Smith campgrounds.  Mill Creek was closed (and I didn't head up Highway 199 to see the status of Jed Smith), so I'm camped for the night in another KOA cabin, this one in a redwood grove ~5 miles north of town.  Tomorrow I'll continue up the coast, while watching the skies -- the forecast is calling for afternoon showers.