I’ve been in California for a few days now, staying with a friend in San Francisco. Today we left for the first day of a 6-day motorcycle trip! I’ve decided I’m going to write more on my own website, whereas I used to post much more about my travels to instagram.
Today we did 257 miles, and rode for just under 6 hours.
Warning
This post is pretty image heavy, and some of them are not optimised.
We started at Spike’s Coffee and Tea, in the Castro. From there, we rode over the Golden Gate Bridge and up Highway One. We could have stuck with hw 1 the entire route, but to keep things interesting (and take the twistier route), we had several detours!
The first food stop was at Route One Bakery. It was pretty quiet (unsurprising for a Monday morning), but apparently at weekends is pretty busy with lots of bikers.
I made friends with a chicken! She enjoyed the crumbs from my cookie
After this stop, we rode for a while longer, on a mix of hw 1 and some twistier side roads. I really like how this part of the world is a big mix of mountains, forests, and coast
The last time I had ridden this route was in 2022, and I stopped at a cafe (Cafe Aquatica) before turning back. Seeing as this time we were going to be going much further north, I thought it would make a nice tea break.
I’d been wanting to stop to take a photo, so after a period of riding uphill we found a good opportunity for a photo! It was so incredibly quiet that stopping in the middle of the road wasn’t a problem.
This road was probably the “wildest” part yet, and went through a lot of forest! Eventually it rejoined hw 1, which we stayed on for a while before heading off onto Skaggs Springs Road. I’m naming this one specifically, as it was definitely my favourite part of the day! There was a really nice bridge that made another nice photo spot, and afterwards the corners were very smooth and sweeping.
After crashing in the UK a few weeks ago, the past 2 days have been the first time I’ve been back on a bike. Having such a nice stretch of road really helped me feel more confident riding again
After Skaggs, we weren’t too far from our stop for the day! The majority of the day had been absolutely amazing, so of course we were due some minor issues.
We had about 1hr 30 left when I felt a sting of pain on my neck. This isn’t unusual, sometimes small rocks or other small debris get flicked up from the road. What was unusual was that the stinging didn’t stop. We pulled over, and it turns out I’d been stung by a wasp! It had found its way inside my jacket, and luckily didn’t keep stinging. In all the years I’ve been riding, this has never happened - but has been a bit of a fear.
Rainy showers had been forecast pretty much all day, and so far we had dodged them. A few raindrops were starting to appear on my visor towards the end, but it didn’t seem like it would be bad. It started to get really heavy, though we were riding through a redwood forest and were pretty well sheltered. The forests all smelled absolutely amazing, which is a sense you totally miss out on while travelling in a car.
The last hour or so was all rain, but I wasn’t too bothered about it. Today I rode some of the best roads in a long time, and can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!
Thank you to Michelle for her fantastic hospitality while I’ve been here, letting me borrow her bike, and for taking me on this trip