Tuesday started cold and damp. The plan was to ride the Matole Road loop, then down Hwy 101 to Leggett, then cut down to Hwy 1 and through Fort Bragg.
Matole Road. This starts with 211 in Ferndale, curves to the lost coast, then Matole Road brings us back to Hwy 101 in the Humboldt State Forest. As I mentioned in a previous post, Matole Road is rough. So is 211. But the views are specatuclar! We even got to watch firefighters fight a forest fire, with planes and helicopters.
On the way back to Hwy 101 I suddenly felt the bike drop down several inches, the forks bottomed out, and a hard shock was sent up my arms into my shoulders. That was the mother of all invisible potholes. I immediately pulled over to check the bike, expecting a flat tire, burst fork seals, or worse, bent forks. But everything looked fine. Chuck hit it too, and his bike looked fine as well. Ron managed to swerve around it (he was riding tail). So we continued.
On 101, which from Fortuna to San Francisco is inland, the temps got higher and higher. It got up to 104F. The cooling vest worked great!
Later down 101 the bike didn't feel right, but I still enjoyed the snot out of Hwy 1 from Leggett to Ft Bragg. 28 miles of sharp corners, one after the next, with very few straight sections. Say what you will about drivers in California, they know how to treat a motorcyclist to fun. Whenever (9 out of 10 times) when we get behind a Californian, they will use one of the frequent pullouts and let us pass. Sometimes Oregonians and Washingtonians will putt off too. But when we get behind cars with other plates, we're stuck until we can gas it past them.
So put Hwy 1 from Leggett to Ft Bragg on your 'Must Ride' list.
As Hwy 1 took us to the coast, the temps dropped to 59F and we were in the fog. Unlike Oregon, the coast here doesn't have much trees, just grass and outcroppings.
In Ft Bragg we stopped for a beer at Northern Coast brewery and Taco Tuesday. $1 for a chicken or pork taco, and we bought a number of bottles of beer and enjoyment later that night.
Since the bike still wasn't feeling right, I took a closer look at it, perhaps a belt in the tire had separated. No .. worse .. the front rim had a nice big dent in it. Chuck's did too, but he didn't notice any ill effects. Ron and I talked things over, and we figured we could pound it out. So we bought a monkey wrench to get the axle off, and a hammer, and proceeded inland to Willits to camp, as we figured it would be warmer there (it was ... 30F warmer! and dry!). Going to Willits was a blast too - put Hwy 20 on that list of yours.
At the campsite (a KOA) we were met by two friendly girls from Bend, OR who ran the place. They weren't going to let us put three tents on a site, but since they were small tents, it was ok ;-) This KOA would be a young kid's playground: petting zoo, water park, movies at night, etc. But we didn't use any of that.
We bought some firewood and use it to get the front tire of the FJR off the ground. Then we pulled the front tire off the bike and with Ron's axe hitting the hammer handle, we managed to straighten out the rim a little. Then Ron went and bought more beer at the local KOA store, not realizing Chuck had loaded up on 11 brews from North Coast Brewery. So we had a lot of beer. It was about 9pm when we had the wheel back on the bike and we were ready to settle down to sleep, hoping the bike would ride right in the morning.
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