Seattle Multistrada Trip 2007
From Noah.org
I rode from San Francisco to Seattle, WA (finally to Orcas Island) in October of 2007. I went to visit my parents because my mother had been sick. One way distance is 1494 km or 928 miles. This is pretty much what this bike is made for -- medium endurance touring. I took I5 most of the way, but I detoured at Red Bluff, CA to ride CA-36. This is a terrific motorcycle road and features my favorite California scenery -- rolling hills and Live Oak trees. This turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. I rode 36 to the coast and then took route 1 up to Klamath where I spent the night across the street from Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. These two giants guard the entrance of Trees of Mystery. I've never had time to actually visit the Trees of Mystery; although, I've been by there many times. The next morning my trouble started. It started to rain. First it drizzled. This made the ride up the windy mountain Highway-199 nerve-wracking. A thin film of water on the twisties is never fun on a bike. Mix that with the cars riding my ass and I was cursing God all the way up the hill. There was no place to pull over and no passing lanes. Toward the top of the mountain it started to get cold. I wasn't too badly prepared for my trip, but at the last minute I could not find my big gloves so I just went with shortie gloves (actually batter's gloves!). These are fine for around town and cutting the chill, but when it rains they are only slightly better than bare handed.
One thing I learned is that when it starts to hail that opening your helmet visor is really unpleasant. Visibility with my visor up wasn't much better with it down, but it was enough for me to see an exit lane. I took that and ended up on a long exit rode that run under the freeway. I stopped to catch my breath under the freeway. I considered sleep there as I was reasonably dry, but I figured that I'd start to really get chilled once I sat down on cold ground. The hail eventually turned back into rain, so I kept going.
Trip back
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Then I decided to stop at the most frightening motel in Oregon. - TODO - After I got my key I was greeted by an extremely enthusiastic and friendly man who wandered from the back of the building I was staying in. He was very excited to see my motorcycle and to greet an adventurer out on the road. Don't ask me how I know the smell of crystal-meth. It's not an unpleasant smell. I thought that I can't possibly be smelling it outdoors in the open air. It must be fear working on my imagination. But the air was calm and still that night... It was late and I was tired. I felt bad that I couldn't hold up my end of the conversation about my bike, but that didn't seem to bother the man who eventually walked back to wherever he was staying behind my room. The room was clean, but smelled like moth balls and those paper pine tree car air-fresheners. I didn't sleep at all that night. I never got accustomed to the smell. It was too cold, dark, and wet to keep riding. I was stuck.
