California - The Lost Coast

We had a steady ride down to Eureka this morning to get brake pads for both mine & Geoff's bikes, the current versions are almost metal on metal with the discs! No luck though, both the Yamaha & KTM dealers were out of that type of pad. hey ho, keep riding south & use the brakes less!!

Once out of Eureka we turned off the 101 & headed into Ferndale, a lovely little Victorian town with some fab buildings & most importantly the find of the day, Poppa Joes cafe... now this is how all cafés should be!

Fab breakfast, great coffee, full of local characters, ace place...

Once we'd ate our fill we set off heading onto the Mattole Road, which is a bit of a classic ride for this area, it sweeps through several valleys & drops you onto the Pacific Coast for a few miles before climbing back into the hills near Petrolia, which was apparently founded as this was the first place oil was found in the States. Nowadays it's a sleepy hollow, with beautiful scenery everywhere.

We climbed over a pass & dropped to the Humbolt Redwood Forest to camp at the Albee Creek campground which has a regular visiting schedule from the local black bear population to munch on the apple trees in the nearby pasture, needless to say everything goes into a bear proof box whilst camping here!!!

It finally got warm & sunny today too, so all the layers came off on our last bit of the ride... another cool day to be on a motorbike!!

Our evening finished with a ride through the Avenue of the Giants, a little bit of road just off the 101, which has some of the oldest & biggest trees in this area, wow!! a bit of dinner at the Eternal Tree cafe in Redcrest & back down the Avenue to get back to camp & the bottle of JD!!

California - Redwoods & Elk!

Err isn't California meant to warm & sunny?? It's freezing, we're all riding in more gear than we've used the entire trip!

We left Port Orford late this morning, around 11 ish, really lazy breakfast at Katie's place, she's never wrong & she only cooks scrambled eggs! Great breakfast & coffee place though... Oh & she has a cool cat...

A lazy ride down to the Humboldt Redwood forest, we're camped in a cool campsite with wild Elk munching on the grass in the nearby pasture, a fire burning & some posh Jack Daniels to wash down the chilli noodles...

All is good in life!

Oregon - The last bit to the sea...

We're there, Port Orford, the wee little town on the west coast of Oregon. All four of us in one piece, the bikes a bit bashed & scarred but still running!! An easy day of riding, some great tarmac roads, a massive descent into a valley, two punctures & a fish lunch... happy days!!

The Brits have arrived!

Well done to Kevin & Brian too...

The bikes at the beach!

All four of us in one piece...

Griff's Fish Restaurant right on the seafront!!

We left the shithole motel in Sunny Valley really early this morning, headed back to Glendale & had breakfast at the Cow Creek Cafe, with a right nice bunch of people & loads of coffee as it was only 6am by the time we got there. Once replete we heading back to the TAT, only to find a lumber yard had been built over the first section, so another detour ensued to find it again. From then on in we never left it for the rest of the day until we got into Port Orford. It took us over several hills, wound along various valleys & over some ace windy tarmac lanes that the bikes just handled beautifully. It was almost a shame when we had to slow down & get back onto the gravel roads!!

West Fork, an old gold mining spot.

Looking up our next valley...

The final descent back to a tarmac road was about 30 minutes straight down, this jarred our wrists & elbows as it was pretty rocky & twisty all the way down. Once at the  bottom, there was the Elk River, with some beautiful pools full of fish & some local art on the road! As we hit tarmac, Geoff noticed he had a puncture, so we blew it up, hoping it would last to the sea, but it only lasted about a mile, so a new tube was needed. We had to find plenty of logs to get the bike jacked up, but once it was it was only 15 minutes to get it changed.

What stick my finger here??

So we headed on down to the 101 & followed it into Port Orford & the well earned picture stop & coffee stop.

Next for us is a cruise down the Lost Coast with Kevin, (Brian has now headed to Portland to join his family), we plan on some easy riding, a visit to the Redwood forest, camping on the beach, a beer or two & hopefully more sunshine as we head to Oakland to drop the bikes off for shipping back to the UK.

Happy Days...

Oregon - trails to the back of beyond!!!

Friday 11th July - We're staying in a motel tonight, at least it was when it opened in the 60's, now it's just a shithole in the woods run by a 60+ year old lass whose chest is round her knees & she's wearing a dirty grey vest top to make sure you get the best impression!

They forgot to add its an insect reserve in every room!!

It's cleaner outside the room!!

Microwave sandwiches... mmmm...

We've just finished a 250 mile day of mostly forest road with one section of great steep & rocky single track right at the end of day. We had planned to stay in Glendale but the motel has closed down, this is a financially depressed area it seems as Tiller, our original fuel stop as per the TAT notes had also closed, so we drove 15 miles down to Dry Creek & got totally robbed by the old guy who served us the fuel, (Apparently, in Oregon, it's the law that fuel is served by someone rather than you just helping yourself as normal), he seemed to just make up the prices, so mine was $14, Geoff's was $16, Kevin's was $13, Brian's was $3!! (It should be noted here that Brian has the biggest tank of all of us!!).

Come on in sonny, we'll take all your cash!!

There was a section of trail that was closed today, it was 12 miles into the bit that started with a sharp left turn onto the  2950 dirt road. It looks like it's been blocked off for a couple of years now judging by the undergrowth & trees, yet both Sam's & GPS Kevin routes take you through here. We returned to the road, (Hwy 29), then followed this to Tiller, to find there is no shop or fuel there anymore hence the drive to Dry Creek. En route we did find a cool little cafe where we all had steak or chicken burritos, this was breakfast, it had been 6 hours since we'd set off, so just a little hungry by then!

Oops no trail here sir!

Boulder field under the shrubbery that was the trail...

Tiller - shop & garage for sale anyone??

Great little store on the way to Tiller.

We returned back to the TAT & then headed back into the trees at Elk Creek to go over another hillside, this took us to the best bit of the trail for the day near Coffie Butte. Steep & rocky with great views down into the valleys below. Geoff & Kevin both had a couple of little 'offs' here due to the steepness & I'd ended up in front of all of them due to a bit of poor nav on Brian's part. I thought they were all still in front of me so I got a bit of a lick on, which turned out to be unnecessary as I found out when I retraced my steps to find them.

So as there was no accommodation in Glendale, we chatted with the fuel pump guy who was a Mexican lad with good sense of humour, he suggested we head to the RV park in Sunny Valley which had cabins to rent as well, but the guys decided to try the motel, hence where we ended up for the night!

Another eventful day on the TAT, that leaves is 124 miles to Port Orford tomorrow.... watch this space!!

Oh & I forgot we also found a museum for old stage coaches in Sunny Valley, great little place, & Sunny Valley is aptly named it was basking in beautiful sunshine whilst we were there

Oregon - Smith Rocks, a visit round the bend & some new tyres... easy life

We've had a busy day today, the bikes are all set with two new sets of tyres on the XT's, a new chain on mine, Kevin's has a bit of a slow leak on his rear, (That's his tyre not his arse :-)) & Brian's KTM has just developed a leak on a fork seal, so plenty going on with the bikes...

Smith Rocks was a beautiful place, it's an iconic american climbing venue, well known throughout climbing circles so a bit of a must visit spot for someone with my background. I would love to get some climbing gear out there & go for a play for a few days... great climbing plus a very pretty spot just to chill out with Tellebonne as the nearest town for top ups & beer runs!!

Brian's KTM & my XT both had a bit of attention from a mechanic today, Brian finally has a sidestand that he can use again, it took a bit of drilling but the broken bolt came out & the replacement went in quite quickly.

I had a new 520 x ring chain put on, but no sprockets as Chris Sanden, the bike shop owner, only had ones that would fit a WR. He was a very good mechanic, slick, quick & efficient, we all would recommend his shop after spending nearly an hour there this morning. He specialises in off road stuff, from bikes to skidoo's & quadbikes, (For the US guys that's snowmobiles & ATV's!!).

Chris Sanden at work

The offending culprit

We also found out that there is loads of good dirt bike trails around here, the Three Trails routes started in the 70's & is now going through a revival but there is also stuff out to the east of Smith Rocks & a load of trails out over near the various volcanoes that lie along the Cascades range.

The afternoon was spent fitting tyres & a quick trip into the Mohawk in Crescent as Matt had turned up for an evening of gossip & beer...

Matt practising his bar stance...

Does my bum look big in these?? 

oooh shiny new rubber!!

So another day passed by, we're ready to head back off onto the TAT tomorrow with a 200 mile day planned, possible finishes include either Canyonville or Glendale, a lot of this depends upon the trails for tomorrow as one is 50 miles further on... We're now in the position where we don't trust the information on the rollmaps, especially where fuel stops are mentioned, so now we're checking everything on Google & making contingency plans for both fuel & motel stops. This is a shame & although it hasn't spoilt the trip as such it has made us lose faith in the information that Sam has provided to us, something that has not been the case for the previous States.

So you guys have fun, talk to you tomorrow...