BC to Panama on a KLR

[motorambler]

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Oh yeah, the post-Mexico part of the trip is what I'm most interested in hearing about :clap:

 

[Loz]

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Awesome! your photos bring back great memories of my ride; it was this time of year too. Should start to warm up from here on. The last bit of coast road before you pop out on the highway by the bridge is supper twisty. Those knobies are gonna get a work out!! Happy trails.:hb:

 

[DualSportGuy]

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Looks like you are having a great time...wish I wuz there riding with you...would be sooooo much fun.

Great posts....keep them coming.......

 

[Kermode_Klr]

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Thanks for sharing this trip with fellow inmates. I am looking forward to following your adventures.

 

[mudboy]

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Reading this is giving me that urge to head south again... Now if I can only convince my wife of this :cross:.Great work, looking forward to reading more.

Craig.

 

[Tree]

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wow pat this is pretty crazy timing. I was just signing on to start a thread asking questions and looking for suggestions about peoples trips and experiences south to the baja. I will be keeping an eye on this ride report as you progress. Too bad you couldnt have waited six months i would have been closely behind you if you were looking for a partner to share this experience.

Ride safe buddy and hope to hear from you soon.

 

[bd-5b]

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Awesome coverage, i,ll be back.good luck

 

[Mud-Ectomy]

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:tup:Great stuff Lonewolf. Looking forward to following your adventure.

Mud

 

[KLRsuperRIO]

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Tree I second that ,maybe we should chase Pat down.

 

[Lonewolf]

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KLRsuperRIO wrote:

Tree I second that ,maybe we should chase Pat down.

DO IT!!! I dare you

 

[Tree]

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Scotty lets head down next november. Im in for sure! Got the bike. Getting the knobbies. just need a camp stove and a couple other things and im good to go!

 

[Lonewolf]

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Day 6 – 490KM

I start the morning with a quick shower to warm up after waking up to an unnaturally cool sea breeze. Warmed up and ready to face the day i start packing only to be spotted and subsequently harassed by the camp attendant about self registration and that I cant camp in the hiker/biker sites ($5 a night vs $35) when I have a motorcycle. Just nod, apologize and plead ignorance the voice inside my head kept telling me, and so I did just that. The lady let me off the hook with a stern warning not to let it happen again.
I get on the road and cover some miles before stopping for breakfast at the Pine Cone diner in Point Reyes and stealing some business' Wi-Fi signal to get online and post the previous days report. My waitress seems genuinely interested in my ride and wants to see pictures, I indulge the request and soon find out that she rides a Harley but would never think of making such a long ride, especially by herself.

Breakfast Burrito was delicious!

Coastline north of San Fran

Highway 1 into San Francisco is an amazing piece of road, what can I say if you've ridden it you know and if you haven't then you should! The last few miles into San Francisco the traffic starts picking up and then we pop out of a tunnel and there's the golden gate bridge standing like a steel sentinel keeping watch over the narrows below

I stop and take the necessary pictures before crossing and being made to pay a $6 toll, outrageous! San Fran's streets are a feat of engineering in themselves, It amazes me that people actually build on such steep slopes and then run a road straight up the hill, but I guess they aren't worried about snow. I make it up to a Nature reserve on top of a hill overlooking the city... I rode in and upon reaching the top am informed by a worker that this is a hike in only park, I Guess the dirt trail I came up was only for service vehicles, he was amazed I even made it.

Steep Streets! See next pic for the real idea...

Maybe now you get the idea...

The "park" I rode to the top of...

After a quick tour of Fisherman's Wharf and the downtown area I headed east via the bay bridge, destination: Yosemite. Nearly 3 hours later and I'm in the hills climbing some crazy twisty roads towards Yosemite. At the 4000' level I start seeing snow on the sides of the roads, a precursor of whats to come.

One of the resivoirs in the hills...

Leaving the sunshine behind and heading up into some dark clouds...

This was as much of Yosemite as I got to see...
By the time I got to the Yosemite entrance snow was starting to fall and the lady at the booth was turning anything without four wheel drive and snow chains away. I pulled up to the booth and she told me “sorry hun, unless you've got four wheel drive and some chains I cant let you go any further” I told her “this may not be a 4WD but it IS a KLR and it can go anywhere with a little effort!” she chuckled to herself and then under he breath muttered “I'd like to see that” as she motioned for me to turn around.
Well, there goes that plan, but in all honesty I would have frozen like an ice cube if I had tried to camp up there. I would head back to Oakdale for the night and make my way back to the coast in the morning.
Pat

 

[Lonewolf]

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Day 7 – April 30 – 470KM
Today would start out slow and uneventful, riding straight, flat roads through the orchards. The amazingly engineered irrigation canals give me something to ponder and the smells of the fruit trees some stimulation on an otherwise boring ride.

Miles upon miles of perfectly spaced fruit tree's

The engineering behind the canal structure and complete irrigation system had my mind going.

I head southwest until I come to Del Puerto Canyon Rd which runs across the mountains towards San Jose. At first the road is a little beat up but soon after passing the local OHV park the traffic clears and the road improves.

A small medow on a plateau near the joint in the roads

Winding through a narrow canyon where every ounce of usable room is used by small cattle ranches and a few hardy families scratching out a living I slowly start making some vertical.
Soon the gentle curves have transformed into steep switchback's set on cliffs with little shoulder and a generous drop off. The few oncoming vehicles i see are ALL in my lane around the corners, Lucky I was watching for them.

When I arrive at the top of the hill I find the University of California's Observatory. An unexpected but welcome discovery I decided to take some time and explore a little bit. I stop in and take a tour of the 36”refracting telescope, one of over 20 on the site. The largest telescope on the site is a 102” reflector which is used every clear night of the year by university students and scientists from all over the world.

My first view of thetelescopes of the Lick observitory

the 102" reflector

The 36" refractor 'scope that I toured

There it is in all its glory... Amazing to see up close, an old but extremely precise instrument.

I thought the truss structure made a great backdrop.
The road down into San Jose was more of the same, not that that's a bad thing at all! Tight, twisty and technical with more than enough 10-15mph corners to keep you on your toes.

After a quick stop for some gas and an apple from my tank bag I head south down the 101 trying to make it to Corbin Seats in Hollister before they close at 4pm. Yesterday I had (or my ass had) decided that enough was enough. The stock seat on the KLR is okay for a 100KM day or maybe a 500KM day once in a while, however, after putting 2000KM on the bike in the last 7 days I was sore. Realizing that I had nearly 18,000 more KM before the end of the trip i decided that spending some cash on a comfortable seat was something that I could justify.

New seat installed and my rear end thanking me I headed over to the coast towards Montery, CA where I had planned to spend the evening. Someone forgot to tell me that it was the weekend and at 5pm on on Friday afternoon every campsite that I came across was full to capacity.

The coast and coast road.

A cool bridge

I figured I would keep heading south and eventually I'd find somewhere to put up a tent. Soon I ended up in Big Sur passing both state and private campsites either full to capacity or with lineups down the road.

Quite the house cut onto the side of the cliff

Coastal views as the sun starts to set.

There are many single lane sections of the road, seems keeping the road from falling into the see is a full time job.
By 8pm I was contemplating pulling over in one of the many pullouts on the side of the road and just laying down to sleep. And just as I'm about to do so I come across a national forest site that while being fairly full has a few openings in the hiker/biker area where I sneak in and hastily set up camp.

The view from my tent as the sun slips over the horizon.
The night was long, the sounds of obnoxious 20 somethings and drunken 40 somethings filling the night air. I make some soup and warm up by my neighbours campfire before turning in for the night. At least it was warm!
Pat

 

[wjm]

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Awsome report, keep them coming.

Bill

 

[Lonewolf]

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Day 8

I'm awake and underway early after a surprisingly restful and warm night. Though as I load the bike an eagle eyed camp attendant looking a little frazzled and like she just woke up swoops down on me asking if I self registered last night, I fess up that it was late and I just wanted to sleep so I hadn't. She labels me a “bad boy”and gives me a break only charging me the $5 for a hiker/biker campsite.

Elephant seals on the beach.

I head south hoping to find a decent cafe along the cliffside and get some food. I find one just south of camp, the door is open but it seems deserted, not a patron or employee to be seen. I get back on the bike and continue south, covering almost 40 miles before seeing a sign for “Hearst Castle”(http://www.hearstcastle.org/) National Historic Monument. I decided that it sounded worth checking out.

The castle on top of the hill in the distance.

The $22 tour was well worth the money! I'll let the pictures tell the story, but the presentations and history given by the tour guide really made the experience. Hearst Castle features 56 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms, 19 sitting rooms, 127 acres of gardens, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis courts, a movie theatre, an airfield, and at one point the world's largest private zoo. The main building “Casa Grande” is over 60,000 sq feet.

The view from one of the many terraces

One of the many fountains, this one in front of the "Casa Del Sol" guest house (2500 sq ft)

The "Neptune Pool", much of the roman stonework was brought over from Greece.

Some playfull mermaids, everything is marble, the sculptures, the pool walls and flooring, would have taken quite the craftsman to do all this tile.

A view from poolside

Very Intricate detail on one of the guest houses

The oldest piece of art on the estate, an egyption godess statue that dates to 2000BC

Here we have "Casa Grande" or the main house.

Just inside the front door lies a huge entertaining room

with a fireplace brough over from france

and a roman marble mosaic tile floor

The dining room was nothing to scoff at either

and finaly the indoor swimming pool which was actuallly an afterthought and was excavated in under the main house after contruction had been completed.

Take note of all the gold colored tires in this photo and the previous... All are covered in 23 karet gold leaf!

The whole place is really an engineering marvel and I could have spent a whole day or more there taking in all the intricate details. No wonder the “ranch” took over ten years to build and was never fully completed.

If ony i had been allowed to ride my bike up to the castle rather than having to take the tour bus.

After my tour and taking wayyy to many photo's in hopes of getting a few really good ones I return to the bike and make my way south a ways before coming upon a small strip of hotels and cafe's on the beach where I stop for some “breakfast” (its noon by now) at the “Big Sur Cafe” where I have the smoked salmon omelet on the recommendation of the cook, its amazing, and the view wasn't bad either.

Continuing south I soon find myself on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Its about 4pm and I figure if I decide to cross the city tonight I'm going to hit some crazy rush hour traffic. Then I realize that it's Saturday and that easily just cut the rush down by half. I jump on the 405 making good time until we near the centre of the metropolis, here the traffic slows to a crawl as incoming traffic try's to merge and and through traffic make last minute lane changes to get to their intended exits.

All of a sudden a Honda CBR1000RR zips past me between the fast lane and the HOV lane and I remember that lane splitting is completely legal in California. With this in mind I physc myself up and give it a shot knowing full well that I have a pretty wide bike with the panniers and such mounted to the rear.

I end up making great time through nearly 15 miles of slow traffic with this method. Exhilarating but slightly scary this keeps me on my toes for what could otherwise be a monotonous ride.

I end up heading to the coast in order to get away from the hustle of the big city. Laguna beach is a stereotypical beach town with bronzed beauty's walking around town, surf boys trying their hardest to look cool at the beach and muscle bound steroid jockeys working out at the gym. Its all too Hollywood, too ritzy and too fake for me and I continue on my way without even a stop for a picture.

I finish the night in San Clemente where I enjoy an marvelous Mexican meal at “La Siesta” resuraunt. With a full belly and a worn out body I retire for the evening after quickly posting a couple days of reports.

Tomorow will see me in San Diego to meet one of my riding companions to be, Rob. Monday w will make our way to LA again to pickup Dave an Australian who if flying in, buying a bike and will be joining us on his way to south America.

 

[Mollygrubber]

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This is great, keep em flying Pat. Thanks for the effort, makes me want to start riding today!

 

[Redhed]

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Hey Pat
Great ride report. I am looking forward to your views on "South of the Border". As an Island guy, watching your reports with interest. Can you comment on your notebook system? Are you running Mapsource? Not being very geeky, I am wondering about the availability of wi-fi, compatibility with Garmin products, ability to upload pics to site, time required for reports, and related stuff. Your views would be appreciated.

Thirty years ago, I used to say: "Yo soy canadiaense, no soy gringo", but I still got thrown in jail....
Ride safe

 

[Lonewolf]

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Redhed wrote:

Hey Pat
Great ride report. I am looking forward to your views on "South of the Border". As an Island guy, watching your reports with interest. Can you comment on your notebook system? Are you running Mapsource? Not being very geeky, I am wondering about the availability of wi-fi, compatibility with Garmin products, ability to upload pics to site, time required for reports, and related stuff. Your views would be appreciated.

I'm using an HP netbook (10") and yes i run mapsource on it but I havnt used it for that yet at all. Wifi is available pretty well anywhere, stop at a coffee shop or a fast food place and I can almosty garuntee that you find 3 or 4 netword at least one of which will be open for the taking... In worst case senario's I've stopped outside a motel that advertise's "free wifi" and used their signal.

Pictures are easy, the notebook im using has a slot for the memory card from my camera. I just upload the pictures using Google Picasa and link to them in my reports.

For the most part I keep a daily log of what I do, who I see etc on paper and refer to this in the evenings when I have time to break out the computer and type it up (regardless of Wifi Connectivity) Infact I typed those last two laying in my tent on the California coastline and posted them when I got into town and found some wireless...

 

[Mollygrubber]

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Dammit Pat, I'm in minor withdrawal here - throw us a bone! Hope you're having fun, ride safe out there...

:hb:

Peter

 

[Phoenix]

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How do you charge the battery of the netbook, do you have an on bike charger? Great RR so far:tup:.

Cheers, Alex.