Eureka CA – Castle Rock WA
Sat June 22, 2019
(~826 miles)

I had to get up after just three hours of sleep, but the weather looked great, and I felt excited for some more riding in northern California today. I packed up and got fuel at the nearby station to end my rest bonus, then headed south for the Lost Coast. This is the most wild and unpopulated section of coastline in California, with only a couple winding roads (certainly qualifying as “less traveled”) leading in to it. Exiting US-101 onto CA-211, I passed through the still-sleeping village of Ferndale and picked up Mattole Road.

Very soon, I became extremely glad I hadn’t attempted this road overnight. This was probably the worst paved road for motorcycling I’ve been on to date. Despite lots of twists, turns and beautiful countryside scenery, the condition of the asphalt is very poor and the road is not banked well, with deep ditches alongside just waiting for an inattentive rider to swerve incorrectly or misjudge a turn. There were a couple 200 foot stretches of gravel on steep portions of the road that required my complete attention, as well as open range land with free roaming cows munching grass right alongside the roadway. I’d been chatting with Char and others by phone, but lost the signal after several miles toward the coast.

Luckily, Garmin seemed to know that the speed limit on this road was pretty low. My ETA didn’t change too much on the way out to the coast, though I still lost time. It was slow going, but a cool adventure on a beautiful morning, and of course barely any other vehicles on the road. The first views down to the ocean were magnificent.

The bumpy twisty lane gave way to a decent roadway once down by the water, and I covered the several miles quickly into the small village of Petrolia. Then I turned onto Lighthouse Road, which was a few miles of very loose gravel road with major potholes hiding in the tree shadows. Emerging at last in a parking area among the dunes, I captured the photo of the campground sign for the LOST bonus. And no I didn’t see any lighthouses. 🙁

I retraced my route all the way back out to Ferndale, which seemed a bit easier, now that I had been over the road once. I’d gotten perhaps halfway back, when I came upon a pickup truck stopped in the road and two men struggling with a motorcycle in the ditch on the other side of the road. I could see it was another rally rider and had to go another 200 feet or so to find a spot level enough to stop and park the bike in gear, then walked back up the hill to lend a hand. There was still no cell service this far out.

I greeted the rider and confirmed he was not injured, while assessing the situation. The Harley cruiser was only just off the road and tipped over towards it, leaning uphill thank goodness. It took all three of us tugging and pulling to steer the front fork and roll the bike back and over the hard lip of the road and onto pavement again. We rested a minute and then the rider was able to start the bike and move her up the hill to a more level spot.

I told him that the road only got worse and recommended that he consider turning around, especially in light of the mishap and style of bike he was riding. He seemed to agree when the local backed up my comments. I ensured he was OK to continue and thanked the local guy for stopping to assist a rider in need. All told, I think I lost about 10-15 minutes, but there had never been a question about stopping to help.

I made it back out to US-101 without further delay and headed back north through Eureka and onto CA-299 again. I enjoyed more great NorCal riding out to CA-96 and north along the Trinity River, making good time to Somes Bar. Here I turned onto Salmon River Road, a unique road that follows the Salmon River very closely through Klamath National Forest many miles in to the remote community of Forks of Salmon.

The road narrowed to one lane for a good many miles, winding up on the side of the cliffs above the water with no guardrails and plenty of blind corners. The scenery over the river was gorgeous, but rockslide signs kept me on the alert for rocks in the road, which were in fact a real concern. Unfortunately, the Garmin database speed limit didn’t match reality here and I watched my ETA grow further away as I carefully piloted the bike to the river confluence and tiny Post Office in Forks of Salmon, a beautiful bit of paradise tucked away in the mountains.

After documenting the bonus, I took a few minutes for a snack. I looked carefully at the GPS to determine the most efficient route out to the highway. The lady working in the post office came out and I complimented her choice of working/living locations, which she seemed to appreciate. I told her I was headed north to Crater Lake in Oregon and asked which road was the best to take.

I had planned to go back west to CA-96 to get to better/faster pavement ASAP. She said that was the quickest way to the highway, but that the road to Etna was the best condition road into town and would take me up over a 6000 foot pass that was worth a photo as well. That information seemed to agree with what Basecamp had wanted me to do and seemed more direct to I-5 overall, so I proceeded east on Sawyers Bar Road.

It was a bit better than the road in, but not by much. The scenery was equally spectacular, though I focused more on riding myself safely out of the Klamath NF without dropping over the edge into the river. I was steadily gaining in elevation and away from the rivers. At one point, painted lines reappeared on the newer paved surface as I neared the pass. I saw a few buses parked in pull-offs to the side of the road with several hikers milling about (Pacific Crest Trail crossing, I think), and stopped to look back over the mountains and valleys I’d just come through.

I descended the other side of the pass carefully through several twisties and hairpins, despite the good pavement, because many of the turns had loose gravel and some bad tar snakes. I picked up CA-3 again in Etna and enjoyed faster flatter roads out to Yreka on I-5, where I stopped to refuel.

After crossing the state border, I picked up OR-62 in Medford, and followed it all the way to Crater Lake National Park. I was pretty thrilled that I wasn’t going to miss out on seeing the lake after all! I used my NP Annual Pass for the second time this rally to gain entrance to the park and proceeded up the forested road and tight curves that ascended to the crest of the crater.

Upon reaching the first parking lot, I pulled into the first empty spot I saw, not quite realizing the lay of the land. I grabbed my rally stuff and began walking to the waypoint beyond the visitor lodge buildings, then realized it was a quarter mile away and I could continue riding my bike up the rim road and further towards the bonus.  I jogged back to the bike and continued through the lots until I was as close as possible to the waypoint, near a smaller park building, with a ranger-led group of kids standing for a presentation. I peeked inside the building but it seemed more like a gift shop than observation station and there was no plaque.

The ranger had paused in her presentation and I quickly interrupted, apologizing, asking where the observation station was. Looking a bit rankled, as though she’d been asked the question several times already, she said it was closed due to ice on the trail. She pointed over in the direction of the building, just barely visible down the slope.

I took a few seconds to think about this news. Obviously, the trail has been closed for a while and there must be no other way to reach the plaque or she would have mentioned it. Other riders would have faced the same dilemma, so I simply needed a photo of the “Trail Closed” sign, plus some sort of proof of the time I was here, to show I was within the bonus parameters of 0800 – 1700. I went back to the bike for my GPS and took a few photos to document everything properly.

I completed my documentation and got back on the bike, then pulled over one last time, where the driveway got close to the rim, so I could take in the view for a moment. After all, I’d been wanting to come here for years and couldn’t leave without a quick gander…and oh, it did not disappoint!

Garmin led me back down the rim towards Route 62, and I didn’t question it until it tried to have me take a left on 62, which would lead me south for a while before picking up US-97 north. I zoomed out and realized that I really should have taken the turn to go out the North Entrance of the park, assuming it was open. However, instead of re-entering the park again, I made a (bad) judgement call, turned right and took routes 230 to 138 to US-97, circling most of the way around the park.

At some point, I had gotten news that my buddy Ken had a minor accident on his way through the Yukon to Alaska. Thankfully, he was doing OK, but there had been some concern about damage to his bike. We hadn’t been able to talk much since the checkpoint due to poor cell service in the regions we were exploring. I was concerned, but knew he’d figure a way to keep going if anyone could.

A short 10 miles on US-97 led me to OR-58, which I followed briskly northwest through Willamette National Forest to I-5 near Eugene. My next planned bonus, APE, was daylight only, even though the bonus photo was to be taken inside a cave (?!). With a horrible sinking feeling, I realized I was likely not going to make it. But that wasn’t going to stop me from trying…there were really no other bonuses until I got up across the border. Plus, I thought I’d be able to at least grab the Mount St. Helens bonus, WINDY, which I had marked as available anytime.

Sunset arrived and I still turned east onto WA-503, hoping against hope that I would be able to get the 30 miles to the bonus location with light still visible in the sky. Alas, it was not to be, and complete darkness enveloped me as I was still several miles from the Ape Cave system. I kept going and rode the well-graded gravel lane to the parking lot under complete darkness, an owl swooping in through my light beams for something it had spied near the road. Yes, it was a bit spooky!

I got off the bike for a stretch and nature break, and there were still people coming from the direction of the caves with flashlights…probably folks staying in a nearby campground, I thought. Having missed the bonus window, I turned my attention to the next one, WINDY, just a few miles north.

Re-reading the bonus description, it became clear to me that I had misread the bonus availability and picture requirements, thinking only the sign needed to be in the photo and therefore it was 24 hours. Unfortunately, I needed the mountain itself to be seen and availability was listed as “Daylight”. Too bad, so sad…you just rode 60 miles (because now you have to go back out to I-5) for absolutely zilch. Now that I thought about it, I should have skipped Crater Lake entirely and rode directly for these two bonuses, which totaled about twice what CLAKE was worth.

I really had to laugh at myself, while wincing at the disaster this little mini-leg was turning out to be. What the hell was I doing? Certainly finding multiple ways to piss away the Leg 1 lead, that’s for sure! I double-checked my ETA for the ferry terminal at Horseshoe Bay. My ferry cushion had shrunk from 1:20 to about an hour, but that was OK, I just wouldn’t be able to get any extra sleep at the terminal like I had planned. I decided I’d better get moving  so I carefully made my way back down the mountain roads to the Route 503 Spur and retraced my path west to the interstate.

I rode north for 30 miles or so on I-5 before I felt the weariness hit me. I needed a nap and it couldn’t wait. I had some 250 miles to go and would be traversing the Seattle area overnight, so I knew I could make up a bit of time. I spotted a rest area north of Castle Rock WA, with a nice covered picnic table off by itself. I checked in to the Iron Butt Hotel for 40 minutes of dreamless sleep.