Bucket List ride

[the Ferret]

About a year ago when I retired, a riding buddy of mine Jim who had also just retired, asked me if I was interested on joining him on a "bucket list" ride down Rt 66. I said I had no real desire to ride 66 but did have a dream about riding the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) in California and dipping a toe in the Pacific Ocean. I proposed joining him on his dream ride down 66 if he continued on and rode with me on my dream ride to the PCH. Plans were made. We would take off June 1 this year and return whenever...... I would be riding my Honda ST 1300 and Jim a Suzuki Vstrom 1000.

Well, we made it home safe and sound. It was a great trip. I accomplished my goal of dipping a toe in the Pacific Ocean. The trip ended up taking 11 days. We went through 14 different states (5 states twice). Total ride distance was 5,424 miles for me, a few more for Jim who lives in Columbus, Ohio. This is a huge country! Highlights? …. Rt 66 from St Louis, Mo to Barstow Ca, Pacific Coast Highway, elephant seals, Big Sur, giant red woods, Monterey Beach, Pikes Peak, snow, Bonneville Salt Flats, Donner Pass, hardwoods, prairies, deserts and mountains and missing a slew of Tornados. Took over 1300 pictures (mostly on the fly with one hand..."ferret style") Except for a two afternoons of rain, the weather was great. Lowest temp was 30 degrees at mile 13 on Pikes Peak, highest temp was 100 in between San Jose and Sacramento, California. Both bikes ran perfectly. Jim lubed the chain on his Suzuki 1000 V strom everyday, but it never even needed adjusting. We both averaged 50 mpg. Lots of saddle time. We averaged 493 miles per day. Shortest day was 336 miles on day 9. Longest was 569 on day 3. Hard to say best part, it was all pretty cool.. either PCH from San Luis Obispo to Santa Cruz or Pike’s Peak. Worst part is easy … traffic jams in California (in excruciating heat) and near Denver (in a thunderstorm).

I picked out 40 pics that may show some of the flavor of the trip. Will post up a few at a time, so if interested please keep checking back. Here we go

Leaving my driveway for the trip at 6 AM on June 1



rolling thru New Mexico

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Road Kill Café old Rt 66 in Arizona

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Arizona

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California

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Cali desert

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Jim following on Rt 58 between Bakersfield Cali and San Luis Obispo Cali

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Elephant seals on PHC north of San Luis

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Big Creek bridge on PCH (in background center of pic)

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Big Sur on PCH

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[redbirds_imp]

Great shots Mickey. More please.

 

[the Ferret]

Pacific Coast Highway Rt 1 California (Spectacular road BTW)



a dream fulfilled the Pacific Ocean..Monterey Beach, California

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Filtering in Cali (notice biker to left of Jim)

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Headed to Colorado

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Donner Summit (famous for Donner Pass debacle)

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Nevada

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Utah Bonneville Salt Flats

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reasonable speed limits lol (unlike the snow on the side of the roads in the Colorado mountains, this white stuff is dried salt bed in Utah)

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[CIP57_imp]

Mickey,

That's a hell of a long trip, not sure i could handle 11 days 5400mi or even want to attempt it!!! Good for you striking one off the list.

 

[the Ferret]

Arizona





Wyoming

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Straight road in Wyoming

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out running storm in Wyoming

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Denver traffic jam

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Pikes Peak Colorado

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Colorado

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Gust of wind pushing Jim to roads edge on 24 in Colorado
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Western Kansas

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Mickey,

That's a hell of a long trip, not sure i could handle 11 days 5400mi or even want to attempt it!!! Good for you striking one off the list.

Riding doesn't bother me much, I have always been able to ride long distance. My wife can ride long days as well. Our record is 942 miles in a day which only ended because my wife and I arrived home from Florida, straight shot through 17 hours lol

An hour after getting home from this trip, I rode out to meet my wife for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Another 15 miles after just doing 550 lol

 

[ThomWill_imp]

You have made me heartsick for the road, Sir. My coast to coast ride in 2011 is still major life highlight and I have been fortunate to be on some awesome week and two week long jaunts. Well done!

 

[the Ferret]

Here's more

Jim relaxing



Riding in a light misty rain in Missouri

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Jim splitting off in Indianapolis heading north on way home while I head west

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just after Jim and I split in Indy the skies opened up again

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a little over 100 miles from home

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Headed to my home town

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Might make it home before the rain

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Coming down my road, a few hundred yards to go
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home at last

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our route (hard to see sorry but it's the yellow marked route)

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Waypoints for those that like to follow along on google,
starting in Cincinnati Ohio
Indianapolis Indiana
St Louis Missouri
Oklahoma City Oklahoma
Amarillo Texas
Albuquerque New Mexico
Kingman Arizona
Barstow California
Bakersfield California
St Luis Obispo California
Santa Cruz California
Sacramento California
Reno Nevada
Salt Lake City Utah
Laramie Wyoming
Colorado Springs Colorado
Kansas City Kansas
St Louis Missouri
Indianapolis Indiana
Cincinnati Ohio

 

[Elipten_imp]

Did you camp, motel, or crash at friends houses?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[flynrider]

Sounds like a great trip, Ferret. I'm looking forward to seeing the pics when I get home (they're filtered out here at work).

I need to find people like you to ride with. I took my flying buddies (who also ride bikes) on a 3,500 mile / 9 day ride to the northern Rockies a few years back and all I got were complaints about having to ride so much :huh:/ The whole point of these trips is to ride and see stuff.

I did the PCH years ago at the tail end of a 6 week road trip (I was between jobs). The views were pretty impressive, but I also remember the traffic jams. I got stuck in both San Francisco and L.A. rush hours on the same day.

Welcome back! :excited:

 

[the Ferret]

Elipten..we moteled it..mostly Holiday Inn Expresses, but one Microtell in Salt Lake City, a Super 8 in Longmont Colroado, and a Holiday Inn in Reno Nevada that I can recall.

Flynrider.. we were in traffic Jams from Santa Cruz thru San Jose to Sacremento. Horrible horrible horrible.Bumper to bumper stop and go for hours. Between the traffic jams and the heat, it seemed to us to be a terrible place to live. Could not put up with either. I can see why Cali bikers lane split. Otherwise, you just sit and bake.

Jim said it best on the way home... "the more I travel, the more I like living where I do"

 

[Cormanus]

Fantastic Ferret. Congratulations on a great ride. Thanks for the pics. The USA is a big country. So too is this place, but that makes them pretty interesting places to live.

 

[kevbroce_imp]

Elipten..we moteled it..mostly Holiday Inn Expresses, but one Microtell in Salt Lake City, a Super 8 in Longmont Colroado, and a Holiday Inn in Reno Nevada that I can recall.

Flynrider.. we were in traffic Jams from Santa Cruz thru San Jose to Sacremento. Horrible horrible horrible.Bumper to bumper stop and go for hours. Between the traffic jams and the heat, it seemed to us to be a terrible place to live. Could not put up with either. I can see why Cali bikers lane split. Otherwise, you just sit and bake.

Jim said it best on the way home... "the more I travel, the more I like living where I do"

I have a short commute but not owning a car, ride in almost traffic every day. I don't think I could stand living in LA with a car, I imagine I'd feel the same in the Bay Area. If your not going to lane split, I'd plan on avoiding commute hours, especially in the summer time. What should be a 30 minute ride can ture into 3 hours...

 

[Elipten_imp]

Lived in 1996 in Mountain View CA between San Jose and San Fran. We went on the 4th of July to Reno to visit friends. Left early so I thought to beat the traffic. It was bumper to bumper from the stateline. Took over 14 hrs at a crawl. At that point my wife and I set a goal to get out of CA. Beautiful place but all screwed up in many ways. I'll go to ride and avoid the cities.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Greg_imp]

Fantastic, thanks for sharing your trip.

I've been all over this country, including the places you visited. I even rode Highway 1 between San Francisco and LA on a bicycle, and the Oregon coast the next year.

This country is awesome; I never tire of seeing the mind bending variety and landscapes. I'm so jealous of you experiencing it on a motorcycle.

Thank you!

 

[emptysea]

Great ride. Great report. Great photos. I guess I'm a combo of you and Jim because I want to ride 66 AND PCH. What a great adventure.

 

[the Ferret]

Fantastic Ferret. Congratulations on a great ride. Thanks for the pics. The USA is a big country. So too is this place, but that makes them pretty interesting places to live.

Yea, big countries provide lots of opportunities for adventures. This country is so huge, it's hard to fathom, so many eco systems. very cool. Problem is it is so big it's impossible to see everything in one's lifetime. All one can do is highlight.

I read people say they avoid freeways and only ride back roads, if we had done that, this trip would have taken a year lol

 

[ThomWill_imp]

Actually it can be done in 18 days (Savannah to San Fran and back) avoiding the interstates and sticking to the U.S. numbered routes. :-D

 

[Rick Froscheiser_imp]

Great report and pictures! Glad to hear everything went well on your trip. Thanks for sharing.

 

[the Ferret]

Actually it can be done in 18 days (Savannah to San Fran and back) avoiding the interstates and sticking to the U.S. numbered routes. :-D

Really? Do you get to sleep at any time? Lol. That just doesn't seem feasible. We rode hard every day. Can't imagine being able to do that going thru a bunch of small towns and stuff. Wow.


Greg, I know people do it, and we saw people riding PCH on bicycles, but man it seems like such a S L O W way to get anywhere.

Maybe I am just too impatient lol

 

[Ridem32_imp]

Nice ride! We took a 5k mile trip a few years back left in may got back June 1st. I think 10 days. We had no time or no place to be just rode. We went to four corners! That was neat to me 4 states meet in one place. My next trip I will take on my CB ole style everyone who loves bikes should take a road trip with no plans and not worry about time just ride and enjoy . Very nice pics. That's a ride you will remember forever