~ 1200 miles. 2 days on California highways.
The route:
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Day 1: ~520mi
San Marcos - CA-78 - Oceanside - I-5 - Lost Hills - CA-46 -
Cambria - CA-1 - Santa Cruz - CA - 17 - I-280 - Sunnyvale.
Day 2: ~60mi
A ride on Skyline blvd.
Day 3: ~600mi
Sunnyvale - I-680 - I-580 - I-205 - I-5 - CA-120 - Yosemite - CA-49 - Mariposa - CA-140 - Merced - CA-99 - I-5 - Oceanside - CA-78 - San Marcos.
The nice Stuff -
* Riding through a thick blanket of fog near Tejon pass on I-5. So much fog that I could see little beyond the car in front. It was very pretty later watching the fog rolling down the mountains into the valleys.
* The ride on CA-46 from Lost hills till Cambria. Excellent roads, not much traffic, very pretty countryside, vineyards, ranches, sweeping curves on some sections.
* CA-1. The famous Pacific coast highway! cradled between the mountains and the big blue. Lots and lots of twisties and beautiful views of the Pacific.
* CA-17. Woo. I always loved to do this road in a car and never done on a m/c before. Nice fast curves.
* Skyline blvd ride with Joy Dutta. Nice motorcycle roads and scenic hills.
* Joy dutta's chicken curry. Reading Proficient and More proficient motorcycling books at his place.
* The ride on the foothills of Sierra Nevada on CA-49. Sweeping curves and twisties on some sections. The beautiful little towns on the way makes me want to stay there forever.
* Watching a beautiful sunset in Santa cruz. There were no clouds and the sky was golden. I love the metallic blue hues in the pacific after the sun has gone down.
* I've never seen anything like this before - On the return trip, I stopped in pitch darkness in-front of the ocean. The sky was lit with a million tiny sparkling lights. The rising moon had cast a veil of light over the rippling waters of the pacific.. and the ocean was calm like a big lake. It was magical.
* Riding a big highway (I-5 in this case) in the night and while the road goes up an elevation and while there is enough space between me and the cars behind me - looking at the rear view mirror, there are lots of these headlights all coming up behind me trying to catch me and I feel like being in a video game and I grin and ride faster trying not to be caught and to prolong the feeling. silly, I know..
Risky stuff -
* Riding CA-1 was dangerous, although fun, considering the amount of gravel on some curves, bad road conditions, the hard turns on the cliffs jutting into the sea and the crosswind surprises. I wouldn't even think of riding this after dusk. There was a section which said - bad road conditions ahead. Luckily, I slow down a little and a after a turn, there was no road! A whole section was only gravel. I survived considering how much ST hates gravel. To add to the fun, this sudden thought popped out of nowhere into my mind - "For the one that is born, death is a certainty." - Words from the Lord himself to Arjuna in Bhagavad Gita. No matter how hard I try to ignore this thought, this kept coming back with vigor. Needless to say, I got a little worried about this ominous message. "Negative attachments, Richard. If you really want to remove a cloud from your life, you do not make a big production out of it, you just relax and remove it from your thinking. That's all there is to it." - Illusions. Ah.. those blessed masters of the mind.
* CA-17 was thrilling although risky. I guess for some people, the more the risk, the more the danger.. the more the thrill. Unfortunately, I too have a share of those moments. Riding those fast curves on the faster lane in darkness with this huge concrete divider right next to me and with the feeble headlight of the ST along with the blinding headlights of the oncoming traffic was .. hmm.. thrilling then, scary now.
Stuff I wouldn't want to go through again -
Forever sluggish evening traffic on I-5 in and around LA area and the maniac drivers of LA. There was an 18 wheeler who changed his mind about taking an exit and crossed the double yellow and some section where there is no road straight into the freeway at an angle of 45 degrees and got stuck blocking the traffic behind him... right in-front of me. It is crazy, but people are changing lanes to get in-front, trying to reach exits from left most lanes all the while doing 20 miles over the speed limit of 70. And add about 5 lanes of traffic to that. whew! Why talk about car guys, there was this motorcycle guy wearing a sweatshirt, sneakers, his pants flapping while doing about 90 mph or more and riding split lane in between those cars that were trying to move from one lane to the other. It was all a blur thinking about it now.
Some pics..
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