After a while we reached Hwy 101, which follows the Pacific coast. We stopped at Patrick's Point State Park and set up camp.
There's really nothing like a good campfire. It turns a crappy day into a good day and a good day into a perfect day. This is why one of the first things we do when we arrive at a campsite is to build a fire. We switched to drinking wine at our campsites because it's easier to carry than beer, and I'm not a big fan of liquor. Plus, northern Cali has some great wineries.
In the morning we continued north along the coast, with some great views of the ocean. We reached the redwood forest, and with the help of a park ranger we found a nice, one-lane dirt road that took us through a forest of the biggest trees I've ever seen.
We stopped at one point for a short hike into the woods, then jumped back on the motorcycles and rode inland on route 199 to Crater Lake in Oregon, where the gas prices finally dropped a little.
We didn't realize Crater Lake was at such a high elevation, so we weren't expecting it to get as cold as it did. There were walls of snow on the sides of the road over 5 feet tall, and when we got to the lake, we learned that the road through the park was still closed so we'd have to go back the way we came. It was getting late in the day and we still needed to find a campsite, so we took some quick pictures at the top and headed back down.
I was standing on who knows how much snow, next to the tops of pine trees that were poking through. Didn't really feel safe.
We rode for a while and found a cool little recreation area in the middle of nowhere. There were some other campers, but lots of space in between each other. There was lots of dry firewood lying around too. After dinner I sat, watching the stars and I thought to myself:
"A campfire, ramen noodles, $6 bottle of Californian wine, 3,000 miles behind me and 10,000 ahead of me... what more could I ask for?
Perhaps 10,000 behind me and only 3,000 ahead?
No... this is much better."
The next day we had a chilly ride through some nice Oregon countryside. Lots of green hills and pastures. We went through Bend and Salem, then back to the coast on 101 where it stayed overcast the rest of the day. We camped on the coast just a little south of Astoria. The morning was just as cold, and it started raining when we got on the road. We stopped in Astoria for a bite to eat where the waitress told us this weather would continue for the next few days along the coast. We looked at the map and decided to head back inland and across some mountains where it should be drier. So we headed east and soon got out from under the storm where it dried out a little.
A Lighthouse Tour in Southern Maine
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There's really nothing like a good campfire. It turns a crappy day into a good day and a good day into a perfect day. This is why one of the first things we do when we arrive at a campsite is to build a fire. We switched to drinking wine at our campsites because it's easier to carry than beer, and I'm not a big fan of liquor. Plus, northern Cali has some great wineries.
