Days 1 and 2: Saturday & Sunday, Oct. 22-23 – Vancouver to Eureka, CA via Albany, OR

OK. Let’s do a quick one. It’s 2:10am in Arcata/CA, but I got waken up by the wind blowing on the tent, wondering if I should put some clothes on and tie the tent down with the 2 extra strings that came with it…

Day 1 – Saturday, Oct.22

So, left Vancouver, BC, Canada on Saturday, around 9:30am, after having delayed 2 days because of necessary paperwork about wills, procurations, etc… the usual stuff when you’re going into some kind of extended travl I guess.

I was worried I might be denied at the border, because I quit my job at the end of last month, but my job was the last thing the border officer was worried about, apparently, and he focused more on my last name, asking if it was German, to which I answered that no, but it was from the east of France, which changed hand a few times in History… guy was in good mood, planning to work on some home repairs on the week-end, and wished me farewell and some sunny weather. Some people sometimes just make your day with a few simple things/comments. So, I headed light-headed toward my destination for the day, Portland, OR.

I had decided to go south fast, so I took the highway. I stopped for a quick sandwich-lunch+latte at Starbucks (ok, blame me, Starbucks-haters!  ) and the usual gas-refills on the way, but other than that the ride was – as expected – mostly highway-boring. Despite pretty heavy-loaded, the bike was behaving well, and I got used to the TKC-80 tires pretty quickly. Not really your highway tires, but they still behave well. Wondering how much distance I’ll put on them.

When looking for KOAs around Portland, I had noticed the one in Albany, OR, which I should have reached around 6pm. Obviously, I hadn’t counted with the several stops, for gas, or to check if I had any message on the ADV forum, the NC700 forum or from my 22 years old daughter, who’s currently traveling around somewhere between Oregon and California. I had noticed she had posted about Salem, OR on Facebook, but also about Arcata, CA so I was totally unsure if I would meet her or not. Anyway, with no news, I reached Albany, OR around 7:30pm, and it was already night when I drove to the KOA.

I expected the KOAs to be a bit more expensive than basic campgrounds, but I liked the fact that even with nobody at the reception anymore, I could still fill a form, pay my due (credit card) and go to a spot with water and electricity, which I wanted to be able to recharge most of my gadgets (gopro, phone, Sena 10C, computer) as well as plug the bike on the battery tender (using the heated grips, the SkeneDesign visibility lights, the GPS, my GPS tracker and the spot one is a good reason for the battery to never re-charge completely I guess…). U$35 for the night was still better than a motel, and possibly a crappy one for that price. 35 bucks is a bit pricey for a plug, some water and a piece of grass, but nothing is free anymore in this world, so, so be it… So I went to mount my tent for the first time ever – I had studied the manual a bit when I bougth the tent, around 2 weeks ago, but had skipped the practice in the yard out of laziness and rainy weather (choose the excuse your prefer) – and it went pretty smoothly despite the fact it was pretty dark. I love this LED ball light I bought at MEC in Vancouver, pretty useful when camping! After that I heted myself some soup, ate a cereal bar and called it a night. In the morning, shower was hot, warmed myself some oatmeal, packed everything okay, strapped everything back to the bike, and off I went. Overall, I’m pretty happy with that KOA campsite and would recommend it. The enjoyable part is, it was pretty empty, and mostly bus, caravans. didn’t see other bikers – didn’t look either, this said.

Day 2: Sunday, Oct. 22

Still not having been able to contact my daughter, I set the destination to the KOA in Arcata, CA and hoping I’d get some news during the day, and possibly change the destination to some other campsite where she was – if ever in a campsite.

Highway ride was as boring as usual… well, some small hills around the highway in Oregon, but nothing really amazing.

I stopped for lunch at MacDo around noon in a small town, Sutherlin, around mile 136 on Highway 5, after getting some gas at a station nearby and… dropping my bike in front of the gas pump. I did a wrong move, the bike started leaning on the right, and in slow motion while I was unsuccessfully holding it, it went down and me together. No harm, nothing broken on me or the bike, and the guy helping at the pump came quickly to help me put the bike up, and 2 other guys helped. In a breeze, bike was up, on its kickstand, and all back to normal, with more scare than scratches – only scratch to attest the epic fail is on the right side case, but I’m glad it was there, because it protected both my leg and the bike. I slipped a dollar note to the guy, thanking him for his help. Not used to give tips to gas station guys anymore since the advent of self-service, but I thought this one was well deserved.

Back on the highway, I was followed by another biker for a few dozens miles or so, on a Suzuki I think that I only saw when the guy passed me and waved back at me just before he left the highway, in Grant Pass. Funny thing is, I left in the same town, probably the next exit, to go west to the coast on the highway 199, after filling my Thermos cup with a grande latte at Starbucks – which reminds me, I still haven’t bought ground coffee.

The 199 was a big and good change, with a lot of enjoyable twisties. I wish I could have stopped, but the fail at the gas station had reminded me that the bike was pretty much super-heavy, and the road sides in the twisty sections were not really safe/stable enough for me to risk another drop on my own. I should have filmed with either the gopro or the helmet cam, but one was full and the other had little battery left… Talk about bad luck, when finally things get interesting!

Came to the coast with no issues other than thinking the road was getting a little wetter and possibly slippy under the trees. Noticed a few Sequoias – I think – on the way, my first in a long while (visited Sequoia park with my parents when I was 8 years old, around… 40 years ago). The coast is beautiful there. I had to stop 2 or 3 times to take a picture, despite seeing the night coming faster than I wished.

I finally had to accelerate a bit, passing the few lagoons there a bit faster than I would have liked, so that I reached the KOA before the night. Came there maybe 15 minutes before the sunset, but my LED-bally friend saved me, again, while installing my tent, which went super-fast this time (probably less than 10 minutes). Already starting to get used to my new routine. Had a Thai soup then installed my mat and sleeping bag and went to sleep. Woke up around 1am because of the wind and here I am.

Plan for Monday: probably Redding, CA or Red Bluff, CA through some twisties, and Tuesday: Reno, NV. That’s unless my daughter gives signs of life, in which case I may stay one more day around here.

Note: it was not as quick as expected: it’s now 3:41am… going back to sleep!