Honda Elysium

California/Oregon Coast and Portland – September 2002

I’ve been meaning to do more traveling close to home, and with my new motorcycle, I’ve now got the perfect excuse for a road trip. In addition, I’ve recently been in contact with several long-lost friends in the Portland area, so I figured a nice ride up the California/Oregon coast was just the ticket. Photos from the trip follow (and my travel-journal can be found here if you’re curious.)

A few trip-facts: I was on the road for about a week. Motorcycle is a 2002 Honda CB750 (Nighthawk), just got it about a month ago. Total miles covered was around 1500 round trip.

I rode up the coast towards Portland on Highways 1 and 101, then took I5 back down.

Click on the images for larger pictures.

First stop was Point Arena. Cozy little town in the beautiful Mendocino area. Had an unbelievably tasty meal of fish and chips for dinner there. nuttin like locally-caught fresh fish.

Here’s a banner I noticed riding through town.

Moooooo. A serene image of cows at daybreak.

Here’s a picture of my next house. Nice view.

I have no idea why I look so irritated in this picture. I wasn’t really, of course. I think I was just squinting to see if my camera was set right.

There’s my baby by the water.

A lot of the most interesting coastal areas were at points where little streams joined the ocean. Fresh water meets salt water. Every such cove/delta/mouth seemed to have it’s own notable little peculiarities.

If I wasn’t riding along a beach, I was often riding along a river. like this one.

Another riverside shot. peaceful.

This was taken near Leggett, CA. Obligatory self half-head pic.

Here I am riding through the cheezeball tourist-trap, god knows what possessed someone to hack a driveway through a perfectly good tree.

This made the drive-through tree detour well worth it. These crazy wild turkeys were all over the place, and they swarmed me as I rode in with my motorcycle. The local ranger told me that the turkeys were just NUTS about motorcycles.

I’m guessing that the engine rumble must sound like some sweet-sexy love song to them. The turkey in front almost stuck his head completely into the engine before I took off. they chased me for as long as they could until I lost them.