MotoWolff

October 2023

For the past few years this has been an annual migration of sorts for me. To take a motorcycle down to SoCal where we have a place to leave a bike, and then when we visit in winter I have a bike to ride. The weather is often good for riding there in every month of the year and when the dark and wet winter of the PNW get to be too much we can escape to the sun!

This is typically a three day trip with full riding days, but this year I am doing it a little later in the year and days in October are a bit shorter. That means earlier starts and riding until dark each day.

My preferred route is just to ride down the coast which is how my riding partner Lynn and I start this ride. Hwy 101 down the Oregon Coast to our first overnight stop in Fortuna is quite familiar to us. We had a late lunch at the “Crazy Norwegian” in Port Orford and enjoyed fine weather for much of the day.

On the second day we took the time to drive through Redwood National Park on the Avenue of Giants which is always remarkable! Further south we joined Hwy 1 and regained our ocean views. The Pacific Coast Hwy stays right on the water almost the entire way down but the route is currently closed south of Monterey for the rest of the year due to storm damage. This forces us to our next overnight in Hollister which is the access point for another remarkable road, Hwy 25.

Departing Hollister on Hwy 25 leads to about 75 miles of good pavement, mixed twisties and sweepers and zero traffic or services. It parallels the San Andreas fault for much of it’s length and gives us access to the east side of Pinnacles National Park, one of the newer units in the NPS.

Next stop is Paso Robles where we gas up and get a snack but also find time to vist a local vineyard for a photo stop. For the rest of this longish day we jump back Hwy 101 which stays near the coast which is much cooler that further inland. You wouldn’t think that heat would be a problem in October but this year it was!

The last leg of the trip brought us to the end of the fun and the beginning of the freeways. Lynn and I stayed together until traffic made it too difficult, then Lynn went on to his destination and me to mine.

1300 miles were travelled on this trip .