Dispatch 5 - Onwards to San Francisco

electrical storms and hailstones

The ride from Bozeman, Monatana to San Francisco has been the motorcycling highlight of the trip. We'd had a nice time enjoying the relative sophistication of Bozeman and Kitty had even found a yoga class to go to. Interestingly both days we spent there ended with electrical storms and the second one produced hailstones as big as marbles. So strange after such hot sunny days.

After leaving Bozeman, Pirsig cranked up the days and seldom seemed to rest, which was a bit of a pain for us. The first day was cold and intermittently wet, which made it a hard one, so much so that we decided not to camp out on a logging road like they did but to treat ourselves to a cabin at the nearby Lolo Pass hot springs...well that was the plan, Stan.

There were no vacancies so up went the tents again. Kitty was still complaining about sharing with the 'hairy, snoring mammoth'. She has not yet decided on which end is worse to be near. She has tried topping and tailing...and she has tried heads together but doesn't like the rumbling nocturnal emissions from either end. Myles has offered to share his tent but the thought of our hirsute bodies touching in the night and sticking like Velcro is all too much for me.

A magnificent day's riding

Lolo Pass was a nice but freezing cold interlude. We shared a few laughs and beers with Lyle (old R90/6) and Trooper from Red Lodge (Trooper had seen our bikes there) and another BMW guy from Montana. A slight frost told us how cold it was in the night, as if we needed telling. The cold inspired a slow start after pancakes at the local diner.

A magnificent day's riding followed through alpine passes and along twisty river valleys. We'd come around the top of the Rockies and now we were to cut through the Bitter Root Mountains. Early on a sign proclaimed 'winding road 77 miles'...that's about 130 kms of twisties... woohooo! But what they should have said was simply 'winding road for two days'. I have ridden over 50 countries and Route 12 from Montana into Idaho and across, rates with the absolute best. We soared with eagles so to speak and plunged down descents that have huge sand traps set up as truck run-offs every couple of miles. We rode through spectacular canyons below shear bluffs. The scenery was stunning, the grin-factor almost off the scale even if the days were long. Pirsig was pushing hard for San Francisco.

bears and rattle snakes

We camped where they camped and again were reminded of the potential dangers when we were told in Brownlee camp that a man had come across a bear just up the track. So that is rattle snakes in three places and bears in two...and we've seen nothing. Idaho had been a fun ride and we were amused to read their number plate slogan, Montana is the Big Sky State, North Dakota has the Peace Garden, Illinois is the Home of Lincoln, Minnesota is the 10,000 lakes state... and Idaho...Famous potatoes, That is what is on their number plates...bizarre!

We'd also been amused to find that one of the groups taking responsibility for keeping the roadside clean was the Yarweh 666 warning community. We don't know if these groups actually go out and pick up the rubbish or just fund it...we've never seen anyone doing the clean-up. I noticed a new-age Christian group and a Catholic parish both needed to get out there and do a clean up of their bit. Later in California we saw a Norton Owners' group had claimed a piece of the action, good on them.

Pancakes and officialdom

One of our day's ended so late we got caught by the light and the Honda headlight now doesn't work on either beam and nor does the BMW's. This left us in Bend, Oregon and on roads that now had a lot of traffic. Pirsig mentioned it nearly 40 years ago and the same applied today. We went to a beautiful resort called Diamond Lake for yet another pancake breakfast, relishing the sunshine after a crisp start.

A lot of our riding has been up and over passes more than a mile above sea level and the air can be cold. At Diamond Lake I suggested a shortcut which did mean leaving the Zen route for a couple of hours but it would make the day a bit shorter. There were no dissenting votes because were now riding on straight roads through dull forestry.

This day we finally had an encounter with officialdom as Floyd the Policeman noticed that we weren't riding with our lights on which is man-date-tory in Oregon. This led us to get sealed beam units for the bikes, neither of which fitted but with generous applications of duct tape we soon had two bikes with lights enabling us to leave Indian Mary's camp and go out in the evening for a Chinese meal in Grants Pass after which Kitty and I went to a music festival in the park where a reggae band from Hawaii were the headline act.

Aptly they included the standard '96 degrees in the shade'. That was probably the evening temperature as it had been 99 when we rode through town in the late afternoon. A good night was had watching the young frolicking in the park with their kids.

We liked Grants Pass and made another decision to let Pirsig run on ahead to the bright lights, we were still one day ahead of our schedule so decided to spread the ride over 3 days not 2. Surprisingly the Grants Pass library was shut so no emails were sent from there and we noted that it only had 3 part-days open each week. Elsewhere, even small communities had libraries open 7 days...disappointing and I hope the locals demand more.

among nature's giants

In a reasonably benign 88 degrees heat we headed for the coast knowing we would drop a few thousand feet to sea level in just one afternoon. Lightly clad in the expectation that the day would get even hotter, we were in for a huge surprise as the ride got colder and colder. On went warm clothes, in went hot coffee. The ride was spectacular, introducing us to riding among nature's giants, the Redwoods...but it is hard to be wondrous when you are freezing.

The coast was bitterly cold and although we should have been euphoric at finally seeing our Pacific again, we just wanted warmth, shelter and food. We aimed for a camp down the coast a bit which had been recommended to us, but our resolve withered and we succumbed to an earlier opportunity. We camped among a stand of spruce trees at a beach which would have been idyllic if the freezing fog wasn't present. We were to learn that this was quite normal for this time of year.

More lonely back roads

Another cold day followed as we meandered down the North Californian coast. Once the road split away from the 101 Highway we were again on lonely back roads. The going was slow because of the winding nature of the ride. We paused and rode through the redwood at Leggett that features in popular photos. Cars and vans can drive through but the RVs don't fit. Very impressive. This was probably the spot where Chris morosely fed the ducks before being told that he was he was going to be sent home.

Miss Fire

That night we stayed in a KOA camp and while Myles investigated a miss-fire on the bike, Kitty and I went to the local village Point Arena to do the emails and have something to eat. What a neat little settlement, very bohemian with an organic shop and cafe that had good vegetarian options. So this is Califiornia.

Mowers and British motorbikes

On our final day, we left the coast and its fog banks to go back into the sunshine. At a small town called Guerneville, Myles found a mower shop that also specialised in British motorbikes. There was a good line-up inside that included a racing BSA Goldstar, a couple of M20 sidevalve plodders and several Triumph twins. The proprietor gave Myles a coil and ht lead. This would be fitted later in SF and the annoying stutter that had developed was instantly cured.

Riding into this iconic US city was quite an experience. Highway 101 takes you across the Golden Gate Bridge and it just suddenly appears before you and then you are on the massive high structure with the supports towering above you, disappearing into the fog that enshrouds SF for long periods in the summer.

Our GPS was activated and the final point of our long ride was soon found. The Zen Centre was just the right place to finish. We were welcomed and given tea and left to look around and gather our thoughts in an ante-room. They told us that they have Chris Pirsig's ashes and that he was killed only a couple of blocks away. For us he had been the hero of the journey, not even 12 years old and handling his father's deteriorating mental state.

stress-free

It has been an interesting time on the road, seeing what was seen 40 years earlier, going through small towns that hadn't changed in that time. Our gratitude towards Robert Pirsig is centred on his choice of route. He deliberately went the back roads in 1968 and we are so glad he did. These are still the back roads and for that reason we have had a mainly stress-free ride across the US. At a steady 60 MPH we are slow on the bigger roads and the traffic is intense on them. When we have been forced onto those roads and up to higher speeds, we never felt comfortable... we wonder if you ever do on a 10 lane highway as part of a high speed freight train.

magnificent bikes and home

Overall the bikes were magnificent needing so little attention in just under 5,000 miles (8,000 kms) that it is a credit to them…remember they are 41 years old. Whilst the BMW will be making its way home to NZ the Honda has found a new Californian owner, Karen, whose boyfriend has a BMW just like mine, so the Zen ride continues.

The team was also great with a good balance of youthful naivety (me), sombre experience (Kitty) and mindless enthusiasm...hang on, I might not have all that quite right...still the dynamics were pretty damn good. We all have strong memories of what has been a special adventure. Hopefully Kitty's filming will some day produce a moving record of all that transpired, Sturgis and all.

I am just half an hour from Auckland, having finally managed a flight without spilling food on myself whilst also managing to get some sleep, but just one last musing. How do those really large people wipe their bum in those toilet cubicles?

Des...par avion, work tomorrow.