Stage 5, Part B

Ok, here's the second part of Stage 5. We leave Golden Beach, OR and head north on the Oregon side of the Pacific Coast Highway. We will pass by Cape Blanco Lighhouse, Coos Bay, and Dunes City. They say this section of the PCH is one of the best. We keep heading north until we reach Oretown, and then start heading inland towards Portland. Once we reach Portland, we head east on the Historic Columbia River Highway--they say this road is amazing. We then cross the Columbia river and head north at Carson. This next section will be challenging, since we will be covering lots of gravel roads. Some of our riders are still not too comfortable with gravel roads, so we'll have to be careful. Next, we pass in between Mt. Saint Helens and Mt. Adams (this section should have some of the best scenery of the trip).
We'll head north towards Packwood and then reach the skirts of Mt. Rainier, one of the iconic places of the amazing Northwest.  After that, it's pretty much a strait shot to Seattle, where we will conclude the trip.

I can't wait for this amazing adventure. Only 5 weeks to go... 

Stage 5, Section 1 (Starts Aug. 10th, 2015)

If you were wondering what our next adventure was going to be, here's the TomTom Map of the route I created for Stage 5, section 1. I've split Stage 5 into two sections, A and B. On this map you see the first part of the trip. We will be leaving San Francisco on August 10th and will conclude the stage in Seattle on August 17th; I can't wait!!!
If you look at the map we will leave San Francisco and head to one of this country's best national parks; Yellowstone National Park. We will spend the night there and then head towards Lake Tahoe. From the Lake Tahoe area we will head west, on some incredible road, towards Auburn. Once we reach Auburn, we will head to Sacramento and then head north to Red Bluff. After that, we will head northwest until we reach the Pacific Coast Highway on the Oregon side.
If you know of any good places I could visit please make a comment on this blog post.

Day 3, Stage 4--TwentyNine Palms to San Bernadino, CA.

Well, no trip is complete without a flat tire :) A thorn punctured Aradio's front tire. Aradio and I woke up early to fix the bike, so that we could get on the road around 10am. We had all the tools and all the parts, what we lacked was patience (we would soon learn this the hard way). It took me about an 1 hour to remove the tire and replace the front tube. As soon as we inflated the tire, we realized that we had punctured the brand new tube!!! That sucks! We had to replace the tire tube again! Changing the  tube is not rocket science, but it's sure rough on the fingers and hands (ouch!). We finally finished around 12:30pm and got on the road. We headed towards the San Bernadino Mountains (Big Bear Lake).  

I took this picture riding Burns Canyon Rd. heading to Big Bear Lake. This scenic dry desert road, with all its Joshua trees, is just beautiful (this is adventure motorcycling at its best). All four of us were in a bad mood from the delay of the punctured front tire, but this incredible road got everyone in a good mood quickly. Every motorcycle enthusiasts is in search for the "perfect road." It's one of the reasons we ride so much. Well, this might not be the perfect road, but it's darn close.

 I love this road sign. The back road to Big Bear Lake.

We really did ride far up into the mountains. Look at the snow, the temperature was dropping quickly as we continued climbing up the mountains. Fernando's bike is on the ground because as he attempted to pass me his left side case hit my right side case which projected him and his bike towards the mountain road's cliff. It was a scary moment. He's lucky he didn't get hurt.

 This picture shows the road going down to Big Bear Lake (road 2N02). The view from this angle was incredible! Up here in the high part of the mountain there were no Joshua trees, like at the bottom part of the mountain.

After a long ride, we had a picnic at Big Bear Lake. We were so hungry, thank goodness Jorge packed all that food in his bike. 

 There I am possing for the camera.

 Jorge posing for the cameara.

In the background you can see all the waterfront cabins and homes. Big Bear Lake is something else. It's amazing how close this place is to the LA area. 

Day 2, Stage 4

We woke up early packed our gear and headed to the Grand Canyon's West Rim main entrance. You can see Fernando on his KLR 650 leaving our camping site.

We initially planned to go on the Skywalk, witch is this horse shoe type of bridge that extends above the Grand Canyon. But Jorge, Aradio, and Fernando thought it would be best if we go on a helicopter ride. It was a great idea! We rented a chopper and took a tour of the Grand Canyon. The helicopter then landed on a site next to the Colorado River, down in the Canyon (you can see me next to the helicopter down by the river).

The weather was excellent! Not a cloud in sight. It was about 68 degrees, so it was nice and cool (I'd hate to go to the Canyon in the summer, it must be an oven). There's Jorge in the picture above.

 We took this picture with the helicopter and the helicopter pilot. Awesome pilot!

Here's another shot. That's me next to the Colorado river. The views were spectacular!

Day 1, Camping at the Grand Canyon

 After a long day, visiting The Vegas Strip, The Valley of Fire and Hoover Dam we finally made it to the  Grand Canyon's West Rim. Since there were not hotels around, we set up our tent next to a desolate gravel road.  It always takes time to set up the tent and get all our camping gear out, but it's definitely worth it. :) The picture above you can see Jorge cooking some great food. He even cooked some lobster (talk about a gourmet chef).

 It got a bit cold. Check out Fernando with his balaclava; it was so cold he wore it all night long (it was below freezing). The cold really got to Fernando (we need to get thicker sleeping bags), but the rest of us slept just fine. We kept telling Fernando he looked like " El Subcomandante Marcos" the leader of the Zapatistas a rebel movement in Mexico. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subcomandante_Marcos

This is what our campsite looked like in the morning. It was a sunny, fresh, crisp morning. I knew we were going to have a great day!

One thing that worried me about our camping site was that there were lots of thorns which could puncture one of our tires.

End of Day 1, Stage 4

We ended the day with a visit to Hoover Dam.  We got there around 5:30pm and it was starting to get dark. The picture above shows the northern part of the dam (Lake Mead) and it also shows my black Shoei helmet (Shoei's are the best helmets, I highly recommend them). The picture shows that the water level is low; look at the "bathtub ring" (a high-water mark) created by the drought. I took this picture from the Arizona side of the dam.    

Only Fernando and I went to see the bottom of the dam. Jorge and Aradio were too tired to walk from the parking lot to the dam (riding a motorcycle all day can get tiring).
I've always wanted to visit this iconic American site. I was really stoked when we got there.

In this picture you can see "The Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge" and its unique arch (I'm on the left and Fernando is on the right). Both the view of the dam and the bridge were stunning. The size of both of these projects is impressive (from an engineering stand point it was great). As soon as it got dark we left and headed to the western part of the Grand Canyon. It took us another two hours to get to the West Rimm.

Day 1, Valley of Fire

The Valley of Fire, just northeast of Las Vegas, was amazing. It was the first destination after leaving Las Vegas. We got some great pictures of all the different rock formations. The colors are so unique and so different that it makes you feel like your on the planet Mars. The American Southwest has left its mark on me. The vastness and the greatness of the southwest is unlike anything in the USA.  If you're ever in Las Vegas, make sure to visit this incredible state park (it's only about 1 hour away).