(Living Our Motorcycle Pleasures On California’s Pacific Coast Highway)
Pictures, Trip Reports, Photo Links, etc.
The Riders:
Front row: Bruce Dolan, Kel Williams, Yumiko Fukumoto, Saul Apfelbaum, Greg Hall, Peter Noeth, Diana Mann, Bruce Mann, Jerry Williams
Second row: Joe Smith, Toru Fukumoto, Dave Misunas, Tim Davies, Jim Geary, ???, Malcolm Cook, Ed Wahl, Art Steinbach
And their steeds…
Attendees…
| Name | Home City, State, Country | Bike Ridden |
| Saul Apfelbaum | Richmond, British Columbia, Canada | 1990 PC800 |
| Joyce Calvert | San Francisco, California | funny looking 4 wheeled thing… |
| Charles Cervantes | Westchester, California | 1994 PC800 |
| Malcom Cook | Brampton, Ontario, Canada | 1989 PC800 |
| Tim Davies | Seneca Falls, New York | 1998 PC800 |
| Bruce Dolan | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada | ???? GL1800? |
| Toru Fukumoto | Morgan Hill, California | 1996 PC800 w/Hannigan sidecar |
| Yumiko Fukumoto | Morgan Hill, California | passenger with Toru |
| Gregory Hall | Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada | 2011? ST1300 |
| Bruce Mann | Corning, California | 1989 PC800 |
| Diana Mann | Corning, California | passenger with Bruce |
| Dave Misunas | Santa Cruz, California | 1990 PC800 |
| Peter Noeth | Rocklin, California | 2007 GL1800 |
| Bruce Pickett | Federal Way, Washington | 2012? Triumph Tiger 100 |
| Leland Sheppard | Placerville, California | 1989 PC800 |
| Joe Smith | Port Angeles, Washington | 1989 PC800 |
| Art Steinbach | Redding, California | 1997 PC800 |
| Ed Wahl | San Jose, California | 2004 ST1300 |
| Dean Williams | Springfield, Oregon | funny looking 4 wheeled thing… |
| Jerry Williams | Thousand Oaks, California | 2002 GL1800 |
| Kel Williams | Springfield, Oregon | 1994 PC800 |
| Nancy Williams | Springfield, Oregon | passenger with Dean |
| ???? | Bay area, California | ???? PC800 |
| 22 people | 18 bikes, 12 PC800s |
Leland Sheppard’s Trip Report
Saturday:
The 2013 PCH ride began with me heading for Red Bluff from my home. I took 49 thru the American River Canyon, 193 winding thru the foothills to Lincoln, 65, 70 and 99 to Red Bluff . On the way, my 1989 PC800 turned over 160,000 miles. In Red Bluff, I met Art Steinbach at Arby’s on south Main Street for lunch. After lunch, we headed for Eureka via 36. The sign at the beginning of 36 says “Winding Road next 140 miles”. Yesssssss… The trip is off to an excellent start. Saturday evening, we had dinner at the Marina Cafe at Woodley Marina. When we arrived, Tim Davies and Bruce Dolan were already well into their dinners! Joining me at the table were Art, Dave Misunas and Peter Noeth.
Sunday:
Sunday morning, Art Steinbach and I took off for our usual Sunday ride out of Eureka.
We headed north on US101, east on CA299 where we enjoyed the sweepers and the scenery on our way to lunch in Weaverville. Bruce Mann joined us in Weaverville. After lunch, we continued east on 299 to the junction with CA3 where we turned south and the corners tightened up. From sweepers to twisties. At the junction with CA36, we took a butt break before heading west on 36. We stopped at Mad River for refreshments. At this point, Malcolm Cook and Jerry Williams caught up with us. Continuing on 36 we found lots of twisties on our way to the junction with US101. Turning north, we made our way back to Eureka. Beautiful weather, great motorcycle roads, a dandy ride.
Sunday evening, we had dinner at the Samoa Cookhouse. Dean and Nancy Williams and Bruce Pickett joined us. Everyone else that was expected had also arrived in Eureka. Good food, wonderful camaraderie as always.
Monday:
Monday morning, we gathered in the parking lot at Bayshore Mall for our usual photos. After saying our goodbyes to Dean and Nancy Williams and to Bruce Pickett, we started south on US101. We take the turnoff for Ferndale and the Lost Coast route. Today is a sunny one over the hill on the way to the coast. The road has been improved in spots but is still pretty rough. After stopping for refreshments at Honeydew, we start up the hill again. It’s over the hill and into the redwoods on our way to the Avenue of the Giants.
We stop just after the turnoff into the Avenue of the Giants to let everyone catch up and to take a butt break after the rough roads we’ve just been through. Our usual lunch stop (Gettiup Burger) is out of business, much to the distress of our stomachs. We make do with whatever we can find. I will have to find a new lunch spot for next time.
After leaving Garberville, we reach Leggett and the beginning of California 1, the Pacific Coast Highway. The stretch from Leggett to the coast is legendary. It is 22 miles with only 2 short straight stretches and the rest of the route is made up of wonderful twisties. We all feel exhilarated by the time we get to the coast and see the Pacific Ocean for the first time. Although we encounter a little fog at the coast, we still have a nice ride down the coast to Ft. Bragg, our destination for the night.
Monday evening, we gather at Silvers at the Wharf for dinner.
Tuesday:
We start down the coast and, before too long, encounter a construction zone that holds us up for a while. We head into Bodega Bay and stop for lunch at The Boat House. The weather is overcast and cool but the fog and clouds are hundreds of feet off the ground and doesn’t affect us much. We stop at Marin Headlands, north of San Francisco, and are able to see the city and the Golden Gate bridge on our way to Pacifica, our destination for the night.
We walk to dinner at Nick’s which is next door to the motel where we are staying. An old friend, Joyce Calvert, joined us for dinner at Nick’s.
Wednesday:
Wednesday is a fairly short day. We mosey on down CA1 going through the new tunnels that bypass the old Devil’s Slide area. That area was always falling apart, cliffs crumbling, etc. so although we won’t have the run of riding through there wondering if we will make it before the next slide, the taxpayers will be better off for not having to pay for repairs every few months. We head for Pescadero State Beach and my favorite spot for taking pictures of Pacific Coast motorcycles. It’s on the Pacific Coast Highway and the Pacific Ocean is in the background of the photos. Super photo op… We get the bikes all lined up with their backs to the ocean and start clicking away. The picture this year is a little different because the man that bought my PC sidecar rig is late getting there. It was my fault as I had published the wrong time on the PCH Ride web site. So the picture of the bikes for this year shows many riders already back on their bikes ready to go. I wanted to get the sidecar rig included and that is the reason for that particular photo being included.
After leaving Pescadero Beach, we head NORTH, retracing the last few miles, and take CA84 up into the Santa Cruz Mountains past Alice’s (world famous motorcycle stop) Restaurant, turn south on Skyline Boulevard (CA35) to the junction with CA9 where we turn back toward the coast and the little mountain town of Felton where fellow PCer, Jim Geary, has his restaurant, the Cowboy Bar and Grill. He serves a GREAT lunch. It is here that we take another ‘people picture’ to get the riders that are with us.
After leaving Felton, we continue down CA9 to Santa Cruz where we pick up CA1 for the final leg into Monterey, our destination for the night.
Wednesday evening, we gather on Cannery Row for dinner at Cooper’s Pub and Restaurant, formerly called Bullwacker’s. This is a fun place to dine as they have a patio open to the stars where we always eat. Charming restaurant, good food and great camaraderie.
Thursday:
As we start down the coast on Thursday, we are seeing blue sky for maybe the first time on the ride. The overcast has disappeared. Weather hasn’t been bad at all but this is a nice change. We stop for a coffee and butt break at Ragged Point along the Big Sur. We stop for lunch at The Oak Pit BBQ (formerly The Rusty Pig) at the south end of Oceano. After lunch, we continue south through farming country as CA1 has veered away from the coast (or did the coast veer away from us?) to out destination for the night at Lompoc.
We gather for dinner at La Botte, a very nice Italian restaurant where, as always, we have good food and great camaraderie.
Friday:
Friday is different this year. From 1999 (preview ride) through 2011, we took off for San Clemente on Friday, slogged our way through Santa Monica, LAX, Westchester, etc. trying to get to San Clemente. It was always a pain but I put up with it because I REALLY wanted to go to the physical end of the Pacific Coast Highway and San Clemente was just a couple miles past that. I was the only one left who wanted to do that and it took us so long to get to San Clemente in 2011 that even I gave up. So this year, we stayed in Lompoc.
And on Friday, our compatriot who lives in the area, Jason Scarborough, came over to guide us on a scenic route to Solvang and the Solvang Motorcycle Museum. The Solvang Motorcycle Museum has a wonderful collection of motorcycles including the only Britten ever built that was NOT raced, rotary engined motorcycles from Norton and Suzuki, Vincents, a fascinating bike called a Megola, vintage 1922, a Flying Merkel and many many others. After our visit to the museum, Jason took us over some nice back roads ending in Buellton for lunch at the Firestone WalkerBrewery. Interesting place; good food. After lunch, Tim Davies and Bruce Dolan took off for San Clemente. Wouldn’t you know it: The year I stopped going, someone else wanted to do it anyway… Jason guided us on more nice back roads back to Lompoc and the motel.
Friday evening, we again ate at La Botte Italian Restaurant.
Saturday:
By Saturday morning, everyone had departed except for me, Peter Noeth, Joe Smith and Saul Apfelbaum. The four of us headed south on US101 through Santa Barbara to Ventura where CA1 veers off through Oxnard to the coast again. We were headed for Oxnard and the Mullin Automotive Museum. Interesting side note: The Mullin museum turned out to be right behind the Mickey D’s restaurant where we had been stopping for lunch on our way to San Clemente. We didn’t know it was there.
The Mullin museum is fascinating. They are very strict about who gets in and even what you are wearing on your belt, etc. They take no chances on the finish on their collection of rare and beautiful and VALUABLE automobiles. The museum specializes in French automobiles of the 1920s and 1930s: Bugatti, Talbot-Lago, Delahaye and more. Some of the cars are worth millions of dollars so I don’t blame them for beinf careful. Anyhow, it is a special place.
When we finished at the museum we went to a nearby hole-in-the-wall BBQ place for lunch. The food was delicious. The place was called “It’s In The Sauce”. As we were departing “It’s In The Sauce”, we spotted another automotive museum across the street, The Murphy Auto Museum. At this point Joe and Saul departed (I think they were “museumed out”) so Peter and I were left to peruse the second museum. They had a lot of interesting cars and a good sized model railroad. Since Peter and I are both train and model train buffs, this was right up our alley. After we had our fill of the Murphy museum, Peter and I headed back out to US101 and north to Lompoc.
That evening, Peter and I had dinner at a Mexican restaurant, El Toro Bronco, in Lompoc.
Sunday:
Peter and I headed north. We took CA1 north from Lompoc, CA135 to Santa Maria and US101 north to Atascadero. At that point we split up. I took CA41 because it is more winding and Peter took CA46 because it is less winding. We met where CA41 and CA46 intersect near Cholame (think James Dean memorial). From there we headed out to the junction with I5. Going north on I5, we stopped at Harris Ranch for lunch. After lunch we continued on to the Sacramento area and home for both of us. We waved goodby to each other at the junction of I5 and US50.
Another terrific September ride in the books.
Leland