On Tuesday of this week I took off on a trip up to Oregon on my brand spankin’ new Honda VFR800A Interceptor. Yep, I tripled the mileage on my new bike, but I can’t think of a more fitting way to really break in that engine. It was a short trip – I took two days to travel to Newport, Oregon, and then took just one to travel the 660 miles back to Mountain View, California. I suppose I can’t really call this a Chautauqua in the true self-improvement Pirsig way of the word, but my intentions were certainly the same. Perhaps one day I’ll get in that 18 day trip, but for now my three days will have to do. (read more)

All pictures from the trip out on Flickr

On the way up, I decided to stick pretty close to the Pacific coast. This meant slower travel – in some cases, much slower – but more scenic. From San Francisco I headed up Highway 1 through Point Reyes and Bodega Bay.

Bodega has a special place in my heart from the many trips there as a kid living in Vacaville, California. I’m not sure I could tell you why exactly Bodega was our destination spot as a kid, but I know that even after all of these years, seeing the candy and kite shop above felt a little like coming home.

I rolled into Bodega around lunch, and after eating on Doran Beach I decided that the 100 miles I had covered since Mountain View just wasn’t making good enough time. I cut over to 101 at Santa Rosa, and took the slightly faster route up north (another option Pirsig would have frowned upon). From there it was much faster traveling up to Orick, California, just outside of Prairie Creek Redwoods national park. I picked up some sandwiches at the local (very tiny) grocery and headed into the park.

The picture is a little deceiving – I wasn’t actually able to spend the night in the park. Now I would have known this fact ahead of time if I’d consulted the guidebook. In the summer it’s pretty much impossible to stay the night in the park without a reservation. Kind of a let-down, but fortunately there were plenty of places outside the park.

The next morning I spent a little time in Jedediah Smith National park. It is truly humbling to stand among such giant and ancient trees. I’m glad that despite the politics they were able to preserve even the three parks that encompass Redwood National Park.

From there it was a pretty easy (if slow) cruise up the coast to Newport, Oregon which was my final destination. There, over 40 varieties of Rogue ales awaited me on draft at the Rogue Nation world headquarters.

What can I say? It was a good night. I ran into some great people from Nashville on phase II of the evening, at the Rogue public house across the bay from the brewery. It didn’t make for a great next morning – ooof, that was pretty rough. After some breakfast at the crack-of-11 at the Pig and Pancake there in Newport, I was on the road again.

I decided to head over to I-5 at this point, which is a 50 mile detour to the east, but it meant that I’d be able to cover some serious miles. I’m not sure exactly why I decided to make it home in one day when I had taken two to get up to Newport, but at least part of it was proving that I could just do it. Anyway, I ended up covering 660 miles in 12 hours, and I made it all the way back to Mountain View at 11 that night. It might sound like a high speed head down kind of ride (which it was, partly) but it was also beautiful in a different way than the trip up the coast. I passed by Mt. Shasta and rode through a couple of great mountain passes. The smell of the evergreens and the grasses of the high plains was fantastic in its own right. I saw enough small logging roads off of I-5 to know that the area around Mt. Shasta would be a great place to come back and camp sometime soon.

And that was it – I’ve spent most of today (the next day) recovering, which means sitting with lots of cushions around. All in all a great trip, and one that just whet my appetite for more.

Here’s some numbers for ya:

• Total Distance: 1320 miles
• Odometer percent change: 206% more miles

• Average MPG: 44.1, Highest 46.2 (the milage trended up as the trip went on – probably a sign of the engine breaking in)

All pictures from the trip out on Flickr