LA Trip Report [LONG]
April 21-24

Ever since I got my ST, I've been wanting to make the ride on Hwy 1
(also known as the Pacific Coast Highway) between Monterey and LA. I
had business in LA on Sunday the 23rd. And the final straw was seeing
Valerie Manning drive up to Kari's one afternoon and announce she had
just come from LA on her bumblebee. So I packed my camping gear, went,
and had a great time.

Some people, like Noemi and Jonathan are familiar with this trip and
most of the roads. For those of you who aren't, I'll tell you about
the roads I traveled and I want to tell everyone about a great bike
trip. [This is somewhat of a tourist report, but there is a little
dirt riding buried here.]  This is no difficult ride: it was all very
pleasant.

21 Apr 95

On this trip, I loaded my ST to the gills. My sleeping bag is an old
Coleman and is unbelievably huge - it straps on the back rack with a
bungee net. I was carrying all of the camp gear I would need,
including cooking stuff, for any length of time, plus the clothes and
materials I needed for my presentation Sunday. I carry lots of
contingency stuff too: fire extinguisher, first aid kit, tire
inflater, rain gear, bottle of wine, and lots of odds and ends. I had
the tank bag cranked up to my chest.  Getting off the bike took a lot
of care and agility.

To get to Monterey in a hurry, I took 101 from Palo Alto to 156 to 1.

 [Embarcadero & 101 to downtown Monterey - 85 mi - 1.25 hr - 40.9 mpg]

I left late and so had lunch in Monterey. Then I went on the marvelous
"road". First I had to cross the temporary bridge at the Carmel
River. Next time, I may go to the head of the line as this is an
excellent opportunity to get around the traffic.

April is exactly the right month to ride the coast. It's not so cold
but the summer fog has not arrived. The air was clear and almost till
San Simeon one rides tight curves high above the Pacific. I had
brought a camera but it was useless. The quality of light and changing
perspectives of that seascape cannot be reproduced. It is just
astounding. There were lots of other motorcycles with camping gear
coming North. Yes, I had to pass the occasional camper. But there were
long stretches where I was swooping along almost like a seagull.

The lighthouse on Point Sur is intriguing. I'd like to visit it some
day if possible. Big Sur is 30 mi from Monterey and the *very* small
community of Lucius is another 15 mi further. Near here is La Padre
beach that looks like a good campground. (Slightly further is the
backroad through the coast mountains to King City.) That's it for
towns (and gas) until San Simeon.  There are many curves marked 25 mph
that are easily taken at 40 or 50 mph even with a loaded bike while
still admiring the scenery. It is truly a mc road.

The Hearst Castle in San Simeon is very popular. It sits five miles
off the road and one cannot visit it without buying tickets for one of
the four bus tours. And since it is so popular, one should buy tickets
ahead of time: 800/444-4445. The pictures of the estate are amazing,
but instead I had a snack on the beach. Thee is a big funny old
pelican there that walks up to you along with the seagulls.  There is
also a seal beach not too far away: you can spot it as you travel by
all the cars parked on the beach.

[Monterey to Moro Bay - 133 mi - 46.6 mpg! ]

For the rest of trip, one is right on the water and it continued to be
beautiful. I camped in Moro Bay State Park. There are a large number
of campgrounds along 1 - you can make reservations: 800/444-7275. Most
of the campgrounds charge about $16. They sell firewood but kindling
is hard to find.  In Moro Bay, there is an Albertson's where one can
buy anything.  And one can ride out to Moro Rock, past the harbor
with all of the restaurants. The campground is nice.

22 Apr 95

But the next day, starting at 10:30am, I went down to Pismo Beach and
checked out the North Beach campground. Next time I will go there: one
can camp right next to the beach dunes. I believe that when Northern
and Southern California split, Moro Bay will be the Southern most part
of NorCal. Just a short distance away, in Pismo Beach, the beach
changes from stones to sand and the people change from jackets to as
little as possible.

Hwy 1 is sometimes curvy and slow through little towns. And sometimes
it is straight and fast through open agricultural land. I lost it
somewhere and picked up 101 at Los Alamos. There is a pass through the
Santa Ynez mountains marked 45 mph - one can fly pass the cages here.
As one comes into Santa Barbara, 101 runs by the ocean again where one
can see the occasional oil platforms in the beautiful bay.

 [Moro Bay to Santa Barbara - 133 mi - attendant cleared the pump too fast 
 to note the gallons ]
 
Don't try the small Mexican fish restaurant at the gas stations near
the exit. I was not happy with my meal. Go all the way to the coast a
few blocks down the road. Park by the red-titled building and try the
East Beach Grill. I will next time. Or just bring shorts and sun block
to watch the beach volleyball. The grass next to the beach is a good
place to relax and mc parking is easy.
 
Hwy 1 splits off from 101 at Oxnard. Be sure to take the main exit and
not the business exit. The main one is bad enough: there's no good way
through Oxnard.  But just when you think Hwy 1 is a mistake, it bursts
into the open again along the ocean and life is glorious again all the
way through Ventura and until Malibu. Then one hits the tedious LA
traffic. Even on Saturday afternoon. The only way through is up the
middle. Finally, I reached my friend's house in Santa Monica slightly
before 5pm where I was forced to go to a Japanese party and drink many
ritual sake toasts.
 
  [Santa Barbara to Santa Monica - 80 mi - 41.6 mpg, including some LA 
  city travel]
  
  24 Apr 95
  
I intended to drive back in one day, and I did. But I wasn't real
anxious about it. I had my camping gear and figured I could stop
anywhere. So I didn't leave until 11am and took a ride up Topanga
Canyon, to Old Topanga Canyon, past the famous Rock Store, and on
Mulholland Drive all the way to Hwy 1 to just below Ventura.  This is
a fun drive. Early on, it's just a slow drive looking at the houses
and people in the canyons. Later, it turns into twisty mountainous
roads that are fun. Ignore the signs that would have you take the
direct routes back to Hwy 1. You'll add about 30 miles of
foot-dragging high views to your trip.

The temperature was hot pretty much all day and the bugs were out.  I
opened all of my zippers and the biggest problem was cleaning off my
visor often enough to see.
 
I am indebted to Valerie Manning for suggesting route 33, which exits
from Hwy 1 in Ventura. Stop in the very pleasant town of Ojai and have
an Italian lunch at Nora's (park on the sidewalk).
 
 [Santa Monica to Ojai via Topanga/23 - 91 mi - 44.8 mpg ]
 
From Ojai, 33 takes an easy twisty pass through the Sierra Madre
mountains (another part of the Los Padres National Forrest), rising a
little over 4,500 feet and then coming down fast to Taft in the
desert. There are several runaway ramps for the trucks filled with
deep gravel. The cars are braking and the trucks are going real
slow. You can dive past all of them down the steep grade out of the
mountains.
 
Route 33 parallels I5 straight and flat through the desert and you can
go a lot faster on it than on 5 even though it's only a one-lane strip
of asphalt because there is little traffic and fewer cops. It's just
you and a surrealistic field of oil pump jacks nodding away. You are
free to fly as fast as your suspension will allow. But you can use a
lot of gas that way and I was on reserve by the time I hit the lone
store and gas station at the intersection of 33 and 46. Fortunately
they had ice cream and water.  The woman running the store is a dirt
bike rider and happy to gossip about bikes.  I had so many dead bugs
on my bike that a swarm of small wasps covered it to take the spoils.

 [Ojai to 33/46 - 116 mi - 30.5 mpg ]
 
The smart route is to continue flying North on 33 and then take 198 at
Coalinga over to 25 for the beautiful ride up through Hollister. Very
nice and fast.  But I thought I saw an interesting short cut to
Coalinga. I always make this mistake.

I took 46 to the intersection of 41, passing through the low pass into
the Cholame Hills. The Cholame Valley road is a small strip of asphalt
that will get you to Parkfield, earthquake capital of the world
according to some prediction for the "big one".  WARNING: Cholame
Valley road is a motorcycle trap. It starts off as a simple asphalt
strip that goes straight through mud flats. There is nothing around
but cows that can be seen from long off. But just when you think you
can achieve warp speed, you hit a stretch where the asphalt has been
simply removed for about 100 feet: there's a drop-off into dirt and
gravel and then a bump back up to the asphalt again.  Inexplicable and
exciting.

Later, there are random huge potholes in an otherwise good
surface. Later still, the road starts to curve. No big deal except
that it's slowing me down, until I get lazy and round one to find that
the asphalt has again been removed on the curve! It's just an
inconsistent road. Rider beware.
 
By the time I came into the small resort of Parkfield, I knew that I
wasn't going to be making good time and I should take it easy and get
into the scenery. And I knew the road would loose pavement soon. But,
hey, the map showed that it was only a short distance from Parkfield
to 198 out of Coalingua, so it was probably only 30 minutes gravel or
something.

Right. The map did not show that that this small stretch went straight
up over the Reef Ridge of the Gabilan Range. My map also cannot
differentiate between gravel and washed-out dirt and rock roads. The
Parkfield Grade turned out to be the latter up the mountain. There are
some horse ranches up there and the occasional pick-up goes up even
slower than my usual 20mph. Ask me how I know.  This was very
discouraging after my desert flying.

On top of this mountain, the road improves to graded gravel. It is
still no racecourse but the scenery is beautiful.  I tried to take a
picture but discovered that part of the beauty is the way the hills at
various differences shifted as I changed perspective coming down. Only
these shifts exposed them: they hid in a still shot. But it was this
scenery that made this "short-cut" worthwhile.

Near the bottom are some low-water crossings with signs warning that
they were subject to wash-out. Indeed, three were just rock-bottomed
and one was serious though short. The shallowest path was most of the
way up the wheels, which is fine, but the bottom was just big jumbled
rocks causing rapids. So, following Noemi's Baja advice, I just tore
through and all was well though wet.

After passing over one dirt detour next to a concrete bridge that had
been recently swept away, I connected with 198. What a joy to be able
to let go.  I could fly again through a gorgeous landscape (slowing for
habitation and possible dogs of course).

Hwy 198 is another mountain road that is full of sweepers rather than
twisties. It is fun to pass the semis who are reading signs about
grades and brake checks. This is a fine road. All of the curves posted
at 35mph are easy and smooth at 70 on a bike.
 
It was near sunset now and I was starting to get cold and tired and
debating whether I really wanted to go up 25. I had been thinking that
perhaps I could camp at the East Pinnacles rather than go home
tonight. But then the sun started alternating between cold shadow and
directly over the road in my eyes and I got tired of it all. I stopped
and put on my warm clothes and electric jacket and just beat it to 101
and up to King City where I stopped and had dinner at Denny's.

 [ 33/46 to King City via Parkfield Grade - 110 mi - 35.5 mpg ]

From the Shell on Broadway in King City to my house is just about 120
mi on the 101. It was very cold that night. I was pretty darned tired
by this time but my bed was only two hours away. And it was two hours
too, because 10 minutes out of King City, the CHP cruised up to me and
let me get a good look before he zoomed off somewhere ahead of me.  I
started from King City at 9 and was unpacking by 11 though, which made
it a roughly 12 hour trip from LA.

[ King City to Palo Alto (Embarcadero) - 120 mi]

This was a very fine trip. And my ST did everything I asked,
beautifully, as always, whether it was desert racing, mountain
swooping, car passing, or dirt road climbing. Smoothly and without
hesitation. This is one great motorcycle.  And this is one great state
for riding. I am also glad to discover that Palo Alto to LA is not as
far as I thought and so am indebted to Valerie and Noemi and others
for showing me the way. I will return.

 cp

PS Went to LA again in Oct'95 - down to Santa Barbara with
NorCal and then back from LA via the Rift Zone, using hints
from other riders and had a wonderful time.