What an amazing day! I had a good night sleep last night and managed to get away by 9am, despite the cold. I was looking forward to today, as I was entering California and hopefully a real change in terrain with forests and canyons. A welcomed change from the desert, dirt and rocks. I need to see some greenery! I had chosen to go through the Sequoia National Park a couple of days ago to not only see the trees, but because the road looked simply stunning on the map. Well, was I glad I made this decision.
Even though running south instead of heading straight north to Yosemite’s National Park increased the travelling time by probably half a day, the extra time was worth every mile and the extra time. I thought the roads in North Carolina were special and unique, well after riding Hwy 190 on the way to Sequoia National Park that idea was dispelled. Maybe because I spent the last week on long straight desert roads made this road feel better – but I would certainly like to ride it with one of the other guys because this road was definitely special.
I don’t know how many curves were on this road, but it felt like riding the Dragon but for a couple of hours. It just didn’t stop. I actually had to stop twice and have a break to give my hands a rest. Every corner had a constant radius which meant you could tilt it in and commit confidently to each corner. No gravel, perfect tarmac, open corners – utopia! Just so much fun! And to make it even better, I had the entire road to myself – well except for a couple of tin tops and two Corvettes that got in my way.
Here’s some pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/jamesc71/42TheSequoiaNationalParkAndThePerfectTwistyRoad
It was funny, because this road is downhill a lot and loads up the brakes. You knew when you were catching up to a car because you could smell burning brakes and sure enough 10 corners later, there was somebody struggling along. Even the Corvettes were struggling on brakes. But Bonnie just kept asking for more and was a pure delight to carve up mile after mile of flip flop corners. Wow what a ride. I got to end and just wanted to turn around and do it all again. Everybody knows how fast the Busa is in a straight line, but after this trip, don’t let anybody tell you they don’t turn. You just have to grab the bull by the horns and get into it.
After finishing Hwy 190, I tried to find two other roads that appeared to be just as good on the map – but unfortunately I had to turn around on both of them, as they were just horrible goat trails winding up the mountain and would of taken me hours more to get to my destination.
I can certainly recommend this area for a motorcycling holiday as just like North Carolina, there are back roads everywhere that could be explored for weeks. Not to mention how pretty the Sequoia forest is.
After riding all day, my hands and bum were starting to ache, so I stopped off at this little cafe that turned out to be a real surprise. It was like a rabbit warren of smaller eclectic bars, shops and grocery stores that made this stop a different experience from the usual hamburger bars you come across. If travelling on Hwy 99 up to Yosemites, look out for signs to the Gift Shop, Bar and Grocery Store about ½ a mile south of Traver.
After a delicious Tortilla Chicken Soup, I was back on the road and had a 50min ride to Oakhurst, the gateway into the Yosemite’s National Park. I arrived there at 7pm, which was great and meant an early night’s sleep. I am back up at 2500’ft from dropping down to sea level, but Yosemite’s is still much more elevated than this, so it will be interesting to see how cold it is in the morning.
I am going to try and start as early as I can, despite the cold so I can see as much of the National Park by 12. I then need to ride in to San Francisco and get onto the Pacific Coast Hwy by night. Unfortunately I won’t have enough to even stop in SF, which is a shame as I need to get to Los Angeles by Wednesday night so I can off load the bike on Thursday and do some shopping and then fly out on Friday morning.
I guess I will just have to come back to San Francisco and California again. I’m sure you could spend 6 weeks in California and still not scratch the surface. Even though 6 weeks was enough time to ride across the States, another couple of weeks would of been nice so I could of stopped and watched all the places I went through.
James.
