9 Day Motorcycle Trip along the PCH

I have always loved the ocean, and try to get there at least once a year.  Ever since I bought my bike I had been dreaming of taking a trip down the Pacific Coast Highway.  After about a year of planning, I set off for the coast.  This trip was taken in September of 2012 and I am just now finally doing a report on it.  I hope that I haven't forgotten too much.

Here is the Google Latitude tracking the route that I took.

The main idea of the route was to start from my home in Lehi, UT.  To head up to the Canada Border.  Then follow as closely as I could the the coastal highway down to the mexico border.  Then head back home.

I had planned out the route and where to stay even to the point of making reservations for each night.  I know this didn't leave much room for variation or error, but it also gave me the peace of mind, that I would have a place to stay and gave me a goal to get to each day.

Mike my brother-in-law expressed an interest in coming.  He even talked about buying a motorcycle.  But in the end he decided to come but just to drive his car along with me.  He wasn't able to come for the whole ride, but he will be there for the first 5 days.

In preparation for this trip, I ordered a rain suit from Motorcycle Superstore.  They sent it in plenty of time, but it was a the wrong size.  It took calling, emailing and online chatting to finally get them to send me the correct size in 2 days so that I would have it for the trip.

1st Motorcycle Date

After a year and a half of having my motorcycle, I finally convinced Kristin to go on a ride with me.  Kristin had received a 2 hour baby sitting from our neighbors and she decided to use this to go on a ride.  We originally planned to go up American Fork Canyon.  But when I got home this was the view of Alpine and the canyon from in front of our house:

Because of the fire, the canyon was closed.  So instead we decided to ride out west of Utah Lake.  Below is the route we followed:

When we were out west of the lake we stopped for a rest and took some pictures.  Kristin wanted proof that she went on a ride.  You could really see the smoke from the fire.

When we got out by Pelican Point, we went went off of Redwood Road and went up behind it on a dirt road.  This was where we had a couple months back camped with the father and son's outing.  When we got back behind the mountain, there was a steep road up to the top of a hill.  It didn't look too bad but as we got about 3/4 of the way up, I realized that this bike is a lot heavier than my dirt bike and I also had 2 people on it.  It was close but we made it to the top without falling.  The views from the top were pretty amazing.

I was pretty nervous coming down the hill so Kristin graciously walked down while I brought the bike down very slowly, I about went over a couple times on the way down.  I think I will leave hill climbing to the dirt bike.

On the way home we had a few minutes so we stopped at Arctic Circle for a shake.  It was a fun date and nice to go for a ride with Kristin.  She said it was a lot better than she had anticipated and said she would go again. :)