Photo Documentation

View at Big Sur

On Saturday I woke up hung over but felt that it was a good time to go for a ride. I got on my BMW GS 1100 and rode up I-5 to hwy 152 that takes you through Gillroy to hwy 101 outside San Jose. I took hwy 17 over to Santa Cruz where I stayed with a buddy of mine. We woke up leisurely on Sunday not exactly sure where our ride was going to take us, at least I didn't. We rode south on HWY 1 which was nothing short of amazing, the patchy fog had cleared momentarily and the waves crashing against the rocks as we crossed the arched bridges made for a near religious experience. At some point we took a little dirt loop that went into the hills and then dropped us back on to hwy 1. We rode further south about 20 minutes and took an amazing little road that switched back and forth up a near vertical face. There were no guard rails and I have to admit there were moments of anxiety being that close to a 3000 ft cliff. The road ended and turned into a "return of the jedi" style dirt road that was covered in a canopy of trees. We dug into the throttle a bit and started to get loose sliding around the corners and catching some air off the drainage ditches. Then the road opened up into this plateau with this view (see pic). It was amazing. We explored some little trails in the area and then realized that I had blown a fork seal, lost some of my tools from the rough ride, and my handlebars had somehow become loose. After monkeying around trying to fix the problems we parted ways and I mad the long and grueling haul back to LA. The sun had set and I got to really test my limits of cold and exhaustion. I got home safe and sound around 8pm. I think I did around 800 miles in two days. One might say it was "epic".

Tags: art, bigsur, bmw, california, gs 1100, ocean, santacruz, seizer-one