Day One: California to Oregon

California to Oregon

My day of departure for the 2015 Alaska Adventure is finally hear, as you may have already read, this trip is quite a bit different from 2013 and starting today the difference will be felt.

As I look back at 2013, all I could think about on this day was mileage, how many miles can I do in one day, well I did 700 Miles on California interstate 5, and had to endure 113 degree heat for much of the day… ouch!

This time the trip takes me directly to the Coast Highway 1 by way of San Francisco the over the New bay Bridge and the nostalgic Golden Gate.

The Bay Bridge was finished on November 12^th 1936 allowing for easier passage to San Francisco from the East Bay; the new span we cross today was completed and open to the public on September 2, 2013 it is a more elegant passage and the Views will be even better once the Old Span has been completely removed!

A short ride through San Francisco and we cross the Golden Gate, opened on May 27^th 1937 this bridge brought quick access to the City from the north Bay, but more so it now stood as a symbol of magnificence to all who crossed under it by sea! The gate way to the gold country now had an iconic symbol to stand tall.

Just a bit of Trivia only 11 construction workers lost their lives building the golden gate, but 28 died building the Bay Bridge (they just don’t talk about that as much) there were no deaths associated with the building of the new span!

 From hear we take California highway 1 to 101 through Santa Rosa, and up to Cloverdale once known as Markleville, as part of a Mexican Grant in 1865 and was incorporated in 1872 when the Pacific Railroad arrived in 1872, as it turns out the tribes that inhabited this land were illegally displaced and in 1979 a Pomo woman finally filed a class action lawsuit returning the land to the original owners as of 1983 (or their descendants) but in 1994 the feds took it back with a land use grant to put a freeway (the highway 101 bypass) right through the tribal land and the land was lost for good.

We will take the 101 Bypass and link to Highway 128 and over to Highway 1 and follow the California Coast to Oregon.

I would be remiss not to mention the Navarro Winery on Highway 128, some Great wine and a nice place to stop and relax!

The history up the coast is grand, and Places like Mendocino, Noyo Bay, Fort Bragg, farther up to WestPort and finally connecting back to 101 at Leggett

Your next Must see is Avenue of the Giants (highway 254), where you will be both impressed and quite shocked at the sight of Large Redwood trees and the mass destruction people have had on the area, the Massive trees we see today are just a small sample of the giants that stood hear a hundred years ago, it’s hard to imagine these are small trees. The ride is well worth the time and is a must to for a motorcycle traveler in this area.

We will hit the coast again in Eureka and push our way up through Crescent city and across the state line in to Oregon and in to Brookings.

Brookings, named after John E. Brookings, president of the Brookings Lumber and Box Company, which founded the city in 1908

Brookings, became the first site in the continental United States to suffer aerial bombardment in wartime the date was September 9^th 1942. A Japanese floatplane piloted by Nobuo Fujita launched from submarine I-25 was loaded with incendiary bombs and sent to start massive fires in the dense forests of the Pacific Northwest, The attack caused only minor damage.

 Fujita was invited back to Brookings in 1962 and he presented the town his family's 400-year-old samurai sword in friendship after the Japanese government was given assurances that he would not be tried as a war criminal. Brookings made him an honorary citizen several days before his death in 1997.