The Terror of Highway 101

At Crescent City, CA I picked up US 101, the old Spanish Camino Real. This road, connecting Canada to the north with Mexico to the south, wends its way into the redwoods and becomes the spine of California.  The bike was running flawlessly, as I heard these liquid-cooled BMWs do. Its total lack of vibration and its smooth acceleration up the twisting hills, seduced me. I was on the Starship Enterprise, or at least some sort of decadent Buick convertible from days gone by. Each time I passed the timeless shield signifying US 101, a tune from my childhood echoed through my head.  I had to change the words to suit me, with all apologies to Vaughn Monroe, the Cheers, and the Diamonds.

He wore black ballistic trousers and motorcycle boots

And a red armored jacket with a Beemer on the back.

He rode a hopped up ‘cicle that shot off like a gun,

And he was the terror of Highway 101.

I was probably six years old when this Lieber & Stoller hit played on AM radio, but it has stayed with me over the years. Right up there with Good Night Irene and Eddie Fisher’s version of Oh, My Papa. Call it the sentimentality of old age. For the hopelessly curious, the Lieber & Stoller lyrics are here and a version of the song is here.

It’s hard to describe the sensation of riding down the northern California coast, in and out of the fog, and then curving inland through forests of giant redwood trees. Here, it’s sunny and mild as one zips by a farmstead, and then suddenly cold and densely humid as one plunges  into the micro-climate of these enormous living things.

North of Humboldt Redwoods State Park I was able to pick-up “Old Hwy 101” which is known as the “Avenue of the Giants.”  It took me quite a while to get through as I was stopping frequently and walking into the woods. The trees are as big around as a truck and stand over 300 feet tall. In an area known as Founders Grove, commemorating the early 20^th Century visionaries who saved tracts of old growth Sequoia and Coastal Redwood forest from the lumbermen’s axes, lies the Dyerville Giant. This tree had been thought to be the tallest living thing on earth, taller than the Statue of Liberty or a 30-story building. It measured 362 ft in height and 52 feet in circumference. It was felled in a storm in 1991 and apparently the crash was picked-up by seismographs across California. Take a look:  http://redwoods.info/showrecord.asp?id=1710

Standing beside a fallen redwood

Avenue of the Giants

I set up camp at Myers Flats on the east bank of the Eel River and used some charcoal leftover from one of Jim’s feasts to grill a bit of dinner. With a couple bottles of local craft brew and Carol’s “iPod speakers” hooked up to the satellite radio, I spent a pleasant evening listening to Il Travatorre on the Metropolitan Opera station and giving motorcyclists a bad name. I guess it’s all a part of riding a BMW.

Campground music