Even though this picture came out a bit grainy, it's my favorite shot of the bike from my recent trip. I bought this motorcycle (Suzuki DR650) in Oklahoma after taking a bus there, and proceeded to ride it nearly 4,000 miles back to Portland, OR.

This is sunset above Usal Beach, California, the bottom stretch of what is known as the "Lost Coast" - basically, highway 1 cuts eastward to meet up with the 101, leaving a strip of coast which has a ton of dirt roads and not much else to get to it.

This evening and the next day were the most interesting parts of my trip. Later on this day, I'd get my bike stuck up to the axles in sand and required the assistance of a drunk old man named Steve, who just happened by on a 4 wheeler. We tied a rope to the rear rack, and after much ado, managed to free it after about an hour. I lost my glasses in the process, and had to complete the rest of my trip without them... but luckily my vision is not that bad.

The next day, I met up with two random guys on KLR650s (a similar kind of dual sport bike), they'd seen my bike from this road going down into the valley, and wanted to stop and check it out. We figured out that we were all going north, so they invited me along... and somehow convinced me that taking my bike around a road closed sign and through about 30 miles of sketchy dirt back roads was a good plan. While I have a nearly bald rear tire. And no dirt experience.

I had a blast though. :) I'm really glad I did it, I gained a lot of confidence offroad, even though I was terrified for a fair portion of the day. When you're used to riding on the street, the feeling of the back tire breaking loose on gravel after you nearly bottom out the front suspension hitting a deep rut is very disconcerting...