Even though apparently Summer is halfway over, and riding season hasn’t really shown itself yet, we bombed the Sea-To-Sky under the cloud cover Sunday. Greasy spoon lunch, and beers on the Squampton Spit.

Luke, Lisa, Sandra and I rode to Woodlands on Sunday for a little dockside R&R. Half an hour away from Vancouver, but feels like a million miles away…

I double exposed this roll, a mixture of some of my ride up the coast on Highway 1 and my time at the Pendleton Rodeo in Oregon.

I could write a million different things about this trip. How amazingly beautiful that coastline on Highway 1 in California is. How that coastal road bends and weaves and dips like it was made for a motorbike to handle. How much fun it is to pass a few motorhomes and a couple rental cars over a double-lined straightaway, peashooter exhaust rumbling along at 6500rpm. How you can smell that sea-salt air when you come down from the mountains into LA.

And the people you meet along the way. I met a Top-Gun pilot who told us about some incredible obscure back-road hot springs. I met a few pornstars at a gas station who introduced me to Ron Jeremy at the Adultcon conference in LA. I met a badass Texan motorcycle mechanic who has my dream garage and the compulsory yard full of vintage bikes. I cruised on Sunset Blvd, went vintage shopping on La Brea, took in the MTV Video Music Awards after-party in Hollywood. I slept in the dirt. Cooked over an open campfire in Yosemite. Saw one hell of a Rodeo in Eastern Oregon. Used flannel shirts as a pillow. Grinned as I rode blanketed in California sunshine, and grimaced as I one-handed it through monsoon rains in the Pacific Northwest.

Either way, I can say I am truly happiest on whatever adventure I have found, riding a motorbike to a new destination, and being fully open to everything around me. Nothing comes close.

Went riding yesterday. Took some photos. Check out the guy’s shop at http://www.roguespeedshop.com/

Pure Inspiration.

Photo by Meansranker “Life on the PCH” for Citizen K magazine.

I stopped and re-read this about four times last night while reading in bed.

“They ride along the Pacific Coast Highway they take off their helmets and scream at the 100 mph with their heads back and their eyes open they’re free and on their own and it’s cold and dark and the wind is in their faces and they’re in love and they still dream, still dream.”

– Bright Shiny Morning, James Frey

This summer, there will be no doubt… I’ll be ripping on my bike down the PCH, it’s just one of those things that has to be done…..

Went out of town to Pt. Roberts with Luke and Ellyse on Thanksgiving Monday for a motorcycle trip to shake myself out of the self-induced turkey coma from the night before.  Here is the video, stills to come in a following post. Full quality in HD here: http://www.vimeo.com/7088694

The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.

~G.K. Chesterton

Footage: 5d Mark II/35mm 1.4         Music: Bombay Bicycle Club – Always Like This

As I drink my third delicious cup of coffee and outside fall rears its ugly head, I can only watch this and smile… What a way to cap off the best summer of my life.