From LA to San Fransico, then to Yosemite Park

After spending over a week in LA, it was finally time to travel around on my bike!

I dropped of Brice at LAX airport and went back to get my stuff. Then I set of on the route that John had given me for California. Most of the time I followed the PCH, the Pacific Coach Highway, but sometimes I went inland for nice motorcycling routes. Between LA and SF I was planning to camp for 2 nights. On the second day however, I fell softly when I went through a corner in deep sand. I did hurt my arm a little and felt like a hot shower, so I pussied out of camping and found a hostel in a nice little university town called something like San Louis Obispo. Pictures of along the way:

The third day I got close to San Francisco. Just before entering San Francisco the weather turned really grey and cloudy. It was as if the area of SF was just the exact location of bad weather. (the 2 previous weeks I had seen nothing but clear skies and sunny days) The next day it was still cloudy and a little rainy, from what I understood from other people is that San Francisco is known for its bad weather. I don´t have much pictures of SF because once I went sightseeing it was already dark and the night pictures didn´t turn out well.

The next morning I left for Yosemite National Park. I was really looking forward to riding over the Golden Gate bridge.

After leaving SF I turned East heading for Yosemite. Just before entering the national park I stopped at at tourist information spot to ask what the best way to ride through the park was. When I was about to leave the girl gave me a energy bar for on the way. Not having any food with me and since the US is kind of expensive, I asked if it was ok if I took a few. She said I could take as many as I wanted. I ended up leaving with about 75 energy bars which were really useful so far. It might sound a bit crappy, but the energy bars are actually really good. They´re made of nuts, honey and oatmeal and definitely beat my other cheap US food option: hamburgers.

View from the road looking down into Yosemite Valley with Halfdome mountain in the background.

From the tourist information to actually being in Yosemite Valley, which is the centre of the park, is actually still quite a ride. About an hour orso. So by the time I got there it was already getting dark. I had passed several campgrounds along the road but saw on my map that there were a few in the Valley as well, so I headed for those. When I got there, all campgrounds were based on reservation only, except for one, which was full. Not that it mattered, because all were full anyway. I thought about just sneaking on and setting up my tent but thought it would not be that hard to go to a campsite from before. I did find out on that campground in the Valley that there are a lot of bears in the park. I didn´t know about it before. I also saw a sign that said something like "This year 200.000 USD in damage from 100 bear attacks." (I forgot the exact numbers, but both were quite high). I certainly didn´t feel that happy anymore about my 75 energy bars in my backpack.

After this I quickly rode to the other campground. Just before I got there I stopped for gas at a fuel station. The owner of it turned out to be a Dutch guy and when I told him about my energy bars he said I could leave them in his gas station and pick them up the next day. After this I went to the campground across the street which was full but since it was so late there was no one at the front desk anymore. So I just set up my tent. I found out here that there are metal lockers everywhere in the camp in which everyone puts their food and other bear-attracting items (like deodorant, toothpaste, all of these can attract bears). The lockers are just a few meters from everyone´s tent though, so I didn´t really get why that would help. They could still smell it and after being frustrated about not being able to get to the food, they´d be right next to everyone´s tent. Maybe bears don´t eat people?

The night was very cold and sleepless since the altitude was so high (230o meters orso), but that did help me get up early. I left just before 7, right before the front desk opened so I didn´t have to pay. I then rode up to a scenic high point up in the mountains. I think it´s called Glacier Point or Peak. Since I was up so early, I was the only person up there. After chilling there for some time, I returned and saw many people coming up by car. Was really nice to sit high up alone on the mountain and enjoy the view.

Some pictures from along the road after Glacier Point onwards to my next destination.

LA with Jose, Brice and Sara

During the two days that John taught me how to do the maintenance on the bike, Jose showed me around LA. We went to the LACMA museum close to his house. I also joined him for his Krav Maga class, where I pretended to be a potential new member to get in for free. I was sore for days after taking that class...

Here´s a picture of some lights in front of the entrance of the museum. They had put the old city lights of LA there. The museum was also quite nice but I don´t have good photos of it.

After I bought my bike and did the registration and everything, I didn´t leave yet on the California roundtrip, because Brice, a Canadian friend that I also studied with in Korea, came over for a weekend in LA! Unfortunately, Jose couldn´t join us because he had to work that weekend for a convention that took place in Anaheim. It was nice to have another full weekend in LA, because I hadn´t seen that much of it yet.. being busy with getting a bike and all. So together we did a lot of typical tourist stuff, like visiting Santa Monica beach, checking out the nightlife and going to a baseball game.

In LA, just about every person owns a car. Also, everyone goes everywhere by car, even for the shortest distances. We however, were driving around 2-up on my KLR 650. Brice is pretty big guy, so to be somewhat stable on the road Brice had to really move to the center of the bike. This was of course very awkward for both of us, and resulted in many funny looks from just about everyone else on the road. Especially during traffic light stops where we just avoided eye contact with people. Anyway, here´s some photos of the weekend. (oh, and yes Brice, I stole just about all of these from your Facebook, I forgot to take pictures most of the time :) )

Santa Monica beach:

At Santa Monica beach we also met up with Sara, another friend for sudying in Korea. Really cool to see her again as well! After eating we walked along the Santa Monica pier, some pictures:

Santa Monic boulevard is filled with houses like the ones below. Very interesting modern architecture.

Santa Monica pier at night:

Brice an I went for unlimited Korean food on of the days, we had Korean BBQ until we were completely full:)

On the last day we went to a baseball game. I didn´t know much about it but watching it is very nice. There´s not always much happening so you have enough time to chat :) Of course I had a hotdog as well, you have to do cultural things once in a while.

Arriving in LA and buying my bike

I arrived in LA and was picked up from the airport by my Guatamalan friend Jose. He´s working as a Trade Commissioner in LA to promote trade between Central America and the US. I met him in Korea and hadn´t seen him for 4 years so it was really cool to see him again. He turned out to be the best host I could possibly think of and I ended up staying several days at his place . I think Latin American people so far are much more hospitable than Dutch people, which is definately something I ´ll try to be more when I get home. Unfortunately, I´ve lost the first pictures of my trip so I don´t have a good one of him. So I took one of his Facebook. I picked one with lots of tulips to make all the Dutchies reading this feel at home:)

The next day Jose took me around LA to look at 2 different bikes that I was interested in. I had contacted both sellers online before and they were selling quite different versions of the same model, a Kawasaki KLR 650. The first potential seller was selling a stock model, with the only upgrade being metal panniers. "Panniers" are metal boxes to the side of the bike to put stuff in. The other seller sold a 2005 KLR 650 with a lot of different upgrades, like better suspension, heated grips and metal handguards. In upgrades, the second bike was way way better. The only two downsides were that it had "soft" luggage, which is basically a metal rack on the back of the bike with bags on it, and that it was a bit above my budget for the bike.

I ended up going for the second, because it was a much better value for the money and because all the upgrades make it much better for the trip that I´m making with it. John was basically preparing the bike for a trip like this, but needed the money for paying for his daughter´s college. (And I doubt his wife would let him go on a trip like this:) )

Additionally, John was a really friendly and funny guy who taught me for about 2 days how to do the maintenance myself.

Here is a list of all the modifications to the bike. This will pobably be very boring to almost all of you, but I like to record it for myself:

Doohickey
Valves every 3000
Supermoto fender
Maier Brush guards
Mirror perches to relocate mirrors off of the clutch and brake perches in case of a crash
Heated grips
Renthal hi bend ATV bars
Summers Racing fork brace
SS Brake line for the front
Front pads are about 6 months old
12 v socket
Eastern Beaver 3 fuse block
SAE plug for a GPS
Odysey Battery 1 yr old
Spare clutch cable already routed on the bike
Petcock modified so it is no longer vacuum operated
Safety switches all defeated
Super stock foot pegs
Custom lowering brackets (these do not sit below the frame of the bike so they are good to go off road) now fits a size 14 boot.
IMS shift lever
Front forks have progressive springs and Race Tech Gold emulators fresh oil this May.
Cogent Moab Shock for the rear (bought last Sept)
IMS 6.5 Gallon Tank
Small pelican box for tire pump and gauge where the charcoal canister used to be and a larger one on the rear rack for tools
New Chain ring 47t and sprockets 14t and 16t and a 520 DID Gold chain. These have been on since May or June
Relocated rear blinkers using lockhart Philips blinkers
Turbo City Sequoia Rack and Tourmaster soft bags
Wolfman Tank bag
Moose Skid plate
Dualstar brakelight , cost 80 bucks, it has a strobe effect for the first few seconds that the brakes are applied to get drivers attention. Works wonders.
Low Buck exhaust mod with HMF tip, sounds great!
Rear brake reservoir guard
KLX Needle, slide drilled out, airbox opened and snorkel pulled, works awesome.
Spare air filter, UNI
Mefo explorer tires, true 50/50 tire, lasts a long time. Will do everything but deep sand and mud. These are less than ½ gone.
Rim Locks front and rear
Headlight protector
Extra jets
Magnetic drain plug

Here´s some pictures of the bike and learning about the maintenance:

The bike without the seat:
John lived in a house in Dana Point in Orange County. His backyard was a steep hill and in the top of it he has a treehouse that overlooks his house and the town of Dana Point. Just before he finished teaching me maintenance-stuff we went there and he helped me plan my route through California and have a beer. He said I wasn´t allowed to buy the bike unless I put a picture of his treehouse on my blog, so here it is:

John, a beer and a map of LA:And the view from the treehouse:
All ready for taking off!



It was getting late in the afternoon and I still had a few hours to drive from Dana Point back to Jose´s house. I rode all along the coast where I took this picture which I really like, since it´s sort of the beginning of my trip (being on the motorcycle at least). On the left you can see one of those Baywatch towers, I´m not sure if it was shot at this beach though.

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the site where I'll post stories and pictures about the trip that I'm currently undertaking. I'm planning to go from LA to Argentina and as of this moment I've already taken a few steps towards getting there and am now in Durango, Mexico.

During the last 4 weeks orso I've looked at 2 bikes, bought one and registered it, learned about maintenance of the bike (which I hardly knew anything about) and made a round trip in California. The seller of the bike called the California ride a "shakedown ride" to see if anything falls off, which was a fitting description. So if anything would fail or fall of or if I would need anything I would still be able to buy it in the US, where I speak the language and shops are easier to find.

In California I also met up with some friends, all of whom I knew from studying in Korea a few years ago. They're living in or visited LA. It was really really great to see them again!

Since I'm already a few weeks in this trip I´ll just post some pictures of the trip so far and just write about the most interesting parts. I don´t feel like being behind the computer all afternoon :)