https://youtu.be/jW55Y171mUM
It's called 271 again where it is also Drive Thru Tree Road in Leggett. This gets you through the troublesome section of 101 where bad things have been known to happen:
From Ukiah, a sweet alternative is taking 253 to Boonville at Hwy 128. Here's 253:
https://youtu.be/qnRZ_eAHr1M
Yes, there's a bug stuck to the lens. I prefer to not think of him as dead, just enjoying a low effort trip. Of course, he was dead by the time I got to Santa Rosa. But I think he had a great last ride. Boonville is home of Anderson Valley Brewing. I'm a fan of their Barney Flats Stout and also their Boont Amber Ale. Boonville had its own dialect (Boontling) of English for the longest time. The only bit of it I know for sure is Buckey Walter to describe a payphone. It seems Walter was the first Boonviller to have a telephone, and when the payphone was installed, it cost a nickel to make a call. Nickels were called Buckeys in Boontling. From Boonville, I took 128 to get back toward my destination.
128 comes to a junction. Left will take you back to 101, but right will take you to downtown Cloverdale on a very old alignment of 101--the current alignment bypasses the town. Cloverdale is a pleasant place to bimble through, and following the road through will take you right to Dutcher Creek and Dry Creek roads which will get you all the way to Healdsburg and 101 to points south.
I arrived in SR, picked up the jacket which fit like a glove, and then found my motel. After unloading and checking my work email, I made my way to a great yoga class and this time I picked out my dinner destination before darkness fell. La Perla this time. This was a chicken fajitas burrito:
Not great, but I liked it. There was a Mole element to the sauce.
In the morning, I wanted to try Skaggs Springs Road. Here's the route:
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/santa+r ... 665166!3e0
And here's the advance press on the road itself:
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/23029 ... gs-springs
What happened is that the Army Corps of Engineers put up a dam and flooded a section of the road some years ago. So they built a replacement section and built it to a much higher standard than the traffic would normally require. I can see how the new section came to be called 'Skaggs Springs Raceway.' Here's most of the new section:
https://youtu.be/o9e90AQltEw
Yes, those are log trucks coming the other way. And some of them are logging the Clark Griswold way:
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/b6c144a0-b ... a2d989c0b8
Up by me, they use chainsaws. But then, after Bungee Bridge things change:
https://youtu.be/HEi-ZJex1Lg
It gets down to a real goat trail. There was one spot, near the coast, that I swear I heard banjos playing.
At the coast I picked up Hwy 1. Soon I was rolling through Sea Ranch. Sea Ranch is a curious community, one that I (since the show ran) picture as populated with the people from the other side of the island from the TV show Lost. But I'm sure they're nice enough.
Hwy 1 was the usual awesome, even northbound. The road has a rhythm to it, almost like a yoga session broken up with some Vinyasa flow each time a creek meets the ocean in a canyon. One turns inland at the canyon, zigs and zags down the canyon wall, makes a big turn at the bottom, and heads back out westward on the other side of the canyon. Here's a sample--the vinyasa section starts about 3:30:
https://youtu.be/39xZGtyBRPI
Here's a generic grand Cali coastal view pic from right near Rockport, where Hwy 1 heads inland to get to Leggett:
I made it home just fine, after another great couple days on the moto.