A Story by Freeman “Woody” Wood and Alex “Snake” Cobb

Woody: Ahhhh, Northern California’s Shoreline Highway. Beautiful winding roads, stunning ocean vistas, rolling hills, and forests that seem to go on forever. It’s a motorcyclist’s paradise.

I’m flying along Highway 1 on a bright, sunny morning at around 60 mph, enjoying the scenery and looking forward to a day of pavement and dirt riding.

Then, out of nowhere, THWACK!

Something slams into the right side of my motorcycle. My first thought is that I’ve hit a large branch or some road debris. A split second later, I realize it was a small deer that had jumped out of the brush directly into my path.

Hitting an animal at speed is every motorcyclist’s nightmare. Typically, neither the rider nor the motorcycle fares particularly well. Fortunately, this time was different.

I’m riding the new 2026 BMW R 12 G/S, powered by a 1170cc boxer twin with its cylinders protruding from either side of the motorcycle. The right cylinder and its protective guard took the brunt of the impact. The BMW gave a slight wobble; I kept it upright, and we continued down the road.

Amazing!

It was one of several gold stars the Beemer would earn during our adventure, but I’m getting ahead of myself, which I tend to do.

Another Adventure With Snake 

Woody: My buddy Snake and I were embarking on a two-week adventure through Northern California, Oregon, and Washington, ultimately ending up at The Gorge Amphitheatre for a Rüfüs Du Sol concert.

Following our adventure through Colorado and Utah last year, we’d been itching to get back on the road together. Snake had never explored California’s Lost Coast, and a newly released Lost Coast Backcountry Discovery Route seemed like the perfect excuse.

For those unfamiliar with Backcountry Discovery Routes, BDR for short, these routes combine dirt roads, gravel tracks, forest roads, and occasional paved sections into multiday adventures designed for dual-sport and adventure motorcycles. They’re an excellent way to explore remote areas that most travelers never see.

The Lost Coast BDR-X promised a particularly appealing combination of rugged coastline, remote mountain roads, and giant redwood forests.

Snake: The Lost Coast is California’s most remote and dramatic stretch of coastline. Here, the King Range rises abruptly from the Pacific Ocean, creating a rugged landscape that has largely escaped the development found along much of the California coast.

I’d seen the photos and heard Woody talk about the area, but I’d never been there myself.

Inland is the equally impressive Avenue of the Giants, where a scenic road winds among some of the largest and oldest living trees on the planet. Throw in Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, another place I’d always wanted to visit, and this was shaping up to be an epic trip.

Our plan was simple: ride great roads, explore some dirt, camp a little, stay in hotels when we felt like it, and eventually meet our wives and friends at The Gorge.

As plans go, it was excellent. Whether we would stick to it was another question.

Bikes and Maps 

Woody: Last year, we rode our personal middleweight adventure motorcycles. This time, we wanted something different.

Our route included hundreds of miles of paved back roads, technical dirt sections, and enough highway riding to get us from California to Washington and back. We would also be carrying two weeks of clothes, camping equipment, tools, and assorted necessities.

We decided to take the new BMW R 12 G/S and the latest Honda Africa Twin. Both have serious adventure credentials, but they approach the job from very different directions.

The BMW has a wonderful retro look, a big boxer engine, and an unmistakable personality. The Honda is a more conventional adventure-touring motorcycle, with excellent wind protection and a reputation for durability and off-road capability.

We would alternate between them throughout the trip, which would give us a chance to see how each performed in a wide variety of conditions.

We will cover the motorcycles in detail in a separate review, but suffice it to say that both would earn our respect, and occasionally test our patience.

Snake: For route planning, we relied heavily on Butler Maps, including the Lost Coast BDR-X map and Butler’s Oregon and Washington maps.

For daily navigation, we also tried Organic Maps, a free, open-source navigation app that turned out to be one of our favorite discoveries of the trip.

Unlike the typical experience with Google Maps or Apple Maps, where the map disappears when cell service does, Organic Maps allowed us to download complete regional maps, including searchable points of interest.

We could look for towns, campgrounds, hotels, restaurants, and fuel stops without an internet connection. The maps loaded quickly, and we never found ourselves staring at a blank screen while trying to figure out where we were going.

Anyone who has traveled through remote areas knows how valuable that can be.

California Highway 1: A Perfect Beginning 

Snake: Our first day started at my house in Mill Valley, just north of San Francisco. We headed toward the coast and picked up Highway 1 for the ride north to Fort Bragg.

This section of the Pacific Coast Highway is simply spectacular.

The road twists along steep cliffs overlooking the ocean, passes through rolling farmland and tiny coastal communities, and occasionally ducks inland through dense forests. The farther north you travel, the fewer cars you encounter.

Past Jenner (population: 122), the road really comes into its own. The mountains meet the Pacific, and the pavement winds between them with seemingly endless corners.

It’s magnificent.

One of the highlights of the day, however, had nothing to do with the scenery.

Near Walsh Landing, we spotted a fellow traveler riding a tiny motorcycle, followed closely by an ancient Volkswagen Beetle serving as a chase car.

Naturally, we had to stop.

The two travelers were Brazilian and had embarked on an extraordinary journey. They had started in Ushuaia, at the southern tip of Argentina, and planned to ride all the way to Alaska’s Arctic coast.

The motorcycle was a 50cc machine that had belonged to the rider’s great-grandfather, who had purchased it in Vietnam roughly 50 years earlier.

Its top speed? About 30 mph.

Neither spoke English, and our Portuguese is nonexistent, so we pieced together their story using our embarrassingly limited Spanish. With the help of Google Translate, we managed to communicate well enough to understand the scope of their adventure.

Here we were, riding two modern adventure motorcycles loaded with sophisticated electronics and enough horsepower to comfortably exceed any speed limit in America. These guys were crossing continents on a 50cc family heirloom at 30 mph.

Now that’s a Lewis and Clark-level expedition.

The Lost Coast Gets Serious 

Woody: we headed north toward Usal Road, where the dirt on the Lost Coast BDR-X begins.

That’s when I had my unfortunate encounter with the deer.

After inspecting the BMW and confirming that both rider and motorcycle were in good shape, we continued toward the dirt.

Looking at the map, we expected a relatively easy forest road. And initially, that’s exactly what we got: packed dirt with occasional patches of gravel.

Then things changed.

The road narrowed, the climbs became steeper, and loose rocks started appearing everywhere. Before long, we were wrestling two fully loaded, 500-plus-pound adventure motorcycles up rocky hillsides.

This was considerably more technical than we had anticipated.

Snake: Considerably more technical is putting it mildly.

I started the dirt section on the Honda Africa Twin, and within a short distance, I was questioning some of my life choices.

The climbs were steep, the surface was loose, and the Honda was a handful with all our camping gear aboard. Standing on the pegs was exhausting, and I couldn’t find a comfortable position that allowed me to control the motorcycle the way I wanted.

The gearing wasn’t helping either. 1st gear felt too short, while 2nd wasn’t always happy with the speed I wanted to maintain.

We eventually swapped motorcycles, and the BMW was immediately more comfortable for me in the dirt. It felt lighter, more balanced, and easier to control while standing.

For a while, I was having a great time.

Then came King Peak.

Woody: After the first challenging section, we stopped in Shelter Cove to refuel and rehydrate.

The next section looked easier on the map, and initially it was. Smooth gravel, flowing corners, and beautiful scenery. Exactly the sort of riding we’d hoped for.

Unfortunately, as the road climbed toward King Peak, the gravel became deeper and looser, the rocks got bigger, and the switchbacks became increasingly steep.

These are not ideal conditions for a fully loaded large adventure motorcycle.

Snake: King Peak was my undoing.

Loose gravel, large rocks, steep climbs, and tight switchbacks combined for a particularly unpleasant afternoon.

Eventually, I put the BMW down, knocking off a fork guard and scratching one of those beautiful boxer cylinder heads.

The motorcycle was fine. My enthusiasm for off-road riding was not.

By the time we made it back to pavement, I was swearing I’d never ride off-road again.

Of course, I’ve said that before.

Camping Among Giants 

Snake: Fortunately, the day ended at Albee Creek Campground in Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

The campground sits among towering redwoods in a forest so dense that sunlight barely reaches the ground. After the dust, rocks, and frustration of the day, it was an extraordinary place to relax.

As a movie buff, I was also reminded that the redwood forests in Northern California’s Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park provided filming locations for the forest moon of Endor in Return of the Jedi.

It really does feel like another planet.

Woody: Snake isn’t much of a camper, so I appreciated his willingness to spend a night in the woods.

Unfortunately, I rewarded his flexibility by forgetting bug spray and matches for the campfire.

Fortunately, there was a store nearby. While I set up the tents, Snake headed out to pick up the missing essentials.

He returned with matches, bug spray, and, most importantly, cold beer.

All was forgiven.

After a long day wrestling big motorcycles through the mountains, a few cold beers and a peaceful night beneath the redwoods were exactly what we needed.

From the Redwoods to Crater Lake 

Woody: The next morning, we packed up camp, headed inland, and rode through the Avenue of the Giants.

There’s something humbling about riding a motorcycle beneath trees that have been standing for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years. Even on a large adventure bike, you feel very small.

We eventually rejoined US Route 101 (aka the Redwood Highway) and continued north toward Crescent City, a coastal town just south of the Oregon border.

Unfortunately, the weather had other plans.

The sunny coastal conditions we’d enjoyed earlier were replaced by thick marine-layer fog and freezing temperatures. Snake, being the wily character that he is, somehow managed to end up on the Honda, with its substantial windscreen and fairing providing excellent protection from the elements.

I was on the BMW, which provides approximately the same wind protection as a lawn chair.

Fortunately, the BMW had heated grips, which I cranked up to full blast in an effort to ward off hypothermia.

From Crescent City, we turned inland and headed toward Medford, Oregon, where we spent the night.

Snake: Medford wasn’t quite the charming southern Oregon town we had envisioned.

It turns out we were thinking of Ashland.

Whoops.

We got an early start the following morning and headed north toward Crater Lake National Park.

Crater Lake is simply breathtaking.

I have never seen water that shade of blue. The lake occupies the enormous caldera left behind when Mount Mazama collapsed following a massive volcanic eruption roughly 7,700 years ago.

Over centuries, rain and snowmelt filled the caldera, creating the deepest lake in the United States.

The color changes with the light, the clouds, and the angle from which you’re viewing it. Every shade seems more beautiful than the last.

Some sections of Rim Drive were still closed due to snow and fallen rocks, so we couldn’t ride the entire circumference. It didn’t matter. Crater Lake was one of the highlights of the trip.

It’s places like this that make me grateful for our National Park System.

Reluctantly, we left the lake behind and continued to Bend.

Bend, Thai Food, and a Little Movie Trivia 

Snake: Bend is another must-see stop in Oregon.

It’s an attractive, outdoorsy town surrounded by incredible scenery, with excellent restaurants and plenty to do.

Apparently, Californians have discovered this, too, much to the frustration of some locals watching their real estate prices climb into the stratosphere.

Fortunately, the locals were still friendly to a couple of visiting motorcyclists.

Our first stop was Wild Rose for some outrageously good Thai food. Dinner turned into a long, leisurely affair, and we decided to spend the night.

That turned out to be an excellent decision because a local we met there gave us some terrific advice about places to visit on our way north.

The best recommendation was Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood.

As a lifelong movie fan and collector of mostly useless trivia, I knew that Timberline Lodge had been used for exterior shots of the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.

I was thrilled.

Our new friend also told us to ask the front desk for “the axe.”

No further explanation.

We had to investigate.

“Here’s Johnny!” 

Woody: Snake is conveniently leaving out one important detail about our ride up Mount Hood.

It was freezing.

Once again, he’d managed to secure the Honda, leaving me to battle the cold mountain air on the BMW.

I was beginning to suspect this wasn’t entirely accidental.

Still, Timberline Lodge was well worth the ride.

Snake: Seeing the Overlook Hotel in person was fantastic. The exterior looked just as it did in the movie, and the building had that same wonderfully ominous presence.

Woody walked up to the reception desk and asked for the axe.

Without hesitation, the woman reached beneath the counter and produced a giant axe.

One side was inscribed “The Overlook Hotel.” The other side said, “Here’s Johnny!”

“Feel free to take it around the hotel. Just be sure to bring it back in 30 minutes.”

WTF?!

Predictably, we spent the next half hour wandering around the hotel with a giant axe, reenacting scenes from The Shining.

I can’t imagine why anyone would think that was a bad idea.

The Gorge: A Spectacular Finish 

Snake: From Mount Hood, we continued north toward The Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington, where we were meeting our wives and friends for a Rüfüs Du Sol concert.

I’d heard about The Gorge for years, but nothing prepared me for seeing it in person.

The amphitheater sits high above the Columbia River, surrounded by enormous cliffs and a seemingly endless landscape.

If you’ve never attended a concert there, I’m reluctant to describe the view in too much detail because part of the experience is seeing it for the first time.

Let’s just say it was spectacular.

After nearly two weeks of incredible scenery, The Gorge somehow managed to compete with everything we’d seen along the way.

Woody: Agreed! What an amazing venue and a fantastic show.

Unfortunately, our return trip didn’t go quite as planned.

Snake needed to divert to Seattle to visit an old family friend whose health was declining. With a lot of highway miles ahead of him, he took the Honda Africa Twin.

I pointed the BMW south toward Bend and eventually Truckee, California.

The return ride included plenty of rain, but fortunately, the wind was mostly behind me. That made the BMW’s lack of wind protection much less of an issue than it had been earlier in the trip.

And when the roads became twisty, the BMW reminded me why I’d enjoyed it so much in the first place.

The Adventure Is the Point

Woody: Over two weeks, we experienced spectacular coastal roads, technical dirt riding, immense redwood forests, freezing fog, rain, volcanic landscapes, mountain passes, and one of the world’s great outdoor concert venues.

We also encountered a deer, dropped a motorcycle, forgot essential camping supplies, met two Brazilians on an extraordinary journey, and wandered around a famous hotel carrying an axe.

Pretty much a perfect motorcycle trip.

Snake: I came away with a few observations.

First, the Lost Coast is every bit as beautiful as I’d hoped. Second, Crater Lake deserves a place on everyone’s travel list. Third, the Pacific Northwest has some of the best motorcycle riding in the country.

And finally, despite what I may have said halfway up King Peak, I’m sure Woody will eventually talk me into another dirt-road adventure.

Woody: Of course I will. I already have a few ideas.

After all, a great motorcycle trip isn’t necessarily about reaching the destination. It’s about the roads, the scenery, the people you meet, and the unexpected things that happen along the way.

Next time, though, I’ll try to remember the matches.

And avoid the deer.

---

RIDING STYLE: Snake

Helmet: Shoei RF-1400
Jacket: Richa Atlantic 2 GTX
Gloves: Klim Induction
Pants: Rev’It Dominator GTX
Boots: Gaerne G-Dakar GTX

RIDING STYLE: Woody

Helmet: Arai XD-5
Jacket + Pants: Alpinestars Halo Pro Drystar XF
Gloves:
Boots: Alpinestars Corozal

Lost Coast BDR-X and Beyond Photo Gallery