It had been a long time coming. Fifteen years ago, I set out to ride the Pacific Coast Highway, but mechanical problems had collided with my timeline and, while I successfully experienced L.A. to San Francisco, I was forced to skip the Oregon Coast in favour of a more efficient Interstate 5. Now, at long last, I was back — this time on a long-term test ride of the then all-new Suzuki V-Strom 800DE — and I was excited not only to put Suzette through her paces but also to finally finish what I’d started.
I found my trail exactly where I left it: north of the Golden Gate Bridge. There, the PCH rolled through Sausalito, a seaside town that had intrigued me since I was a teen and Diesel’s road-tripping anthem, Sausalito Summernight, played on constant rotation. The serpentine road eventually led me to John Muir Woods National Monument, where I wandered under earth’s tallest living thing: an old-growth forest of coastal redwoods. I could have been on another planet.
At Point Reyes, a winding side road led to KPH, the last ship-to-shore radio station on the West Coast. Its long lane ran beneath a tunnel of cypress trees which served as a necessary windbreak. Rounding Tomales Bay and riding through the tiny settlement of Marshall, I noticed
