don't sink mine: August 2015

On a week long trip to Costa Rica a few summers ago we made some local friends who invited us to the local rodeo just outside of town. We grabbed two six packs and met up with our friend Gabe who took us to the Rodeo. The rodeo was about 15min out of the town of Jaco in a smaller town called Herradura. We paid and walked in as i went to take a seat in the stands Gabe grabbed me and pointed down to the fences at ring level. Down we went to watch the bulls run around and chase the locals after the riders fell off. After a few beers and taunting form the locals we started to peek our heads out of the slits in the fence and eventually were out in the ring with everybody. The video explains the rest....

Sam Z Costa Rica Bull Run from Sam Zografos on Vimeo.

Since childhood i have always had a fascination for things with wheels Skateboards, Bikes, Cars, and Motorcycles basically anything that could make me go faster than running. About 3 years ago I was able to justify buying a motorcycle for "commuting". I have been around motorcycles since early childhood my uncles both always had Harley's. My dad had a bike or two growing up. As a kid i had a Suzuki 125 and a Honda 80 two stroke that i loved. Now after trolling craigslist for months i found the perfect bike a 1998 Honda XR650L with only 4k miles. By perfect bike I mean able to do just about anything with plenty of power and a simple air cooled single cylinder motor.

I always had the idea of packing up my bike and going on a solo camping trip, but was never able to find the time. Until this past weekend I managed to take a few days off of work and started planning my escape. I knew I wanted to ride Hwy 1 either north or south because of the views abundance of camping and relatively average speeds (+/- 60Mph). I settled on Big Sur as my destination because of its beauty and abundance of free camping and plenty of dirt roads.

This is the bike leaving SF Around 9 am for HWY 1.

Totally trespassing..

off Hwy 1 just past Carmel

The Beginning of old coast road.

This is where it starts to get real loose and fun.

Nice chill spot for a break.

After old coast road I stopped at the Big Sur River Inn for gas and lunch, got some strange looks going into the nice restaurant but whatever i needed to find a place to sleep...

I took this shot right past the town of Lucia where i thought had gas... apparently they took out the pumps years ago.. This part of Hwy 1 really makes you feel small.

Nacimento- Ferguson Rd. One of the best paved roads I have ridden on a motorcycle. the road is just inside the Los Padres national forest boundary. I rode up and down the road before settling on this spot to spend the night only because it had the best view.

I woke up and Headed to the town of Gorda CA, where i knew had gas. what i didn't know was how insanely expensive it would be.. and I thought big Sur was bad.. good thing i only needed 3 gallons.

On my way up Los Burros Rd, after getting gas i was having a blast getting loss on the bike going up the steep dirt roads when I finally broke through the clouds I stopped to take a picture and realized as i was taking this picture that my gas can was hanging by a thread and my hat was gone.... back down the road I went... I love that hat.

The visibility from the top of coast ridge road was mind blowing.

Cool camp site i found with a old tractor part used to make the fire pit.

Couldn't get enough of these views

Seemingly endless dirt road Smiles for miles up here on coast ridge road.

Sooo Good.

Once I got out of the mountains I headed for Limekiln state park and took the last walk-in site this place is booked up for months and I can see why, they always leave the two closest sites to the beach open for walk-in's.