"Quality is the parent, the source of all subjects and objects." - Robert Pirsig
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Updated 12 Jan 07.Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Travel Guide. You Too Can Become a Pirsig Pilgrim!This web page is a travel guide for anyone seriously contemplating a trip along the ZMM Route. This guide gives all the route numbers so you can follow the same highways described in the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM). To a good approximation, these were the highways actually taken by author Robert Pirsig in the Summer of 1968. This guide tells how to find many of the sights and scenes depicted in the book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" (ZMM). Published in 1974, this most unusual book on philosophy and right-living is a semi-autobiographical novel of author Robert Pirsig's actual journey through the American West in 1968. This travel guide should be used in conjunction with complete review of the information in my Web Photo Album, ZMM Sights and Scenes Illustrated. Captions of these photo are much more detailed and give specific specific reasons why certain route choices are to be followed, especially where ZMM is somewhat ambiguous. IntroductionThis summer you may decide to head for Minneapolis and try your hand at becoming a "Pirsig Pilgrim!" If you like the book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" (ZMM) and like to travel, you may want to retrace the route traveled by the father and the son from Minneapolis, MN to San Francisco, CA. You will be richly rewarded as you actually travel and experience the scenes of the book. As a pilgrim, you will relive the trip …. in a new way …. in a different dimension …. literally and figuratively. The essay by Thomas Steele on this website speaks to this mind-expanding experience of "co-living in the world of direct experience with the world of the novel." Click here to read Steele’s “In the Footsteps or the Bike-Tire Tracks…My Trip to Interview Gennie and Bob DeWeese” The exhilarating experience of the ZMM Route should be apparent in: 1) “My ZMM Experience”, link in menu upper left.
2) A study the photos of Mark Richardson or Gary
Wegner. Links are given in “ZMM Links” in menu
upper left. Use your computer’s Edit > Find to search
for these names.
Hey! Prepare Carefully!The ZMM Route is a long journey. The distance, traveling by way of Yellowstone National Park, from Minneapolis MN to San Francisco CA, is over 2100 miles. You will want to prepare for such a trip with great care. As Pirsig says, if you rush through the planning process, and you are not mindful, and you have insufficient care …. low quality will result! General instructions for travel preparation are given on ZMM p34. (Page numbers herein, apply to the Bantam New Age Paperback edition of ZMM.) Of course you should carefully study this Travel Guide and seriously study all my “Sights and Scenes” photos mentioned above. This reading before the trip, will not only help you avoid costly mistakes and accidents, but such reading actually prepares your mind to SEE. The prepared mind see’s much more and is less inclined to miss the things you want to see. I can tell you that during my 2002 ZMM Trip, I missed some really great views that I only discovered upon a second trip, especially thru the Beartooth Pass. Many of my Summer2006 pictures, posted my Photo Gallery this site, point out what my first trip missed. So read ahead and pan ahead! Attention! Important! Achtung! The information given below has been obtained from many people. More information about each person, marked with a person's initials, appears in the notes section at the end of this page. You will need maps.You should purchase a good detailed road atlas such as published by Rand-Mc Nally Company or consult your favorite map website or have a GPS. Author Robert Pirsig has accurately named the series of towns traveled to in ZMM, most especially after Yellowstone Park. The actual roads you should follow are fairly well defined by the towns so named. You could mark your atlas as you read ZMM, but this has been done for you by DiSanto and Steele in their Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (GZMM). I highly recommend that you purchase this book, since it has lots of very interesting and valuable information. In addition to the ZMM route map shown in Chapter One, the pilgrim will find the notes in GZMM Section 11 of special interest, while traveling the ZMM route. Since the GZMM map is pretty small, you should mark on your road atlas every town it shows. As an alternate, you may want to mark the on your atlas using the route outline below OR use Gary Wegner’s a very nice maps at ZMM route map and photo. Also you will want to take with you 1) a copy of this Travel Guide and 20 a copy of ZMM and 3) a copy of the Guidebook the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The Narrator’s Enormous Round Table At The University of Chicago.Pilgrims traveling toward Minneapolis from the Eastern USA may want to try their luck at finding the location of Pirsig's University of Chicago classroom and his ‘‘enormous wooden round table with the crack down the middle?’‘. Pirsig was enrolled in the U. Chicago Ideas and Methods graduate school program during the years around 1963-1966. Among the persons whom I have contacted at U. Chicago, no one seems to have any awareness of the ‘‘enormous wooden round table’‘ or even ‘‘the dreary room across the street from a hospital, where the late-afternoon sun from over the hospital roof hardly penetrated the window’‘ (ZMM Ch. 29 page 326, Bantam New Age edition). Professor Frederick Antczak, former Chair of U.C. Ideas & Methods, stated that ‘‘the Ideas & Methods Program in those days was in Cobb Hall.’‘ My ZMM Part III photos show the round tables I found at U. Chicago and say how to get there. If anyone has any additional information, please send me an email. Perhaps the U. Chicago registrar could be coaxed into looking up Pirsig's records and finding the room number of Pirsig's classes, if that still remains in the records. ZMM author, Robert Pirsig, lived and worked in Minneapolis, MN. This Is Pirsig's Hometown, and Has Many Noteworthy ZMM Sights.The ZMM novel itself points to Minneapolis as being the Narrator's home. As the story opens, the Narrator is ‘‘heading northwest from Minneapolis.’‘ He talks on (p5.7), about traveling ‘‘for miles on these roads,’‘ on various weekend excursions with his riding and drinking buddy John Sutherland. From this alone we are lead to believe the Narrator, his son Chris, John, and John's wife Sylvia, live in Minneapolis. Moreover, on page 143, ‘‘John mumbles something a few times, looks up and announces, ``This does it -- this just does the whole thing for us -- . Now we can go back for another eight years on Twenty-six-forty-nine Colfax Avenue.’‘ Minneapolis does have Colfax Street which runs from South to North just West of the downtown district. The 2649 address is not very far from the downtown area, but uncertain as to whether it is North or South of the town center. My photos for ZMM Part I show the house at this South Colfax address. See photos of this house in third album down at http://ww2.usca.edu/ResearchProjects/ProfessorGurr/gallery/albums.php?set_albumListPage=2 There is another connection to Minneapolis: Hanging in Phaedrus' English Dept. office in Bozeman was, ‘‘not a painting, it's a print of a painting he ordered from New York and which DeWeese had frowned at because it was a print and prints are of art and not art themselves, a distinction he didn't recognize at the time. But the print, Feininger's 'Church of the Minorites,' had an appeal to him that was irrelevant to the art in that its subject, a kind of Gothic cathedral, created from semiabstract lines and planes and colors and shades, seemed to reflect his mind's vision of the Church of Reason and that was why he'd put it here. All this comes back now. This was his office’‘ (p143). BP sent me the following email: ‘‘There is a painting in ‘‘the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis where Robert Pirsig is from. It is ‘‘The Church of the Minorites II’‘ by Lyonel Feininger and is undoubtedly the print that Pirsig had on the wall."
Which painting was Pirsig thinking of? It’s hard to imagine Pirsig not running into “Church of the Minorites II” at the Walker Art Center in his own hometown. The pilgrim may want to visit this museum to see the stunning painting in real-life and find out where a print may be purchased. Please email if you have any information. Here are two additional links of interest:
BP said in a recent email that there are WebPages which provide information related to Pirsig's life in Minneapolis. 1) History Maynard E. Pirsig father of Robert M. Pirsig and 2) Tribute To Dean Maynard E. Pirsig University of Minnesota Law School. In the ZMM afterword, Pirsig says of his son, ‘‘Chris's Grandfather lived in Minnesota.’‘ Pirsig is apparently of Swedish descent and has made several trips to Sweden and has lived there for a time. Click on ZMM Links in menu upper left. Ian Glendinings Psybertron Site Has a Pirsig “Timeline” which confirms my above stated connections of Pirsig and the ZMM Narrator to Minneapolis.
ZMM Route OutlineBelow I supply information that you may want to add to your road atlas. Town names marked with * are those actually named in ZMM. The ZMM route from Minneapolis* to the North Dakota border is not really specified in the novel. In the process of studying my Minnesota map, I deduced that the ZMM trail going northwest out of Minneapolis was most probably MN Route 55. This fits the clues given in ZMM: 1) It would have been a good way to go to the towns actually specified in North Dakota. 2) The Narrator misses the turn-off, which Rt. 55 has, soon after the town of Elbow Lake. 3) A turn-off such as this would have, as John says (p21.3), a sign ‘‘big as a barn door!’‘ 3) Continued travel, (now on US 59) fits because it would take our riders (as stated in ZMM) ‘‘over an Interstate Highway’‘ whereupon 4) U.S. Rt. 59, would continue to MN Rt. 210 where the ZMM Route turns West to Breckenridge*, MN (p25.9). In my Part I Gallery two photos which discuss at length the virtues of Rt 55 (above) in contrast to the less preferable Rt 10. Soon thereafter, the ZMM Route crosses the Red River and simultaneously changes to North Dakota Rt. 13 going west. This is the stretch of road where the Narrator, Chris, John, and Sylvia encounter the violent thunderstorm and the Narrator sees ‘‘remembered farm houses’‘ during the brilliant flash of lightning. Pirsig as Phaedrus, must have become familiar with this road as he went ‘‘home’‘ to Minneapolis from Bozeman many-a-time to see family, etc. ND Rt. 13 continues to the intersection of ND Rt. 1 where the ZMM Route turns South to Oakes, ND. In the novel, the first night's motel is not specified. From the clues in ZMM, it was likely on Main Street, Oakes, N.D. There are currently only two motels listed in Oakes, both on opposite ends of Main Street, which runs east to west perpendicular to the N.D. Route 1, through town. Although SL says the E & I Motel in Oakes fits the book's descriptions, it is a left turn at the cottonwoods contrary to ZMM’s stated right turn. The ZMM Route takes N.D. Rt. 1 South from Oaks, where it turns West on Rt. 11 to Ellendale*, N.D. SL says the Ellendale* Nodak Hotel, formerly the Blue Bird Hotel, is where the ZMM travelers had breakfast the second day. I agree, but unfortunately the restaurant here is closed and has moved about two blocks north on the same side. Continue via Rt. 11 thru Hague*, ND and soon thereafter turn South on U.S. 83. Cross into South Dakota, continue through Herreid*, turn west onto US Rt. 12, and continue through a series of N.D. towns mentioned in ZMM such as Mobridge* (Missouri River Bridge), Lemmon*, and Bowman*. The evening of the second day is spent camping at the Shadehill Reservoir (reached by S.D. Rt. 73) 12 miles south of Lemmon. Continue on US Rt. 12 and be sure to turn into the town center of Bowman*, MT to visit the Big J Restaurant. Continue on US Rt. 12, cross the state line into Montana, continue thru Baker*, MT and stop at a road side rest area just before Locate, MT, a town consisting of several home near a dry river. Continue through Locate*, MT, and start up the long grade and over the pass to Miles City*, MT where our ZMM travelers spend their third night. SL implies they stayed at the Olive Hotel which, as is shown in my photos, does have one of the old cast iron bathtubs. However as my photo for Olive Hotel says (with link to photo) the Narrator more likely stayed in the Parkview Hotel The ZMM Narrator does not mention the roads or towns they experienced from Miles City* to Laurel*, MT. The pilgrim may follow I-94. However I-94 here did not exist for the Narrator in 1968. Much of the Narrator’s road was covered-over by I-94 construction or remains only as a ”marginal road”. Close study of your atlas, of Mapquest.com, will show how to go through the Narrator’s Montana towns of Forsyth to Hysham, where care must be taken not to miss the road back to I-94. It is easy to continue on what looks like the main road. But this will take you over the Yellowstone River at Meyers Bridge and a long detour. My photos after Miles City, show an alternate, high quality route on the North side of the river. Our travelers spent their fourth night in Laurel*: SL says that on Pennsylvania Avenue is the "Community of Hope" charity organization. This is located in the former Heratage Haus. In the 1960's this was the Hotel Hurzler". I agree and show photos and location information here. At Laurel* take U.S. Rt. 212 thru the underpass and on to Red Lodge*, MT to Bear Tooth Pass (in Wyoming), to Cooke City*, MT to Yellowstone National Park, to Silver Gate, to Tower Junction, WY toward Mammoth Hot Springs, turn North on U.S. Rt. 89, exit Yellowstone National Park and on to Gardiner*, MT where our travelers spend the fifth night at the Hillcrest Motel. SL says that the new owner of the Hillcrest Cottages Motel knows his Pirsig, and keeps up the tradition of well fitted doors and perfectly mitered moldings that the Narrator observed while there in 1968. (See http://www.gardinerchamber.com/detail.asp?biz_id=160.) U.S. Rt. 89 returns the Narrator back to I-94 near Livingston, MT. The Narrator does not mention any highway names in this area, but MT Rt. 540 is an apparent alternate route, parallel to U.S. Rt. 89. The first 1/3 of this road is good gravel and rest is pavement. Since this road fits the Narrator’s definition of a good road, you should use it. The Narrator does not mention the road they followed from Livingston over Bozeman Pass to Bozeman*, MT. The pilgrim may follow I-90, or follow Narrator’s advice and choose to follow the marginal roads that run more or less parallel to I-90. On these marginal you can go more slowly, and stop to view the buffalo and rest = more ZMM like. (Mapquest.com, at the higher zoon-in levels, shows where you can find the marginal. But a very close map study will be required not to get shunted off onto a ranchers road with no convenient way to go west or get back to I-90!!) In the sixties, when Pirsig was a Professor at Montana State University at Bozeman, English classes were in Montana Hall. The Bozeman campus is south of Bozeman business district and the main street. When Pirsig looked out the window of his classroom, he could see the Madison Range* of mountains, which is southwest of Bozeman. The DeWeeses lived off Cotton Canyon Road, which is south of Bozeman. While in Bozeman, our travelers ride up to an old mining town and back. Pirsig's mountain climbing with Chris was further south. GZMM says: ‘‘the much larger creek in the distance (p232) was Hyalite Creek, parallel to and northeast of Cottonwood Creek from which they had ascended. The main downtown hotel'' was the Baxter at 105 Main. The serious ZMM enthusiast, to become a “Pirsig Pilgrim”, MUST visit Gennie DeWeese. Courtesy demands you call ahead to get an appointment convenient time. Her phone number is in the Bozeman directory or you may email. Her email address is on her webpage, DeWeese Art, found by a Google search for her name. Mr. Pirsig said in a recent letter, "To get a feeling of the mountains around Bozeman you might explore Hyalite Canyon, which is one canyon East of Cottonwood Canyon where the DeWeeses lived. If you drive to the end of the canyon and then follow the trail up to Hyalite Lake using a geodetic survey map you will see more trails branching from there that are fabulous climbs. Better be in shape though. My Part III photos tell how to find the Narrator’s (probable) climbing route. Places to see in Bozeman: The Bozeman bar where the Narrator said goodbye to the Sutherlands, was on a major street with ‘‘heavy traffic of out-of-state cars.’‘ Nearby was a park bench marked SENIOR CITIZENS ONLY, a place to get food and a filling station. All these places were within easy walking distance, by way of an attempted rest in a churchyard, through the local neighborhoods to the Bozeman campus (p155.1). The Narrator, Chris, Sylvia, and John stayed in Bozeman the 6th to 11th nights. The Narrator does not mention the Montana roads they followed from Bozeman* to Missoula*. (A now unavailable website from RJB used to be very helpful on this stretch; see below for more information.) For an interesting ZMM hi quality road, travel North from Bozeman leaving town on North 7th Street and proceed north on US 10 through Belgrade and Manhattan to Three Forks*. My Part III photos show an interesting short detour to where you can observe the confluence of the three rivers, of Three Forks, MT. Take Rt 2 West from Three Forks where it combines with Rt 287. Rt 2 branches off to follow the Jefferson River. The Narrator says: At Three Forks the road cuts into a narrow canyon of whitish-tan rock, past some Lewis and Clark caves. East of Butte we go up a long hard grade, cross the Continental Divide, then go down into a valley. Later we pass the great stack of the Anaconda smelter, turn into the town of Anaconda and find a good restaurant with steak and coffee. We go up a long grade that leads to a lake surrounded by pine forests and past some fishermen who push a small boat into the water. Then the road winds down again through the pine forest, and I see by the angle of the sun that the morning is almost ended (p235.9). This means that leaving Three Forks* the ZMM Route followed U. S. Rt. 278 to MT Rt. 2 which goes slightly beyond Butte* where close map study will surely find a secondary road connection to MT. Rt. 1, which will lead to the Montana towns of Anaconda*, Philipsburg*, Maxville*, Hall*, and then to Missoula*. After this and close map study, the pilgrim may choose interstate highways or secondary roads. After gusty winds, the Narrator and Chris are ready for a rest in a churchyard in Hall*. Out of Missoula*, MT the ZMM Route again takes up “good old” U.S. Rt. 12 Southwest to a restaurant several miles prior to the top of Lolo Pass*, where the road enters into Idaho. After 5 or 10 miles we see some logging road turn offs and head up (p243.9). This is where they camp for the 12th night. (I discover on my Wisconsin map that U.S. Rt. 12 is one of the old main “tourist routes” West out of Chicago to Minneapolis to Bozeman and beyond! U.S. Rt. 12 is paralleled 50-150 miles south by U.S. Rt. 212 from Minneapolis. Both of these routes go to Billings* , then go their separate ways to Yellowstone and Yakima in central Washington state.) ''This road keeps on winding down through this canyon. Early morning patches of sun are around us everywhere. The cycle hums through the cold air and mountain pines and we pass a small sign that says a breakfast place is a mile ahead. Soon a second sign saying CABINS with an arrow under it points off to the left. We slow down, turn and follow a dirt road until it reaches some varnished log cabins under some trees. We pull the cycle under a tree, shut off the ignition and gas and walk inside the main lodge. The wooden floors have a nice clomp under the cycle boots. We sit down at a tableclothed table
This is no doubt Lochsa Lodge as stated by RJB. Although Google finds many webpages that mention Lochsa Lodge. Here is the site of the Lodge itself. http://www.lochsalodge.com/index.htm Watch carefully for signs, because I completely missed this in 2002. Back on the highway, the Narrator says: On the road down the canyon now we feel the steady drop of altitude by a popping of ears. It's becoming warmer and the air is thicker too. It's goodbye to the high country, which we've been more or less in since Miles City. The ZMM Route continues on U.S. Rt. 12 through Lowell and turn South at Kooskia onto ID Rt. 13*. Soon we leave the river and the old sleepy buildings and now climb to some sort of a dry, meadowy plateau. ..At the top of the plateau at Grangeville, Idaho, we step from the blasting heat into an air-conditioned restaurant. Deep cool inside. (p259.1). From Grangeville, the ZMM Route follows U.S. Rt. 95. Back in the heat again and not far from Grangeville we see that the dry plateau that looked almost like prairie when we were out on it suddenly breaks away into an enormous canyon. I see our road will go down and down through what must be a hundred hairpin turns into a desert of broken land and crags. I tap Chris's knee and point and as we round a turn where we see it all I hear him holler, Wow!..At the brink I shift down to third, then close the throttle. The engine drags, backfiring a little, and down we go. .By the time our cycle has reached the bottom of wherever it is we are, we have dropped thousands of feet. I look back over my shoulder and see antlike cars way back at the top. Now we must head forward across this baking desert to wherever the road leads (p259.5). In 2002 I discovered that all the old gravel road and hairpin turns had been replaced by a superhighway. I was unable to find the old gravel road with all the hairpin curves that the Narrator and Chris followed. Mapquest.com, zoom level 9, out of Grangeville ID, will show where to turn onto this old road soon after Grangeville. And then the Narrator says The road has twisted and rolled over desert hills into a little, narrow thread of green surrounding the town of White Bird, then proceeded on to a big fast river, the Salmon, flowing between high canyon walls. Here the heat is tremendous and the glare from the white canyon rock is blinding. We wind on and on through the bottom of the narrow canyon, nervous about fast-moving traffic and oppressed by the fiery heat. (p260.2). Later, The walls of the canyon here are completely vertical now. In many places room for the road had to be blasted out of it. No alternate routes here. Just way the river goes. It may be just my imagination, but it seems the river's already smaller than it was an hour ago. (p262.2). The Road Atlas shows several roadside rest areas on U.S. Rt. 95 between White Bird* and Riggins*. At one of these the Narrator and Chris cool off with water pumped from an iron pump. The ZMM Route continues on U.S. Rt. 95 to New Meadows*(abandoned school yard with huge cottonwoods which I could not identify) and Cambridge*(supper) where it turns west on ID Rt. 71 to Brownlee Dam* and The USFS Brownlee Campground. This is announced by a little sign, where they camp for their 13th night (p289.0). The ZMM Route crosses, just after the Brownlee Dam*, into Oregon where the road leads to OR Rt. 86 to Richland*, and on to Baker*, where OR Scenic Route 7 will lead OR Rt. 245 South to a road that goes West to Hereford and then to Unity*. Turn Northwest on U.S. Rt. 26, which will lead through the Dixie Pass* to the Oregon towns of Prairie City* (for malted milks and letter writing), Dayville* (Gas station, the giant cottonwood trees, and the Chinaman's irrigation ditch), Mitchell* (This is the driest country yet.), and Prineville Junction* (A nothing curb, by some nothing gravel, at a nothing intersection.) My Part III photos re Prineville and Prineville Junction discuss the Narrator’s route here and why. The Narrator most certainly took Rt 370 from Prineville to Prineville Junction, a town no longer on many maps. Instead of going West as originally intended the Narrator, in state of great depression, turns South on Rt 97 to Bend* for supper. Further South on U.S. Rt. 97, the Narrator and Chris camp in an unsuccessful ‘‘housing development of ridiculous tiny lots’‘ for their 14th night. There is strange spongy dust under the pine needles. The rocks among the pines are volcanic! My photo for this part will help you find the likely spot for this camp site. Breakfast of ham and eggs is at a restaurant next to a filling station in Lapine*. The ZMM route continues on U.S. Rt. 97 to OR Rt. 138 where it turns West to Crater Lake*. ID Rt. 62 is a good way to continue South, but you should branch off onto Rt 427 to follow the old highway and hence look for the ZMM Restaurant along Klamath Lake. This is where the Narrator went South along the Eastern Shore* of Klamath Lake* where our travelers had lunch at a roadhouse in an unpainted wooden frame building with oily gravel in front (p313.4). In 2002 I followed the newer “thru highway” = Rt. 97 and thus did not see any restaurants. The Narrator realizes he has not chosen the best way to the ocean coast. To make up for his mistake, he follows the Southern Shore of Klamath Lake. (Mapquest. Com, zoom level 9, shows Nevada Street turns West off of Rt 97 at a major intersection and follows the shore to Lake Shore Drive and leads to OR Rt. 140 where they ‘‘leave the lake [going] to the west, toward the coast’‘ (p315.2). This must be OR Rt. 140 to Medford* since this road would go upward to forest of huge (Douglas Fir Trees).[where].. The road reaches a summit and then drops sharply into a valley …. that is exquisite (p317.8). When we're through the folded hills we come to Medford and a freeway leading to Grants Pass and it's almost evening ‘(p318.5). The Narrator and Chris probably took I-5 to Grants Pass* where they stayed the 15th night in a motel and found, the next morning, a Laundromat and a welder for chain guard repairs. The cleanest welding shop the Narrator has ever seen! From Medford, the ZMM Route would likely follow U.S. Rt. 199 Southwest, where as my photos for Part IV show, the route goes thru a fantastic redwood forest. Rt 199 goes to Crescent City California and turns south on CA Rt. 101 at the ocean coast. In Crescent City* CA, the Narrator and Chris eat at a fancy restaurant with red carpet. They see a beach from the road (possibly near Oirck) and spend time there for much needed rest. They arrive in Arcata* after dark and eat at a small dinner (p345.6). After a night-time very long, rainy drive to perhaps Loleta, CA or Fortuna, CA, they are forced by fatigue and the rain to exit the dangerous road conditions. We take the next exit from the freeway, hoping it will lead somewhere, and soon are on bumpy blacktop with ruts and loose gravel. I go slowly. Streetlamps overhead throw swinging arcs of sodium light through the sheets of rain. We pass from light into shadow into light into shadow again without a single sign of welcome anywhere. A sign announces STOP to our left, but does not tell which way to turn. One way looks as dark as the other. We could go endlessly through these streets and not find anything, and now not even find the freeway again (p359.4) [The only road/town that I found that fits this description is the road into Fortuna] . All around me it's damp and wet and foggy and cold, but clear enough to see that the motel we have stopped in is on a slope with apple trees down below and grass and small weeds under them covered with dew or just rain that hasn't run off. I see another slug and then another...my God, the place is crawling with them. and We leave and breakfast in a town off the road called Weott (p361.7). Although my Part IV photos show where to find a motel consistent with the Narrator’s descriptions, more search is needed. I did not see any of the slugs or find people who cold tell me where to look. Starting soon after Fortuna CA, there is a road called the “Redwood Highway” = Rt 254 = the old Rt 101 prior to the new super highway. Don’t miss it!! This old road can be identified on Mapquest.com starting as far North as Humboldt Redwoods State Park, near CA towns of Pepperwood and Shively and continuing South for probably 8 miles. This road is where I found the probable ZMM Motel at Redcrest, CA. For access, turn off “new” Rt 101 at Barkdull Road. Rt 254 is just down the hill from ZMM Restaurant town of Weott. Farther on at Leggett we see a tourist duck pond and we buy Cracker Jacks and throw them to the ducks and he does this in the most unhappy way I have ever seen. Then we pass into some of the twisting coastal range road (p361.9). At Leggett*, CA the ZMM Route turns West onto Rt. 1, which goes along the California Coast to Mendocino*, CA and the Mendocino Headlands State Park. We're on the Mendocino County coast now, and it's all wild and beautiful and open here. The hills are mostly but in the lee of rocks and folds in the hills are strange flowing shrubs sculptured by the upsweep of winds from the ocean. We pass some old fences, weathered grey. In the distance is an old weathered and grey farmhouse. How could anyone farm here? The fence is broken in many places. Poor.’‘ ‘‘Where the road drops down from the high cliffs to the beach we stop to rest (p363.9). There is a crisis developing between the Narrator and Chris. Very soon after they have lunch, probably in Caspar*, CA, they travel South and leave the highway searching for a place for a talk. Mr. Pirsig writes in a recent letter that the "climax" of the story was on a bluff, near the ocean, along the Point Cabrillo Road. The turnoff to this road is the Caspar-Little Lake Rd. off CA Rt. 1 between Caspar Creek and Doyle Creek. This is about 3/4 mile south of Caspar Road. The crisis, to our great relief, is resolved by surprising revelations! See my Part IV photos for instructions how to drive to the ZMM Climax location. Subsequent photos tell how to find the ZMM route from Caspar, over the mountains to Ukiah, CA. And so we ride on and on, down through Ukiah, and Hopeland, and Cloverdale, down into the wine country. The freeway miles seem so easy now. The engine which has carried us halfway across a continent drones on and on in its continuing oblivion to everything but its own internal forces. We pass through Asti and Santa Rosa, and Petaluma and Novato, on the freeway that grows and fuller now, swelling with cars and trucks and busses full of people, and soon by the road are houses and boats and the water of the [San Francisco] Bay’‘ (372.8) .’‘We've won it. It's going to get better now. You can sort of tell these things (p373.1). Mr. Pirsig says the he still has the 1964 Honda Silver Hawk motorcycle that made the trip. In a recent letter, he further stated that he and Chris rode this bike all the way back to Minneapolis. He even gave me the route back which I will Post ASAP. MANY MANY THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING PERSONS WHO HAVE GENEROUSLY CONTRIBUTED INFORMATION. RP = Robert Pirsig who has supplied the quoted information about hiking trails South of Bozeman and the location of the Climax scene. BP = Bill Paton is a "Solutioneer"
SL = Sven Lindqvist, an author who followed the ZMM Trail in May 1994, wrote up his experiences as a series of newspaper articles in the Swedish language. The first article appeared 4 August 1994 in the Kultur and Nojen section of Dagens Nyheter, Stockholm's morning pager. The last article, of which I am aware, was dated 18 August 1994, and ends his travel story at Bozeman, although evidently he traveled all the way to San Francisco. He my yet publish his entire trip in book format.
RJB = Robert J. Bannis is the author of the now unavailable webpage "Zen and the Road to Redmond” wherein he had shared his excellent knowledge of the ZMM Route from Bozeman*, Montana to Redmond, Oregon. He had posted photos and discussion of the locations of many ZMM sights and scenes along this route. The old web address no longer works: http://www.bmwmoa.org/rally2001/zen.htm
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