This labor day weekend Russ and I decided on a camping trip up to Skaggs. We played most of it by ear, and didn't have too much planned out. Hell, we didn't even bring a map this time. Both of us needed new tires, so we started with both getting new tires shod (I got Dunlop Roadsmarts & Russ got Qualifiers) and meeting in SF on Friday afternoon.
Rode over the GG and took the twisty road to Stinson beach. Some traffic, but some fun stretches to be sure. Stopped at Tony's for some BBQ oysters and Tony burgers. Decent. Waitress took a long time, didn't get out of there until after sunset. Ventured up the coast in the dark, moving at a good clip. Had some fun surprises, a huge cow standing at the edge of the cliff around an uphill hairpin, a deer leaping in front of the car in front of us, and a tow truck with somewhere to be (the guy was hauling serious ass).
Finally made it up to Stewarts Point/Skaggs road by about 10pm. Rode a few miles in with highbeams, lots of fun with no lines or reflectors in the road. Slow going but very pretty and memorable to be navigating the redwood forest in complete darkness. Found a nice spot 30 feet in from the side of the road, and set up camp directly in front of a gate that said 'No trespassing without written permission'. Enjoyed a duraflame, some spaghetti-o's and a few rum & cokes under the star-filled sky. It was a treat camping with no rules, no quiet hours, and no other people or fires around.
Russ and I actually slept in a bit, and since my camelback leaked all over my tent, I had to take some time drying things before packing up and heading out. We headed east over Skaggs towards Lake Sonoma, and despite police presence, were able to pick up the pace to knee dragging speeds. One of my favorite sections in the road is where it dives downhill into a slightly increasing radius left-hander. Delicious. There's also something special about carrying peg-scraping lean angles with a tent and loads of camping gear strapped to the bike. My touring/commuting windscreen adds a special effect too, when I'm in race tuck I have the Fastrak (EZpass) right in my line of sight. After ~30 miles of fast sweepers, we made it to the Lake Sonoma lot. We rode to the lookout area at the top, a wooden deck with a spectacular view of the entire lake. I can't believe we've never been all the way up there before!
We headed into Cloverdale for lunch, and ate at a place called 'Pick's Drive-In'. Decent bacon cheeseburger and rootbeer float. After that, wandered over to the Visitor's Center to figure out where we wanted to head next. The woman working at the Visitor's Center was really nice, telling us how her brother recently won a Harley in some Miller sweepstakes. We decided to head 15 minutes north, cutting over to Hwy 175 to Clear Lake. 175 was a real treat, great pavement, little traffic, and no sense of anxiety about CHP presence. Definitely need to hit up 175 again in the future.
We stopped at the convenience store across from Foster's Freeze in Lower Lake for some trash watching. My apologies if you're reading this and hail from Lower Lake, but seriously, everyone there was a character. All the guys were shirtless and tatted up, with beer guts hanging out. All the girls, no matter how big or small, were wearing hideous cut-off jean shorts and smoking butts in the parking lot. A charming crowd for sure. After an iced coffee, nectarine, and gatorade we headed southeast towards Lake Berryessa. On Knoxville road approaching the dried up creek beds, we pulled over to the side of the road. Russ' Mille was having some issues with the last tank of gas, and we were letting the bike cool down when an old couple in a Toyota Yaris pulled over and asked us which way we were going. After indicating we were heading towards the lake, they warned us of all the 'mexicans and orientals' all over the place with their cars and tents and kids and guns....Being the polite Mexican and Oriental that we are, Russ and I politely thanked them and assured them we'd steer clear of any crazy gun toting immigrants.
The road down to the lake was super fun, Russ was going pretty fast through the dried creek bed whoopdeedoos. Once we finally got to the lake, CHP was all over. We took it easy and then parted ways and headed home. Overall it was a great ride, a big loop connecting a few of our favorite roads in the north bay. It was weird to not have Jon and Matt with us, but hopefully next time we'll have a crew.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
49er Rally 2008
For the second year in a row Jon and I decided to attend the BMW MOA '49er Rally' in Auburn, CA. It's a Memorial Day event that includes 3 nights of camping, a Saturday BBQ dinner, poker run, english trials, guest speakers, etc. Last year we had a good time exploring Gold Country on our bikes, and the weather was beautiful.
This year we enlisted Dave to come along on his 1150GS Adventure. Unfortunately Jon's bike was still stuck in the shop, so he ended up driving the Focus up to Auburn, as I wasn't keen on riding 2-up with Jon all weekend. We decided on meeting at the Arizmendi Bakery in SF on Saturday morning and leaving from there.
Saturday morning rolled around and it was rainy in SF. I packed up the FZ1 and headed out to meet up with Dave. We sat outside in the rain sipping coffee in our Aerostich suits until Jon rolled up, and we headed out. We had a generally uneventful 125 mile slab ride up to Auburn in the rain and traffic. The only real excitement came when we were just getting into Auburn and had a close call with 2 livestock trucks spewing poo all over the freeway. Luckily we were able to evade the poo shower and made it to the campground unscathed.
Once we got into the fairground we need to find a good (preferably dry) spot to camp. We ran into a few friends of Dave's who had setup in the sheep pens, which were relatively clean and completely dry (and no sheep). However, all of the pens were taken, so we had to settle for setting up camp in the pig pens across the way. They didn't smell too bad and I didn't see much pig shit, so things could've been worse. Literally sleeping in a pigsty was a first, an experience I'll never forget however hard I try.
The rain didn't show any signs of letting up, so we hopped in the car and went for lunch at a burger place called Ikeda's. The patty melts were incredible and we all stuffed our faces, completely disregarding the fact that we had tickets to a BBQ dinner just a few hours later. In the end it was a good move, because the BBQ dinner wasn't very good, and the portions were skimpy. Disappointing compared to last year, especially when it's raining and you've got nothing better to do than see how many ribs you can eat. The prices at the Bier Garten suffered from inflation as well, so after a few we ventured to Old Town Auburn. We ended up at a bar called the California Club, where the doofy bartender made us his signature drink called 'the orgasmatron' or 'the teabag', whichever suits your fancy. It was pretty bad, but he redeemed himself by making a decent g&t.
The next morning we got some coffee and listened to Dave Hough (author of Proficient Motorcycling) and Fred Rau rant for a little while. Then we went 'downtown' and had a good breakfast. Dave apparently didn't have enough of the wet weather, so he decided to spill his water all over himself. We got back to the fairgrounds in time to watch some English trials riding by some brave GS riders, and found that our area of the pig pen was turned into a water trap. The mud puddle stopped just inches shy of our tents, and we kicked some dirt and sawdust around to try and prevent it from creeping any closer.
After the trials, we head out for a ride. It wasn't raining anymore, and looked as though the sun might actually peek through the clouds. We went east to Foresthill and picked up Mosquito Ridge road, which is 600 curves in 36 miles of extremely grippy asphalt. We made it 20 miles before it started raining heavily and we decided to pull off and hike around a bit. There was a fleeting moment where I considered trying to go offroading on the FZ1 down a muddy fire road, but I wussed out after 100 feet and turned back. We hiked around until it started to let up a bit, and we decided to head back to the campsite before the storm got any worse. Heading back towards Foresthill it actually was dry after 10 miles, so I got to pick up the pace and have some fun for the last few miles.
The next morning we got up at the crack of dawn and headed out to beat the holiday traffic, and made it back to SF around 8:30am. All in all it was a wet weekend with more eating than riding, but it was a good time nonetheless. I plan on going again next year, but I think I'll pass on the BBQ dinner and pay closer attention to the weather.
This year we enlisted Dave to come along on his 1150GS Adventure. Unfortunately Jon's bike was still stuck in the shop, so he ended up driving the Focus up to Auburn, as I wasn't keen on riding 2-up with Jon all weekend. We decided on meeting at the Arizmendi Bakery in SF on Saturday morning and leaving from there.
Saturday morning rolled around and it was rainy in SF. I packed up the FZ1 and headed out to meet up with Dave. We sat outside in the rain sipping coffee in our Aerostich suits until Jon rolled up, and we headed out. We had a generally uneventful 125 mile slab ride up to Auburn in the rain and traffic. The only real excitement came when we were just getting into Auburn and had a close call with 2 livestock trucks spewing poo all over the freeway. Luckily we were able to evade the poo shower and made it to the campground unscathed.
Once we got into the fairground we need to find a good (preferably dry) spot to camp. We ran into a few friends of Dave's who had setup in the sheep pens, which were relatively clean and completely dry (and no sheep). However, all of the pens were taken, so we had to settle for setting up camp in the pig pens across the way. They didn't smell too bad and I didn't see much pig shit, so things could've been worse. Literally sleeping in a pigsty was a first, an experience I'll never forget however hard I try.
The rain didn't show any signs of letting up, so we hopped in the car and went for lunch at a burger place called Ikeda's. The patty melts were incredible and we all stuffed our faces, completely disregarding the fact that we had tickets to a BBQ dinner just a few hours later. In the end it was a good move, because the BBQ dinner wasn't very good, and the portions were skimpy. Disappointing compared to last year, especially when it's raining and you've got nothing better to do than see how many ribs you can eat. The prices at the Bier Garten suffered from inflation as well, so after a few we ventured to Old Town Auburn. We ended up at a bar called the California Club, where the doofy bartender made us his signature drink called 'the orgasmatron' or 'the teabag', whichever suits your fancy. It was pretty bad, but he redeemed himself by making a decent g&t.
The next morning we got some coffee and listened to Dave Hough (author of Proficient Motorcycling) and Fred Rau rant for a little while. Then we went 'downtown' and had a good breakfast. Dave apparently didn't have enough of the wet weather, so he decided to spill his water all over himself. We got back to the fairgrounds in time to watch some English trials riding by some brave GS riders, and found that our area of the pig pen was turned into a water trap. The mud puddle stopped just inches shy of our tents, and we kicked some dirt and sawdust around to try and prevent it from creeping any closer.
After the trials, we head out for a ride. It wasn't raining anymore, and looked as though the sun might actually peek through the clouds. We went east to Foresthill and picked up Mosquito Ridge road, which is 600 curves in 36 miles of extremely grippy asphalt. We made it 20 miles before it started raining heavily and we decided to pull off and hike around a bit. There was a fleeting moment where I considered trying to go offroading on the FZ1 down a muddy fire road, but I wussed out after 100 feet and turned back. We hiked around until it started to let up a bit, and we decided to head back to the campsite before the storm got any worse. Heading back towards Foresthill it actually was dry after 10 miles, so I got to pick up the pace and have some fun for the last few miles.
The next morning we got up at the crack of dawn and headed out to beat the holiday traffic, and made it back to SF around 8:30am. All in all it was a wet weekend with more eating than riding, but it was a good time nonetheless. I plan on going again next year, but I think I'll pass on the BBQ dinner and pay closer attention to the weather.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
