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.
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