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.
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