Thursday

Woke up this morning at six and it was not raining, but when I looked at the radar on my phone I saw it was not far away.  Got a quick breakfast and put on the rain gear.  This took about half an hour.  I have rain jacket and pants, of course, but also boot covers and glove covers and then rain covers for my tank bag and tail bag.  All of it worked through a couple of hours of steady rain.   Between Susanville and Oroville there are some really good roads.   Most notable of these are highway 89 and highway 70.  I think Big Mike and I rode these a couple of years ago on our ride to the Reno area.  Hwy 70, in particular, has some stunning scenery and lots of curves.  Unfortunately, it was raining the first rain in a long  time and I could actually see the oil/water mix on the pavement alot of the time.  I was riding a bit tense.  There were also rocks falling off the cliffs so there were some bowling-ball size rocks in the road.

Eventually I got past the front.  I checked the radar app on my phone to be sure.  This is a great app for a motorcyclist.  Here is a picture of it that I took after I had been past the rain band for awhile.

Later on when I was near Clear Lake, CA I ran into a little bit of rain and used the app to reassure myself it was just a minor shower, so I didn't stop to put on any rain gear.

We hear a lot about the drought in California, but I obviously was not experiencing any of it.  However, I did pass over a reservoir just outside of Oroville that shows an example of how bad it is:

I got to Jenny's house around 4:30 and found cold PBRs waiting for me in the fridg.  I rode just over 1000 miles in the three days to get here and managed to miss most of the rain, which I understand from talking to Carolyn is still falling at times at home.  My original route down the coast would have been about 830 miles.

2014 Long Ride

Tuesday, Sept. 23

Every year, usually in the late summer/early Fall, I like to do a multi-day long ride to somewhere.  These are all reported earlier in this blog.  This year I decided to head south to my old haunts in Southern California and on the way there meet up with Jenny for a ride down the coast from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo.  Since she only has certain weekends that she can get away for a ride, we chose the weekend of 27-28 September.  My plan, then, was to leave home on the 25th and make a two-day ride down the coast to San Francisco and arrive at her house on Friday evening.

As the date of departure approached, the weather predictions called for a drastic change from the long dry spell we had been experiencing into days and days of rain.  After keeping track of the predictions for a week before, it looked like I might be able to head east instead of south and maybe stay ahead of the rain before turning south and around the edge of the front.  So I left this morning (Tuesday) with rain predicted to arrive within hours and headed easti for John Day, Oregon.  I made it the whole day and 330 miles with maybe 10 drops of rain hitting my visor.  

I've done this ride to John Day quite a few times and it is one of my favorites.  It has many miles of Good Roads and lots of great scenery.  I think I posted this picture before, but I just love this section from Shaniko to Antelope:  

There was a lot of nostalgia in this ride, remembering rides with friends.  I stopped at the Service Creek stage stop where we had stayed several times.  Once after a blazing hot day which ended up with rain, we arrived at the lodge and nobody was there.  The place was open, so we  got inside, but we were getting hungry and the nearby restaurant was unmanned.  Desperate, I rode 20 miles to the town of Fossil and back to pick up a frozen pizza and a six pack of beer.  Neither fit in my saddlebags very well, so they were sticking out when I arrived.  There are still pictures of the "Pizza bike" posted on some walls.  Another time I remember late in the evening watching the International Space Station with the space shuttle following it pass overhead in the evening sky.  And then there was the time we watched a bull elk with an impressive rack walk past the lodge and then be silhouetted against the sky on the ridge behind the lodge.  Good times.  

Much of the route follows the John Day river through some beautiful country.  I was stopped at this road construction for awhile

And just turned around to snap this picture:

Tonight I am staying at the same motel that three of us stayed in once in the same room.  I think it has changed names, and the attached restaraunt is closed but it's atill the same relative bargan.  There are a whole bunch of Brit motorcyclists staying here.  I chatted some of them up and found that they are nearing the end of their ride that went from Santa Rosa, up the West Coast and then into the Canadian Rockies, returning through Glacier Park and Yellowstone.  Tomorrow they are heading west to Bend and then down to Crater Lake.  I think they are going to get rained on.  There must be a dozen of them and they are all on heir own BMWs that they shipped over here.  

Wednesday

Today was pretty much a "make mileage" day  to get to where I am staying tonight (Susanville, Ca).  It was a long day with  a lot of very straight roads and some high winds.  The wind was almost always a headwind and cut my gas mileage from high 50s to high 40s.  I stopped to get gas and saw this Harley   rider giving up and loading his bike into a trailer.  He said the wind was beating him to death.  

Along with the high wind was blowing dust.  At first I thought it was smoke from a forest fire east of Sacramento, but then I passed a dry lake where I could see the dust blowing off the lake.  It was pretty thick and coated my windscreen and visor.  

The bike is running good.  There were some times when passing where I felt it was down on power, but I think (hope) it was a combination of the headwinds and the fact that once I left John Day until I got to Susanville, I was never below 4000 ft.  It's strange that the country can be so high and yet be pretty treeless and flat.

All this wind is a harbinger of a weather front that is approaching and which is supposed to make for a rainy day for me tomorrow......at least in the morning.