The Rest of the Ride

Well, my blog on this ride sure has been a bust, hasn't it?  I didn't keep my daily updates mostly because while I was visiting people I didn't want to take the time out to do the blog.  It actually takes a bit of time to deal with the photos, especially if I have taken them with my phone.  I am also using an iPad tablet instead of a PC, and I'm having problems dealing with the change from a Windows system to Mac. 

I did take a few pictures and will try to describe the rest of the ride as I remember it. 

Jenny and I planned to ride down highway 1 to San Luis Obispo, so Saturday morning we suited up and took off.  Here is Jen ready to ride.

 

 The first section of the ride was over Skyline Drive past Alice's Restaurant and then down to Santa Cruz to catch highway 1.  We stopped at one of the iconic bridges that often appears in articles and videos about the coast highway.

 

And got another tourist to snap our pic:

  

 

But everybody takes a selfie nowadays, so we did too:

 

 

Here is a view a little more pleasant to look at.   

 

 

Jenny is developing more and more as a rider.  She is obviously more comfortable in the curves and picking up speed there.  Highway 1 sure has the curves, too, but being it was a weekend, there was so much traffic we didn't get to enjoy them much.  It's a beautiful ride, though, so we just sort of kicked back and enjoyed the scenery. 

 

After an overnight in San Luis Obispo, we headed back to San Francisco on some roads that lie between the coast highway and 101.  When I lived in Riverside we used to ride these roads when heading up to Laguna Seca for the National road races there.  There was one very interesting looking road (on the map, anyway) that we didn't ride back then because it was not paved, but now it looked like it was paved according to the map legend.  It goes through fort Hunter Ligget, which I thought was closed, but there was actually quite a bit of activity going on there.  However, the road got narrower and narrower until it looked like this:

 

 

Then we came to a sign that said the road was not through, even though it showed a through road on the map.  We turned around and went back through an area where there was a smoldering wild fire.  It was strange that as dry as California is, they were letting the fire burn.  We even came upon some live flames:

 

 

A close-up of that branch:

 

 

We eventually got back on the right road (Carmel Valley) which headed back to highway 1 at Monterrey.  From there we stayed on the coast highway back to Jen's house where we celebrated the ride in the traditional way with cold PBRs:

 

 

The next day (Monday), Jen went to work and I headed back south, only this time I took hwy 101.  Just south of  Atascadero I took hwy 58 over toward Bakersfield to get to my friend Jim's house in Tehachapi.  I remembered hwy 58 as having some great curves and which passed through ranch country that in the spring had beautiful grassy hills and fields.  Now, with the drought, the grass is not just brown, but is not even there......just bare earth:

 

 

Many of the ranches are up for sale......pretty hard to raise cattle with no grass.

 

Jim and I go way back to when we both worked at the same place and lived in Corona, CA.  Around 1970, we both rode our first enduro together (Jim said it was my idea), and got hooked on riding them.  Pretty much a whole day was wasted at work on the Monday after an enduro, due to our bench racing every mile of the event.  We rode many enduros together, as well as a lot of play riding.  After a few years, we even got street bikes and did some touring, including a ride from Southern California up to Canada with several other guys from the club, including Mike who rode the WBDR with me in August. 

 

During the summer, Jim and his wife Laura live in the mountains above Tehachapi at an altitude of over 5,000 feet.  They have some huge Ponderosa Pines on their property, but they have also lost several of them to Bark Beetles.  Here is Jim on the deck of their house:







 

And here are some of the views from that deck:

 

 

 

 

 

Jim says they have California Condors that perch in their trees, and also bears, bobcats and deer.  During the winter they move to a condo they own on the coast near Camarillo, I think. 

 

Jim was always a better rider than me, and eventually got into grand prix and best-in-the-desert competition where he did real well in his age group.  However, we played racquetball during my visit and I beat him, so there.  In fairness, he has had back surgery and is doing well just to be on two feet. 

 

We had a great visit and probably bored Laura to death with our stories of the "old days".  After a couple of days, though, I had to leave to meet Carolyn, who flew down to Orange County where our daughter Carol Anne and I picked her up.  It was a nice visit to Riverside and the places we used to live, dine out, and play.  Carol Anne has a nice apartment on the north edge of Riverside and we spent a lot of time around the pool, because it was hot!  Temps were in the high 90's. 

 

 

We also met daughter Karen and she and John treated us to a great dinner at a Korean BBQ down in Westwood. 

 

My impressions of Southern California after almost 20 years away are mixed.  On the positive side, I was impressed with the air quality.  Apparently all the smog control measures are having an effect.  The air was crystal clear the whole time we were there, and Carol Anne says there are seldom smog alerts anymore.  On the other hand, there are even many more people living there and the freeways are now often six lanes wide.  When I left Monday morning the traffic was almost dead stop from the bottom of Cajon pass to the turnoff for hwy 395, fortunately on the inbound side, not on my side. 

 

So now I was making time homeward bound.  I went north on hwy 395 past our old desert competition areas until I got to hwy 89 towards Lake Tahoe.  On the way I stopped at the Eastern Sierra visitor's center where I took this picture of the mountains that include Mt Whitney.  Carolyn and I climbed that once, I think about 1994. 

 

 

I also stopped at a rest stop at Mono Lake and got a bike picture:

 

 

Heading up 89 towards Tahoe, I took this picture of the area east of the Sierras.....pretty desolate and quite a contrast to the crowded cities of California:

 

 

I rode around the west side of Lake Tahoe and took this picture of Emerald Bay:

 

 

I spent the night in Tahoe City, and the next morning started out in the coldest temps of the trip; 44 degrees.  It didn't stay cold long, though, and it was nice to have cooler temps after the heat of Southern California. 

 

Hwy 89 crossed my southbound route at hwy 70, and then I headed toward the coast on hwy 36, cutting north on hwy 3 to 299 and Weaverville.  These last three roads are famous motorcycle roads and I can't get enough of them.  I had planned to spend the night in Weaverville, but it was early, hot, and windy, so I kept on to the little burg of Willow Creek on hwy 299.  My impression of Willow Creek is that it is the last hangout for 60's era hippies.  I would have loved to take some pictures of the locals, but didn't think it would have been received well. 

 

Wednesday I got to hwy 101 just north of Eureka and then rode 101 to Lincoln City where I spent the night at this place:

 

 

It was actually a nice motel at one of the best rates I had on the trip. 

 

Thursday I had a relatively short ride home over familiar roads, arriving around 1 pm.

Total miles for the trip was 3830.  I was gone for 16 days and was riding on 12 of those days.  The bike ran flawlessly.  I didn't have to add oil or even adjust the chain.  Total miles on the bike is now almost 111,000. 

 

Another good ride on Good Roads.