Going back to Cali

Every year in the dead of winter I start longing for a ride.  So I make my plans for the next riding season, which keeps me occupied for several weeks.  After last September's rain ride to Canada I decided to head for the sunshine, which means California.  Problem is, I feel like I've ridden about every curvy road down there, since I lived there and rode motorcycles for almost 30 years.  Then somehow I got wind of the fact that Butler maps makes road riding maps in addition to their Back Country Discovery route maps.  I had used a Butler map to plan my rides on the Washington Backcountry Discovery route, which I blogged about a few years ago.  I ordered a Butler map of rides in Northern California and discovered a bunch of roads I had never been on that were rated as great motorcycle roads.  I guess the reason I was not aware of them is because before the Internet I had been using AAA maps, which only show fairly major roads.  You have to get county maps, or Google Earth, to get the little squiggly ones.  I also saw that the highest concentration of these roads was in an area not too far from San Francisco.

So I hatched a plan to meet Jenny in Auburn for a three day ride with her.  By meeting in Auburn, which is about 100 miles east of San Francisco, I could avoid that tired old route of riding down hwy 5 and then 99 over to the coast to catch 101 to SF.
Another advantage of Auburn was that it was on the edge of this good riding area and we could return to the same motel each day and not have to take all our luggage with us on the rides.

Here I am loaded up and ready to ride.  I'm not getting any younger at this.

Since I didn't have to meet Jenny in San Francisco, I decided my first day would be to John Day, Oregon, which would include a lot of nice roads and good scenery.  For example, there is this spot that I often stop for the view of the Columbia Gorge.  The bridge in the distance is the one I would take over to the Oregon side of the river.

The route to John Day includes one of my favorite roads between the towns of Shaniko and Antelope.  I was vaguely aware that back in the 80's there was a cult headed by some guy from India that bought land and established a commune near Antelope, but they were no longer there.  A week or so ago there was a documentary series streaming on Netflix about this even and it was a really interesting story of a major clash of cultures.  It is called "The Wild Wild West", and I highly recommend it.  Basically, the cult took over the town of Antelope and elected their own mayor and sheriff, and taught their version of education at this school, which is now abandoned:

There is a cafe in town that is often shown in the documentary, but it too is now defunct:

Further along on my ride I rounded a turn at a brisk pace  to find a woman standing alongside the road urgently signaling me to slow down.  Good thing, because the local cowboys were herding cattle across the road:

I got to the motel in John Day about 5 o'clock after 347 miles.  After a shower I walked to a restaurant and nearly froze, as I had only brought along shorts and sandals to wear after changing out of my riding gear.  I think tomorrow I will sleep late and have a leisurely breakfast while I wait for it to warm up.