Local Rider Leads the Way

I regularly visit and post on a website for Honda CBR 500 riders.  I discovered that one of them lived not too far from Auburn and contacted him a couple of months ago.  He gave me his phone number and said to let him know when I get in the area.  I did that, and today he led Jenny and I on some of his favorite roads.  Since he was leading, and didn't have an intercom, I could not get him to stop for picture taking, so this post is going to be short on pics, but it was kind of relaxing to not have the navigating responsibilities.

Turns out this guy likes PMTs and one of them that he chose had several of the first ever 5mph turn advisory signs that I have seen.  I've seen lots of 10s, but never a 5.  He seemed pretty worried before we started on the road that Jenny would not be able to handle it, but she soon showed him that she is a very capable rider and had no problems keeping up.  He did include some faster, smoother roads and we all rode at pretty much the same pace.  It was a nice ride, but we had limited time, as Jenny needed to ride another 100+ miles to get home and also wanted to beat the Sunday traffic returning to San Francisco.

We did get this self picture of us at our lunch stop:

Rick actually has two CBR500s.......a 2015 "F" model and a new to him 2015 "R" model, which is what he rode today.  He is a bit younger than me at 65, but he has been riding for a long time and claims to  have done some track and road racing.  He is a good guy.

We got back to the motel about 1:30, and Jenny was underway shortly after:

She sent me a text that he got home safely around 4:30, so it was a successful ride.

One of my best ideas for this ride was to go to one location and stay in the same motel the whole time.  This meant we didn't have to pack and unpack our luggage every day, and we also didn't have to ride with it on the bikes.  For me, I notice the difference in the handling of the bike when it has the extra weight of the luggage, but it also allows me to get on and off in the normal "cowboy" way of swinging a leg over the seat.  This is much easier and more natural than the "Rocketts" high kick to get on with the side cases and tail pack mounted.

Tomorrow I start the slog back home.  I packed clothes for a three day trip, but I should be able to do it in two days.  It is actually a shorter distance than San Francisco, which I always did in two days.  There is also a forecast for rain at home on Wednesday, which would be nice to avoid.

PMT

The Butler maps have a category of road they call PMT, which stands for "Paved Mountain Trail".  We rode several of them today.  They look something like this:

Or This:

They definitely slow the pace, but are also often pretty bumpy and dirty.  Sometimes they lead to interesting places, like this bridge to bathrooms that you couldn't get to:

Jenny was her usual rebellious self and disobeyed the sign:

Today went much better than yesterday as far as navigating because there were no  road closures.  We did have a scare when a road we were on had a sign that said "Road Closed Ahead due to Snow".  Then a little later there was another sign that said "Your GPS is wrong.  The road ahead is closed due to snow".  I figured we were going to be in for another day of map reading.  I decided to continue on anyway just to get a picture for the blog of the snow-closed road.  It was a lucky decision, because before we got to the closure, we were instructed to take another road that headed south, not further east into the mountains.

In general, I followed the planned route using the GPS for most of the day, with one exception being a small loop I had planned to take off of the main general ride loop.  For some reason the GPS has a hard time with a route that comes back on itself and then continues on.  It kept telling me I was off route and wanted to calculate a new route that usually meant turning around.  We finally gave up on it, but it only cut out maybe 10 miles or so.  Still, it was another eight-hour day of riding and I was a tired puppy at the end.  Jenny seems to have more stamina than me even though she rides less.  Could it be the age difference?

Since it was Cinco De Mayo, we went out for a fine Mexican dinner:

Change to plan B.......wing it

The best laid plans of this mouse went slightly askew.  We went about 40 miles on the planned route over a couple of super good roads, following my planned route on the GPS.  Then the next road, which also looked super............was closed.  There was no option but to return the whole way, which was not a bad thing as it was such a good ride.  Here is a pic I took of the canyon with the road far below:

But now the problem was I had no GPS route to follow.  We had to resort to (gasp) paper maps:

What a pain!  We made a long detour and got back to the point where the closed road would have put us and finished at least part of the planned route, with a lunch stop here:

It ended up being a long day.  We started riding about 8:30 and finished at 5:00.

The significant event of the day was happening back home.  Carolyn and her sister were over in Portland and this happened:

Our car is totaled but Carolyn and Lynda seem to be OK.  It might be a different story by tomorrow morning.

So who knows what tomorrow will bring?  Hopefully no closed roads or accidents

HooYa!

I rode 225 miles today and all but the first nine and the last ten were on super roads in perfect weather with no traffic.  In fact, that has been a feature of this ride so far ......I have had the road almost all to myself.  Not all the roads today were smooth and fast, some were like this:

But that was fine, because it made me slow down and enjoy the scenery.

I was concerned about running into snow, and I did come on some:

But the roads were dry without even much melt water to worry about.

I took this GPS shot on one of the best roads of the day.  This one was mostly fast and smooth:

As I got to the lower elevations it got greener and greener.  I don't think I have ever seen California looking better.

Jenny arrived at the motel in faster time than Google Maps estimated due to her getting aquainted with lane splitting again.  She also got to use the carpool lane.  Bikes rule in California!

Tomorrow we start three days of epic riding.

Transit Day

Today was about getting from point A to Point B.  Point B being Susanville California where I am now.  Not much in the way of twisty bits, and it was still a bit cool, but sunny.  I think one of the reasons it was cool is that between John Day and here I was always above 4000 ft altitude.  And it wasn't mountainous, either........just high level sagebrush country.  It didn't look high and if it was not for my GPS I would have thought I was more like sea level.

I did pass by one place that brought back memories.  In the little town of Seneca there was at one time a lodge that catered to motorcyclists and only motorcyclists.  I had read about it on some website and happened by there on one of my trips.  I stopped in but it was too early in the day to stay for the night.  I did talk to a woman who was one of the owners and she showed me around.  Some time later Carolyn and I were on a trip in the Miata and decided to give it a try.  This time we talked to the husband of the woman I had talked to and he wasn't gong to let us stay because we were in a car.  I mentioned that I had stopped by earlier on a motorcycle trip and he said that was the magic word, so we could stay.  It was an interesting evening.  I must say the guy was the most self-centered, egotistical, person I have ever met.  He could be entertaining, but you had to be totally subservient to whatever he had to say or wanted you to do.  He was also a musician and singer, so we had to be entertained and convinced to buy one of his CDs.  Later I read some horror stories by people who had been told to leave because they didn't conform to what he wanted out of the guests.

The place was originally a lodge for workers at a local lumber mill.  The motorcycle lodge was called the Bearcat Lodge.  It hasn't been operational for several years.  This is what it looks like today:

It is currently being used by some forestry outfit:

One of the things I forgot to mention about my ride yesterday was that I came very close to running out of gas.  I went from home to Fossil, Oregon without getting gas and when I did put gas in it at Fossil, I put 4.0 gallons in my 4.1 gallon tank.  I thought I was going to be doing some walking.

Well, tomorrow I start on one of the routes that I put in my GPS based on what I discovered in the Butler map.  I'm a little concerned about snow, or snowmelt on the roads up high, because  could see snow on the mountains on the way to Susanville.

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.

Polar Bear Run

New Year's day 2018 was dry, but cold.  Orv had asked me if I wanted to do the Polar Bear Run with him, and we decided to give it a go.  The Polar Bear Run is an event put on by the Christian Motorcycle Association every year on New Year's day regardless of the weather.  Usually it would be raining, but this was one of the rare dry January days.

Although it was dry, the roads were still damp in shady spots, and could be frosty.  I took a test drive at 9 am in the car on some of the roads near our house that I would have to ride to get to my meeting with Orv, and the car thermometer showed 29 degrees in some spots.......and there were some frosty looking areas.  We decided to postpone our meeting until 11 am to allow for a little more warm-up.

One of the essentials for me to ride in really cold weather is to wear a balaclava under my helmet.  There is enough air leakage into the helmet to get cold air above my heated vest collar and that soon hurts.

So, with the addition of long underwear top and bottoms, rain pants over my leather pants, heated vest over a long sleeve henley, and my leather jacket with the liner in, I was ready to go.
On the way to Orv's house I had my heated grips on the highest setting and my palms were toasty, but my finger tips were cold.  Otherwise, I was comfy.

The ride started from the Portland Cycle Gear store and by the time I got there I had already ridden about 40 miles.  There were a lot of bikes, even though we got there late and many had probably already started on the route.

The CMA were well organized.  This was their sign-up spot for people who had pre-registered.  I don't see any reason to do that.  You can save $5 off the $15 entry fee, but not knowing what the weather will be in advance, you could end up losing $10 if it was too nasty to ride.

This was the interesting looking guy at our sign up.

After downing a free bowl of chili (it was lunch time), Orv and I were off on the ride.  The club provided a route sheet with mileage to turns and road names.  We chose to do the longest route, which was about 90 miles.  Much of it was city streets or fairly straight country roads (I think the CMA is made of mostly cruiser riders), but we did find one nice curvy section that we had never ridden before.  It's pretty hard for us to find new curvy roads in the area, so this alone was worth the $15 entry fee.  I have already figured out how to incorporate it into one of our standard summer rides over to the coast.

By afternoon, the temps had got up to the mid 40's I guess, and it was quite comfortable.  It was a real treat to get in a ride at this time of the year, so we both enjoyed it, and maybe our entry fee did some good for the community.

You know those pins that the cruiser guys have all over their jackets (like the guy in the pic above)?  Well, this is how they get them, and I have one now too (not going on my jacket, though).