What's a good ol' boy from Georgia doing at the '49er rally? Havin' a good ol' time, that's what. And riding the wheels off his buddy's R100 GSPD. Yep, that's right... I've got a friend in SFO who actually lent me his bike for the weekend!
I'll keep this short... and just describe the ride back from the rally. Besides, 4 days and 1800 miles of Sierra twisties is probably more than anyone can stand to read about without lusting to ride there.
Got up early on Sunday morning, broke camp, had a monstrous breakfast at the Morning Thunder Cafe, and headed north out of town to visit Mt. Lassen. California Highway 89 splits off from Hwy. 70 a few miles north of Quincy, and with absolutely no traffic (and no CHP... they were everywhere this weekend), the trip to the Volcano was mercifully quick (and cold). I foolishly believed the weather report (and a post to the list) and left the cold weather gear in Atlanta. Thank God for heated grips, Aerostich suits and horizontally-opposed cylinders. It was C O L D !!!
Turning left on Hwy 36, Mt. Lassen loomed in the distance, looking pretty white. Indeed, the pass was closed a bit short of the summit, but after 6-7 miles of tight curves and tall snow banks, I got close enough for a good view of snow-boarding maniacs doing their thing down the sides of the volcano.
Back down the mountain and continuing east on 36, the road dropped quickly into the valley, and got warmer quickly, too. You could see Mount Shasta perfectly, one big white mother of a volcano, nearly 40 miles to the north. Heading south on I-5 for fifty miles sucked, but at least the wind was at my back. Soon I was heading west on Hwy 20 back into the hills.
40 miles of super sweepers later, a left Hwy 53 south took me to Hwy 29 and down the hill to Calistoga. What a great road! Steep grade, tight curves, wicked switchbacks and traffic that actually used turnouts! I almost turned around and rode it back uphill.
Instead, I took a right turn on the road that goes past the Calistoga Geyser. My timing was perfect and the geyser was going full-blast. Great... I could see it from the road and didn't have to pay!
Taking the road over the next ridge through Mark West got me to and through Santa Rosa... and into Occidental. Up the hill and into the woods, I was following a map that my buddy gave me to his camping club situated in a stand of redwoods near the Russian River on some Louisiana-Pacific property, right near the ocean.
After hanging out with him there for a while, I hopped onto the Pacific Coast Highway and headed south. Another 50 miles of the finest ride in the world took me to Dogtown, where a left turn on C-105 took me up the steep hillside for 10 more miles of incredibly tight lane-and-a-half wide twisties. This road connects with the Fairfax-Bolinas road, which goes along the ridge up to Mount Tamalpais. You've seen this road in car commercials on TV. I rode this both ways twice while gazing at the setting sun over the Pacific. Then down more intensely tight twisties into Fairfax, San Anselmo and back to my buddy's house in Novato.
On the way, I picked up some take-out sushi from Yu Shangs in San Rafael (primo stuff) and Asahi beer. The night was spent overdosing on Spider Roll, California Roll, Ikura, Ebi, Rock and Rolls and the X-Files. Life is good. The ride was great. The people who live in California and ride these roads all the time are indeed lucky people.
Thank you very much to the members of the Nor Cal BMW Club... you put on a great event. Now... let me tell you about Buck's Lake Road, the road through Forbestown and Challenge, Highway 49, the road past Gold lake, Antelope Valley, Highway 395 to Lake Tahoe, the forest service roads to Laporte... and the set of Gripsters I had to buy because I wore out the ones that were on my friend's bike...
Back to the Bookshelf...
Back to the Norcal Home Page...