The Ride's the Thing

Saturday was another El Niño day - one in which the weather was unsettled and dark clouds roamed the land, dumping rain randomly. Yet it looked dry enough in Los Altos, and I was optimistic enough not to go to the trouble of pulling the rainsuit over my leathers just to make the breakfast meeting.

Highway 101 was dry but cold all the way to Gilroy - I was just avoiding the bad stuff. But as I turned east onto 25, I saw I was heading toward a dark spot in the sky. Sure enough, it started to rain a few miles before the turnoff to Shore Road. OK, the breakfast restaurant was only 5 miles away. How bad could it get? After I pulled off my soaked leathers, I started to worry that I had misread the instructions, because no one else was there!

But very shortly, people started arriving. Sam Lepore and Rich Alves came in the door before I had all my gear off. Russ Drake quickly followed and soon there were 10 of us having a warm dry breakfast. The waitress was kind enough to take our picture.

Apparently, I had come at just the right time for the rain. Don Allison and Patrick Mulrooney were dry coming down 25. One of the last arrivals was Noemi Berry, looking as frozen as I have ever seen anyone. Remember that - she started off cold and tired.

Because the first thing she did was depart the tour with Bob Love to go have an adventure trying to go south on 25, known to be closed.

The official tour took off down 152. Initially without me, because I take so long to put on my raingear. Of course, the fact that we had all put on raingear stopped the rain and we had nice dry straight drive across the valley. And even though 152 is just a highway, it is a lovely one as it skirts the San Luis Reservoir. The early morning first view of the lake as one comes over the hill rewards the whole exercise of getting up too early and riding wet.

We stopped for gas in Chowchilla and then the real tour began, largely retracing Don's Range of Light tour, with some interesting exceptions.

Don't try this at home, even with Don's trip guide. While his printed instructions are quite explicit, the road signs are not and the road changes are sneaky. In last Summer's ROL, few of us took all the right turns and, as some of you will recall, three of us were so late, we got lost in the dark in the mountains and didn't make camp until 2 am. So it was a pleasure to ride behind Don and see how the route was supposed to go. Many times at intersections, I would say, oh yes, I remember coming in from the other side because I missed the last turn.

But it is a great trip, and this one was improved by the rain and snow. Yes! First, we were riding in the foothills and everything was a lush and lovely green seen through crystal rain-washed air. Then, every once in a while, Don and others would take off their rainsuits. Then I knew it was just a matter of time, so I kept my stuff on all day. I'll say one thing for Don though, he seemed to know just when it was about to pour again, and would stop the tour to slide into raingear.

Riding through the green hills with a gentle rain falling into the streams along side the road is good. There is something about seeing the drops make rings in the water that is wonderful. On the bike, you feel that you are in the middle of nature's performance and that you never could have seen this so intimately another way. It really was a gift to be floating through that part of the country just then.

I can't tell you just where, even after consulting my DeLorme, but Don detoured us through a stretch of dirt/mud. It was even but pretty slimy, so we all had fun sliding just a little. Don said that was just for me. I still don't know how Don found this road. He knows this countryside amazingly well.

Noemi and Bob caught up with us at lunch at Humphreys Station, where one of the waitress is aka "Hoochie Woman". They were unsuccessful at getting through on 25, being turned back by CalTrans employees, and had apparently ridden like the wind to catch up with us.

At lunch, Don announced we would not be following 245 up into the mountains as it was clearly visible that it was snowing up around 5,000 feet. He proposed a detour down into the valley. I decided that I would take the high route, or at least the Dunlap detour at a somewhat lower elevation, and Brad Hepler and John Caramagno independently elected to do the same.

After lunch, we ran down Maxon Road and went SE on Trimmer Road around Pine Flat Reservoir. This is always a memorable ride and one to file away for another day because of combination of comfortable but stimulating turns and relaxing vistas.

After the Shell station gas stop, we turned onto Elwood Road, back into the foothills. Now at 180, Don was planning to detour, but we were running late. He decided we were all competent enough to take the shortcut through Dunlap Road.

This was truly wonderful. As we climbed up the twisty mountain road, we began to see signs of snow. Soon, it covered both sides of the road, so that I could stick out my right foot and kick snow. And then, suddenly, we were right in the middle of the snowy mountains. The ground and cabins were all covered completely as we snaked our way through chilly villages and ranches. Even the tall fir trees were covered with a heavy layer that, melting, dropped on our caravan, occasionally pelting a motorcycle with a snowball.

This was like all of the old visions of Christmas in the Alps. And I was wrapped up in my raingear with a 77 watt Gerbing jacket next to my shirt. I was toasty warm and occasionally opened the visor to the frosty air just to drink in the scene. Later, Don and some others admitted to being cold. (I know Noemi must have been near death.) Don only had the Widder vest. There you go. If I had had heated grips, I would have been completely comfortable.

The snow had melted off the road, but it was wet with clumps of snow and lots of loose gravel. Even though we were travelling fairly slowly, I felt a lot of slipping, which may be a result of my riding style. At one point, I had dropped back to see if the rider behind me was OK, and then sped up to catch up with John in front of me, so I came into one corner fairly quickly, when I saw lots of black gravel. Rather than lean into it, I elected to ride straight into a convenient but snowy driveway, turn and continue. It was the only "event" of the ride that I know of. Despite all the terrain, and a widely spaced group, no one got lost and no one fell.

In fact, as I rode behind folks through the twisty mountains with rockfalls, slides, mud, and snow, I was progressively impressed with the riding skill of this group. Another rider shared with me the observation that in some other Bay Area riding groups, what is considered to be high skill is within NorCal only average. I was working inside my clumsy rainsuit, but it seemed like some of the guys ahead of me never moved a muscle and were just sliding through whatever came effortlessly.

Just before we reached Lake Kaweah, Don stopped and put on raingear again. How he does it I don't know, but five minutes later, it started coming down in buckets. We rode into Horse Creek campground streaming water.

The tour had arrived late, at about 4:30 pm. The other club officers had arrived promptly at 4 pm, in cars, held the meeting, and left shortly after we arrived. So the official meeting did not wait for the official tour and Don and I did not make our presentations. So anyone on the tour didn't do it to make the meeting.

In the last issue, the Lord of the Tour hoped that this month's tour would break the chain of campless meetings. It did. Lee Wolff and Ted Hutz had been there since Friday night. And John and Brad elected to join them. But none of the rest of us did. Let's see. It's 38º F in the afternoon. It's raining. Camping or motel? Hmmm. Hard decision.

In fact, Noemi, frozen hard-riding Noemi, said she hadn't planned to camp anyway. She rested at the campsite for about 30 minutes, and then headed back home to the Bay Area. She is tireless! She just came for the ride.

So did the rest of us, six of whom elected to "camp" in warm dry beds in Visalia. I had a good ride back with Steve Kesinger, and we did make it through 25, but that's another story. So, those of us on the tour didn't have a meeting, and most of us didn't camp. But we had an outstanding, memorable ride, and that's what's important. Thanks to Don for a pleasant and safe ride and a great route. I'm happy.

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