Ray's Mammoth Ride
by Raymond Samaha
I was strong armed into writing a tour report by Don, who took
advantage of my elation at being just elected to the Club to assert his
seniority. All I have to say, Don, is you'd better check your bike
really carefully before turning that ignition switch (hee, hee, hee); we
Lebanese are very adept at making things go boom. Anyway, a
promise is a promise, so I will try to write something about the tour,
but you'll have to bear with me given that English is not my native
language and all.
The tour started in Livermore at around 8:30 a.m., half an hour
late. Our tour captain, Jonathan, though, was understanding enough
to let us finish our breakfasts and fill up the bikes. From Livermore
we took some nice twisty backroads (Corral Hollow was particularly
nice) all the way to Knights Ferry where we took our first rest stop.
If you've never stopped at Knights Ferry I highly recommend it as it
is a charming little town. From Knights Ferry we headed towards
Strawberry where we had our lunch at the Strawberry Inn in a huge
tree house suspended from a couple of redwoods. The USGS
probably uses this contraption to simulate little earthquakes. The
damn thing shook constantly. It was a lovely tree house thought,
with nice views of the stream and forest below and the food was OK.
The only drawback was the waitress (owner) who was a bit on the
bitchy side.
After lunch we headed towards Sonora Pass and down 108, a
gorgeous road with amazing views of the valley below and a bit of
gravel sprinkled here and there. This was my first time in this part
of California and I was having a hard time keeping my eyes on the
road. Luckily, no mishaps happened except for a few minor rear
wheel slides, and we were soon merrily trotting our way along 395
towards Mammoth Lakes via Lee Vining.
Our fearless leader committed only a couple of boo-boos (now that
I am a member I can tease the Tour Captain, no?). It wasn't his fault
though; people, most probably Harley riders, kept switching the
street signs which caused Jonathan to do a couple of stoppies
followed by U turns. The stoppies very soon caused the rest of the
group to put a safe margin of about one mile between them and our
captain. But kidding aside, we took some really nice backroads, and
the pace was moderate since we mostly had first-timers and
soon-to-be-members in the group. We had no crashes, and the only
mishaps that occurred were small drops by first-timer Jessica who
was riding an R65. Jessica is about Noemi's size (vertically
challenged), and since her feet could not reach the terra firma, she
had problems holding the bike up when we stopped on slopey
terrain. Fortunately, there was no damage to bike or rider.
Overall it was a great ride on really nice roads, and for this we
have to thank Jonathan for a very well chosen and planned route.
Am I off the hook now, Captain?
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