Bob's Trip Report September 9 - 16, 2006
Day One Saturday September 9th.
Planned Route:
My planned route for the day: North I15 to West SR91 to North SR71/SR57 to west I210/SR134/US101 to North SR154/US101 to Templeton.
Day One ride:
Before leaving Murrieta, I told my wife that I would take her to a late breakfast. She was already out doing things and I was busy getting the bike ready for the trip. Just as I was ready to leave, my number one son comes by with his wife and son. So that delayed me even more. By the time I left the house I was now going to meet the wife and oldest son/family at IHOP for a late breakfast. Once breakfast was over, I had to stop at the bank to get some traveling cash and top off the gas tank. All said and done and it was 12:00 Noon when I left the gas station to start the trip. At this point I also reset my tripmeter. I started north on I15 until SR91 West, then took SR71 north. 71 turns into highway where the traffic comes to a dead stop, so Lane Sharing; was required for about 2 miles. Once past the last light, I had open road until SR57 runs together with 71. I continue up 57 until it dumps in to I210 west bound. I stayed on the 210 where it turns into SR134 then in US101. I stayed on 101 into Santa Barbara where I stopped for my first break and gassed up. In SB I jumped on SR154 north and followed it up San Marcos Pass road and it dumps back into the 101 just north of Buellton. Still fairly clear traffic and I started watching for the signs to Templeton, our meeting point for the start of our ride. One thing about Templeton, there is not one stinking sign for the place until you are there! I kept looking so I knew how much farther I had to ride, but there wasn't anything! I finally found the town and escaped off the freeway. Since the house is located near the freeway, I was soon on the street and looking for the house. As I'm looking for it, I spoted Dave's ST1300 in a garage and figured that must be the place! Dave's old V65 Sabre is also sitting there, yeah team, I found it! Dave and his friend, Jim come out to investigate the noise in the garage only to discover that it was only me. So we spend the rest of the day listening to Dave and Jim telling stories about their days in the National Guard at Richmond, CA. From all the stories, must have been an interesting place to be....NOT! After a while, Jim's Girlfriend, Denise and her mother, Donnie came home. Pizza was ordered so we ate pizza, listened to more war stories about the NG and hit the sack around 10pm. The ride started out great, no mishaps nor close calls for either of us!
Actual Route: I stayed to my planned route; no detours/changes were made.
Mileage for the day: about 297 miles.
Day 2, Sunday September 10th
Planned Route:
Our planned route for the day: South on US101 to west SR41, then in Morro Bay, North on Hwy 1 to Half Moon Bay, then take 92 over to 280. We would then take Hwy1 to where it runs back into US101 at the Golden Gate bridge, then continue north on US101 to west SR12 to Hwy1 and Bodega Bay.
Day Two ride:
This day started out a little slow, I couldn’t get Dave away from Jim and all of their story telling! LOL The plan for the day was to take 101 down to 41 and follow it to Morro Bay, then take Hwy 1 up to San Francisco. The sun was sort of coming out and the closer we got to Morro Bay, the fog was getting thicker. The traffic wasn’t heavy, on 41, just slow. We had some guy on a Hardley slowing everyone up. He wasn’t even doing the speed limit and as soon as we could, we got around him and set our own pace. In Morro Bay, we spent some time trying to get the radios working. Going into Morro Bay, my radio was working just fine (Dave could hear me, but I couldn’t hear him). The more Dave messed with his radio, the worst mine got, until Dave’s radio was working just fine and mine wasn’t working (Dave couldn’t hear me, but I could hear him!). The radios became a real pain for us. After wasting about 30 minutes with the radios, we decided to just take off and use them where I could hear him, but he couldn’t hear me. As we went up Hwy 1, we were constantly getting behind Sunday drivers. At one point we got stuck behind yet another couple of very slow in the curves, Hardleys. They would go like a shot on the straights, and then slow down to 5 to 10 mph in the curves. This was driving Dave and me nuts, so Dave started pushing them a little until they finally pulled over. Their buddies were about 1 ˝ miles up the road by the time we got around them. We continued up Hwy1 behind Sunday drivers and it was FOGGY 99% of the way up. And it was also only 55 degrees, so it was a slow painful ride. Once we were above Monterey, we stopped in the little town of Marina where we stopped for lunch. It was already 2pm and we still had a lot of miles to Bodega Bay where we were stopping for the night. After a Kentucky Fried Chicken lunch and once we were able to figure out how to get out of Marina, we jumped back on Hwy1 until we came to SR156, where we followed it up to US101. Since I could read the maps in my tankbag, I was leading the way. As we approached the San Jose area, I wanted to avoid it as much as possible, so we took the 85 around SJ. I started looking for a gas station and from the freeway. You just couldn’t see any until after we passed them. I got frustrated and just took off an off ramp thinking we would be able to find one. As I went one-way, we had traveled about 4 or 5 blocks when I turned around and headed another direction. To our delight, we came across a 76 station where we filled up and took a break. After our break, we got back on the 85 and found the 208 and followed it for a distance. As we got closer to SF, it was starting to get cooler and we could tell there was fog up ahead, so when I saw a rest area, we pulled off to put back on our heavier gear. We again got back on the 208 and followed it up into San Francisco until we found Hwy1 again. We then followed Hwy1 until it runs back into the 101 and then up and over the Golden Gate Bridge. Of course it was REALLY FOGGY and windy until we got on the north side of the GGB, then it was just REALLY WINDY! It was blowing so bad that I had to lower my shield so I wouldn’t get blown all over the road. At one point, I was able to escape the locked in feeling of the vehicles around me, but it was a few minutes before Dave was able to do the same. As Hwy1 turned back into US101, I ran out of map and needed to pull over so I would know what way to go to get to Bodega Bay. I repartitioned the map in my tankbag and we also changed our face shields to clear since it was starting to get dark. Dave and I continued up 101 until we came to SR116 West. Although Dave told me we wanted SR12 West, I could see that 116 was a short cut to 12 and cut off maybe 5 miles. We found SR12 and took it West and by now, it was pretty dark and as we got away from the little towns we were going through, I started getting worried that we would have a Bambi encounter. The roads were very dark and as we got closer to Bodega Bay, the fog was getting thicker. We finally found Hwy1 and started north on it. Since I couldn’t remember the name of our motel (Bodega Harbor Inn) we were just sort of looking while riding. Dave saw it as we passed, so we had to turn around and find the road up to it. It was about 8:45pm now and the office was closed, but our keys were in an envelope in a basket by the front door! Once in the room, we decided we needed something to eat. We walked over to a little restaurant only to find it had closed at 9PM, some 5 minutes before we got there. So we went back to our bikes and started back towards town. We found the Tides Restaurant was still open, so we went in there and had dinner. Of course, it was the most expensive place in town to eat, but it was the only thing open. After dinner, we stopped by the local gas station, only to find it had closed 5 minutes before we got there and since their pumps were locked (no 24 hour gas there…) we had no choice but to come back in the morning. So we headed back to our room, played with the radios again and thought we had them working and then hit the sack.
Actual Route:
We varied from our planned route a little bit; on the north side of Monterey, we took north SR156 to US101 to avoid more delays and cold weather going along the coast on Hwy1. Further north, I took a shortcut, SR116 to SR12 to save a few miles going to Bodega Bay.
Mileage for the day: about 352 miles.
Day 3, Monday September 11th
Planned Route:
Our planned route for the day: Take Hwy1 north to US101 north then take the Avenue of the Giants and back to US10, then east on 36, north on 3 and east on 299 into Redding and finally north on I5 to our motel in North Redding.
Day Three ride:
Our day started off with the fog coming in and out and with us thinking about breakfast. So we got ready and started walking to our bikes only to notice that the motel provided coffee, hot chocolate, boiled eggs, toast and bagels. So we grabbed some grub and went back and ate in our room. After breakfast, we loaded up the bikes and got ourselves ready to take off and found that the radios still were not working! GRRR! We headed down to the gas station that was closed the night before, gassed up and Dave played with his radio a little more. After a few minutes, we figured that they just were not going to work and gave up and took off. We knew we were going to have a busy and long day, but we didn’t really know just how busy it would be! Following Hwy1 up the coast is a real experience, and with all the fog and the cold (still at 55) it made it not as enjoyable as I had hoped! The fog was following the coast up, so the farther away from the ocean we were, the fog would get thinner or be gone completely, but would then come back as we got over the next rise. This is how it was the entire trip up Hwy1! Something Dave noted about that section of Hwy1 was; it follows the landscape pretty well. As you would go down into a gully, the road would have a very sharp hairpin at the bottom. This made for some real interesting riding. But at least we learned to know what to expect when we started down another gully. We had only gone maybe 16 to 20 miles when we came upon Fort Ross. So we decided to stop and take a “quick look”. Our “quick look” turned into about an hour, so now we were about an hour behind schedule and we still had a long way to go! We thought since we were short on time that maybe we should just go up to 101 and then jump on the 36, instead of our original plan of going through “Avenue of the Giants”. This proved later to be a smart move. So we proceeded up Hwy1, passing the little towns like crazy. One thing we couldn’t believe were all the construction sites as we headed up Hwy1. Seemed every so many miles, they had a lane closed. Then we were just coming into a little town, just south of Fort Bragg, when we had our first Bambi encounter. A small deer ran across the road in front of the car in front of us. As we went by where it came from, Dave spotted a second. I didn’t see it, I was watching for the first to come back across. Glad the second didn’t move on me, I wouldn’t have seen it until it would have been too late! I also might note here that both Dave and I are colorblind, which make Bambi sights that much more difficult. We stopped at Fort Bragg for lunch (it was around 2pm). Once back on the road, we immediately found ourselves behind a little ole lady in a Large Ford or Lincoln (I can’t remember). I figured if I stayed on her tail long enough, she would find a nice place to pull over, which is what she did, some 10 miles down the road! From there on, besides construction on every turn, or so it seemed, we continued up Hwy1 until it took a turn from to ocean in what was the beginning of lots of twisty road that we would be on for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. That section of Hwy1 had some turns where you could see the back end of your bike coming in behind you. Of course, there were a few pickups pulling trailers and even though Dave and I did very little Double Yellow Crossing, I made an exception here and took them out ASAP! After a distance, the warm air started hitting us and we had to pull over to change to cooler gear. We were there for about 10 minutes when a SUV that pulled over for us earlier went by, and a short time after they went by, we were back on the road. It didn’t take long before we were on their tail. But this time they weren’t going to pull over for us. So after lots of opportunities for them to do just that, I passed them, but Dave wasn’t able to. So I had to wait for him and with that going on, I didn’t look at the map real good and instead of turning right to go to Legget, I turned left and we missed our gas stop. Not that we really needed it, we just wanted to take a break. After a while, I spotted a gas station and when I started to pull in, I heard some skidding really close by….oops, I just stopped faster then Dave was ready and he just missed me….Close call Number 1. When we found out that we had to go to the store about 100 feet away to pay for gas, since they didn’t have CC readers on the pumps, we just took off, figuring we still had plenty of gas to get us to the next station. A number of miles down the road, we found a bigger station in Piercy where we did stop, gassed up and took a short break. Just about the time we were ready to go, some trucker started talking to Dave and I just really didn’t want to waste anymore time, so I took off and Dave got the message so we were back on Hwy1 riding through the redwoods! Because of our late start and how long it took us to get to 101, we decided to for-go the “Avenue of the Giants” and push our way up to Fortuna where we would take Hwy36 to the east. From Piercy, where we filled up, was roughly 208 miles to Redding, so we had plenty of miles to go! Off on Hwy36 we got stuck behind some local yokel that like playing games. He wouldn’t pull over, nor go over 55 on most of the road, but when we hit a straight with broken lines for passing, he took off to keep anyone from passing him. This really pissed me off, so I got on it and flew around him before he knew what passed him. Unfortunately, Dave couldn’t get around him too, so I had to wait (again) for Dave to catch up. But that didn’t take too long, our radios might not have been working, but I would raise my arm up if traffic was clear for Dave to pass, which is what he did. It wasn’t long after that and we had the road pretty much to ourselves! It was really great road too. As Dave pointed out later, we had no Chicken Strips left on our new tires! As we were climbing one section with a passing lane going in our direction, I noticed a logging truck just about at where the passing lane ends. I calculated we had just enough time to get around him if we hurried, so I motioned for Dave to pick up the pace so we could get around him. We just barely made it with little road to spare. Hwy 36 seemed to go on forever and at one point we were heading up another steep hill when I noticed that the road no longer had a double yellow going down the middle, in fact, it didn’t have any line at all! Just as I realized that, I was coming to a blind turn so I decided to get over to the far right of the lane. No sooner I moved over and a big 4X4 came screaming the other direction like he was the only one on the road or something! This scared the heck out of me! Well, we continued the climb and started down the other side, I’m not sure how long that stretch of road was, but I was sure glad to see the double yellow reappear! We continued on 36 for a little while longer until we came to Hwy3. Hwy 3 turned out to be an interesting highway. Not long after we got on Hwy 3, it was starting to get late in the day and we decided it was time to go to clear shields. While on Hwy3 we had our close encounters with the Bambis and came across most of our Bambi sightings. I was coming around one curve and a small fawn ran across the road, right in front of me. That made me think I needed to slow down a bit. After that, I started seeing deer here and there. As we were riding through one town, the road was very straight for a couple of miles and I could see what looked like a dark spot in the road. As we got closer, I was able to make out that it was a full sized deer standing in the middle of the other lane. When we were about 100 feet from it, it moved off to the other side. There were a number of sightings for the next 10 to 15 miles. It was dark by the time we came to 299 and it was a welcomed sight! It was much straighter than either 36 or 3, so it was better riding. We were still on the lookout for deer, and even saw a couple on the sides of the road, but we didn’t see any more in the road. We finally arrived into Redding and followed the signs to the I5 freeway, but by the time we got close, I saw the road we were looking for that would put us at our Motel 6. We got to the Motel around 9:30 PM. Another very long day!
Actual Route:
We varied from our planned route a little bit; because it took so long to get to US101 from where we were, we by passed the Avenue of the Giants and went on ahead to Fortuna and SR36 east. We pretty much stayed the course the rest of that day, other then once we got into Redding, we never found the freeway until we found out motel, which was just on the east side of the freeway.
Mileage for the day: about 379 miles.
Day 4, Tuesday September 12th
Planned Route:
Our planned route for the day: Take I5 north to Shasta Lake, short stop over for saddle adjustment. Back on I5, north to Weed where we would eat, then north on 97 to Klamath Falls. Once in Klamath Falls, continue up to 62 and go to Crater Lake. We would then back track and find our motel off 39 south.
Day Four ride:
Our day started off warm (finally!) and we had to get a early start and travel up I5 a short distance to Shasta Lake so I could get my saddle adjusted by Russell. We easily found Russell and they worked on the saddle for just over an hour. I wanted them to recover it also with leather, but they told me they wouldn’t be able to that day due to time, so I’ll have to reschedule a time to mail it back up to them. I think I’ll have the rear seat done also, so it will match. We still hadn’t had breakfast and decided to wait until we got up to Weed before eating. So we jumped back on I5 and headed north. Weed was only 64 miles away, so we figured an hour wouldn’t be that bad of a wait. That stretch of I5 is pretty interesting since the road has lots of curves and has a number of bridges going over Lake Shasta. We made pretty good time and we were in Weed before we knew it. I stopped at a gas station and we decided since we still had plenty of gas, to just continue through town and find something to eat. I rode right pass a restaurant and started on Hwy97going out of town. I couldn’t see much up ahead for food so I pulled to the side and Dave said he saw a restaurant back by where 97 had started, so we turned around and headed back into town where we found it. It was a nice little Mom and Pop type place, so we had brunch (11am by then) and were happy campers once again with our bellies filled! We were there for a good hour when we decided it was time to continue our ride. Our destination was Klamath Falls and that was about 74 miles away. 97 was pretty straight and had a few small passes to go through, but we were able to make good time and didn’t have any problems on it. Because I didn’t have my map ready for Klamath Falls, we missed our turn and stopped at a city park. They had an old locomotive sitting by near where we stopped, so we each took a couple of pictures of us there. I pulled the map out and figured the route we needed to follow and went the long way, going south on 97 a couple of miles, to 140 east to 39 north, to our Motel (Another Motel 6 – beats camping!...;-) We saw later that we could have stayed on the road through town and would have gone right to 39. Then going south a couple of miles, we would have found the Motel. Oh well, what’s a couple more miles? After checking, around 1:30PM, Dave was talking about waiting until the next day to see Crater Lake. After looking at the distance we need to travel the next day, I talked him into going after a short rest. It would have been just too much mileage to cover if we waited until the next day. So after getting a little rest and since the bikes were unloaded, we took off on north 39, running into 97 again and continued up next to Klamath Lake. That’s one big lake and of course, we hit construction where we were down to one lane for both directions. One would think with all the construction we came across on our ride, our roads would be in beautiful condition, instead of what they really are! )-: We jumped off on Hwy 62 and headed towards Crater Lake. At one point, we came to a little area on the side of the road with a diagram of what Crater Lake looked like when it was a mountain. It sure lost a lot when it erupted. I think something a lot of us don’t think much about is all the different volcanoes around California. Some of which I remember being told as a kid that were dormant for millions of years. Like Mount St. Helens, many are still active; they just haven’t erupted anytime lately. Dave and I finally arrived at Crater Lake. Unfortunately they have had a fire going on up there for sometime now and this day the wind was pushing the smoke over the lake and it cut down our visibility by quite a bit. We rode the rim road and since my camera has a neck strap, I was taking pictures as we were riding. It was fun to be able to snap a few pictures where otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to. There just weren’t turnouts in some places on the road. As we worked our way around, we did find numerous places where you can pull over for taking pictures, it was great. One thing I didn’t know was that they had boat tours. It’s too bad we didn’t have the time; it would have been fun to take one of those and would have been able to see Crater Lake from the water. We took a short break at the “Crater Lake Village” before heading back to Klamath Falls. Our trip back was uneventful and it seemed to take forever. By the time we got back, to the motel, we were both so tired we didn’t even want to have to ride anywhere for dinner. Thank goodness, there was a great diner right next door! That was a close one!
Actual Route:
What we changed on the route this day was to go directly to the motel, instead of heading up to Crater Lake. Dave really wanted to wait for the next day to go up there, but I’m glad we didn’t. It would have put us in Reno about 6 to 7 hours later and would have made for a very long day!
Mileage for the day: about 323 miles.
Day 5, Wednesday September 13th
Planned Route:
Our original planned route for the day was to go through Lassen, but because of our day two and three rides, we decided to cut it short and take a straighter route to Reno. We decided to stay on taking 139 south then east on SR299 over to US395, then down 395 to Reno.
Day Five ride:
We loaded the bikes and rode maybe a mile and we came to a gas station, so we gassed up and hit Hwy39 south. We traveled for about an hour and came to the little town of Merrill and Dave saw a restaurant that we just passed so we did U-turns (Dave cut his U-turn too tight and almost lost it! Close call #2) went back and had a great meal. During the meal, a guy that has ridden all over the world, started talking to us about our ride and bikes. He even gave us each a buck for Reno..;-) After our great meal, we continued on 39 south which turns into CA 139 once you cross into California. As we approached Hwy299, we looked at the map and decided to continue down 139 to Susanville. While traveling down 139, by Eagle Lake, we came across more construction. This time it was tar and pebbles. We were taking it easy, going only 40 to 45 mph, and while looking at the lake I got too close to the side of the road where the little pebbles had accumulated and I went into a slow speed wobble. Since Dave was in front of me he didn’t get to see the action! It took a number of feet before I was able to work myself back to the road and out of the pebbles! That shook me up a bit, I could just see me going down from that little mistake. But since I was able to keep a cool head and didn’t make any sudden moves, I was able to get myself out of it. Shortly after my little excitement Dave decided to pull over, right near a lot of rock and I told him it wasn’t solid enough to park in, so we went up a little further where we were able to park in the dirt. That was better, at least our bikes didn’t sink as bad it the dirt as they were in the rocks. We took a short break and got back to business. Since we were keeping our speed down, some dufus came screeming by in his 4X4 throwing rocks all over. None hit me, but shortly after that, we hit where they were actually working on the road…another delay due to CalTrans! I lost count how many times we came across these Guys and Gals from CalTrans! One lane and they took us over fresh tar, which I avoided by riding on the opposite side of the road. We finished 139 with a number of sharp curves here and there and hit Susanville, where we didn’t stop since we had plenty of gas and weren’t hungry just yet. We had to take 36 over to US395 and at that point we stopped for lunch. Once lunch was finished we returned to US395 and continued our trek to Reno. Other then the construction again limiting traffic to one lane for both directions, and waiting for about 15 minutes for them to let us through, the ride to Reno was uneventful and very straight. I think we were in Reno by 1:30 or 2pm. But as we found out shortly after checking into our hotel (Silver Legacy) we were glad we checked in early. It was a mad house later that afternoon! The Silver Legacy turned out to be our best lodging of the trip! It was a VERY NICE room! Dave and I took a short break then went to look for an early dinner. The little café had just what we needed: Steak and Lobster, and the price wasn’t too bad either! We walked around the Casino, played a little slots (only for entertainment of course) and retired to our room so we could have a fresh start early the next day.
Actual Route:
With us deciding to cut the route short and take a straighter route to Reno, we even changed that once we got to the 299. Looking at the map, I saw that it was a straighter route just to stay on 139 south. So we did just that, into Susanville and then followed 395 into Reno.
Mileage for the day: about 259 miles.
Day 6, Thursday September 14th
Planned Route:
Our original planned route for the day was to go through Reno taking US395 south to Carson City, get something to eat, gass up and then haed down to Sonora Pass (SR108), catch 49 south through Jamestown to gas up and have lunch, then head east on 120 through Yosemite and end up in Lee Vining just north of the 395 and 120 junction.
Day Six ride:
Sheesh what can I say about how the day started other then IT WAS WINDY and somewhat cool!!!! VERY WINDY. Did I say it was windy? It was! We left the Casino and headed for I80 and back to south bound US395. We had earlier decided to go to Carson City to fill up and have breakfast. Not having a good map of CC, I was just sort of playing it by ear, but I did find us a Denny’s for breakfast and a Shell station to fill up at. So my excellent sense of direction again proved itself!...(-: While at the Shell station I looked down at my oil level only to discover that it was lower then I wanted, so we had to back track a very short distance to a Kragen’s and I picked up some motorcycle oil and filled to where it needed to be. We were soon on our way again! With fighting all of the wind sure made the ride a little more interesting, that’s for sure. I had to lower my windshield down to its lowest setting to keep from getting blown all over the road. And as big and heavy the ST1300 is, I was getting blown around pretty good. We followed 395 down a good ways until we came to Sonora Pass (SR108) at which we headed west. Now this is a road that Dave has been bugging me to ride during the Spring Flings, but this last year, it was closed anyway, so we couldn’t do it. Now, here it is September and it was nice and clear. The road was clear, the sky full of clouds. And it was still windy! And of course, since Sonora Pass is 9624 Feet up, we had a lot of twisty road and the wind blowing us all over to boot! And it was getting colder for every foot we went up in elevation. After passing a few cars and other bikes, Dave and I made it to the pass, so we stopped and took a couple of pictures. I couldn’t believe how many vehicles went by while we were there all of 15 to 20 minutes. Of course the west side of the pass was pretty much all down hill. We made pretty good time going down the mountain, although we had a few motorcycles, trucks pulling trailers, and other various obstacles, etc… to get around, most pulled over for us. Nothing worse then following a newbie on Hardley in the mountains, similar to us following the Hardley rider over Hwy1 the previous Sunday! But she and her riding companion pulled over and let us by! The rest of the ride down 108 was uneventful and Dave took the lead as we soon found Hwy49 which we headed south on. A short time later, Dave spotted a Standard station which we wanted for gassing up. Somehow Dave missed the driveway and ended up at the station next door and as I pulled up to a pump, I didn’t see Dave anywhere. What the heck? Where did he go? I dismounted and walked over to the fence that separated the two stations and there he was at the first pump, gassing up. So I went back to my bike and filled my tank. As I finished I got back on my bike to go find Dave as he was going around to find me. We missed each other the first time and as Dave was about to go over to the Chevron I spotted him and started honking (okay, I’m sorry…beeping) my horn. Dave heard me and then stopped where he was and waited for me. Once together again, Dave said that there was a little Café just down the road a bit so we headed there for lunch. We had a nice lunch, which Dave informed me was the meeting place of the ST1300 group a couple of months ago for their ride up 108. We jumped back on southbound 49 until we found 120 and headed for Yosemite. 120 started innocent enough, but then soon turned into a very twisty road. Our biggest issue here was all the slow cages. Many of which would not get the heck out of the way! We had one bozo from back east someplace that couldn’t handle a curve even if he was in a formula one car! I got tired of waiting for him, since he wouldn’t pull over, so I shot around him then waited for Dave to follow, of which wasn’t a very long wait…;-) We continued up 120 following cages, trucks & busses, all of which wouldn’t give anyone the time of day since they owned the road. We passed where we could and even got passed by a couple of cages at one point while in a construction zone. I figured that was fine, because I didn’t know the road and I didn’t know we weren’t going to find Cal Trans screwing up yet another road…. So I let them go and then just followed and a nice distance, just in case there were any “Bears” in the woods…if you know what I mean. We eventually found our way to the entrance of Yosemite and at first when I saw the posted speed limit of 20, I thought it looked a little weird where it was, but then there was the Gate. We paid our dues and rode over to the office/bathroom area for a little break. We were soon on our way again, and started through the trees, and more trees and more trees and more tre…I think you get the idea. I’m not sure how far we had gone until we started getting to the more interesting parts of the park off 120. Then we came to the parking area where the really spectacular part of the park was. As Dave said, never saw so much granite in one place before! And what a view, I guess I need to take my wife there some day! We spent about 15 to 20 minutes taking in the view, getting cold and taking pictures. By now the wind was picking up and the clouds were getting real nasty. We could see rain here an there, bit didn’t get any ourselves. As we approached the Tioga Pass, it was getting very cold (down to 41 on our bikes) and very windy. We stopped just long enough to get warmer gear on and I shot a couple of pictures, and then off down the other way we went. The backside heading towards 395 was quite the road. It had drop offs that went forever and the wind was blowing so hard that we actually saw a dust cloud get blown half way up a hill and then get blown back to where we were when we passed! I couldn’t believe how windy it was. We even got passed by a couple of BMW bikes, but I wasn’t about to try and race them down the hill with the wind blowing like it was. They were just plain nuts as far as I was concerned! Dave and I followed this twisty/windy/twisty/windy road down until we again found ourselves on US395, a couple of miles or so just south of Lee Vining. By this time it was threatening rain and we just wanted to get into our room before it started coming down. We soon found the motel and Dave went in to check in. Then we had to ride up the hill to find our room. It was a nice big room, but for the price it better be! This was the most expensive room by far. Once in the room we started talking about getting some chow and I told Dave there was a little store next to the motel office. So we headed down there to see what they had. It was a nicely stocked store for its size. They even had a half of a roasted chicken and since Dave likes the breast and I like the leg/thigh, it worked out great. We took our finding back to our room and then turned on the TV to catch the weather. The only local station was from Reno and it looked like it was from an antenna since it was all snowy and that. I never really got a good reading on the weather, so we were pretty much on our own for the next day. We soon retired knowing that our 2006 MC Trip was about over! But what a week!
Actual Route:
We really didn’t wander off our intended path at all for the leg of the trip. 395, 108 49 and 120 all had interesting stretches and we really had a good ride that day. It was too bad that the weather had turned cold!
Mileage for the day: about 297 miles.
Day 7, Friday September 15th
Planned Route:
Our original planned route for the day was to go back through Yosemite on SR120. However, since we had experienced the winds from the day before and it didn’t look like it was about to let up, we decided to head back to Reno taking US395 north. Then jump on I80 and take it into Sacramento and then 99 south to Elk Grove.
Day Seven ride:
This day started off the same way day 6 started off, windy. It was as clear as a bell, but super windy. Since we finally had our oatmeal that Dave had brought along for us (but with no microwaves, we couldn’t heat it up to eat it) and few other things that we had and then packed the bikes up for the ride to Elk Grove (Just south of Sacramento on 99) We were trying to figure out which way to go to Sacramento and our first choice was back through Yosemite, but due to the wind decided that wasn’t a good choice. We then thought we would go back up to Reno and catch I80 over to Sacramento. As we were traveling up 395 to Reno, I started looking at the map (when the road was straight and clear of cages) and told Dave I thought going over 89 and catching US50 into Sacramento would be a shorter route. So that was our plan and a good plan it turned out to be! It just so happened that that very moment and most of the day, I80 had a freak snow storm and several of the Pashnit riders coming back from Reno had to fight the snow over I80. I found out about the snow storm a week and a half later while reading about these Pashnit riders that had to follow the tractor trailer rigs through it all! As we left Lee Vining, the wind was just howling like crazy. We were getting knocked around on the road like nothing I had ever experienced. These winds had to be up there for hgusts. At one time, I was hit so hard by a hgust that my magnetic tankbag was blown into my right arm. The right magnetic was the only thing left holding it to the tank, but before I could push it back down, I had to lower the shield and regain total control of the bike. I couldn’t believe that wind! We were soon climbing up the pass by Mono Lake and even found an area where there was little wind, so we stopped and took a couple of pictures. We could see a fire farther south on the other side from Mono Lake. And I’m sure with that wind it was a pretty bad fire. Dave and I continued our trek towards Monitor Pass up 395. The winds weren’t as strong in this area, and although Monitor Pass was cold, it wasn’t that bad. SR89 was fairly open as far as traffic was concerned. Any vehicles we came across, didn’t take us long to get around. As we got closer to US50, the cloud cover came back and made it colder the farther north we went. And of course, what would a nice hwy be without CONSTRUCTION going on it! Here we go again, down to one lane of travel and we had to wait F O R E V E R for them to get the pilot car there to lead us through their construction. Only one problem, they had maybe five miles tied up with this construction bit, but I never saw any construction going on anywhere! Not only that, but after we passed that one, a mile or so up the road was more CONSTRUCTION! And we were only a ˝ mile from US50 by this point! We got around it all and headed down 50. Of course, this area is only one lane going each direction and it had a few “passing lanes” thrown in for good measure. At one point there was a car going it’s own pace and wasn’t even going the pace of the tractor-trailer rig ahead of it until they saw the “Passing Lane One Mile” sign. At that point they started to catch the big rig. Just as we got to the passing lane, Dave, this bozo I was talking about and another cage were in front of me and all went into the left lane. I just knew that the first cage was going to do just that and that left me with plenty of room to go up the right side of Dave and the two cars and blow by them all before I got to the truck. Of course, Dave had to wait for them to get out of the way before he could make his pass and the car right in front of him wasn’t going to let him pass. But that didn’t stop Dave, so about a mile more down the road, Dave was able to get around him. We were getting low on fuel so Dave stopped at Pollock Pines to fill up. We were pushing it, but these ST1300’s have 7.7 gallon tanks, this allowed us to travel almost 300 miles in between fill-ups. We never let the tanks get too low during this trip, but this is one stretch of the trip we were glad of that ability to go long distances. This was because, from Jamestown, our last fill up the day before, was roughly 271 miles to Pollock Pines. How many bikes you know have that kind of range? I would be pushing my V65 Sabre at 190 miles! 81 miles would be a lot of pushing…LOL After filling up the bikes we decided we needed something to eat and I spotted a little café in the shopping center up the road a bit. They even made their own fresh potato chips! So Dave and I had a nice lunch there and then headed towards Elk Grove. We got to our Mom’s house (my motel for the night) around 2;30 to 3pm. The end of the ride! It was pretty much over except for my ride home the next day.
Actual Route: Even with our original planned route for the day was not going to work and our second option turned out not to be the best, I’m very glad we went up and over Monitor pass and found 50 off 89. And while Monitor Pass was a bit chilly, I’m sure Yosemite would have been colder and I80 would have been a real disaster with the snow storm and all. We jumped off 50 at Sunrise and followed it to Grant Line and then to Bond road that our mom lives off of.
Mileage for the day: about 225 miles.
Day 8, Saturday September 16th
Planned Route:
My original planned route for the day was to go down 99 to 5 (in Bakersfield) then 210, 57, 71,91 15. On my way down, I decided that since the big fire near I5 was still going, I took off for the high desert on SR58 and at Kramer Junction, took US395 to I15 then I215.
Day Eight ride:
My ride home! The big ride was over. Dave and I really enjoyed this time together and I actually hated seeing it come to a close, but at the same time, I was glad to be heading home. I had almost 480 miles to cover that day and I wanted to get started. I kept waiting for Dave and when he didn’t show up by 9am, I called him and he said he was waiting for my call. I forgot I was supposed to call him, but with all that was going on the night before at the restaurant I didn’t remember/ hear him or both. But anyway, so he came over and we took off for Modesto, some 60 miles south. That’s where we departed company, Dave headed home and I was now on my own. I couldn’t ask for better traveling weather, it wasn’t too hot and wasn’t too cool. At least until I got into San Bernardino. There it was hot and due to a fire above Redlands, I shot down the 215 and got home around 5 or 6pm.
Actual Route:
Since the big fire near I5 was still going, I took 99 south, SR58 and at Kramer Junction, took US395 to I15 then I215. Nice and simple! (-:
Mileage for the day: about 477 miles.
Epilog
WooHoo! What a ride! This is the longest motorcycle ride Dave or I have ever been on. For Dave and I both, it was a well deserved vacation from the everyday dull drums of work and commuting. And to think, back in 2000, Dave was about to give up riding altogether! Thank goodness for our saddles, those allowed us to travel the distances in comfort. Even though I put on 2,600 miles on the trip, I never had butt burn, not once! Even the two longest days we spent going over the twisties and traveled 350 and 370 respectively for those two days, we both did great! Thank goodness for the distances our ST1300 can go without refueling and their weight for when the winds hit us. Lighter bikes would have been blown off the one time I almost lost my tankbag. And of course, I really appreciate our wives to give us kitchen passes for this adventure. It was really a big deal for a number reasons. Chris and I haven’t had a week long vacation together for a very long time. This is the first time either Dave or I took off on a motorcycle for a week with our wives staying home worrying about us. And of course with Gloria going through all she has over the last year with her cancer, for Dave to leave like that for a week was very brave for her to do. I guess the big question now is, are we, will we, do something like this again? We are already talking about something in a couple of years or so!
Total Mileage for the trip: about 2609 miles.