Adventure riding short rides and BS thread

[SFMCjohn]

Thank you, this is great! Adding to my list to try later this summer.

:thumbup

found another one, I'm going to try to get up to Knob Peak Lookout (pic here) in July, on my way up to the HoHo BARF Weverville Rally in late July ...
just north of Hwy 36. :ride

Asclepias Speciosa! :love A lovely California native, also known as Showy Milkweed. Monarch butterflies lay their eggs exclusively on milkweeds

Beautiful ride and photos, John! Thanks for sharing!

ButterflyLoverChick

I was able to impress Cary by showing her I thought it was some kind of milkweed, but I'd never seen a flower like that before ... "speciosa" ... :laughing:gsxrgrl

do you recognize the poppy looking flower? There were a ton of those in bloom ...

I've looked at that road up to the top of saint John a number of times on the drive to Fouts and always wanted to take it. Looks a little scary but an adventure. Thanks for the exploratory work! Great pics and it was so pretty up there in that late evening light with the cloud cover. Alpen glow raking all over the ridges!

yes, only the last 500 yards has a couple of (small, easy) ledges ... I'd never seen any pics from up there but M0t0_Ryder and Eric B assured me that pics of folks up on Mount Saint John have been posted in past StonyBARF threads and on SouthBayRiders.com ...

enjoy following your trials exploits in the trials thread here on BARF. We had some SFMC people at your last trials event. One of my ADV ride-plans in the future someday is to come up to a trials event and camp out with you all and check out all the fun trials bikes ... arty

 

[Mooncat]

Prickly Poppy Argemone munita another California native

 

[Cabrito]

COVID Escape ride

A few pics from my recent week riding around.



First stop was camping in Stonyford with some easy dirt and hanging at the creek..





Then on through Paskenta on our way up to Weaverville,



And over 299 heading to Arcata area



We took Bald Hills Road as a day trip with a quick stop at the Lady Bird Johnson park where they have some descent sized trees.



Bald Hills Road looks like this for part of it and has a nice easy dirt section in the middle.



Quick stop at the fire lookout.







From a bridge in Hoopa



Descending Mattole





We had a mis-hap on Wilder Ridge Road that required a campsite repair job to my friends case lid that broke on a low speed tip-over.

Field Repair


Campsite repair




Cont..

 

[Cabrito]

part 2 of the COVID Escape.

Due to the mis-hap we ended up at Albee Creek Campground for a few nights which allowed for a day trip without the luggage to Usal for a great loop. Our site was visited both nights by a bear who gorged himself on our Plumb Tree. He only came out after we got into our tents though.





This tree was in our campsite and a large branch had broken off due to the bear climbing in it to eat the good plumbs higher up.




Usal was a blast on unloaded Bikes.





Bridge near Usal Beach



Easy dirt


The beautiful lost coast



Big ass ADV rig on Usal



Trip stats

 

[N4teTheGreat]

Cerro Gordo, 06/14/2020 ... guess the museum burned, looks like the hotel, church and some other buildings were saved. Not clear yet, maybe just the caretaker's home was saved, and the hotel burned too ...?

: |

Hotel burned as well unfortunately, I follow them on FB. Really bummed, and feeling very lucky that I made it up there last year on the BDR to see the place. Caretaker was nice enough to show us around and even gave us some ore samples but wouldn't take any money. We spent about an hour chatting with him.

 

[SFMCjohn]

Quick stop at the fire lookout.



Cont..

awesome pics and trail-side fix! :hail

I’ll have to follow your example and visit the Bald Hills watch tower ... :ride

I’ve see five bears so far on my Mendo Grand Tour this week ... none were in plum trees though ... :laughing

hope to see you in Weaverville tomorrow! :angel

 

[SFMCjohn]

Hotel burned as well unfortunately, I follow them on FB. Really bummed, and feeling very lucky that I made it up there last year on the BDR to see the place. Caretaker was nice enough to show us around and even gave us some ore samples but wouldn't take any money. We spent about an hour chatting with him.

yes, turns out you were lucky, super bummer about the fire ...

wonder what will happen to Cerro Gordo now ...? :dunno

 

[matty]

Snapped a quick "John" pic today. Rode Rancheria Rd to Oak Flat Lookout and then on to Poso Flat Road (which isn't flat) and boogied back down Granite Rd , that has fresh chip seal (Woody has fresh chip seal too), but not so fresh that it's loose. Probably inhaled the equivalent of 2 packs of smokes No vista shots, because you could barely see Kern Canyon from the lookout.

 

[SFMCjohn]

ha, how cool is Oak Flat Lookout? never been there. on my list now ... :thumbup

Cary and I rode street bikes down that way once and recall thinking I need to explore the area on the KLR but never have ... did you spend the night?

 

[matty]

ha, how cool is Oak Flat Lookout? never been there. on my list now ... :thumbup

Cary and I rode street bikes down that way once and recall thinking I need to explore the area on the KLR but never have ... did you spend the night?

I'm cat sitting in the valley, so no overnight for me. There is a picnic bench and public bathrooms, but limited camping real estate, maybe enough for 2 separate spots. You could easily take a street bike most of the way from 178 to Rancheria to look out, and maybe duck walk it the last 1/4 mile (I wouldn't suggest it on a street bike from Poso Flat rd) . Probably really beautiful in the spring/ early summer/ fall, but today with the air quality, not so great. But a neat road, loads of old cabins/ranches and just generally a pretty area. I'm hoping the coming days bring better air quality, so I can explore the region a bit more. Most of U.S. forest land is closed, so I'm taking what I can get.:ride

 

[SFMCjohn]

:thumbup

looks like we were there in March, 2016 ... the poppies were poppin’ ... guess this was nearish Posey/Poso Park north of 155:

envy the WR-exploring in that part of the world ... :thumbup:ride

 

[matty]

:thumbup

looks like we were there in March, 2016 ... the poppies were poppin’ ... guess this was nearish Posey/Poso Park north of 155:

envy the WR-exploring in that part of the world ... :thumbup:ride

I'm pretty sure I have your ride report bookmarked from that ride, along with about 1000 others:laughing It's a neat area, I'd love to explore it more and get up to California Hotsprings, but fires, smoke and closures. Hopefully the air will be better tomorrow.

 

[matty]

The unrealistic plan for today, was to take Breckenridge Rd, cut in at Democrat Rd (cow flat rd) and take dirt to the Kern river, but of course Democrat Rd was closed. A moment about Breckenridge Rd, it's awesome! It's goaty, tight and twisty, has loads of gravel and sand everywhere and tons of cows and other wildlife, but it's a great road. And the dirt potential seems great, once the forests open back up, lots of forest roads up there. I even glimpsed blue sky at the top. So I continued on Breckenridge to Havilah and onto Bodfish, where I connected with Old Kern River Rd (another neat road, but only like 15 miles long before it connects with 178). Took a quick dip in the Kern River and finally found dirt in....Bakersfield. The very east side of Bakersfield has tons of homemade trails, hill climbs and jumps. It's like an OHV park, except with oil wells, lots of illegal dumping and broken glass everywhere:laughing

 

[SFMCjohn]

I even glimpsed blue sky at the top.

awesome pics, matty, I'm having fun looking for Breckinridge Road and Democrat Road on google maps! :thumbup:laughing

we went up to the Long Barn Lodge on the 18th, and the better air quality and blue sky was even more in evidence thanks to heavy rain in the area Friday morning, just in time for us ...

we love basing some of our ADV trips out of Long Barn because the Lodge has a pool and comfortable rooms and because it is under 160 miles and 3 hours from Lower Haight, according to google maps. arty

know we've been having some fun n00bie ADV riding discussions here recently, so have included a couple of maps of some big-bike-suitable dirt roads/camping opportunities off Hwy 108 and east of Bridgeport:

Silver Creek Road is a worthy bypass of the beautiful asphalt on Hwy 108 ...

it's easiest to find the first time at the bottom, eastern, closer to Hwy 395 side, because you just ride up to the sentry on duty at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center and tell the guard you're heading to Sonora Pass on Silver Creek Road, and they will waive you through. simply head straight up the hill from the sentry post.

(it's pretty easy to find from the top, too, it is the first left you can make after Sonora Pass heading east ... you know you're on the correct road by the steep, short concrete creek ford the road goes through about a half mile up from Hwy 108.)

a pic up near the top of the FS road after you make a sharp left off Silver Creek Road coming up from the bottom. it's a little steep spur off to the right heading west/uphill once you get up on the tree-free ridge ...

that's Mt Patterson in the background, which also has a lot of easy fire-road dirt, as well as some more advanced high-clearance 4x4 roads up to the top at 11,000' or so ...

I've camped a bunch of times where the pic was snapped, killer sunrise views in the morning.

the other bit of easy dirt fire-road we did this weekend was east of Bridgeport, CA, toward Bodie ...

the map shows Aurora Canyon Road to Masonic-Bodie Road into Bodie. There is a ton of well maintained dirt roads with glorious views off of these two roads ... you can find the ghost town of Masonic and the radio tower up on Masonic Peak, and make your way to Lucky Boy Pass Road, the part of Aurora Canyon east of Bodie, etc.

a view to the WEST from the intersection of Aurora Canyon Road and Masonic-Bodie Road ...

Oakland Motorcycle Club member, Bungee Brent, was leading the dirt part of Saturday's ride and was kind enough to buy us the entry fee, so we could all walk around Bodie ... I'm usually too cheap to pay myself, so it was a wonderful treat.

The engaging ranger-lady gave us a talk on the history of the town and was also nice enough to offer to snap our pic ...

she also told me they'd fixed the wash out in the eastern part of Aurora Canyon Road and removed the abandoned vehicles. Some of you may recall the problems I had there last year on the way to the BARF Hawthorne Rally ... :laughing

pic of a real truck for my Chevy bow-tie friends ... :toothless

We took Hwy 270 out of Bodie and at Hwy 395 my friend bananachunks discovered he'd spat the plug in his rear tire ... he just got back from a 3200 mile Continental Divide ride on his sweet Honda and soon had the problem fixed with the help of a very cool portable air-pump that's battery powered and shaped like a cylinder for ease of packing. It has a pressure gauge and you can set it to turn off automatically at the desired air-pressure. Decided I need one ... :gsxrgrl

one cool thing about Bungee Brent is he is a wonderful photographer ... some of you who do the OMC Sheetiron ride may remember being photographed by him in Ft Bragg ...

he brought all his photo gear and we got to watch on-bike video he had taken on our ride Saturday morning when we got home that evening in the ice skating rink which is free of ice in the summer and ready for a party ...

got to celebrate four September birthdays, while we were at it ... :bday

we were also able to watch this weekend's MotoGP race on Sunday morning before we slogged home (3.5 hours, 155 miles).

anyway, I love Hwy 108 for it's relatively easy access from San Francisco to lots of big-bike fire roads and munificent dispersed camping opportunities ...

our gang of street riders and dual-sporters before we parted ways at Hwys 108 and 395 on Saturday morning ... the street bikers headed off to Monitor Pass.

Bungee Brent does the Bungee Brent's Backwoods Bash every year out of the Long Barn Lodge, in June, I think, that annual rally has been a fun way for me to learn about the area over the years ... :afm199arty

 

[two wheel tramp]

My new driveway is dirt. :laughing

I have a bunch of stuff to explore up here that I look forward to sharing in a separate thread.

 

[Cabrito]

Good stuff SFMCJohn!

Did you have the Long Barn Lodge all to yourselves? Looks cool hanging out in the ice rink.

Looks like tons of good riding around the area, how was the air quality? Looks clear.

 

[SFMCjohn]

My new driveway is dirt. :laughing

I have a bunch of stuff to explore up here that I look forward to sharing in a separate thread.

oooh, dirt driveway ... :drool

twt promises pics! arty

Good stuff SFMCJohn!

Did you have the Long Barn Lodge all to yourselves? Looks cool hanging out in the ice rink.

Looks like tons of good riding around the area, how was the air quality? Looks clear.

we had the ice rink all to ourselves, and it seemed like the whole Lodge, but there were definitely a few civilians there, too, god bless them. :angel

the rain really knocked down the smoke, and it seemed like the NF was opened back up on Saturday (the sentry at the USMC said the NF was back open and let us through, anyway) ...

thinking about calling for an overnight camping trip the second Sunday up in Knoxville or Deer Island to coincide with the Second Sunday (10/11/2020) dual-sport ride ... so Saturday 10/10/2020? Guess that area is still pretty iffy, forest-fire wise? suppose we could always shoot for 11/07/2020 and talk about staying warm on winter-ish dual-sport rides ... :dunno:blah

edit: maybe head down towards Panoche Valley in October if Lake Berryessa is still no-go ...?
kind of like the idea of the Second Sunday thing, but suppose we have to be flexible these days ...

 

[Eric B]

Great stuff John. Lance & I rolled through the Lodge parking lot about 1 On Friday but it was empty. We found the Cabin under the Rock Saturday, and saw some other stuff out there. Such fun riding. I’m surprised we did not cross paths. Explored a few more roads above the Marine base, on the way home. I’ll post some pictures.

 

[SFMCjohn]

ha, can’t wait for a pic of the Cabin Under the Rock, hopefully ... was the ride in and out as difficult as it sounds?

I was still in Livermore at 1 pm on Friday ... :facepalm

 

[Eric B]

ha, can’t wait for a pic of the Cabin Under the Rock, hopefully ... was the ride in and out as difficult as it sounds?

I was still in Livermore at 1 pm on Friday ... :facepalm

The trails were sometimes smooth, sometimes some sandy bits, sometimes rocky. A few climbs, but not bad. We took an 75 mile dirt route, but one could cut that down by entering from 359.