2014 Sheetiron/Streetiron!

Hey BARF Adventure Riders,

Got to ride up on Thursday to hang out with my friends from the
Oakland Motorcycle Club (est. 1907!) for the 23rd running of the
Sheetiron 300 Dual-Sport Ride at the beautiful Rodeo Grounds in Stonyford ...



Managed to find my way up to enjoy the view on the ride's namesake mountain,
which in years past had turned me around with deadfall ...



A view of Mt Hull from Sheetiron Mountain ...



The Oakland Motorcycle Club's Sheetiron 300 Sweep Crew, posing for a
photo at the Soda Creek Store at 4:30 pm on Saturday afternoon ...

My friend Mark of the OMC was one of two OMC members whose idea it was to
hold a dual-sport ride in the Mendocino National Forest. Mark said that the ride has been
very popular, growing from 250 riders to the 500 sold-out riders on this season's
permit with the Forest Service ...

Mark says the ride is very popular with the
folks who live and work in Stonyford, Soda Creek and Fort Bragg because of the
money the ride brings into these communities early every season ... He also
told me that preparing the ride takes countless hours of preparation ...



I rode my KLR up through Knoxville BLM land ...



... to Reiff/Rayhouse Road ...





... and explored a bit on the Buck Island ridge ...

I need to check out the Buck Island Ridge area.. Is that off Reiff/ Rd 40?

The Stonyford General Store ...



Sunset at the Rodeo Grounds ...



Met my pal Bicycle Phil on Thursday night ... he trucked his '14 KTM 500 rally bike up from Noe Vally and fed our crew all weekend ...



Bicycle Phil's Dirty Burger ...



On Friday we did a 160 mile loop down M3 through Bear Creek
and over Mt Hull ... Phil rode his KTM to the very top of Mt Hull ...



... and riding off the summit, with Mt Sanhedrin in the distance ...

Our campsite on Friday night ...



Ethan and Kevin enjoying our campfire ...



I got up at 4:30 am on Saturday and rode up toward
Low Gap to see the sunrise ...



The view back toward Stonyford ...



Made it up to Anthony Peak ...



The view toward the Yolla Bolly Wilderness from Anthony Peak ...

BARF Adventure Rider leesagi was going to be at
Lake Pillsbury and had a thread looking for folks to ride with ...



We arranged to try to have a BARF Adventure Rider meet-up
at Lake Pillsbury, and
it worked out perfectly ... :ride

We got to ride a bit back to the Soda Creek Store and I wound up in
one of Lee's cool videos he makes with his Go-Pro ... arty

Here's a link to leesagi's cool blog, with pics of his water-cooled 2014 BMW GSA ...
a very sweet bike ...

... and a bit of a map ...



Here's a way to get to the Anthony Peak Watchtower ...

Take FH7 to Mendocino Pass, where FH7 and M4 intersect ... Take M4 north to 23N60 ... pretty ride with a 360 deg. view ...

Cabrito said:

I need to check out the Buck Island Ridge area.. Is that off Reiff/ Rd 40?

Click to expand...

Hi Cabrito,

Yes ... Google calls it Fiske Creek Road ... it's the ridge towards Lake Berryessa at the top of the climb from the Zero Ton Causeway ... to the left if you are heading away from Hwy 16 ... :ride

I'm hoping to get back up there for the Funduro in a couple of weeks and maybe I'll try to camp up there on the way during the week ... We'll see ... arty

see you around the campfire,
-- SFMCjohn

Nice stuff.

augustiron said:

Nice stuff.

Click to expand...

Hey augustiron!

Thanks for your help getting Bicycle Phil one of your SI entries it
turned out you had to sell ... he put it to good use!

He and DaveRMS got on the trail at 5am Saturday,
rode hard splits all the way to Ft Bragg, turned around and
rode hard splits all the way back to Stonyford on Saturday
afternoon ... for a 300 mile day ... we teased them, calling it
an "Extreme Iron" ... har. :laughing



They both did the Dos Sertos Rally a few years ago, and now
help train Dakar hopefuls by being instructors in road-book
training courses offered by Rally Management Services ...

hope to see you at the Funduro on May 30 - June 1st! :ride
-- SFMCjohn

Hey, nice! This was my first (but not last) Sheetiron. I'll post a couple shots if you don't mind.



So this guy ran his XS650 (I'm guessing). I heard he had a problem on day 1 but got it fixed in Ft. Bragg and rode all of day 2.



Dual sporting.




Ducks at day 2 lunch stop.



I managed this without crashing! (I love mud!)



This is what tired looks like. He did a couple of hard splits in the morning on a KTM990 and then had to go back and try to find some of his stuff after that big stony climb.

MotorToad said:

Hey, nice! This was my first (but not last) Sheetiron. I'll post a couple shots if you don't mind.

Click to expand...

Hey MotorToad,

Very cool, thanks for posting pics, hopefully more BARF Adventure Riders will follow your example and post some of their Sheetiron pics, too! The more the merrier! :thumbup

I remember what an adventure my first Sheetiron 300 was ... I'd been a streetbike guy, but got a DR350 just so I could go on the SI ... Mendocino NF just blew my mind, so beautiful ... :ride

see you around the campfire, arty
-- SFMCjohn

SFMCjohn said:

Click to expand...

We were parked right next to your group in the Giant black Outlaw RV.

Great weekend of riding!!

Farmer John said:

We were parked right next to your group in the Giant black Outlaw RV.

Great weekend of riding!!

Click to expand...

Hey Farmer John!

Sorry I didn't get a chance to say "hi" ... it was a fantastic weekend! :ride

Think I got a pic of your rig:



Pretty nice RV ... :thumbup

Now I should be able to spot you next season! :teeth
-- SFMCjohn

So, we call it the "Streetiron" when we ride up on our streetbikes
on Saturday to hang out with the guys in our group who
are doing the Sheetiron ...

Ben, Kalle and James left San Francisco
on Saturday morning ... sometimes the Streetiron heads up Friday night to Stonyford,
sometimes they ride to Ft Bragg on Saturday night ... because Phil, Dave and I
would be in Stonyford on Saturday night the guys headed to the Rodeo Grounds
this year ...

We've been doing the Streetiron for years and the OMC guys get a
kick out of seeing us in the Rodeo Grounds on Saturday ...
we help the OMC keep an eye on folk's stuff and help them hang out
around the campfire ...


IMG_20140517_091825399 by San Francisco Motorcycle Club, on Flickr

Road Captain Ben, Fountain Committee Co-chair James and
House Committee Chair Kalle getting ready to leave SF ...



Bicycle Phil checking out Road Captain Ben's new-to-him '03 Bumblebee Yamaha FZ1 ...


IMG_20140517_195708883 by San Francisco Motorcycle Club, on Flickr

Two of our favorite OMC members, Super Suz and Ezry ...
We had dinner and campfire drinks and dessert on Saturday night ... arty

We checked out the East Park Reservoir on Saturday afternoon ...
The water in the reservoir is pretty low, revealing the crazy
cement work of one of the dams ...


IMG_20140517_181421081 by San Francisco Motorcycle Club, on Flickr


IMG_20140517_183119470 by San Francisco Motorcycle Club, on Flickr

Low tide ...


IMG_20140517_223832825 by San Francisco Motorcycle Club, on Flickr

The campfire on Saturday night ...

I talked James and Kalle into getting up at 4:30 am Sunday morning
to check out the
sunrise on the way up to Low Gap ...





Very pretty ... we could see water in the rice patties and
Mt Lassen in the distance ...



James and Kalle enjoying trail-side coffee and breakfast and sunrise ... :ride


IMG_20140518_055000819 by San Francisco Motorcycle Club, on Flickr

Breakfast ... yum. :laughing


IMG_20140518_072143148 by San Francisco Motorcycle Club, on Flickr

James' GSA enjoying a dirt nap on the way down the hill ...


IMG_20140518_073841426 by San Francisco Motorcycle Club, on Flickr

We all made it through the water crossing at the beginning of the jeep trail
up to Low Gap, both up in the dark and back down ... there was a surprising amount of deep water in this crossing
considering how low the water is in East Park ... :dunno

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig ...



Ethan borrowed Secretary and Club Historian Brian Holm's DRZ for the
Sheetiron this year ... We rode home together on Monday, here we are
at the radio towers on Walker Ridge Road ...



From Walker Ridge we made our way to Rayhouse/Road 40 ...



When we got to the top of the ridge above the Zero Ton Causeway we made a
right and rode up a mile or two to take in the view and make some Jet-Boil coffee ...



Finally we did the ten mile jeep-trail through the Knoxville BLM land ...

So, there you go ... Thanks again to the OMC for all the hard work this
year putting on another epic Sheetiron 300! :ride

I'll be heading back up to the Mendocino National Forest for the Funduro, Shawn's
annual dual-sport ride for the Moto Melee set ... it's a show-up-or-don't
style ride staging at the Deer Valley Campground above the Middle Creek OHV area
near Upper Lake and the Soda Creek Store/Lake Pillsbury ... May 30 - June 1 ...

Be cool to say "hey" to some BARF Adventure Riders at the Funduro!

see you around the campfire,
-- SFMCjohn