Beware The Rides Of March

[WoodsChick]

Well, last year's ride was a bust (literally) when I broke my ankle on my 52nd birthday out in the eastern Sierra…

This year I decided to do something different. A ride from the house down to Pozo via backroads for a few days of moto-camping and dirt action. As usual, though, the weather in early March is pretty unsettled, and Day 1 saw David (BattleVision here, though he never posts) and I riding from Oakland to Castro Valley in a total downpour. We picked up Dave (Arsey here on BARF) and continued on to Livermore in more of the same to meet up with Paul (PCFly here on BARF) and Jimmy. At least Ethel had a fantastic gourmet breakfast waiting for us when we got there! Thank you, Ethel!

David, Dave, Paul, Jimmy and me
(note to self: remove old lady glasses when cameras are present…)

It cleared up while we enjoyed Ethel's breakfast, and we figured we'd better get a move on before the skies opened up again.

Me and my fully-loaded TR650...

Jimmy and his WR250R, with Paul and his TE630 that looks exactly like a Terra TR650…

Birthday Girl hugs!
David and his super duper Tenere'…

Dave and his badass TE630…

Paul, me and Jimmy…

We headed out towards Mines Road and as soon as we got there the skies opened up. We rode up to Lick Observatory in off-and-on downpours and it was excellent!

PCFly says life is good!

Still raining at the Junction…

Flowers were loving it, too!

We saw no other bikes and only 1 car on the road, and the ride to the top was fantastic, if a bit wet and cold…

I love Lick Observatory! I was born and raised in San Jose and have been coming up here since before I can remember. It's a pretty fabulous building. And it was warm and dry inside…

Not so much warm and dry outside, though…

Space socks for my birthday! Thank you, David!

Once we were somewhat dry and warm we geared back up and headed down the front side.



More on the way!




WoodsChick

 

[flying_hun]

yay!

 

[WoodsChick]

yay!

:laughing

It pays to be home sick with nothing to do, I guess :teeth
Seems like that's the only time I sit still for any length of time these days...




SickChick

 

[flying_hun]

:laughing

It pays to be home sick with nothing to do, I guess :teeth




SickChick

It works for me. :laughing

 

[WoodsChick]

Forgot I had this high-quality cell phone photo Paul took of me on Mines Rd…

We headed down the front side, intent on taking back roads to Morgan Hill where we had a place to stay and would be meeting up with a few more riders.
The ride down was stunningly beautiful. Wish I'd taken more photos but it just wasn't going to happen on this day. I really need a waterproof camera next time…

David never posts here but he's got the BARF salute down, though!

We headed out towards Uvas Reservoir and just had a ball riding all those roads out there, sometimes raining a little and sometimes blazing sunshine.
And I didn't take one photo…d'oh!

Got to Morgan Hill, got into our rooms, and as soon as Eric, Zak (Slackmeyer) and Guy showed up on their KTM 950's we went over to the Black Bear Diner for dinner and a fairly loose route-planning session.

BTW, our rooms at the Best Western there had great bike parking right outside our window…

Woke up the next morning to the sun shining on my face. Oh happy day!
We hit the Cozy Cup Cafe for breakfast where Mark and his girlfriend Lisa met up with us on his BMW. 3 Huskys, 3 KTMs, 2 Yamahas and 1 BMW...

The intersection of HWY 25 and Clear Creek-Coalinga Road…

David, Jimmy, Paul, Guy and Zak…

Eric, Mark and Lisa soaking up the glorious sunshine…

Hey look! A photo of me and Eric together! That's a rarity…

This guy is aging quite well!

Still quite a bit of water flowing over Clear Creek-Coalinga Road…

Saw this beauty pull in as we were gassing up in Coalinga…

Eric and David think it's a lovely day up on Parkfield Grade…

Everyone else seems to agree!

I could live in Parkfield…

I didn't take any photos of all the backroads (Bitterwater, Gillis Canyon, Shell Creek, etc) we took into Pozo and I am regretting it. Everything was green and the wildflowers were out in force. There were cars parked all over Shell Creek as folks were gawking at all the yellow flowers everywhere. We didn't really stop, though, til we got into Pozo.

David on the gas…

Gee, I hope he's having a good time...

I know Paul is!

More in a bit…




WoodsChick

 

[budman]

Sick chick has a different meaning to me. :cool.

 

[two wheel tramp]

:banana

Yay!!!

 

[boney]

opcorn

 

[WoodsChick]

Dave was having a good time, too!

The flowers here were lovely and plentiful…

Our preferred campsite was unavailable since the road was closed due to the torrential downpours the area had gotten in previous days. We gathered here for a bit…

And decided to head on over to the Pozo Saloon for some lunch and some decision-making…

I love Pozo…

The forecast called for rain, and even if it didn't rain there were tons of mosquitoes at our 2nd-choice campsite. Half the group wanted to chance it and camp, the other half wanted to head into San Luis Obispo and get a motel. There was talk of splitting up and each group doing what they wanted to do. I wanted to camp, but mostly I wanted everyone to stay together. As we were discussing this in the parking lot a local came up and offered us a place to stay at his ranch up the road a piece. He said he was a rider himself and understood the desire to not camp in the rain. He said his giant shop would allow us to camp, allow us and our bikes to stay dry, and, most importantly to me, allow us to all stay together. We all looked at each other and didn't really know what to say. I'm pretty sure it was David that said, "Fuck yeah! Sounds good to me!" We all trundled off after this kind stranger, and when we got to his ranch we were pretty blown away. It was ungodly beautiful property! This would be our home for the night!

Safe and sound under the awning…

There was even a luxurious powder room!

Jack made us feel at home, and kept showing up at the shop with things he thought would make our stay more comfortable…mattresses, wine, generator, lights, chairs, sleeping pads, a big comfy brown Cabela's jacket that I really did not want to give up when it was time to leave the next day…

Our new friend Jack on the right. He hung out with us for quite awhile. Cool dude!

Dirt bikes everywhere…

Lots of cold beer and counter space, too!

After we'd been hanging out and drinking and getting all cozy and stuff, Jack sprung it on us. He was putting in an apple orchard so he could make hard cider and he needed to get the trees into the ground before the rains came the next day and would we help him for an hour or so? We all kind of laughed and said that we knew there was a catch, but we were happy to do it. He had other folks coming in the morning, too. We agreed to meet up at the orchard the next morning and said our goodnights. We all thought Jack was a cool guy, but I'd noticed earlier that the doors all locked from the outside and that there were keys in the doors. We took out the keys and jimmied one of the doors. You know, just in case. Plus there were 8 of us so we figured he wouldn't be able to axe-murder all of us! Right…?

We all slept warm and sound and we all woke up alive and well in the morning. And a lovely morning it was...

Yes, still wearing that awesome jacket!

The walk to the orchard-to-be was beautiful…

Oops…I've reached my 20-photo limit. More later…




WoodsChick

 

[WoodsChick]

Sick chick has a different meaning to me. :cool.

:laughing I mean it in the literal sense. I slept til 10am (7 hours later than usual!) and spent allll day on the couch!

:banana

Yay!!!

opcorn

:laughing Thanks, you guys!




WC

 

[SFMCjohn]

Everyone else seems to agree!

There's a great group pic! :thumbup

... pays to be friendly and approachable,
never know what nice places you'll see ... :laughing:ride

 

[WoodsChick]

The holes were already dug when we got there. All we had to do was put the tree in the hole and shovel the dirt back around it…

Jack was happy to see us. He probably thought we were going to split at first light, never to be heard from again! :laughing

I moved out of my mom's house in San Jose one month after turning 16. I moved to Washington and worked on an apple tree farm while I finished high school. It was hard work growing the trees that we would sell to apple farmers, but oddly rewarding. This was pretty much the same!

We got that whole hillside planted before 11am! Jack's friends that showed up were all very nice fellows. All good people. They were like "WTF?" when they pulled into the ranch in the morning and saw a whole slew of bikes and strangers at the shop :laughing

The motocross track was just on the other side of the fence surrounding the orchard. No, I'm not kidding…

I thought it would be a good idea to have a motocross race afterwards. You know, an ADV-class race, but for some reason I could not find any takers. Jack was up for it! Said it needed to be ridden before it became overgrown. I could probably help him with that this spring.


We wandered past Jack's cabin on the way back to the shop…

The flowers you see in the foreground were everywhere!

The views off the back patio were ok, I guess…

We arrived back at the shop to find that Guy had swept and cleaned the whole place up, and he had brunch all lined up and waiting for us! Zak had made the bread from scratch, and Guy turned it into something wonderful as he always does. I think our choices were salmon, egg, and a veggie one…

We loaded up, got the bikes situated, and prepared to hit the long road home. Most of us had another day off but there was nothing but rain in the forecast and we'd already had enough of that. Or so we thought…

We said our good-byes to Jack and his friends. He said we were all welcome to stay there anytime, and to give him some notice next time and we'd have a big bar-b-que and a campfire. I told him I wanted to sample his cider someday when he makes his first batch. Can't wait to see the apple blossoms, too!

Prepared to head out on the long winding path down to the main road…

That was the last photo I took. About 5 minutes after taking this, and right about the time we hit the main gate to the ranch, it started drizzling. It never stopped. On the contrary, it poured on us almost all the way home. We took Pozo Rd out to 58, took Rossi's Driveway up to Geneseo, to Linne Rd and into Paso Robles for gas. Headed north on 101, got off at Indian Valley Rd to Peachtree Rd to HWY 25 and into Hollister for lunch at the taqueria on the north side of town. Yes, it rained the entire way, but it was great just the same! Wish I'd gotten some photos but I left my camera in the little waterproof Pelican case where it belonged. We slabbed it home on 101 and the rain was so hellacious through Oakland we couldn't see 10' in front of us! I was glad to be home and off the bike.

I had a fantastic time, and truth be told camping at the shop and planting the trees was kind of the highlight of the ride for me. Something I'll remember (I hope…) for a long time. It was a great group of riders, all with nicely put-together bikes, and with the skills and gear to ride them for days on end in the rain.

I missed Benton Hot Springs, but I enjoyed doing something new. I'm already trying to come up with a plan for next year! Riding sure makes the birthdays go down easier.



Thanks for reading!

OlderChick

 

[WoodsChick]

There's a great group pic! :thumbup

... pays to be friendly and approachable,
never know what nice places you'll see ... :laughing:ride

So true! People are inherently good, and they (almost) all have something interesting to offer if we're willing to listen. One of the benefits of travel :thumbup




FriendlyChick

 

[Butch]

Motorcyclists are just the most awesome people. Thank you for reminding me that such awesomeness still exists in the world today. It brings a tear to my eye. Kidding. not.

 

[Cabrito]

Fun stuff with a great chain of events!

 

[Flow]

Beautiful post and pics...happy New Year!arty

 

[rodr]

What a cool story. Really. WC you have quite a talent for both having and sharing adventures!

 

[WoodsChick]

Motorcyclists are just the most awesome people. Thank you for reminding me that such awesomeness still exists in the world today. It brings a tear to my eye. Kidding. not.

I know you're not kidding! Well, maybe about the tear in your eye, but not about motorcyclists being awesome!

Fun stuff with a great chain of events!

Wasn't it, though? Hah! i was bummed to have the weekend end a day early, but it was a seriously fun time!

Beautiful post and pics...happy New Year!arty

Thank you, Flow! And welcome to BARF! All kinds of goodness here :thumbup

What a cool story. Really. WC you have quite a talent for both having and sharing adventures!

Aww…thanks, rodr! :ride



WC

 

[m0t0_ryder]

A gooD VoyagE Needs The Unexpected RoutE!

Enjoyed your post & pics.
Good folks abound.

 

[Eric B]

Great ride report. Thanks for sharing.:thumbup