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So Cal to Crater Lake, Oregon
 Day 1: Encinitas to Lodi, CA 460 miles Nothing very interesting today - just an intense focus on escaping the crowded freeways of the LA area, then getting as much mileage as we can before dark so we can start tomorrow in the Sierras, where the air will be cool and clear, the trees big, the meadows green, and most importantly - the roads will be banked, empty and flawless! Perfection awaits! But for today - it's a bitch of a ride on Interstate 5 North out of LA, sharing the road with plenty of trucks  . Why did we choose to start this ride today, on Memorial Day, with all the traffic returning from the long weekend? Not too smart, but any ride is better than watching TV, so I'll stop the bitchin'. No awesome roads today - just a bunch of slogging it out on Day 1 to get to the good stuff. Started at noon, and still managed to get in respectable mileage before dark - not bad for a couple of old guys! Just as dusk was approaching, we decided to get away from Interstate 5, and head East toward the Sierras. Took the #12 East, crossed the 99, and started looking for suitable accommodation for the night. Kevin and I have very strict criteria and won't compromise. In decreasing order of importance, the official MyRidz road-trip accommodation selection criteria are: - bar with good margaritas and a pool table  - food at bar or within 100 yards - both of above within stumbling distance of a motel (preferably a cheap one) I pulled over on the main drag in the small town of Lockeford. Kevin pulled up beside me and I began bitching about the lack of suitable accommodation. He pointed straight ahead on Main Street. I followed his finger, looking 100 yards, then 1/4 mile down the road, but couldn't see anything. "Huh," I said? He just pointed again. Again, I stared straight ahead and didn't get it. Was he losing it after a non-stop 460 mile ride in less than 7 hours?  I followed the pointing finger again (Kevin can be like a hunting dog on a scent when it comes to finding perfect MyRidz accommodation , so I kept looking at where he was pointing. For some reason, Kevin was refusing to speak - just pointing - like Forest Gump without a voice. Voila! - 10 feet from where I had pulled over was a big sign: "The Office - Cocktails, Billiards, Cold Beer" Jackpot! But turns out that even though The Office met the most important criteria (margaritas and pool table), there wasn't a motel for miles. Shit. At least the waitress at The Office understood the MyRidz criteria, and after a cold beer, she sent us off to Lodi, to the El Rancho - which includes a motel, and right across the parking lot, the El Rancho Lounge. Jackpot again - or so we thought - as the sign said Ladies Pool Tournament Night that night (and every Monday) at the El Rancho Lounge. Expectations soared!!  We got it made in the shade now. Yeah baby!!  But Alas.... after checking in (only $39 a night!) and a decent meal nearby, we saunter over to check out the ladies and see if we could engage them in some billiards. Here's what we expected ....  We expected this of the babes at Ladies Night...  But since its at the billiards hall - maybe they will look like this? But the Lodi ladies at the El Rancho that night looked more like:  Reality sets in - and they all have too many tatoos too!! Oh well, tomorrow's another day.  PS - worst margaritas of all time too!!  Day 2: Lodi, CA to Crater Lake, Oregon 560 miles Highway 49 meanders along the West side of the the Sierra Nevada range, with the South leg beginning at Oakhurst, just South of Yosemite National Park, all the way North to Nevada City (in California), and then it loops East, over the top of the Sierras, and hits the 395 just North of Reno, Nevada. Quite a collection of place names along the good old 49: Mormon Bar (not the drinking kind, I expect?), Bear Valley, Moccasin, Chinese Camp, Yosemite Junciton, Copperopolois (I kid you not), San Andreas, Sutter Creek, Bunker Hill, Drytown, Plymouth, Enterprise, Nashville, El Dorado, Elders' Corner, Sierra City, and Hallelujah Junction, just to name a few. We pick up the 49 from I-80, after going North on 99 from Lodi, then heading East on I-80 from Sacramento. What a relief to finally get off the freeways and on the real roads!!  Highway 49 from Nevada City up into the Sierras - S_W_E_E_T!! We've cruised different parts of this road before and today it is nothing less than supberb! Memories of bad margaritas and fat ladies with too many tatoos fade quickly as the air thins and cools, the altitude tops 5,000 feet and the landscape turns into pure heaven. Big trees, steep mountains, snow covered peaks above, and best of all - perfect, and I mean perfect, asphalt under the rubber. And nobody on the road. Only thing to worry about is the occasional deer.We cruse effortlessly, with a stop in gorgeous little Downieville. If this place didn't already exist, somebody would have to invent it - just so it could be on a postcard. A beautiful old mountain village with a river running through the middle of town. Great setting, friendly people - Downieville gets a triple thumbs up from the MyRidz guys.  The middle of Downieville, CA  More of Downieville Highway 139 is another big winner today. This one is a "first-ride" for the MyRidz guys. It doesn't have challenging twisties or beautiful banked sweepers, that's not the attraction this time. It's fairly straight, as a matter of fact. But it's way up their, probably most of the ride is above 6,000 feet, and there's nobody around.The road "blends into the landscape" (poetic words from Kevin) beautifully. The surroundings change from high meadows to high desert to big ranches, and this beautiful lonely strip of asphalt keeps on rolling (I should have a guitar as I write this).  Heading North to Oregon - mostly on Hwy 139  Yeah! We made the right turn!  Quick time out way up in the Sierras  Plenty of open space - what MyRidz guys live for!  Upper Klamath Lake, North of Klamath Falls, Oregon  The road in to Crater Lake  A happy camper on his FJR  A view of the cockpit of Keith's Fat Boy  Oh Oh! What's that white stuff on the side of the road  Time for the long undies - it's cold up here!!  My bike is undaunted by the snow - bring it on!!  Crater Lake Oregon - what a site at the end of a long ride  A perfectly-shaped volcanic crater  The deepest lake in the US - and one of the deepest in the world!  Crater Lake Lodge - snow, snow and more snow  didn't anybody tell them it's summer!  Big bikes, bigger snowbanks! Noticed I was running out of gas as we approached Crater Lake National Park, but surely there will be a gas station.... Oops, it closed 1/2 hr ago, and its another 6 miles in to the lake, then another 18 miles to the gas station we passed a ways back. This is going to be close! After scampering around at the Crater Lake Lodge and enjoying the view, we head back south. I'm coasting as much as I can. Get to the gas station at Klamath Agency and guess what? He's out of gas - can't even spare me a half gallon. Claims it's only 14.5 miles to the next gas station. After a tense ride, I roll in to the gas station in Chiolquin, and manage to put 5.02 gallons of gas in my 5 gallon tank. How does that work? Oh well, we made it!  A calm night of margaritas (better than last night), and pool in Klamath Falls. Don't see any fat ladies with tatoos. Day 3: Klamath Falls, Oregon to San Francisco 550 miles Big anticipation first thing this morning. We're going to take a hard run at Highway 96, running West from Yreka, CA, just south of the Oregon border, over to the coast. This is a truly awesome road, or at least it was the last time we ran it, a couple of years ago. But you know what they say: "You can never go back." Will we be disappointed? Or will it live up to expectations? Hwy 66 (Oregon) First we head West from Klamath Falls, not too long after sunrise, and get a pleasant surprise. Highway 66 runs through gorgeous countryside, and as it often turns out when you leave the freeways behind, there is nobody on the road - nobody! After an hour or so on this road, we hit some really tight twisties and series of switchbacks to drop a couple of thousand feet, just a few miles before Ashland, Oregon, where we will head South for a few miles to pick up the 96 West (a 4-thumbs up MyRidz road).  Highway 66 between Ashland and Klamath Falls, Oregon - spectacular! The ride down Interstate 5 is bearable, because its just a few miles, and because of what awaits - the 96! We're like kids going to the candy store.Words can't describe this road, but here's a few. Imagine a hundred of road through mountains and rivers, a road with a perfect asphalt surface, and one that I swear must have been surveyed and engineered by guys who rode bikes. The road follows the beautiful blue-green Klamath River, and even picks up the Trinity River for a while (kayakers and white water rafters - you know these places!)  Hwy 96 (Rode it East to West) this time Every turn is perfect, every bank is finely tuned. There are no cars. Life is perfect! This is a must-ride road. Get out there! And the scenery is incredible too.  Along the Klamath River (Hwy 96)  Cool Roads - cool scenery  More and more  Sweet....!  And sweeter! We hit reality when the 96 ends at the 299, and head West to grab lunch in hippy-dippy Arcata. The plan is to make it to San Francisco tonight and crash at our friend Mike's place. This is to be preceded by a stop at the Marin side of the Golden Gate Bridge where the little overlook is, and to toast the sunset with a cold brew, before heading into the city. But shit - it gets colder and colder as we get close to the bay riding down 101. Petaluma - cold; Novato - colder; San Rafael - colder and thick fog in sight; Larkspur - colder and foggier; Mill Valley - double colder, and double foggier. We nix the idea of seeing anything and cross the Golden Gate bridge shivering and practically blind, the fog is so thick. Can't even see the bridge itself. Everything is just a thick white blanket around us. Spooky. Mike takes us out for pizza and pool, and of course, lots of tall tales about our misspent youths together. The tales get taller with every telling. I think I'll put Mike in front of a video camera one day and just watch this stuff pour out. He has a million of them (and probably mostly true). Day 4: San Francisco to Encinitas 460 miles It is god-damn cold in the early morning fog in San Francisco. In our optimism, we say: "Oh yeah, it should lift early today, we should be OK to cut over to the coast by the time we get to Santa Cruz. The goal is to ride down Hwy 1 (Pacific Coast Highway, or PCH) from Santa Cruz to San Louis Obispo. For anyone who hasn't done this before, it is probably one of the most spectacular coastal roads in the world - the Big Sur Coast. But when we get to Santa Cruz its really, really foggy and cold. Although we are bundled up with good gear we both have frozen toes and/or fingers. Shit - decison time - stay on the 1 or cut over to the 101 where it will be much warmer. Hmmm... warm and a highway full of trucks, or the risk of being cold but riding down one of the coolest roads on the planet????  It's no contest, and the MyRidz guys press on - hardy warriors that they are. It gets colder, and then colder. Finally, not too far south of Carmel, the sun breaks through and we feel redeemed. We've made a great call. But shit - this lasts for 3 minutes and we're back in the cold fog. Oh well, better than being on a highway full of trucks.  Highway 1 - Coastal California It's a glorious ride down the PCH today, and we pick up the 101 at San Louis Obispo. Cut back over to Hwy 1 at Oxnard so we can skip the traffic and congestion of the San Fernando Valley, by looping our around Malibu instead. When in doubt take this route. Even if it takes a few minutes longer, it's worth it. There is simply no comparison! It's a sweet ride but keep your eyes peeled for the coppers! They are everywhere.After some incredible lane splitting to get through rush hour traffic in LA and Orange County, we roll safely back home. Can't hear a fuckin' thing because of 4 days of wind in our ears, but neither can we remove these stupid grins from our faces. Something about the open road - Get Out There! When's that next ride.... ? Add Your CommentLogin to leave a comment. |
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