The Daily Injection

Once the day has come to actually ride the ride, here are some tips to help everything run a bit smoother and for all the riders to have a good time.

• Overcommunicate: If I can say only one thing, this would be it.  It’s amazing how many times you can say things and people just don’t hear you, get it, are confused, etc.  Enunciate clearly, be loud when talking to the group and repeat anything that is important at least once.

That one piece of advice aside, let’s walk through each functional part of the ride.

Prepping the leader

• Get a good night sleep: You’ll want to be fresh on the first day.  Don’t be packing late into the night for an early start.
• Check the weather: Do check the weather for each  functional area on your trip for the time of day you will be there.  If you’re going from San Francisco (coast) through the central valley to Lake Tahoe (mountains), check a city in each locale for local info.  Things can vary wildly.  It will also help you tell the group how to dress to reduce stops.
• Check the traffic: If traveling through urban areas, do a quick check for traffic.
• Review the itinerary: Check the itinerary to refresh your memory for all the things you’re going to see that day.  Use this time to help frame how you see the day going.

Pre Ride Meeting

• Ensure that everyone is there: Sort of obvious, but if everyone is not there, they don’t get the info they need an cause delays later.
• Define the group culture: Give the group some idea of how you like to ride and how they can adapt to it.
  • Speed: What speed will you ride at relative to posted limits?  What will the sweep do?
  • Lane Splitting: Will the group whiteline in areas of heavy/stopped traffic?
  • Passing
    • Other riders: I like to see passing riders give the passed rider the full lane as they would in passing a car.  It personally irritates me when I’m passed in lane by another rider w/o me waving them on.
    • Other cars: When passing other cars, I usually remind riders to continue accelerating after the pass and to move right in the lane so the bike behind them can pass as well.
    • Striped/Solid Lines: Be clear as to what is the expectation is here and how you want to accommodate riders that have different opinions than you.
• Turning: Remind folks to wait at any turn until they see that the rider behind them sees them.  This is the single biggest way to not lose riders in the group.
• Route: Go over the route.  Cover the following things:
  • Stops along the way, particularly gas stops.
  • Type of ride (slab, city, twisty, etc)
  • Key landmarks at turns
  • Weather changes (major elevation changes, wind, if a weather system is in the area, etc)
  • Alternate routes (what happens if you run late or someone get tired)
  • Reiterate the part about turns.
• Above all else: Remind everyone that they need to ride their own ride.  We’ll all finish and it’s not a race.

During the Ride:

• Check your riders: How is everyone doing?  Are there riders that are having trouble keeping up?  Can you segment the group to better accommodate them?
• Appoint a casual ride leader: If the group is large enough that the lead and sweep cannot keep an eye over everyone you might want to have someone in the middle to keep an eye out for issues in the middle of the group.
• Point out cool stuff: Part of the  reason we ride is to see cool stuff.
• Point out uncool stuff: If there is a hazard on the road, point that out as well.

At Each Stop:

• Check the itinerary: At every stop, check the actual time against the scheduled time.  It’s important to know where you are on the ride.  Doing so will help you keep on schedule to meet your arrival time.
• Overcommunicate: Inform the riders at each major stop:
  • Weather changes (do they need to add/remove layers)
  • Route changes
  • Key Hazards
  • Road type changes (sweepers->goaty)
  • Next gas stop.

End of day:

• Have an alcohol plan: Ideally you can walk to dinner so that you don’t have to drink and ride.
• Say Cheers: You’ve had a great day on the road!
• How did to day go?: Get a sense for how the day went for everyone.  Use that info to help make tomorrow better.
• Post ride info: Inform your riders of the following details for the next day
  • Kick Stands Up: When do we pull out?
  • Breakfast: Is that before or after KSU?
  • Weather: Will the heavy clothing and rain gear need to be near the top of the saddlebags?
  • Highlights: Point out what is cool about tomorrow’s ride.

Mike and I have been planning a group ride for a number of years each year and with each ride I learn things.  On our first ride up to Lake Tahoe in 2007, while fun, the group was pretty small and all the riders were well experienced.  That winter I got to go on a ride down to Death Valley with about 30 folks that was super fun.  Everything seemed to run on schedule and everyone had fun.  Patrick I’m sure had a method to his madness so I was curious how he ran his rides.  The biggest thing I took away from that conversation was to plan out every minute so you always knew where you were relative to your plan.

Planning your ride:

• Design your route: Your trip is more than just getting from somewhere to somewhere else.  You’re planning an event.  The route you go, the places you stop, and places you stay are all important into how they fit together.
  • Road type: There are many different times of roads to ride from superslab to tiny goat trails.  I try to target the ride to the average rider in the pack.  Some riders like the tight goat trails, other go for high speed sweepers, and yet others like wide open country.  Think about how you put them together.  I tend to keep the roads near home as the freeway and then get further off the beaten path the farther I am from home.  That way you get out of town fast and get to see new stuff for each ride.
  • Road condition:
    • Traffic: If traveling through a major metropolitan area, think about when you’ll be there and how to avoid traffic.  If you’re in California, discuss lane splitting.
    • Construction: Check every road to see if there is construction on it.  30 min lane closures suck.
    • Dirt: I always give the caveat that dirt may show up in construction zones.  Some smaller roads however are not paved.  Verify them if your riders are expecting an all street ride.
    • Snow: If riding in the high country check to see if the roads are open.  In years of heavy snowfall snow can close some of the county roads well into July.
  • Gas stops: I usually get gas every other stop.  I like to stop every 80 miles or so.  Gas is usually every other stop.
  • Stuff to do:  Great roads are cool.  Every motorcyclist likes to ride fun roads.  But I also like to factor in something else so that those who come on the ride can say we did “this.”  Think about a cool place for photos like a park or landmark.  If your state has different areas you can explore one of those areas.  In 2009 we did a trip to the Lost Coast and in 2010 we explored the volcanic country of California.
  • Food stops:
    • Try to find food stops that accommodate large groups.  Buffets can be great for this as they just charge per head.  They also bill each person individually.
    • Enforce the $20 rule: A $20 bill only buys you $15 in food.  If you only have a $2o bill for the meal, eat $15 worth of food and drink or tip heavily.  Encourage riders to have smaller bills so making change is not a hassle.
    • Call the restaurant ahead to see how you can help them be more efficient in handling your group.  If you don’t like their answer, go somewhere else.
  • Lodging: A bunch of errata here
    • Location: Try to stay somewhere cool, but not too ritzy.  Fortuna is a bit cheaper then Mendocino or Ferndale, but still very much captures the essence of the Lost Coast.
    • Dinner: Find a hotel where you can walk to dinner.  Beer after a long day is a good thing, but a ride after dinner + booze is not.  If you do need to ride to dinner promise beer afterwards.
    • Refrigerators: If you’re packing lunch, having a fridge can be nice to keep food cold.
    • Breakfast: I always like to stay in places that have breakfast.  It’s one less stop top make.
    • Motorcycle friendly: Some places are more motorcycle friendly than others.   Certain towns like Suches, GA, Deals Gap, NC, Eureka Springs, AR have motorcycle specific hotels.  These are fun to stay at.
• Set clear expectations: You’ll want to be clear on what the minimum requirements are for your ride:
  • Pace: How fast does your group ride?
  • Road type: How technical is the ride?
  • Road surface: Is there any dirt along the ride?  If no, always give the caveat that dirt shows up in construction zones.
• Plan it out:  There is no replacement for knowing where to go and how long A is from B.  People will look to you for all sorts of directions and you need to have a good answer as to what the plan is.
• Know your  riders: Especially if it’s a multi day trip, it’s wise to get some key info on your riders
  • Emergency contact: who to call in case of an accident. Make sure they have medical insurance info.
  • Dietary restrictions: you should know if meal stops need to have decent options for your guests
  • Riding ability: Try to get a sense for each person’s experience.  This will help you lay the group out on ride start
  • Anything Else?: I’d ask for anything else that you should know about this person.  It can only help you.
• Google Maps:  is usually right on the money when it comes to timing.  I’ve often thought we could ride faster “than your average car” but we often find that Google estimates right.  Unless you are the few that really does ride as fast as light, take Google’s estimate.  It is better to underestimate your average pace and have a few more minutes at the end of the day to drink beer and swap stories.  Long late night rides with tired riders sucks.
• Work hard early: Keep the most technical part of the ride to the first or second third of the day.  The last third of the ride on a long day your riders are going to be tired and more prone to make mistakes.  You don’t need to drone in straight lines, but you might want to keep the ride on the more sane side.  Don’t have a technical section right after a big meal.
• Know plan B: Stuff comes up.  Riders get tired. Weather causes delays.  Try to plan an alternate route if you get stuck.
  • Is there a more direct way to get to your endpoint?
  • Can your route include an optional loop towards the end?
• Account for everything: I usually like to be out on the road 10-11 hours on a multi day ride.  Keep in mind you’re not riding  that whole time, but you are on the road.  Usually it’s good to stop around every 60 miles to stretch, get gas, eat, see something.  In your ride log, include all of these kinds of stops.  You can use the following as estimates:
  • Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner:  You bring it: 45 minutes.  Fast food: 60 minutes, Sit down: 75-90 minutes.
  • Gas Stop: 15 minutes
  • Photo Stop: 15 minutes
  • Activity: 10 minutes for the stop plus the amount of time that you are doing things
• Know when it gets dark: Not everyone is comfortable riding at night.  Know when it gets dark where you are at that time.  If your ride goes significatly north or south that time changes from when you are at home.  Mountains, forests, and fog (coast) often accelerate darkness.
• Have some buffer: For every minute you’re not moving forward on the schedule you lose time and your finish time moves out.  It’s inevitable that someone forgets they need to use the bathroom while everyone is geared up and ready to go.  That can easily be 5 minutes.  While not a big deal in any one instance, these things add up.  Have a few optional photo stops near the end of your day that you can cut out if you are behind schedule.  Time always runs faster than you think.
• Get gas early and often: I’d ask every rider how many miles he can get before he has to switch to reserve or the low gas light starts blinking.  Get gas at least as often as the smallest tank.  If you have any question as to if that gas station will be open, call them.  Phone numbers are listed on Google Maps as well as the gas station vendor’s website.  The station vendor tends to keep better records than Google Maps.
• Know your goal(s): I’d venture to say that every ride has two goals: to finish safely and to have great memories. If you find that you have too much crammed in for one day then ask yourself, “If we don’t do thing X or ride road Y will the group have a bad time?” Often the answer will be no.

At the end of all this, you should be comfortable with the schedule you’ve set for the group.  I’d recommend doing a solo trip or two with this sort of planning and see how close you keep to schedule.  When adding the group in remember you don’t get more efficient.  The time you find that you lose because you put the wrong song on the music player or because you decided you needed water after you put your helmet goes up with each rider you add.

Rule of thumb, don’t be an over aggressive scheduler.  You can always add in a loop or a photo stop at the end of your ride if you find that you get there early.  I’ve yet to hit that case.

Day 1: 191 miles

I got an invite to go on a ride with some of my co workers. It turns out that this ride has been going on for about the last 20 years as the Memorial Day lap around northern California.  This year they decided to move it out a week. I am always looking to meet new folks and ride some new roads so figured why not go.  All of the NorCal crew met in San Jose.  The final destination was Mariposa where we’d meet the SoCal crew. It was not a long ride.   We’d ride about 200 miles, but it was to be a technical 200 miles.. The plan was to go over Mount Hamilton, cross the valley, and bump up into the foothills.  The ride up Mount Hamilton is always a challenge for me.  The road is very tight and technical with a lot of blind corners that have crud in them.  This time was no exception.  Once getting to the top of the mountain, the view was pretty cool!

We had a great view of San Jose:

But it is one technical ride up:

Riding down the mountain was much easier for me. Usually downhill riding gives people more issues as gravity does not help you control your speed. For some reason I felt better heading down. Once in the valley we all jetted across as no one really likes to ride in straight lines when it’s hot. I picked up two new cities I’ve not been to before: Turlock and Merced. Not exactly megalopolises, but new none the less. We started up White Rock Road (why not just take 140 that goes right to Mariposa I dunno). The pavement went from bad to worse and crossing into Mariposa County it became downright crappy. Just about all of our dental work was knocked loose on this one. We went another few miles after the county line and the road became dirt. We had a choice to make: push forward on 8 miles of dirt or endure another 10 miles of crappy pavement. We chose the dirt. The pavement was that bad and we had a number of sport bikes.

This was my first real time being in the dirt on the DL. I’d done little bits here and there, but this time I actually had to get somewhere. I have to admit, it was more fun than I had expected and easier to ride. Granted I barely got into 2nd gear, but hey, it was still fun. We arrived in Mariposa shortly after 8pm or so and had a nice dinner at the local pizza place. I booked late at the Miner’s Inn as the Super 8 was full. Turned out for the better as the lodging was in much better shape. I had carpet while the others didn’t !

Day 2: 330 miles

Ain sort of peaked my interest in going over Tioga. He had to get a tire as his was wearing too fast. The rest of the group was heading over Ebbets, but I wanted to go over Tioga as it was opening day. Opening day usually has some of the best sights as the snow is still around and the rivers are running in full force. ZZ decided he’d rather ride over Tioga as well so the two of us set out due east. We got in free to the park as it was a go see your parks on the federal government day!

ZZ had never really been to the park much so we started off in the valley. The line into Bridalveil Falls was astronomical, so we kept on driving. The rest of the valley was pretty chill though. Not much traffic at all. Yosemite falls was in full force today:

With all the snow melt, the valley had it’s share of large puddles.

The ride up Tioga pass was really cool. The snow pack was very much around, yet we couldn’t find that wall of snow where we could lean our bikes into. It was not that heavy around roads. Yet we did have a bunch of water and in some cases deep streams on the roads:

Which became 6 or so inches deep on the road:

We took a few stops along the way to walk around and take pictures. The bikes are enjoying the rest:

Once past Olmstead Point, we got to see a number of lakes in the park. Most of them had a good amount of ice still on them from the winter. Tenaya is a favorite of mine to swim in, but Tioga looks best in the winter.

Tenaya Lake:

Tioga Lake:
.

Once through the park we figured we’d explore Mono Lake. The dirt road to Mono Lake was a bit more challenging than the dirt from yesterday as the gravel is a bit deeper and there is less hard pack. The lake is a salt lake much like the Great Salt Lake. For some reason the flies were not around today:

The salt structures on the lake are known as tufa. How they formed, I’m not sure, but they are cool up close:

On the way to Mono Lake I realized we had to swing by June Lake so we took yet another detour:

It was now nearing 5pm and we had to get to Shingle Springs for dinner. Our timing was less than stellar. The good news is that the other group’s timing was about as good as ours. We had about 150 miles to ride (about 3 hours) to get to dinner. It was one of those ride, gas ride, repeat sections. Dinner was a nice BBQ outside of Sacramento. Many thanks Rick and Janice.

Day 3: 420 miles

Day 3 started with a great view of the snow capped mountains outside of Placerville. I was bummed I was too lazy to get a picture of them. . We had a fair amount of riding to do and we started late, but hey, we roll with the crew. Evan, one of the route guys had suggested we backtrack on 80 to 89. I had suggested we take 70. With a little bit of creative suggestion, the group went with 70. Evan sort of gave me a nod and said “you know how to ride California don’t you..” Yeah, I’ve been a few places. Actually I’ve been everywhere:

The ride up 70 was just awesome.  The feather river canyon is one of my favorite rides in CA.  We stopped for lunch along the Feather River and these two elderly ladies were having lunch in the same spot.  Steve was having sort of a sweet tooth and figured the ladies might have some cookies.  We all put him up to asking them for some.  Turned out they did!  We all got a big laugh out of that!  We stopped at Lake Almanor and found that Lassen was still covered in snow:

The last 150 miles were to be the most technical.

Highway 36 is a legend in California motorcycling. It’s 140 miles of tight technical riding even for the most seasoned of riders. We got to the foot of the highway at about 6pm so it was cooling off in Red Bluff. Summers there can get over 100 easily. Very early on I knew this road was one that could not be trusted. There were a few blind rises where it appeared the road was to go left but it actually went right. That will wake you up quick! The top of the pass was quite cold and signaled more challenging weather ahead:

We had about 20 miles of deep fog where you could barely see the bike in front of you. The road switched to one lane and goaty in a few sections. It was late in the day, but the last section though the redwoods was pretty cool. The last bit of light in the day was fading through the tall trees.

Day 4: 360 miles

Day 4 was a run through the lost coast and down the regular coast back to San Jose. We started the day with some pretty foggy weather and some rain:

As usual things cleared up by the time we got to Mattole beach:

in Honeydew we got to hear all about Ferndale football and how the pot growers are destroying the region courtesy of Bob, the owner of the Honeydew store. Instead of taking Mattole through to US101 we decided to take Wildcat Ridge south to Redway. The pavement is much better (minus the mile of dirt) but I did miss the trees of Humboldt Redwoods State Park. We rode down the 1 to the first sign of coast:

Alas, all good trips have to come to an end. We rode down 1 to Bodega Bay and then hit the freeway to SF. We lost 1/2 of the So Cal group in San Francisco. I was supposed to lead them to their hotel in Burlingame but had no idea where the hotel was and had no GPS. With two strokes of luck the hotel was right off the exit and the others that got lost in SF met us 5 mins later. We had Matza Ball soup for dinner. It was actually really good! The So Cal group had a final day of riding back home and all reported it was a fun weekend!

Total: 1302 miles

I have to say that I am impressed. I genuinely enjoy my phone. I am surprised how much I use it at the expense of the computer. I do most of my browsing of South Bay Riders as well as my email on the phone. Most of my blogging is done on the phone as well with the WordPress application.

One of the biggest benefits I’ve seen with the phone is the ability to use the in between time more effectively. When sitting in line at the DMV I can follow up on email at the office or browse the web. That is pretty cool. My laptop battery is now dead on a five hour flight and I can continue the blog on the phone.

Applications are a bit mixed. Some of them have been great. Others not so much. Which ones do I like?

• Road Trip – is a neat little app that tracks all the expenses about your car. You can key in gas, service, etc and it will calculate the MPG as well as the cost per day and mile to drive that vehicle.
• Lose It – this app tracks your calories in and out. You can key in food as you eat it and it will calculate the nutritional breakdown. You can also add in negative calories for exercise. The food database is not near as complete as Calorie King, but it is not bad.
• BikeMateGPS – this app tracks your bike ride via the GPS. It tracks the major stats like speed, elevation, distance, and time. It will also overlay your route on Google Maps as well.

There are a number of cruddy apps out there as well. My short list is as follows:

• Google Maps - this one is not so bad, but it leaves a LOT to be desired. It is hard to get the directions app to start from current position once you edit the start. I would have also expected the app to use bigger text and more GPS style graphics in the navigation mode.
• Greatest Road – my main gripe is that it is slow.
• Speedometer – this one seems the most elusive. All I am looking for is an analog speedometer that is large on screen and is reasonably accurate. I cannot find either.

All in all I am very happy with it. I am also excited about the iPad. It is a bit much at $500, but as prices come down that space becomes more appealing to me. I totally get the market they are going after, it is just not worth it for me at that price.

I feel like it has been a really long time since I’ve been out on the bike. The overnight in Tahoe was fabulous, but that seems like ages ago. About five or so weeks later I needed to go see the dentist for my biannual checkup. I have moved a few times in my stay here in California, so my dentist is actually a hike from home. I decided to take the motorcycle as it is a 60 mile round trip, the weather was good, and I could save gas .

It was nice to be out on the bike again. Granted it was freeway all the way, it was still nice to be riding again.

Each time I fly it seems the airlines are more and more like other forms of public transit. A number of years ago food used to be complimentary. Then you had the option to buy it. Now it is just soda and peanuts only. The same sort of policies came along for baggage. Now all the baggage costs at least $15 per bag.

Airlines are doing everything they can to raise revenue. That is understandable given the lean economic times. Last year there I saw a Hertz Rent a Car ad hanging out of each seat pocket. I am sure the airline didn’t let those go for free. Now on this Airtran Airways flight the tray tables have ads fastened to them. Apparently I can win a cruise on the “worlds largest cruise ship” through the Mother Nature Network. Given that MNN is all about environmental news there seems to be a bit of a conflict in interest there.

All this to say is that the plane that I am now on is not all that different than the train I was on earlier this week. Ads are placed everywhere in the hopes of scoring a sale.

So I finally got an iPhone.  iPhone is one of the standard issue phones from my employer along with the Blackberry. I don’t really need an actual keyboard as I would rather have the screen real estate. The G1 had a reasonably good compromise with both an on screen keyboard and a pull out one, but I felt the pull out mechanism was not that sturdy.

But now all the fun stuff comes! I have all new apps to download and a case to buy. I had thought the hard clear case was cool, but now I am thinking a rubberized rugged look one might be better for the wear and tear on the device.

If only I had one of these five years ago when I spent three hours a day on Caltrain…

One of the things I really enjoyed about 2008 was looking back over all of the photos captured in my Project365. I could look back and see something from each day and remember what happened that day. As I get older (and time passes faster) it’s nice to have some record of what happens in all that “in between” time in life. We all remember our vacations, significant events, and major challenges. What about the in between? We all have our day to day that connects the major highs and lows. Part of what was cool about the project was to bring significance to the everyday.  Looking back  I do find some random things that were pretty cool.

September 03: Actual good diet rootbeer comes to RedRock

January 10: Gave a stranger a jump start whose battery died

February 04: The sky on a late night bicycle ride home

So it’s that time again.. I’m looking forward to see what 2009/10 brings!

I almost never get out early when I travel on the bike.  I tend to be a night owl but I was determined to get out early on the ride today.  I got to bed at a somewhat reasonable hour, but 6:45 comes early.  The bed at motel 6 was not that great, so getting on the road at 8:30 was not that bad.

Last night I could see that the color  on the trees was good in the Hope Valley, but the early evening sun hid how good it really was.  Both 88 and 89 had good color and the recent snow storm left a dusting of snow on the mountain tops.

The morning light with clouds made for great photos to the west with snow and fall color.  Coming down 89 you have great views of the Hope Valley so I made a few stops and hit some of the side roads that quickly turned to dirt (and sand).

The DL soon became unwieldy in that sand so I had to make some U turns along the way.  There were numerous photographers in the Hope Valley, so I’d stop and take some pictures when I found a cluster of shutterbugs on the side of the road.

I was disappointed that the camera battery was out of juice for the ride up, so I made my way back to Bear River Reservoir for some more pictures.  Getting to ride 88 again was fun.  I’m becoming more confident in my riding downhill, especially on that road since I know the turns so well.  A few pictures later, I’m on my way east again.  Since I usually hit this road going east in the evening, all of the spots I usually frequent are all in direct sunlight, not the backlit sunlight I’m used to.  It was hard to take pics into the sun… I did manage to get a few though:

I was parked behind someone’s truck and saw myself in the tailgate… sort of a fun photo!

It was hard to believe that it was only 1pm after what seemed like a full day of riding.  I’m guessing that is one of the perks of getting up early.  Sorensen’s is a popular spot in the Hope Valley and I was hoping to get a spot there for lunch.  The fall color on their grounds is second to none.

Unfortunately, the place was booked and had a 45 minute wait for lunch.   Down the road was Lisa’s but it was apparent why they were not busy.  The menu had some very slim pickin’s.

It seemed that it was the end of the season for them as most of the shelves looked pretty bare and the menu sparse.  A bowl of chili did look good (and it was good), but in the end, I would have waited for Sorensen’s and taken pictures on the grounds.

After lunch I followed 89 up to Monitor Pass.  The ride along the lower section was great. Fall was in full force!

As I started to climb the pass in earnest, the fall was just past peak, as you could see the trees were starting to get that bare look.  The sun was warm and the road was nice and dry, so it was a great ride all along the highway. 

Once up at the top of Monitor Pass, things changed very quickly.  Looking back to the west, there was a massive squall line that was moving across the Sierras.  As I was taking pictures from the saddle on the side of the road a gust of wind almost pushed the bike and I over!

Moving, the bike is much less top heavy so the wind was not super bad, but there was enough to keep you on your toes!  I’ve ridden in plenty of wind, but most often in the valley where the roads are straight. This was a new experience to be tossed about in the twisties.  The last time I’d ridden highway 4 was about 8 years ago.  I was new to riding out in the Sierra and got soaked in the middle of summer.  The road has a 22 mile one lane section which was a bit much for me then so I swore it off since then.  I was up for a bit more adventure today then I was then so I figured it was time to give it another try.  There were some nice sploches of fall color along the route:

So many parallels between then and now: technical ride. bad weather, and all the issues that go along with both.  Once getting out of the goat trail section of 4 it was great riding into the valley.  I was rolling though turns at a good clip and having a lot of fun doing so.  Traffic started to back up in the western section of the foothills, but nothing a bit of aggressive passing can’t solve.

Touchdown at home was just before 8pm.  It was a great day with many diverse experiences to be out on the bike.  Hopefully we’ll have a few more weekends in the Sierra before they close for the winter.

Here is the final route map:

Back in 2003 I started to take “personal retreats” about once or twice a year to get away from the world.  I’d be out on the bike (on one exception the car) and leave the stresses of life behind to just take in the world.  California 88 was one of those roads that I never quite got to ride until the first V-Strom rally in June of 2005.  On that ride, I remember coming out of the Hope Valley and seeing all the snow in the Sierra.  It was one of those wow moments you can’t capture on camera.

That next year, in 2006 I remember wanting to come up and see the fall colors and figured I’d give 88 a try.  I didn’t really have a good strategy for riding in cold weather.  I had just spent a bunch of bling in heated gear and had no idea if/how it worked.  Needless to say, I’ve learned a lot since then.  My heated gear is well loved and has seen many a mile.

I’ve got three bags for the bike.  I also have a list of all the things that I need for a long trip that fills those three bags.  The problem is that I pack all the bags each time for even the weekend trips.  I’ve been trying to trim down just what I need for a weekend trip so I’m just in the top case.  Less truly has become more.  Yes, I don’t have every tool and item that I’d carry, but the margin for error is higher as I’m reasonably close to home should something bad happen.

I left home about 12:00 which was a little later than I had planned, but I never leave on time anyway.  I did the ride from San Jose to Sopiago Springs at a brisk pace in one haul which helped me manage time well.  This weekend was the biannual Pashnit Gathering.  The group tends to be a bit smaller in the fall vs the Spring.  A number of the old timers were there: pashnit, theothertim, m0t0-rydr, bandit12, that guy who’s name I can never remember.  There were some new faces as well.  Karim rode his Ninja 600 supersport from LA in a day which was an accomplishment in my book.  I was only able to stay an hour and a half as I wanted to clear the passes before it got dark and cold.

Leaving Sopiago Springs once can really see the fall in full color.  There are not a lot of deciduous trees in the area, but the ones that are were bright.  Pushing further east on 88 the color started to come out in patches.  The fall does not seem to be particularly even here as it is back east.  Often a grove of trees will be in full color while another will be green or dead.

I’ve been trying to get more off the beaten path than I usually do.  A few weeks ago on Patrick’s Bridgeport ride we saw Bear Reservoir from a distance.  This time I tracked it down to see it up close and personal:

With the bike:

And the dam:

Shortly thereafter my camera battery started to die.  I didn’t recharge it after the last weekend so I only had a few shots a best out of it.  Riding further east you could see that the past week’s snowstorm was definitely resident on the peaks.    It was cool to see the fall color with a bit of winter’s touch.  I only got one shot of the snow before the camera battery died.  I didn’t get too much creative license with it either:

From the Hope Valley I had two options: cheap in South Lake Tahoe at Motel 6 ($35) or nice in Nevada ($90).  I figured it was just a rental matress for the night so I’d save the bucks.  Turns out it was a nice Motel 6.  It’s irritating they don’t give you shampoo.  Charge me $36 and throw in the shampoo.

Dinner was a random assortment of granola bars, fruit, cheese, and meat courtesy of the Grocery Outlet.  It’s sort of a weird store.  I’d put it as a cross between Costco (bulk), Safeway/Kroger (they sell groceries), and K-mart.  My purchase was $9, but I saved $13.  Not sure what I purchased was really $22, but it gave me that great feeling of savings (yeah right).

The camera recorded all but one of the pics at very low resolution, so I’ll have to do a check on all of the settings.  Tomorrow should be some great riding.  Looking forward to seeing some cool fall color!   Yep, I’m falling in love with an old favorite again.