2008 May 31 - Skaggs Springs Road

2008 May 31 - Skaggs Springs Road

{Click on any photo to view the full size image}

We meet up at the McDonald's on Lakeville Street in Petaluma.

Sherm's Burgman with his brand new Corbin seat. Just built the day before.

Bob the Builder from Geyersville and Roy C. from Castro Valley.
Nite Lite makes breakfast. He says the cane is just for "looks".

Cranky and Nite Lite Jr aka Brian S.

Jazzhound has a couple of Harley rider friends with him for the Ride.


Sherm taking pictures and Rad

Jazzhound and Uwe

More BS

We get a late start not getting out of the parking lot until about 10:50 AM. Head out to the Coast via Valley Ford Road.
Leaving Petaluma

Valley Ford Road before joining up to Hwy 1

Lucas Wharf at Bodega Bay on the left


Entering Bodega Bay

Bodega Bay

Our first rest break at Jenner at the Jenner Country Store. Also this is for the small gas tanks to top off their tanks.

David J, Cranky, Sherm, Uwe and Rad

Our Ride Leader, Josh on the far right

"VSP" {with a cigarette in his mouth} sits on Sherm's Burgman



Uwe and Rad

The ride never really made it to Healdsburg. The following happened between Jenner and Lake Sonoma.

Here is Rad's description of the main events {written June 1st, the NEXT day}:

This is Rad reporting in 'cause it hurts Uwe to type (and he's on his way to work). Together we managed to ruin the barbeque, but are thankful that no human was seriously hurt. We also thank everyone for their gracious help and patience.

My spill was a bad choice: instead of pushing a little more, I chose to bail off the side of a curve. I didn't realize the damage it would cause the bike, tho' both it and I were still quite capable of continuing. We taped a turn signal, strapped a broken bag to Uwe's bike, and dusted off my otherwise spotless gear and off again.

Uwe's spill is in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat click here to read

His age is exaggerated but the damage is not. He was rounding a curve too far outside, hit gravel, and couldn't correct in the split second left before the rocks. I was in front of him and saw him fly up into the air and disappear.

Uwe has a separated shoulder (a swollen lump between his neck and arm). No broken anything. No tears in the gear. It also seems like no poison ivy/oak either. He's so sad about messing up that beautiful bike and ... well, he'll add info... tomorrow probably.

--
-- Rad

I did not take any photos of either incident.
Sherm has some photos of Rad's mishap in his Blog at:
Sherm's Corbin Blog
Cranky has some photos of Uwe's in his Blog at:
Cranky's Skaggs Springs Road Report

David J is a retired Deputy Sheriff and made a good 911 phone call {we were lucky to have cell phone service}. Josh is a trained First Responder and went down to check out Uwe. The rest of us provided moral support and a few of the younger ones went dwon the slope to do what they could.

The Geyersville Fire Department responded with a couple of trucks and man power. They managed to place Uwe on a "board" and get him up to the ambulance. When I got home last night I called Uwe's cell phone and Rad answered saying that their son was at the Santa Rosa Hospital to take them home. And that Uwe's main injury was a separated shoulder.
{My goodness he went to work the next day!!!!!!!}

And a little humor to end the Blog.

Sherm drying out his underwear



end.............

2008 Apr 19 - Little Dragon - Welcome Home Cranky

2008 Apr 19 - The Welcome Home Cranky - Little Dragon from Atwater and ending with lunch at Modesto

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Today I delayed the start of the Ride. The bike that I started on had an oil light come on about a mile from my home. So I took it to my maintenance place about 400 yards from my home. We filled about 1.25 liter of oil. But then examining the bike found that a bolt had busted loose on the exhaust header. So anyway I head back home to switch bikes.

Here is a map of the Ride Route:

Anyway our KSU time of 11:00 AM became 11:20 AM. The rest of the crew was at the McDonalds in Atwater. I missed my egg biscuit.

From left to right: Cranky's new bike, Rad W's bike, Uwe W's bike, and Happy Wanderer and his 650 V-Strom.

Don I., Uwe W., Happy Wanderer and Rad W.
We ride the 20 miles to Snelling through Merced County farmlands. We pretty much leave civilization after Snelling so we make a pit stop.

We turn onto Hornitos Road at Hornitos. It is an old gold mining town.
http://www.ghosttown.info/ca/hornitos/
Among the ruins in Hornitos are the walls of the Ghirardelli store, where Domingo Ghirardelli traded with the miners before moving to San Francisco in 1852 to found his chocolate company.

My camera refuses to stay on during the ride up to the Little Dragon. So these photos are from the Southern Vista Point.


Notice that the road starts at our elevation and winds back and forth down and down to the valley floor. It then heads across the bridge over the Merced River. That bridge is about half way through the Little Dragon.



The 15 miles to Coulterville takes over a half hour and is like a Disneyland E ticket ride. The traffic was real light as I set a really slow pace. No one was in front of us and no one ran up our rear end.

Here we stop for our second pit stop at a Mariposa County Park next to the historic Jeffery Hotel: http://www.hoteljefferygold.com/



These pics are on Hwy 132 just a few miles west of Coulterville.



We make the 60 mile ride to our lunch stop. Arriving at 2:35 PM. Nomad 42 is waiting for us. His bike is in the repair shop in Modesto.

Lunch is at Doc's Q'in Pit Stop: http://www.docsqinpitstop.com/Restaurant.html


Doc's uses a huge outdoor BBQ pit to slow cook his meats.

Nomad 42, Happy Wanderer and Uwe W waiting for their orders.
Cranky looks sleepy. This was his first serious ride since his accident. Welcome back Cranky.



This is my main course - the large order of barbecued ribs. I also had black eyed peas and cole slaw and a corn bread muffin.

This is Uwe's main course the brisket.

Cranky and VSP taking photos:


It became really windy as we headed home. I will have to add what Cranky and the others had to say about their rides home.

I just got off the phone with Cranky. For some reason the winds were blowing 40 knots with higher gusts along the Coast Range and through the center of the Central Valley. Hwy 99 was not windy but Cranky said that Hwy 165 was blowing this morning. I am glad that we did not have those kinds of winds riding the Little Dragon.

From Uwe:
"Anyhow, we also were nearly blown over (winds gusting at +55 mph) -- we had to slow down to "a crawl" so we where not blown into the next lane, or worse across the road. But we both had a lot of fun today thanks to all of you-- not only where our expectations met, they where exceeded by far. All of you are a bunch of great guys and we both felt really "welcomed to the VROC Family". I hope we get to do this often and we both look forward to our next ride with all of you."

The Rider's:
Cranky (VROC #16804) - San Jose, CA
Happy Wanderer (VROC #18670-R) - Monterey, CA
Rad W. (VROC #26674) - Pacifica, CA
Uwe W. (VROC #26135) - Pacifica, CA
Don "VSP" (VROC #5569-R) - Stockton, CA
Lunch only:
Jon "Nomad 42" (VROC #19338) - Manteca, CA

2008 Jan 19 - Polar Bear Ride

2008 Jan 19 - Polar Bear Ride Manteca to Jackson

{Click on any photo to view the full size image}

Scotty said "Don, you can't have a Polar Bear Ride without snow ;-). " So for Scotty, Top Dawg insists he rode through this to get to the Ride. But I know that it is a photo from a Death Valley Ride.


Tom, Top Dawg and David J.

We met at the McDonalds on East Yosemite Avenue in Manteca. I got there first and had my biscuit and egg with a Senior coffee which was $0.69 in Manteca.

Tom from Sacramento arrives next, then Top Dawg. After a bit, the rest of the total of 9 bikes and 11 people arrive, 2 bikes are riding two-up.

Jason a new member from Manteca and Rhonda and Tim from Brentwood.

KC and his Meanie and John and Lea.

It is too cold to ride without my left glove today and I can't press the button to turn on my camera with my glove on. So no road photos. We head along with the traffic on Hwy 120 through Escalon and just before Oakdale we turn onto the back roads. Nice twisties along Rodden Road to Orange Blossom. More twisties as we ride Orange Blossom to Knight's Ferry. We take a break at the park above the Stanislaus River, a part of the Corp of Engineers.


David and John


Everyone but K. C. who took the photo.

We were suppose to have lunch at Teresa's Place and I am phoning for reservations. Well, it turns out that Teresa's no longer has lunch on Saturdays and wont open until 5:00 PM. On Sundays they open at 2:00 PM for dinner. So we will head over to Mel and Faye's Café, a Jackson stand by.

From Knight's Ferry we back track a couple of miles to Sonora Road, which is a little used road where on a weekend you may find more bicycles than cars on. Things are uneventful for 8 or 9 miles. Then there is a old guy on an ATV riding toward us and is pointing his arm to his left, our right. I slow but am not sure what he is trying to tell us. Then as I make the next corner I rapidly pull as far to the right as I can on this narrow road with mud and fences along both sides of the road. And just as quickly come to a stop because what I saw was a herd of cows and calves being herded down the road right at us by two horse backed cowboys. We stop in a single file and turn off the engines so as not to spook the cows with any exhaust noise. Part of the herd moves over in the dirt to my right and the whole herd stops as they reach me. Eventually the cowboys with their herd dogs manage to move the herd around us. The first time I ever encountered this. I was a bit panicked by the sight of 40 to 60 cows spread across the road and both shoulders blocking any path through them. I could not get my glove off and camera ready as I was paying more attention to what the cows in front of me were doing. And I was the only one whose camera was readily available in my tank bag.

We continue along and head north on Milton Road for 20 miles, which has recently been repaved to Hwy 26 to Valley Springs then over to the road on top of Pardee Dam.

There is the single lane road on top of the dam that we rode.

Bikes at a break at Pardee Dam vista point.



We take Stoney Creek Road, a favorite of the squibs in the Summer into Jackson.
Photo from Pashnit.com

We ride the original ride route into and out of Teresa's Place parking lot and along old Main Street. Then to Mel and Faye's Diner.
We decide to eat outside and order from the take out window because the wait for a table is too long.

Eating al fresco on a Polar Bear Ride.

KC, Top Dawg, VSP and David J. waiting for our food.

Top Dawg insisted that I post a solo photo of him. The old town of Jackson in the background.

Tom eating his burger.

Bill eating his burger.

John eating his food.

Lunch was the end of the Ride. So we break up into ones and twos as people are heading in different directions to get back home.

Here is a list of Riders and their home towns:
KC................Sunnyvale
David...........Woodland
Jason...........Manteca
Top Dawg...Atwater
John............Manteca
...Lea............Manteca
Bill..............Arnold
Tom............Sacramento
Tim.............Brentwood
...Rhonda.....Brentwood
Don.............Stockton