Range of Light holiday ride

 

I rode the Norcal BMW Range of Light Gypsy Tour again this labor
day.  About 600 miles of rally route, maybe 40 of it on dirt forest
service roads plus another 200 miles up and 300 back home again.

Mostly back roads running through Plumas and Lassen forests on the
first day and the Shasta Trinity and Six Rivers forests on the second.

Starting in Gridley, Ca. we rode through Quincy, north around Lake
Almanor, east through Burney and wound up in a campground just
east of Macarthur.

On the second day we headed west through Weed, down the
Salmon river, south through the Hoopa reservation and spent the
night in Hayfork.

One noteworthy part of the ride was finding myself in the middle of
a single file parade of a dozen or more bikes down a less than two
lane windy canyon road so nasty that it was almost impossible to
pass. I've never before ridden in such a large, tight pack of bikes
and still been able to enjoy the ride. Oddly enough, the pace was
right and the riding competent.

A few miles further, the road widened and the faster and slower
riders sorted themselves out. I passed a few bikes, let a few more
by and had the next ten or fifteen miles all to myself.

Going down the canyon, my two friends got a minute or two ahead
of me but I was OK with that. For some reason, the idea of riding a
bike off the edge of a cliff really bothers me more than it should.
No worse than any other kind of bad mistake I guess, but there's
that brief little interval before the landing when you get to think
about it. I've always found to be really unpleasant.

As it turns out, one faster guy actually did drop a bike into the
river.
As I understand it, he lost the bike on a really bad heave in the
pavement. The rider and bike separated, launching a shiny new
BMW over a hundred and fifty foot cliff.

Unlike the movies, the bike didn't explode into a fireball but by the
time it got winched back up a hundred and fifty feet of boulder
strewn cliff face though it probably might as well have.
A similar accident happened two years ago on the same rally, but in
that case the bike got winched out of a treetop in remarkably
good shape.

Monday morning, I woke up early, packed the tent and was on the
way home by 7:30. Riding twisties with the rising sun in my eyes
suddenly felt remarkably comfortable. I always love this rally and
can always count on seeing some great new roads that I've never
even heard of. I may miss it next year in favor of Burning Man,
but this was a great rally. Sadly, no pictures. 10-12 hours a day
of riding, just trying to get to camp in time for dinner. A holiday
weekend well spent though.

 

Rob Kleinschmidt wrote:

[snip excellent ride report]

I just wanted to thank you for an enjoyable read, it's refreshing
to read about a motorcycle ride, a subject that is all too rare on
this newsgroup.

 


(snippage)


Lovely.  Laughed out loud. Thanks.


Reminds me of a scene from one of my all-time favorite movies, "The
Gumball Rally," when the mad Hungarian launches his Kawasaki H2 750
into a huge spruce tree.


Thanks for sharing.  Enjoyed the write-up!

I washed my bikes this week-end; first time all summer.

 



I know a rider who did that on the return ride from Laguna Seca on
CA58 at night.

As he went off the road in a sudden tight corner, he thought he was
going to have a soft landing in some bushes.

Then he realized the bushes were trees, a lot further down the slope

He was separated from his group but a pickup truck driver noticed that
the motorcycle light suddenly disappeared.

If the truck driver hadn't been alert, the rider might have laid down
there for a long time...

 


Great post, Rob.

Thanks for sharing.

~Pete