labor day weekend ride

 

Rode the BMW Norcal Range of  Light rally again this year and
had a great time.

Friday into Saturday we had beastly hot weather with temps over
100 at lower elevations. Saturday was spent mostly winding through
the Sierra, eventually crossing over Sonora pass to a campground
at Twin Lakes on the eastern side of the range.

Saturday night a howling wind came up. We were camped in a well
sheltered low spot but it was blowing hard through the tree tops
and it was like trying to sleep with an all night freight train
running
next to your tent.

Sunday began with a loop through Nevada and a run back over
Monitor pass. Near the top of the pass, I found myself weaving
through the wind blasts and blowing dust in first gear with showers
of tumbleweeds bouncing off my helmet. Stopping in Markleeville
for breakfast I noticed that the bike still had bits of tumbleweed
clinging to it.

From Markleeville, our route ran over 89 to Carson pass and then
wandered around in El Dorado national forest for the rest of the
day, mostly between 4000 and 6000 feet. At this elevation, the
weather was as perfect for riding as I can ever recall. Wandered
around in the national forest for the remainder of the day, taking
a few wrong turns, backtracking and finishing the route late in the
day.

Five miles from the campsite, came upon a bike in the middle
of the road and another one in the ditch as two other riders in
the event had just executed a bike on bike collision. The front
rider had just ridden past the last turn on the route, realized his
mistake and slammed on his brakes and started a U turn, at
which point his buddy who was right on his tail, ran into him.
Luckily, the only injuries were some bruises. Several other riders
and some sympathetic locals also stopped. We got the bike
out of the ditch, taped and bungeed the damaged bits back
on and left them with a friend while they sorted out insurance.
Got back to camp just in time to grab the last of dinner, pitch
the tent and collapse for the night.

Monday, I headed home with my friend Mike, down 49 to Bear
Valley. Great ride all the way down, especially the grades around
Coulterville. From Bear Valley, we headed due west on secondary
roads west across the central valley, up over Mount Hamilton
and back to Mikes house for a couple of steaks. I got home
ran the laundry, collapsed for the night and woke up this morning
feeling great. About 1000 miles or so start to finish.

So I know you guys are busy, but just out of curiosity, did
anybody else find time to stop arguing politics and do any
riding this weekend ?

 



I've explored most of the roads along the eastern Sierra watershed,
but have never been to Twin Lakes.

I noticed the turnoff for Twin Lakes and Eagle Mountain the last time
I was in Bridgeport and was planning to explore that area next time.

I thought it might be a real wilderness area.

Did you go to Mono Village? Is that area all built up with timeshare
vacation cabins?

 


Didn't stop in Mono Village. It does seem to be noticably built up.

Twin Lakes is very pretty, at least this time of year. The campground
was nice, though crowded on Labor Day. Their catered dinner
featured slices of a really athletic high plains cow, salty rice with
powdered chicken soup mixed into it and some pretty good
carrot cake.

Right after labor day Twin Lakes might be really nice, though
if I went back by myself, I might consider eating in Bridgeport
or elsewhere if the food still wasn't to my liking.

 

On 02 Sep 2008, Rob Kleinschmidt wrote in
m


It sounds like you had a great ride.  Mine was a spur of the moment
decision after a friend called and invited me to his cabin in North
Carolina.  The wife was going to a neighborhood party Saturday
night, mostly a girl thing with the husbands dragged along, so I
jumped at the chance.

I took off from near Roswell, Georgia Saturday morning and went
north along the back roads to Dahlonega and up Hwy 60 to Suches.
From Suches I took Hwy 180 to Hwy 17 to Hiawassee, then north into
North Carolina.  Once in NC I took Hwy 64 west, rode some back roads
including some gravel cut-throughs (not good on my Nighthawk) and
ended up at my friend's cabin.  The weather was perfect.

I was alone the whole day and it was wonderful.  While I enjoy
riding with others, riding alone to me is very therapeutic.
Give me my bike, good weather (or not), and a peaceful mountain
road, and all my troubles disappear.

My friend had dinner waiting.  He had smoked a pork roast all day in
his Green Egg and his wife had cooked vegetables from their garden.
After dinner we drank beer and wine on his porch and watched deer
feeding in the field across the road.  The temperature was in the
60s.  It was a great ending to a great day.

Sunday we rode some more back roads before taking on the Dragon and
Cherohala Skyway.  Just a bit of advice: the Sunday before Labor Day
isn't the time to ride the Dragon or Skyway. Although traffic wasn't
bad on the Skyway, the police were bad on both.

At the top of the Skyway, we parted company.  He took a gravel road
on his KLR and I continued on into Tellico Plains.  After lunch I
took Hwy 68 south to Blue Ridge, then back roads home.  About 500
miles total.

It was a great 2 days.  I don't think I could have had a better time
if I had planned it for weeks.

--
Lew

 

On Tue, 2 Sep 2008 08:26:38 -0700 (PDT), Rob Kleinschmidt


My buddies chickened out at the last minute (or their wives scare
them) so I took off by my lonely Friday.  Rode interstates mostly to
Tillico Plains, TN.  Spent the night at Hunts Lodge Motorcycle
Campground, just a couple miles off the Cherohala Skyway.  Nice place,
has some neat little cabins and down home atmosphere.  Spent the
evening hours chatting with the other campers under the pavillion,
telling lies and pretending to believe other people's lies. :)  

Saturday, packed up and left around 7:30.   Started out on the
Cherohala Skyway heading for Deals Gap (population 0).  Made a detour
to see some water falls.  Instead of going back to the sky way I
followed my GPS which took me on some really cool roads with some
awsome twisties and some nice sweepers.  Finally back to the skyway
for the last 10 miles or so.  On to Deals Gap, rode the Dragon both
ways.  Only saw one wreck.  About 8 of us pulled his bike back up on
the road and he rode off, quite slow and very embarrassed.  I was
pretty surprised to only see one cop on the skyway, and 2 on the
Dragon.  While there were alot of bikes on the Dragon, it was not
nearly as crowded as I had anticipated.  Then down 68 (Hell Bender?)
and a few other back roads to Cruso, NC.  Spent the night at the Blue
Ridge Motorcycle Camp Ground.  They had a barbeque and a live blues
band.  The band played till 10:30 or so then it was pretty quiet.  A
couple camp fires and folks once again sitting around pretending to
believe each other's lies. :)  And I didn't hear any discussions about
politics.  I think the proprieter told me there were 186 people there
that night!

Sunday morning took 276 to the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Rode that a ways,
then back to 276.  I think 276 is a really cool ride, nice twisties,
very scenic.  Took 276 on down toward Greenville.  Then a bunch of
backroads back to Lexington, SC.  Nothing spectacular on those.

760 miles total.  My butt is sore!

I crossed paths with a couple riding 2 up and pulling a trailer on a
'73 Moto Guzzi with the stock seat...from Toronto.  Talk about sore
butts!  He had over 250,000 miles on it and has owned it since new.

--
Cross-eyed Barber
97 Magna 750