A couple of friends of mine from ADVRider, DaFoole and Parepin decided to hold a rally in Southern Oregon and naturally I decided to stretch a three day trip into five.

The plan was to leave around 11 AM this morning, but nothing ever really goes to plan, so I finally completed all my work, set the OOTO messages, loaded the bike, and was out the door around 3PM.

All packed up

The initial plan, as far as I had one, was to ride through Yosemite and camp near Mono Lake. Made a wrong turn listening to the Google Maps Lady and added an extra half hour to the trip. But I was reminded of my lunch discussion with JC earlier this week about “enjoying the ride” being much more of a priority than merely “getting there” or “playing it safe.” After all, if safety or getting somewhere in comfort were the purpose, I wouldn’t be on a motorcycle. So I calmly shrugged, changed course, and kept moving. Triple digits did however meant that I was delighted to catch my first glimpse of the Sierras. Relief was nigh!

First glimpse of the Sierras

Virtually no traffic made it tempting to speed, but I managed to stay within generally acceptable limits. At least acceptable to the two patrol cars I passed along the way. You know you are getting close at the Chinese Camp Store.

Chinese Camp Store

And, as tempting as it was to stop by the Iron Door, the shadows were getting long and I already knew that all camping in Yosemite was reserved.

A little ribbon of bliss

Getting Late

Tempted to stop and cool off

On the way in, you could see the damage from the recent fires.

Fire damage

More fire damage

When I checked in and bought my annual National Park pass at the gate the ranger said there were still some sites available in the first-come, first-served Yosemite Creek Campground. She cautioned me however that the road was “really rough” and I could tell she thought I would be courting trouble to attempt it on my bike. (I didn’t bother to point out that this Connie has an ADV sticker on it for a reason.)

Knowing I would barely make it to camp by dusk and would be unlikely to want to make the trip again in the dark to get dinner, I stopped at Crane Flat and picked up ice and beer. Tonight, my freeze-dried chicken and rice would just half to do.

Almost there

Turns out – the Ranger was half right. The first part of the road was fine, and then it turned to washed out gravel and potholed asphalt. I had no trouble, but it would not have been any fun at all in the dark. Of course I was busy watching my line, so no photos.

Four miles later I’m down at the bottom of the hill in the campsite and of course there are no empty sites. Now usually there are at least a few other motorcyclists in camp that are happy to share their site (the ice and beer were part of my strategy of course), but this time – nadda. Lucky me I happen on a friendly couple with a giant campsite who welcomed me, told me to pitch my tent and insisted I eat dinner with them. Juan and Stacy were from Las Vegas. Both work for the trade-show industry and have the same time off every year together. Stacy’s daughter Shea was with them and we had a nice relaxed evening around the fire. They are getting married in October if I remember correctly. Thanks and best of luck to you guys!

DeFap Day One – 193 Miles

It’s refreshing to be reminded that most people, given the chance, are friendly and generous. And it’s much easier to see for me when I am away from the negative news cycle. Not even a half day into this ride and I’m already relaxing and beginning to feel refreshed.

PostScript: I have two new pieces of equipment that I’m testing on this ride and I’ll be writing up a separate report on them at the end. The first is a Cal-Sci tinted shorty windscreen for the bike and the second is the new Arai Pro Shade visor. Stay tuned!

Edit: Review of the Arai Pro Shade

Wow, did someone have somewhere to be early this morning! About 3:30 AM another camp starts their car, turns on their headlights and my tent lights up like the inside of a Chinese Lantern. I took the opportunity to get out of my tent and after they had left, watch the Milky Way for a few minutes, but had no trouble going right back to sleep. I need to come back here and spend a couple of days so I can sleep all day and actually be able to keep my eyes open at night.

The camp set up looks minimalist, but everything necessary for a comfortable night’s sleep is right there!

On the road by 8:15. Again, no photos on the rough part of the road, but once back on asphalt, I stopped and strapped on the camera.

File under “why I ride”

Why I keep returning to Yosemite!

I was in no hurry to exit the park.

I never am.

Half Dome is there too!

I actually look forward to seeing this now – I know they’ll be no one in front of me.

Annie’s favorite road – not!

“Last car to pass, here I go…”

The downhill side of Tioga Pass

First sighting of Mono Lake

Had a great brunch (breakfast croissant the size of a softball) in Lee Vining at the Whoa Nellie Deli. And then North on 395 to meet up with another ADV friend: Distance Thunder (aka Brian) in South Lake Tahoe.

Back over my shoulder at Mono Lake

I love this part of the country! Even if it is almost a 100 degrees.

But it does look like it is going to rain!

Yeah that’s looking a little wet!

I packed the camera away and dodged most of the rain coming into South Lake Tahoe. Made it to The Brewery by the appointed hour to meet Brian.

Brian’s phone decided to overheat (not all that difficult in the mid-90’s in direct sunlight) and he couldn’t find me. I watched him ride by twice before we connected. We did finally connect and I noted around 2:15 that the ‘Thunder’ wasn’t all that ‘Distant’ so we headed north toward Susanville, CA.

The camera of course went back in the dry bag and I have no photos for the rest of the day. We got a little wet, but made it to Susanville and found the Lassen Steak House for dinner. [I’m getting pretty good at at that. ;-)]

After dinner, we made our way to Eagle Campground at Eagle Lake. We had a great spot, perfect weather, a giant fire and a quite night.

Total mileage today:

Day Two: 287 miles

We took our time breaking camp, and were away by 8:30 just as it was starting to get warm.

I do have to say something about Brian at this point. The dude has a seriously bad case of the permagrins and I suspect that it has everything to do with that new KTM 1190 he’s riding. Every time I see him near it he’s smiling like he just won the lottery.

Yep, that’s a 1190 back there!

Our path out this morning is on 201/A7 and it set the tone for the rest of the day. This is an absolutely beautiful motorcycle road. It was a perfectly banked, perfectly paved, and perfectly empty road. The only real danger is the suicidal ground squirrels that the locals call “squeakies.” We didn’t hit any of them, but we did get a mild case of the “brisks” and had a virtually perfect ride out to 139.

Shots from the road:

There were a few tar snakes

And you have to watch out for “the locals.”

After lunch in Klamath Falls, I being in the lead, took a wrong turn and half an hour later we are suddenly crossing back into California. I lost my cool in the embarrassment of wasting our time and then immediately lost my smooth. We got straightened out directionally, but now my lines were all off. I was going into the corners too hot and apexing too early. Luckily, Brian is easy to ride with and took the opportunity to pass me and ride his own ride just about the time I was ready to wave him around. And suddenly I’m back to the earlier referenced conversation with JC – just relax and enjoy the ride.

And there he goes…

So I did:

You can’t see it, but the permagrin is radiating…

Eventually we get to I-5 and begin making real time!

Getting closer, we exit to Hwy 42 and almost immediately run into construction – but you already know what I think about that. Brian doesn’t seem to mind.

p e r m a g r i n

Yay! Construction!

We are near, but the map shows us not going through Myrtle Point, so we elect to make a quick stop for ice and beer so we don’t have to double back.

Apparently, our friend TheGoogle wanted us to take a “short cut” that was part dirt road, part washed out asphalt, and part fire trail. As mentioned before, there’s a reason the bike has an ADV sticker on it. So we meandered down the path indicted and would have missed this had we not taken the short cut:

This is the “Shortcut”

The View

And behold, our friend ATT drops the signal, thus proving that GPS’s are superior to “cell” technology. After some, but not much wandering around, we found DaFoole’s place and were welcomed with open arms and cold beer. We had a nice 4 acre plot to find a camping site. Everyone politely chose reasonable “snoring” distances. 😉

Time to set up camp!

And as typical, we got down to some serious eating, drinking, lying, and general catching up. I set up the tent without the rainfly to take advantage of going to sleep watching the stars. Parepin cooked up a delicious gumbo or jambalaya, there was some debate on this. And the firepit he built worked marvelously! Well done Parepin in all respects!

Total Miles today: 374

Hobbs did a great job on the logo!

Didn’t use the rain fly on Friday night and woke up to this…

Morning View

Never left the camp site on Saturday. It was like a camping and motorcycle expo: What works, what packs, what you need to know about almost every motorcycle there. And plenty of the usual opinionating, lying, napping, and other miscellaneous shenanigans.

Now that is minimalist camping!

1190 KTM

The site 01

The site 02

The site 03

KTM 950!

GS sighting!

Every one staying in the shade!

Our hosts!

Computorless offering the ADVRider “Hi” sign.

el guapo nada kept a steady stream of great tunes going all afternoon – much appreciated!

Although, this scene had a bit of a “Deliverance” feel to it!

Hum, Shades of…

Hobbes shows off her bright personality and willingness to be a good sport!

The campfire

It was great to see old friends: DaFoole, Ca Stu, Computorless, Ace Rph, pigpen, and Distant Thunder as well as new friends: Parepin (your generosity was appreciated!), Peterman, DireWolf, Yama Geek, Scott_PDX, Hobbes950 (you rock – thanks for the logo and KTM education), Johnny Drunkard, el guapo nada (great guitar dude!), Wibbey (loved the minimalist camping set up!) , High Desert Rider, Usal Creek Road HD (props my friend), BeemerRon (killer bacon man!), TK-421, nomiles, Hells Alien, Huzar (thanks for the growlers my friend), Hansi & Mrs Hansi. I’m sure there are others I missed.

0-miles – and well earned!

Awoke to low fog, packed camp and was ready to say my goodbyes and head out in search of breakfast. “Where you going? We are about to start breakfast.”

And thus I was shanghaied. A half hour and a breakfast burrito later, Brian and I took our leave. He has to be back to work tomorrow, but I have Monday off so we agreed to split up at my first stop for photos.

On the way out we narrowly missed five our the whitetail locals. We split the group which is never really a comforting feeling. We wound our way down 42S to 101 and split up at Port Orford where I stopped for a photo.

Quiet, Windy, Clear

The fog hugged the coast and it was quite a treat to be cool on the bike for a change. Sixty degrees beats 100 degrees on a bike every time. I snapped another pic at stop somewhere along the way that had a small break in the fog.

Small break in the fog

After four nights of camping with no shower and considering camping again in the cold and fog I began to consider a hotel for Sunday night. On longer trips in the past I am almost always in a hotel on the fourth night, but I’ve been wanting to stay at Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park for years and this seemed the best opportunity to take advantage of that. Finally I decided that if they didn’t have room for me, I’d hoof it on into Redding and find a hotel.

A quick stop in Rio Dell netted me a sandwich for dinner later and upon arriving, I was delighted to find not only did they have space and firewood, but they also had showers! I was check-in by another ADVRider who’s name now escapes me but we both knew AceRalph and some of the other riders I had just spent the weekend with. Small world.

By 5 PM I was clean, settled-in, and satiated. This really is a pleasant camping spot. Far enough away from the coast to not be so damp and foggy, but close enough not to be quite so hot.

Final Camp

Final Mileage today: 279

279 Miles