12 weekends in California.. with tons of pics.

[crazydrummerdude]

(For those of you not on advrider.)

I had a job in California but my weekends were free. I explored. I'll post ride reports as I write them... mostly pic-heavy updates because as a nerd, I am not much of a story-teller.

No ride lasted longer than 4 days, so day-trippin' it is.

Trip 1; I went with my friend to Death Valley.. We got there the last tolerable-weather weekend. It was hot, but not bad. We stayed at Furnace Creek one night.

Your author:

I must say, of all the parks I've been Death Valley has the WORST side-roads. If you want to get off the main drag, I warned you..

Ubehebe Crater:

Natural Bridge:

random path:

gettin' lost:

Scotty's Castle:

I wish I knew at the time what the "racetrack" was. There was no desctiption on my map except a checkered flag. I regret missing it.

..and we went to Sequoia.

I saw this on the way back. I thought it was funny and a WTF candidate. My friend didn't.

..and we went to Devils Punchbowl.

...

Trip 2; I went with my friend to LA/Hollywood/whatever.

I don't really like huge groups of tourists or tons of agonizingly slow traffic, so this was my only trip to "the city."

Malibu:

Hollywood sign:

...

My friend went back to St Louis, MO. I was free to just mess around on my own, and the random day-trips started.

In all my personal trips, I have a rough idea of where I want to end up, but no real plan of getting there, and no real deadline.

I travel by means of "oh, this looks cool" and if I get lost, I consult a paper map. I have no GPS, no CB, no radio, no heated grips..

I wandered out over Castaic, CA one evening.

I met up with Adventure Kitty and she led me to Pine Mountain and Los Padres Forest...

...among other random roads:

At some point later, I stopped by the Tehachapi wind farm.

 

[crazydrummerdude]

More random trips to come. Now on to the weekend trips.

Trip 4:

I did another repeat of my favorite loop; Angeles Crest.

For this picture, I was taking my camera out of the sidebag when the bike started leaning away. I grabbed the bike, but the sidestand had enough time to retract and the bike fell towards me. Gas leaked. I picked it up and put it on the sidestand. I put the camera back in the bag, and the bike fell over on the other side; the downhill side. I wrestled it back up, and backed it down and into a better position. 3

Yes, I stopped by Newcombs.

This is the area that burned out during the California wildfires last year:

I headed up to Burro Schmidt Tunnel. I decided to stop in Lancaster, CA for gas.

During my trip through Lancaster and Palmdale, I noticed that 1) we're in the friggin' desert, 2a) people still have sod and water it, and 2b) almost everyone has a malfunctioning sprinkler system. Several yards have small fountains bursting forth a waste of water in the summer heat.

As such, every street "gutter" was filled with water, slime/ooze, and at stoplights; oil.

As I've learned is common in California, you can get off the highway, but you can't get back on at the same exit. On the hunt for a gas station and an entrance ramp, I approached the intersection with no traffic to my left. I was turning right at about 15mph. I heard my engine rev twice and I saw the curb which was to my right dead ahead followed by flashing of sky/ground.

I tumbled to my feet to see my motorcycle laying upside down in the road but still running, what little gas I had left, leaking out of the top of the tank.

The SUV that was approaching during my get-off passed me as I ran back to the bike and picked it up. At this point, I still didn't know what happened and thought they hit me from behind while I was making the turn.

Of course, as I got the bike upright, it died and I pushed it into the post office parking lot, slightly shaking from the adrenaline.

The good thing about riding a beat-up bike is you can beat it up some more and no one will notice.

I took out my camera.

My mirror was scuffed, but bug guts later filled it back in.

My valve cover dug a chunk out of the asphalt.

..and here you can see the whole scene (water, pavement gouge, gas spill):

After sitting for a minute, I realized the back end swung out in the ooze/water causing my engine to rev and the bike to spin 180 degrees facing the curb where the tire gained traction and the bike chucked me off.

I landed on the left side of my left foot and tumbled across my back, not hitting my head. ATGATT made sure I had NO cuts/scrapes.

My first (and last) motorcycle accident.

Went to the gas station, filled up, and went out to the desert to see the tunnel.

On a previous ride with Adventure Kitty, she told me of the tunnel, but said the road to it was hard packed dirt.

Unfortunately, it wasn't.

3 miles down the 8 mile road, I figured it was time to abort the mission. I could get off my bike and it'd stay vertical with no centerstand. The sand was past the wheels.

Here's one time of digging it out.

Of course, it was harder going out than in, and I had to stop every 5 feet for 3 miles to push/dig.

There was NO ONE around. I could have yelled "Fire! Rape! Help!" and no one would have heard a thing.

Towards the end of the road, when I should have been able to start to get some traction again, I could smell my 2000-mile old clutch smokin'. Yay. I knew I'd want to remember how soaked in sweat and pissed off I was, so:

At this time, I noticed I kicked off a swingarm pivot cover in the process and got sand all in it.

I went home, had a drink, and relaxed.

The next day, I went to San Bernadino and surrounding twisties.

Note the gas can. 3

I figured if I found myself out in the middle of nowhere again, I'd have just as much luck (or less) than before. So, I brought it along.

I rode the Rim of the World (or whatever it's called) road, but didn't really think it lived up to its name.

I found a boogie board in the street and bungeed it to my seat. Yes, I am a cheap bastard.

I went by El Mirage on the way back, but they want like $15 to get in. I figured I'd come back some other time, but never did. Yes, I am a cheap bastard.

The road back "home" really made 90mph seem like 20.

 

[crazydrummerdude]

That evening, I took my truck to Burro Schmidt. As before, I was the ONLY person out there. Sheer silence.

I wasn't going to come all the way out here and NOT go down the tunnel, so... at dusk, I did.

My flashlight didn't really work (yes, I am a cheap bastard) so I just took flash pictures every once in a while so I could see where I was going. I'm used to this kind of navigation with some of my other hobbies.

The tunnel curved, so there was never really any light at the end to help.

I popped out the other side and saw more nothingness:

On the way back, I checked out the 2 side-tunnels. One had a box with something really smelly in it, and I had no desire to check out what it was. I kinda regret not looking now, but at the time..

His house:

That's a good stopping point for now.. and probably too many pictures for y'all to digest.

I'll update it again soon. Coming up; My trip(s) to the Penngrove Power-Up, Alcatraz, Missile Base, Bunkers, Submarine, Liberty Ship, Bodie, Humboldt, Highway 36, the Old Ridge Route, the Pacific Coast, Yosemite, Flying in a homebuilt plane, an Airhead tech day, the emergency room and more!

 

[Voni]

ALMOST as fun as doing is the retelling.

Thanks for sharing it with us!

Voni
sMiling

 

[pauls1150]

Lots of good stuff - keep it comin'!

Paul

 

[kgadley01]

I'm really enjoying the story and the pics. keep them coming. I don't feel the heat at all. LOL

 

[crazydrummerdude]

A couple more random trips: A friend wanted to show me another couple loops, so off we went:

We checked out the Tehachapi loop just as a train was driving over itself.

We were going up some 1-lane road mountain pass covered in debris when a park ranger coming the other direction stopped us.

The road was closed ahead. We were almost where we needed to be, though. We turned around anyway and decided to look for a shortcut because the paved route would have added a couple more hours.

Lo and behold, a couple miles later, we find a 10 mile gravel shortcut. I didn't think twice.

Upon crossing over the top and going back down the other side, my friend passed me giving the hand motion of revving his engine. His bike was off.

I felt like a buffoon for idling it the entire time down the mountain when he just used gravity. Haha.

Upon crossing the Sierras, there were mile long 80mph sweepers and high wind gusts. I stopped to get a pic of this waterfall (to the left), but it doesn't do the scene justice.

...

I believe I was on Tioga Pass when I snapped this picture.

More to come..

 

[wezul]

Ugliest bathroom I've ever seen.
Great stuff, Nathan.

Seriously though, the Laurel and Hardy thing with the bike, first one side then the other.
Then you went home and had a drink, sure the chronology is correct?

 

[crazydrummerdude]

Another random ride.

There were barriers and signs saying "road closed".. but just enough space to squeeze by them. I found out why.

I kept going and went to the dead end of it.

This area was pretty cool because the trees had grown into the road so much, there was a thin path all the way through.

On the way home, I took another loop (Green Valley) and did the whole downhill section powered off.

...

Ok, time for a real trip.

I got out of work on Thursday night and left for San Francisco. I was still fairly broke at this time and wanted to "covert camp."

By dark, I was approaching a rest area that I planned on just sleeping under a picnic table or something. Turns out, it was closed for renovation.

I figured there's no way the construction crew's gonna be working on the 4th of July weekend, so I found a bush and put up my tent where no one could see me.

At 4am, I awoke to a diesel driving right past me. It's the construction crew. Damn it.

I quietly loaded up as truck after truck kept arriving. It was eerie. 4:30am, dead silent except for hammering and sawing. No one was talking or listening to music.

When I was suited up, I'll bet they were all surprised to see the bush turn its headlight on and start its engine. I was outta there.

I rode up to check out Alcatraz, and got there early. So, I walked around the Embarcadero and found a submarine to explore.

I popped out and still had enough time to tour the liberty ship sitting next to it.

Then, it was time for Alcatraz.

After leaving, I was so tired I told myself I'd check into the next hotel I saw.

It was the most expensive hotel I've ever stayed in. Oh well.

The next day, I went to the missile base.. Story to come.

 

[Omega Man]

Good stuff

 

[crazydrummerdude]

Knowing that it's free to go north on the Golden Gate and hearing that the Bay Bridge is basically 1 big cheese grater, I set off again with no real destination.

Upon leaving the hotel, I was in stoplight hell getting out of San Fran.

My brother texted me, telling me to go to the missile base up there in Marin. So, I set off. I got to the park hq building and saw that the missile base has an open house every first Sunday of the month. Well, it was Saturday. Ugh.

I went to another bulletin board, and there was a flyer for a book singing about the base.. at the base.. and there's an open house at this very moment. I headed over there.

They raised and lowered a Nike a couple times, showing it off.

These were spinning..

New old stock?

They had the "logistical" (if that's a word) hardware down from the mountain-sides, too.

Then, we got to ride the missile elevator down into the room.

..while some middle aged guys talked about the specifics of working in a Nike base. Interesting stuff.

After the base, I rode around the bunkers a bit and came up to this one.

I walked down it and checked out the other side.

There used to be a BIG gun here. It was such a short trip, I was going to sneak my motorcycle back here and take a pic for BubbaZanetti, referencing a thread he had a long time ago.

I pulled through and rounded the bend when I looked back and saw a truck sitting where I took the first picture. Some guy in it started honking and waving at me. I pulled back through and up to him. "You can't go over there!" he said in THE whiniest voice I've ever heard. I gave him a shrug as if I didn't understand what he said and he picked up a phone and started dialing. I left.

There were no signs that said I couldn't go through and he was in an unmarked car. I am the biggest advocate for saving/preserving old buildings, and I am confident that I was hurting nothing.

I then headed up north via various roads. I heard 36 was THE road to ride in California.

On the way, I saw an exit called "Drive-Thru Tree Rd." So, I took it.

The lady in line behind me got out of her car and started taking pics. I looked back and saw a Missouri plate. I asked her where she's from, and it's about 50 miles from where I live. Small world. She took my picture.

She took a few more but I realized I had my camera set on manual focus, so they didn't turn out too well.

No one was coming, so I snuck my bike back around and took a couple more.

I continued on..

The ride to Fortuna, the roads around there, the weather, the atmosphere.. It was all very cool. Some of the most memorable scenes of my whole summer.

I got the last room in the local hotel (a smoking room), so I figured I needed to smoke. I got some cigars and met some other BMW riders at the gas station. They told me they just did 36 and it was incredible.

I walked down a couple more blocks and had a sandwich at the local eatery while I read the local news paper. I looked up between bites and the author of the last story I was reading was sitting 2 tables away from me. Had he not been talking with a female friend, I would have sat down and started talking with him.

The next day, I rode 36 to Red Bluff.

Uh...

...

I think I built it up too much in my mind. Just another twisty road. The middle stretch was the best, but still, of the 144 miles, maybe 40 was actually, slightly memorable.

I was getting pressed for time (being up by Oregon and needing to be down by Mexico, afterall) so I took 5 down to Sacramento and various roads further down.

Somewhere halfway down, I pulled off to get gas/food. I was once again blindsided by the California method of making an exit ramp from the highway but not an entrance to. So, I hopped back on northbound and found an emergency u-turn-around-spot. I pulled through and was waiting for the pack of cars to my right to catch up and pass me but guess who was the first car in the pack. A cop. He turned his lights on and pulled over. I turned my bike off and layed down on my tank with a look of defeat. He pulled up, said something on his intercom that I did not understand at all, gave me the WTF shoulder shrug and pulled back onto the highway, slowly. I waited a minute and pulled back on, too.. keeping my following distance from him. Eventually, he disappeared, and I was back cruisin' on my way home.

Whilst near San Fran, I called my friend and asked to crash at her place that night. She agreed. I drove through the city as the fireworks went off. It was a chilly and foggy night. I struggled to get a decent parking spot on the hills of SF, but eventually found a spot where I fit, and where my engine compression kept the bike stationary. When I arrived at the door, her boyfriend answered and had no idea who I was. She had gone somewhere for ice cream. After she got back, and a few more awkward silences, we determined that I actually went to high school and graduated with her boyfriend.. but neither of us knew each other. It was about 11pm when I mentioned that I didn't know if I parked in a decent spot based on the street cleaner sign. They had no assistance, so I had to go back out and find a parking garage within moderate walking distance. First one I pulled to, the entrance door was closed and it said full. I approached the exit and... just... went around the gate and parked in a motorcycle spot. $7. Peace of mind. When I got back to the apartment, her boyfriend was still talking about 1) bar-hopping, and 2) calling it an early night. Thankfully, his friends were at some party far away (and also don't have cars) so I didn't have to be the party-pooper (I was pooped, after all). The "early night" of theirs ended at dawn after we watched a few crappy movies, though. I fell asleep to the sound of SF waking up.

More to come.

 

[kbasa]

Sweet.

 

[rdalland]

 

[Bruce_H]

I liked it, Thanks.

 

[crazydrummerdude]

Random trip:

One co-worker reminded me that there exists a gap between the two tunnels on Angeles Crest. I was going to stop there anyway, but made it my focus on this trip.

No one noticed me.

One thing I thought was strange; most bikers made a habit of tootin' their horns in the tunnels.

I went down that drain you see on the bottom right.

This was the view from the other side.

..

Another random trip:

Another coworker offered me a ride. It has a boxer engine, so I'll add it to my "report."

Tehachapi wind farm, from above:

We had breakfast at another airport.

..and hit some turbulence on the way back. By this time, traffic was increasing. Randon plane:

...

Another weekend trip:

I was headed up to the SF region again, but stopped by the Winchester house on the way. The didn't allow pics there.

But, if you're going, I suggest getting the "Behind the Scenes" tour. It's like $5 more, but it literally doubles the tour.. and 3 of the original 15 of my tour group went on it. It just so happens, they were from Missouri, too. Odd.

The next day, I went to the Penngrove Power-Up. I was in heaven. They fired up as many as would fire.

Chuff, Chuff, Chuff, Chuff..

Hey, this looks like my shaper..

Line-shaft; awesome. I need line-shaft power in my shop.

Apparently, I am too shy, and I was in my own little world drooling over all the old iron. I missed the chance to meet a few advriders who were there. Oh well; next time..

More to come.

 

[rad]

What a fun ride report

Thanks, I'm tired and beat and up early to work all day and this repored picked me right up.......Well, along with my coffee

 

[Rinty]

Thanks, Nathan; great stuff. What kind of an airplane was that?

 

[crazydrummerdude]

Ok, so I left off at the Penngrove Power Up.

Another weekend trip:

My mom was going to be in Lake Tahoe one weekend, so I decided to visit her.

On Saturday, my coworker joined me on a trip through Yosemite. We took a detour down a former stage coach trail:

..and slabbed it to Yosemite. Upon arriving at the gate, there was a long line of cars. Just before entering, my headers started to smoke a little, so when we got through the gate, I was ready to blast off and cool the bike down. Before leaving the gate, the park ranger informed us that the road was under construction all through the park, and several motorcycles turned around because of the rough condition.

Once proceeding through it, I was always waiting for the bad part, but it never came. Hell, the gravel sections were smoother than my driveway!

Looking down on where we'd be in an hour:

People are too cautious sometimes. When approaching this waterfall, they were delicately lowering their hands and scooting along and bracing themselves and taking delicate steps. If you just walk like a normal person, you can.. walk like a normal person. So, I just passed them all for a view.

On the way back out:

We rode all through the park, through the tunnel, etc. Very cool, very big park.

I usually just wing it, everywhere I go.. but all the campgrounds were full in and outside of the park. Upon exiting the park and getting back down to 395, it was about to start getting dark, and my coworker split south while I went north.

Mono Lake is right there at the intersection:

I passed several small towns, hoping to find lodging near Bodie ghost town (my destination for the next day). Full, No Vacancy, no rooms...

Finally, just north of the Bodie exit, a mom-n-pop motel had a room. The lady behind the desk gave me a couple sodas and talked about my midwestern accent. I don't have an accent...

The next day, I figured I'd spend some time in Bodie. Well, I ended up spending all day.

This guy did the same purr-growl thing my cat does when you're pettin'.

The tour of the stamping mill is free, so I got in line. Well, it turns out you need to present a token to enter, so I had to go get it and wait another hour for the next tour.

It was worth it. They had some cool old machinery in there still. The lady giving the tour acted as if it was 100 years ago, and we were prospective employees. Upon entering the machine shop, she asked if anyone was a machinist. I raised my hand, and in an "oh yeah.." kinda tone, she asked me to identify all the equipment in the room, such as:

I identified everything she asked of me, and at the last one, she acted like it was a real brain-buster. Without hesitating, I identified it as a shaper. She responded; "Wow, of all the people who've claimed to be a machinist, none ever get this right!"

I left there that afternoon sunburnt, with only a little bit more to go before Lake Tahoe. They label their roads kinda funny over there, so I had to ask for directions. It was one of those instances where it was less helpful than actually guessing, but I made it anyway.

Again, all the campgrounds and almost all the hotels were full. I started going up the western side of the lake and pulled into one hotel. $140 for a room? No. Couple hotels later; $90? FINE.

I got some booze and snacks and watched tv. I saw some sportbike riders pull in over on the other side of the hotel, so in a very non-crazydrummerdude way, I decided to walk up and start talking to them. Maybe it was the booze talking.

The next morning, I met my mom and had lunch with her. Sat around for a little bit longer, trying to ride the storm out and when it ceased, I was outta there.

Down over the mountain and back on 395, it started raining and sleeting immediately. Unfortunately, the clouds were hangin' too low and scraped across the mountains, emptying their contents all along my ride; north of Bodie all the way to Lake Tahoe and from Lake Tahoe all the way down past Bishop. Stoimin'/rainin'/frownin'.

There was a (small) rockslide on the road next to Mono Lake.. instead of just driving around it (there was NO on-coming traffic), the lead car in the pack I was approaching slammed on their brakes and stopped completely in the road. At this point, I was ignorant of the rockslide but the road was a river at this point, and I hit my brakes fairly hard, but not that hard.. and there goes the rear end. The back tire wanted to catch up with the front by coming around my left side; here's the wind-up and the pitch.. didn't happen. Right as it caught traction again the bike snapped into a wicked shimmy that I had to dance on top of to control. It was all over in about 1.5 seconds. Thank God for my following distance. I stopped with space to spare. Pulled over at the next gas station where some Harley riders were taking a break and we laughed about the "pucker factor."

When I finally got out of the canyons and back into the official desert, I started to dry out and warm up. A bit of riding after dark (which I wasn't looking forward to), and I was home at like 10:30pm.

 

[Bruce_H]

I still like it!, this is a great write up and photos, keep em coming.

 

[Bud]

My dad worked at Fairbanks and Morse in Beloit, Wisconsin before and after WW II. They made diesel engines there. Wonder if this one was made at that factory?

Great trip report. Love the photos. Thanks for letting us ride along with you.