An INCREDIBLE RIDE to start the New Year!!

[jyambrovich]

Hello all,
I'd like to share about my January 1 ride to begin 2007.

I live near the Monterey Bay on the California coast. I left my home in Scotts Valley around noon and headed South on Highway 1 toward Monterey / Carmel. The weather was SPECTACULAR and the forecast said warm and calm on the coast. SWEET!!!

By 1 (after having stopped just off of Hwy 1 in Marina to fill the fuel tank) I was passing through Carmel on Highway 1. I noticed a sign that said Hearst Castle 90 miles. The area just south of Carmel (near Point Lobos) was somewhat congested but I still found that I could stand up on the pegs riding past Monastery Beach to check the dive conditions and swell/surf. It woulda' been a nice day to scuba dive too.

Once past Pt. Lobos, traffic was a bit lighter and it was one of those days that cause me to remember why we pay the big bucks to live in this area!! The sun was out, there weren't any clouds in the sky to speak of, there was little to no wind along the coast, the roads were in fair shape and open (it IS winter you know) - I couldn't have DREAMED up a better day to ride.

Going through Big Sur, I just couldn't believe what a great ride I was having. On reaching Nepenthe (check it out at http://www.nepenthebigsur.com or get a web-cam view from their veranda and weather forecast at http://www.nepenthebigsur.com/images/weather-cam.html) the parking lot had a BUNCH of cages (oops, I meant cars) clogging the parking lot so I decided that I'd push on a bit further and turn around 'just down the road'.

Since it was such a wonderful day and traffic wasn't TOO horrible (I did have to crack the throttle a few times to get around some people whose driving skills are greatly lacking) I found myself unable to bring myself to turn around at every place I'd set in my mind as the 'next turn around spot'. At around 3:30 in the afternoon, I saw a sign that said Hearst Castle 12 miles and said to myself, "I may as well go all the way now, right?". Got to the gate at Hearst Castle and it was closed for New Years Day!! Oh well, I wasn't going on the tour anyway, just needed a place to stop and use a restroom.

Across Highway 1 from the Hearst Castle entry road is a State Beach so I turned around, crossed the highway and stopped there. I called my unsuspecting wife and when she answered I said, "Guess where I am?" After giving me the usual "I don't know, stop playing around" I told her that I was at Hearst Castle. "WHAT?!?!? Are you kidding me?" I told her No, I wasn't kidding. Just about that time I'm munching on a Clif Bar and having some water (I always keep a 1 liter Nalgene bottle full in the storage compartment) and realize that the sun is going to go down in an hour and I didn't want to ride back toward Monterey on Highway 1 in the dark.

I rode through Cambria, then East on Highway 46 to Paso Robles. Reaching Highway 101 at around 5p.m., I headed North toward Salinas. The moon was nearly full and very bright, bright enough to cast a shadow of me and my bike on the roadway.

I ended up meeting my wife in Salinas at around 6:20 where we had dinner at Margie's Diner , then filled up the RT and headed for home.

All in all a FABULOUS day of riding. 340 miles total - not an Iron Butt but certainly a sweet ride to begin the year.

Please, respond and share about YOUR first ride (or any ride) in 2007. Pictures are welcome, though I didn't have my camera along. (THAT won't happen again!! )

Jay Yambrovich
2000 R1100RT - Opal Blue

 

[SNC1923]

Great ride tale, Jay. Good for you. I already posted my modest New Year's Day ride around Lake Isabella and through Caliente, must shorter than yours.

Glad to know you'll have your camera along with your water bottle next time. Thanks for a fun report!

 

[Voni]

Sounded like great fun!

My first ride of the New Year was into Big Bend National Park. Sweet!

Voni
sMiling

 

[paulfinney2]

Our club's New Year's ride was hardly "polar", but we didn't have any other choice. After breakfast, which started just a half hour after rain stopped, we headed over a favorite mountain - 6 1/2 miles and 127 turns. Arriving at the Blue Ridge Parkway, most riders went other ways, while Fritz and I took the Parkway. After 30 miles of clear roads and only one car, I stopped to check with him. He flipped up his face mask, and blurted, "How can anyone not love the BRP! Beautiful scenery, smooth curves, perfect pavement! Yada, yada, yada.' So I assumed he wanted to continue on. We gassed up later, and continued nearly to the North Carolina line, where heavy clouds decended on us. This was a good place to turn around, and return to our beginning point, where we stopped again. We had just ridden 104 miles, only coming up behind that one car, who turned off in less than a 1/4 mile, and with almost no traffic in the other lane. Setting our own pace (he did remind me that he wanted to keep his license clean).
Perfect for a first New Years ride.
Since Fritz is new to our area, I took him on a couple of nice roads on the way home. One of them, we stopped and looked over the guard rail, to look at our road almost straight down below us, after a hairpin turn.
Fritz is good to ride with.

 

[bluestune]

Had great plans, but...

I had great plans to start the New Year, riding my R90/6 around southern New Mexico, but first, my wife, daughter and I wanted to spend one day in Santa Fe, NM.

We spent the night at a really great state park, the next day in Santa Fe, then returned to the park to prepare to head to the southern part of the state in the morning.

That evening it snowed 24 inches, the next day it snowed another 8 inches. It took the county 4 days to get the road to the park cleared. We were warm, had plenty of food and water and even had toasty warm restrooms and showers nearby. But the R90/6 had to stay in the van. I spent two days shoveling snow, all three of us caught colds and as soon as we were able to leave the park (new years day) we headed for home. Home is eastern Iowa where the temp was 50 degrees and not a flake of snow.

Here are a couple of shots from my "ride."

 

[bluestune]

The bike is ready to roll out of the van and go.

 

[bluestune]

The park was beautiful covered in fresh snow, but I would have enjoyed it a bit more with out the snow.