Usually the Monterey Madness ride is a saturday up and sunday back down affair, but this year because of scheduling issues we made it friday and saturday. Not that it makes any real difference as far as the ride report goes, but there it is anyway.
On saturday we ate at the motel, then got on the road early-ish. As rbgeard mentioned, Carmel Valley Road eastbound put the sun right in our eyes, making for a difficult and hazardous start to the day. Luckily we all avoided the doom that was certain and survived to tell the tale. We connected to Bitterwater Rd where we made some good time, Then onto Los Gatos. The gravel road with the water crossing was actually Hernandez Valley Rd, which BMW-K and I had ridden before and remembered fondly.
Los Gatos had been freshly patched, which meant that there were random spots of pea gravel on oil here and there every dozen yards or so. Being as how the road is exceptionally twisty and narrow, the loose surface only added to the enjoyment, keeping us loose and limber on the bikes.
We gassed up in lovely Coalinga, then headed west and over the hills on Parkfield Grade. At the crest the road became remarkably unpaved, (Again, this was a road that Robert and I knew quite well, but failed to warn rgbeard about) so the long, winding descent to Parkfield was taken at a moderate pace. For having had zero experience on dirt and gravel roads up until that day, rgbeard did phenomenally well and completely failed to crash, despite being given any number of prime opportunities. Huge props given to the new guy.
We stopped at the Parkfield Cafe for lunch, and as usual, it was quite tasty. I had the burger:
visitors can't see pics , please
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loginThe Parkfield Cafe is about 100 yards from the most active spot on the San Andreas Fault, and yet they chose to decorate the place in an entirely unsafe manner. This is the view above the seating are. Note the sign.
visitors can't see pics , please
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loginThe bridge with the signs that rgbeard posted pics of above is a quarter mile from the restaurant.
We took Cholame Rd south. The pronunciation of this road had been a point of discussion between BMW-K and I. He'd been pronouncing it CHO-la-MAY and I had been calling it cho-LAH-may. I asked the waitress at the cafe, and she told us it's properly pronounced shuh-lamb, so we were both wrong. Proof positive that two wrongs don't make a right, I guess.
We continued past the actual crash spot of James Dean, then a few miles west past the James Dean memorial (both on Highway 46). A left took us back onto Bitterwater and south into the Carrizo Plains.
We'd been hoping to be able to ride Soda Lake Rd, but it became clear from the GPS readings that we'd be long out of gas before we were out of road, so we headed east on Highway 58 towards the lovely town of Taft.
rgbeard had never been on that chunk of road before , so I made it very clear that all he needed to remember when we got to the fun bit was that the road is perfectly straight and FFS don't do anything but go straight. As we approached the first roller BMW-K waved rgbeard forward, and so off he went, up and over the first one.From our vantage point not too far behind we could see the front of the Speed Triple loft over the crest and down the other side. Through our SENAs we heard rgbeard hoot with laughter as he wheeled all the way down the first roller. He reappeared up the next uphill as we crested the first, and again was laughing like a madman as he caught air over the lip of the second roller.
It was at about this point that it became hard for me to see because my eyes were tearing up from laughing so hard in my helmet.
Too soon the rollers were past, but the twisty bits up and over the hills were tons of fun, even if BMW-K and I were both stressing about the distance to the gas station.
On the run down into town, BMW-K was the first to run out of gas. Luckily (well, honestly, luck had nothing to do with it) he had a couple of MSR bottles full of gas, so he quickly poured a liter of gas into his tank and away we rolled.
Watching my countdown clock, it became obvious I wasn't going to make it to the gas station, but I tried to eke it out.
To no avail, I might add. Soon it was me coasting to the side of the road and dredging out my fuel bottle to put a splash in my tank.
As it was still a few miles to the gas station, BMW-K was concerned that he might have to use his second fuel bottle, but no, we made it.
At this point we were running out of light and it was decision time. BMW-K was the one with the deadline, so he was going to motor to the freeway and slab home. rgbeard and I had the option of another day on the road and we talked about possible routes (58 to Bakersfield for the night, then through Lake Isabella, south on Caliente-Bodfish and Tehachapi, then the three canyons back into L.A. then home), but we decided to just roll on back home that night.
With a stop at the Starbucks on Laval Rd at the Grapevine to ogle some underdressed and underaged girls, we lane-split like fiends back through Los Angeles and Orange County. BMW-K left us at Anaheim, and rgbeard headed east in Oceanside, coincidentally about five miles after the battery on my SENA died.
Sorry for the complete lack of photos, but here are a couple of videos that BMW-K shot. The first one was from about 10 AM on saturday on Airline Rd.
Moments after the end of this video I had a near miss with another deer.
Here's a bit of Hernandez Valley, including the water crossing (but none of the icy sections)
I know BMW-K has a whole lot more footage to edit, and he took a bunch more photos, too, so hopefully when he returns to the US he can post some up in this thread.
