Feature Destination Highway: 

DH12
Happy Camp to Willow Creek
Highway 96

March03
May 03
June/July 03
August03
September03
March04
May04
June04

DHCA-N's Position on
Recall of the Governor

Wed Jun 25
Brian
Most of the day was taken up with picking up my VFR from the Honda shop in Modesto (where it had had new rubber and a set of Helibars put on), getting Twisted Edge graphics put on both bikes and then testing the positioning of the Helibars. They certainly felt better than the stock bars but a true comparo would have to wait until I had logged a little time in the saddle.  While we were waiting for the bikes to get their graphics done, we found the head office of a map company and spent US$300.  Shit, do we ever spend a lot of money on maps, 98% of which are next to useless and/or inaccurate for motorcyclists in search of the good stuff.  But as Mike says, it all goes to a good cause. Ours.

 Just as we were ready to leave Turlock and get some late day riding in, our Cycleport (or is that Motoport?) hot weather riding gear was delivered to the front door.  It would take us a while to sort through, so we decided to postpone our departure until the next day.  I decided to dash back to Modesto to have the bike shop tweak my Helibars, while Mike decided to dash into the pool. (And drink our last beer, the bastard.)  When I got back, I took over his spot in the pool while he went out for a test run of the hot weather gear (and to get me some beer).

 On his return, he pronounced our new gear far cooler than our leather. But we certainly were going to need some size adjustments made, especially to the pants.  They were, shall we say, just a little larger than seemed necessary in the leg circumference.  Mike just looked stupid in his, while I, on the other hand, looked completely ridiculous.  It didn't help that, in spite of the hints from the manufacturer (“Are you sure you want the pants in yellow?”), we (okay, Mike I admit it, it was me) had gone for the safety yellow to match the jacket, instead of choosing the suggested black for the lowers. It didn’t occur to us then, but as we found out soon enough, this stuff made us look like we’d just climbed off a fire truck. But who cares if it does what it’s supposed to, right? 

That night, we had dinner at Bistro 234 in downtown Turlock (maybe the best place to eat in town) although they were “having a temporary problem with their butter program”, whatever the hell that means, which was leading to some dishes being overly salty (ie mine).  But we assume the program’s been corrected by now. 

Tue Jun 24 – Wed Jun 25
Mike
When I fly down to California, take the interminably hot and air-conditionless BART ride to the Pleasanton end of the line and endure another hour and a half of rush hour traffic, all I want to do is get on my bike and ride.  I don’t want to spend the next day map shopping, getting the new graphics installed on the bike and hunting around for guys to put 3M Stoneguard over the yet-to-be-installed graphics.  R-I-D-E.  Ride. 

The couple of days of un-Pleasanton-ness paid off, however, in that the fancy new air mesh, hot weather motorcycle gear we’d ordered from the Motoport arrived in time for our departure.  Jackets fit great but as often happens when you order clothing by emailing your own measurements, there were some minor sizing issues, at least with the pants.  And while I may have looked like MC Hammer in mine, Brian’s were so baggy, he looked like a 12 year old boy with no parental fashion control.  “Don’t touch this,” was Brian’s attitude, at least until he gets down to San Diego and has them altered and updated to fit with the 18-year old image he usually tries to cultivate.  

Thu Jun 26
Brian
On my last trip, I had discovered the Merced Falls - Hornitos Rd DH from Hwy 132 to Catheys Valley on Hwy 140 and that was our first goal today.  We motored to Hwy 132 via the Turlock Lake Rd TE from Hickman, just south of Waterford. After La Grange, we gassed up at the station west of the Merced Falls Rd turnoff, where just before noon it was already close to 100°F (40°C).  It was a good thing the hot weather gear had shown up.  We would've been dying out here in leather. 

Mike didn't like Merced Falls Rd – Hornitos Rd as much as I had on my first visit and indeed, it didn't seem to be quite as good this time to me either.  He particularly disliked that stretch of Hornitos with the blind crests where the road conformed to the swells in the terrain rather than cutting through them.  I thought maybe the road builders were acolytes of legendary Washington road pioneer Sam Hill and were following his dictum that you should disturb the natural environment as little as possible when building a road. I tried to Zen them as sort of up-and-down curves. 

From Cathy's Valley we headed up Hwy 140 which has a good little stretch to Mariposa (if you don’t get stuck behind pylons and watch out for STCs) and then down that bland stretch of Hwy 49 to Oakhurst. Here we lunched at the Mountain House restaurant on Hwy 41, just north of town, where I previously enjoyed an excellent blue cheese burger.  Mike didn't find the food here as good as I had either.  Picky, picky.  

Then, it was north on Hwy 41 to Yosemite.  This is a DH for sure; very good twisties and some pretty nice pavement on the first stretch.  Just don't expect to see any Scenery until you're at Yosemite.  Then, it's staggering; El Capitan and other vertical walls of rock soaring straight up from the glacier-carved, perfectly-flat Merced River valley bottom coated with meadows, rushing water and thick forest.  Unfortunately, the pylons can be pretty thick too.   

Here we split up; Mike to check out whether the road heading deeper into the valley around the village is a TE, me to backtrack 10 mi (16 km) or so along Hwy 41 to check out the Glacier Point Rd up past Badger Pass.  I needed gas before heading up this road and since there was none in the valley, I had to continue south on 41 another 11 mi (18 km) past the Glacier Point Rd turnoff to fuel up back at Wawona.  Now, of course if I'd had DHCA-N, I’d have known to fill up here on the way through the first time and saved myself redoing 22 mi (36 km) of Hwy 41 (there is a 37 mi gas drought between Wawona and Crane Flat, north of Yosemite). If you pre-order now, you won’t make this mistake.  

On the way back to Glacier Point Rd, I noticed that, at this later point in the day, the pylons were a lot less numerous heading into the park.  Because a lot of people don't stay in the park they have to come up here early in the day to see the Scenery and then they start to clear out in the afternoon.  If you want a less-congested riding experience, we suggest you head up here mid to late afternoon. 

Glacier Point is very twisty up to Badger Pass and then mostly straightens out until you get closer to the views along the Illilouette Ridge whereupon it starts to curve once more and then gets seriously twisted up again towards the two fabulous Half Dome viewpoints at the end.  You've climbed way up so it is refreshingly cool up here on this summer-access-only TE. (In May when I’d checked it out from the Cessna, snow still blanketed the road past Badger Pass.) 

Meeting up again at Yosemite, we decided to head north into virgin air recon territory since we were flying Air Boz the next day.  We headed west on Hwy 120 to Moccasin but it was too late in the day to tape what will undoubtedly be a DH.  Remote and sweeping towards the Yosemite end it also has the wonderful Priest Grade (or alternately, the equally delicious Old Priest Grade TE) past Groveland at the Moccasin end. 

On Hwy 120/49 after Moccasin we split up again, me to check out Jacksonville Rd  across from the main highway (to the east of Woods Creek and the north arm of the Don Pedro reservoir).  This TE runs north to Jamestown (and is a good bypass option to boring Hwy 120/49), one which we'll have to revisit and tape when there’s daylight.  Then I took the Rawhide Rd (E5) cut off through a still-rural area to bypass Sonora and get to Hwy 49 to continue north. This part of 49 has a few entertaining sections, especially down and up from the Stanislaus River to Angels Camp and the similar piece across the Mokelumne River between Mokelumne Hill and Jackson. 

I got to Sutter Creek (north of Jackson) before Mike, who was still engaged with a couple of roads west of Hwy 49 around Angels Camp. Just as I'd gotten ungeared, the charming- looking Palace Saloon & Restaurant (where I’d told Mike to meet me for dinner) put up the closed sign.  Since it was the last place open in Sutter Creek, there was nothing for it but to head back to Jackson for food and accommodation and flag down Mike on the way. 

We Best Westerned it and then reluctantly headed to the best available option, the nearby Dennys. We couldn’t even get a beer to cut the pain of the less-than-charming late night menu, since this was yet another boozeless D spot. Come on Denny, ain’t beer with greasy food as American as apple pie? 

Thu Jun 26
Mike
“It’s going up to 105 degrees in the valley today,” said Don, President and chief pilot of Bozair, Destination Highways official airline.  “No problem,” Brian and I said, “we’ll just head up into the mountains where it’s only 101”.  This scorcher was a true test of the new hot weather riding gear but I was anxious to see what difference the change from leather to Kevlar would bring.   

The day began with the sense of accomplishment that always comes with getting Brian on the road by 9:00 AM.  We rode north of our base in Turlock and east on Turlock Lake Rd, slowed only by my stops to get these frickin’ custom made earplugs fitting like they were actually custom made.  “Your ears may change shape,” they said.  Yeah, that’s it-- you made ‘em right; just my ears changed. 

Since Turlock is located in the vast San Joaquin Valley, anything associated with the name, “Turlock” is generally synonymous with straight gridlines of flat farming roads.  So finding some curves through the rolling orchards en route to Turlock Lake was, well, decidedly un-Turlockian.  When the sure-to-be TE ended at Hwy 132, we headed east, stopped for gas and hydrotherapy and then headed south on the Merced Falls Rd which, along with Hornitos Rd has some DH potential. Since our former Senior Manager of Statistics recently walked off in a huff, we’re going to have to wait a bit for the final numbers, but I have the sense it’s going to be close.  The top is has some poor pavement and not too many curves and by the time things pick up curve and pavement-wise on Hornitos, some development drags down the Remoteness rating.  But that’s part of the fun of writing these books—the… suspense. 

From the Hwy 140 intersection, it was east to Oakhurst via Hwy 149 and north to Yosemite.  Didn’t seem to matter that it was a Thursday, the road was still teeming with RV’s, SUV’s and GLC’s.  You could still get by them on the wide, shapely sweepers of the southern part of the road.  But what did you get for your $10.00 after entering the park?  Narrower, rumpled pavement and twisties just tight enough to make easy passing a memory.  The real reward for this tight, busy road through the thick trees was the experience of the Yosemite Valley.  A unique place in my experience.  Tall monoliths rise straight up from a perfectly flat valley bottom virtually encircling it.  Yosemite handles the hordes well, too, with subtle restaurants, bars and campgrounds neatly hidden in the trees.  It would be nice to stay at the lodge and enjoy it at the quieter edges of the day. 

Though it was early evening by now, the day’s good biking was not over.  A two-car road train was enough to frustrate the otherwise stellar, smooth, twisty ride through the tunnels and along Big Oak Flat to the western park entrance.  But after that, Hwy 120 opened up to a beatifically-engineered sidewinder down from the cool mountains to the funky little town of Groveland.  By the time we reached the steep downslope of Priest’s Grade, all traffic had disappeared and there were no excuses-- apart from the fatigue of eleven and a half straight hours in the saddle-- for my less-than-perfect attempt at negotiating this challenging, freshly paved snake down the cliffs to Moccasin.   

Never ones to be deterred by little things like the fact we can’t see a bloody thing, Brian and I decided to hit a couple of potential TE’s on the way up to our eventual rendezvous in Jackson.  Jackson’s claim that it was in “the other wine country” was apparently enough to justify a jacked price for a substandard room at the Best Western.   All I know is that they didn’t serve wine at Denny’s-- the town’s only open restaurant at 11:00 PM.  We really must stop riding earlier in the day—if only to avoid the “limited night menu”. 

It was enlightening, however, to be walking out of the motel lobby, looking for my room, to be asked by a couple of not-so-young women whether I was lost.  I told them I was looking for Building “B”.  “I think it’s at the end,” one said, pointing through the expansive parking lot.  “There’s a truck down there just like yours.”  Confused for a moment, I noticed that I was standing beside a small fire truck.  So that’s what I look like in my baggy, yellow-green Kevlar.  Could a calendar be far off? 

Fri Jun 27
Brian
We connected with AirBoz at Westover Field just north of Jackson. We were in the air for two hours when Mike’s increasing silence in the back was replaced by horking sounds. Hmmm… he seems to have a bit of a problem with this air thing.  

We dropped him (and his little bag) back at the airport so he could wobble off and VFR a few of the TEs we’d scoped, while we took to the skies again. By the time Don dropped me off and flew back to Turlock, it was late afternoon. I hopped on the VFR and boogied north on Hwy 49 to Placerville (also evocatively known as Old Hangtown), our pre-arranged meeting place. 49 from Plymouth to El Dorado is especially good, nicely paved and winding through pretty Sierra Nevada foothill gold country. Too bad about all the pylons.  

After getting to Placerville, I checked my voicemail to make sure Mike hadn’t arrived in town before me and booked lodging. No message from him, so I started looking for a place.  At the north end of town everything was full. Our advice is to get a place early during high season weekends in Gold Country. I had to get on I50 and go west a few miles to a big Best Western. By the time Mike found me there, it was getting late so we decided to just hit the no-name restaurant adjacent to the BW.  Same set up as last night’s bad experience. We missed this obvious omen. 

According to the sign in the window, the restaurant was going through an ownership change. Uh-oh, that’s usually not a good sign and indeed it proved to be the case.  Not only was the lounge closed but the beer and wine supply was completely exhausted for the restaurant. As for the “food”, the tepid gravy  (a cunning attempt to hide the grey mystery meat) was lumpy and inedible while the flaccid vegetables, which one might have preferred to be at least a little lumpy, were just inedible. In California, a good rule of thumb is to beware restaurants close to Best Westerns. 

Fri Jun 27
Mike
As some of you may have read elsewhere, Brian and I have been experimenting with air reconnaissance as a means of scoping out an area prior to actually putting tire to pavement.  Very advantageous for routing and determining the whereabouts of non-pavement.  Brian had already been up but this was my first flying day.  As my stomach started swimming, it wasn’t long before I asked the obvious question:  “If my reason for doing this was to bike for a living, what was I doing in a Cessna?”  In any case, after 2 hours, Don mercifully put me down and I spent the rest of the day gladly biking in 100 plus degree heat, dreading the notion of going up again the next day. 

I spent the rest of the day figuring out various backroad escapes from Jackson, my favorite being a route that started astride Jackson on Jackson Gate Rd and peaked on Climax Rd.  Ah, some TE’s will write themselves.  I met Brian after he landed, having covered, oh, about 30 times as much square mileage as me.  Together, we blitzed north to Placerville, enjoying the first of many great turns in the days to come along one of my favorite north-south arteries-- the peaceful, easy-riding Plymouth – Eldorado piece of Hwy 49.  The Best Western out on the highway was a vast improvement over its predecessor.  Though its adjoining restaurant was in the process of being sold, it strived to maintain Denny’s-like standards in terms of food and even surpass it when it came to beverage selection.  No wine, but you could get a beer.  Which would be great but for the fact there was the remains of a six pack in the room.  And packing beer on a bike is like, well, packing beer on a bike. 

Sat Jun 28
Brian
Don met us at the Placerville Airport.  Mike was fortified by Gravol and some new-age tension band thingies for his wrists, either or both of which seemed to work.  At least he made no more horking sounds.  Still, not wanting to push our luck, we let Mike exchange a seat on the plane for his VFR’s seat after a couple of hours while AirBoz continued to fly with me onboard.   

The road we spotted from high above that had me drooling (and not from air sickness) was the Quincy La Porte Rd (FSR 120) from tiny Challenge to East Quincy (on Hwy 89/70).  Increasingly remote as you head north on it, many maps don't even show the best piece (north of the Little Grass Valley Reservoir) as being paved.  All the better for those of us who know that this section (at least until the descent to the Middle Fork Feather River) has many miles of newish, well-engineered Pavement with tons of high-speed Twistiness and very high Remoteness. Wow, does it look superb.  Looking forward to riding this baby more than any other road we’d seen (so far) from the air. Hard to say with certainty until we ride it and get the numbers, but if I had to guess, I'm thinking it could just be among the top five DHs in Northern California.  And unless I know nothing about DHs, I'd be very, very surprised if it wasn't in the top 10. 

Got off the plane at 7 pm or so, grabbed another hotel in Pville and then left the name of the restaurant I found downtown on Mike’s voicemail.  Following a better dinner than the two nights before and a warm-up ride back to our hotel, we decided to lube our chains.  As Mike stuck the little red tube in the nozzle of his can of lube, he very accurately administered a generous shot straight into my wide-open and very surprised right eye. Which I had not hitherto known was a part of his bike’s chain path.  I can tell you this though: while I can't vouch for all brands, his particular stuff didn't sting, even a little. And that grinding sound my eye had been making was much reduced.   

Sat Jun 28
Mike
Fortunately, Placerville is large enough to boast a Rite Aid and I was able to secure a quantity of Dramamine and a couple of sea bands for the next day’s flight attempt.  These sea bands-- wristbands which use accupressure on your forearms to prevent nausea-- advertise that they are used by all sorts of professionals, including pilots.  Curiously, Don, a former air force test pilot, had never heard of the things.  His take was simple, “if you need those, you’re not a pilot.”   

Whether it was the sea bands or the drugs, I weathered my morning circling north of Placerville better than the day before.  We landed for lunch at a little café in Placerville that served rice bowls and protein shakes-- my kind of place.  After lunch Brian and Don hit the skies and I hit the road—checking out some of the TE’s around Placerville.  Grizzly Flat Rd was an example of many roads in California—beautiful bits of pavement that turn into goat paths with no services along the way to give you a natural place to stop before turning around. 

 More great road names today—Mormon Emigrant Rd being my personal favorite.  They must have wanted to emigrate fast, at least if the fine engineering and long straight sections are any indication.  Coming back in the almost-July heat I eyed the swim-suited crowd inner tubing on Jenkinson Lake with envy.  I settled for hosing myself off at the Shell station in Diamond Springs before setting out to interview the TE candidates west of Hwy 49.  Destination Highways Tip:  if you just wet the front of your T-shirt water doesn’t drip down into the hard-to-dry back of your pants. 

The day ended on a bumpy note on the worst of the roads that stripe north to south east of Sacramento.  It was after 9:00 and dark by the time I figured out how to get around behind Rancho Murieta from Hwy 16 and locate Scott Rd—DH1 in the eagerly anticipated sequel:  A Guide to the Worst Motorcycle Roads in Northern California. 

Sun Jun 29
Brian
Are they sacrifices to the motel/riding gods, or just forgetfulness?  In any case, unlike most days when he leaves just one thing behind, today Mike left two items behind; a pair of glasses and his bandana. 

He left early to check some nearby roads while I stayed behind and took care of some administrative stuff. After he returned for a late breakfast, we blew east to Pollock Pines to ride E16 south to Plymouth. A less quick but more interesting route between Placerville and Pollock Pines is he old highway, which runs north of and parallel to Hwy 50. 

The northern part of E16 (Sly Park Rd) around Jenkinson Lake and down to the mapdot of Somerset is a very twisty, descending bit of entertainment.  That is, if you don't get stuck behind the almost-impossible-to-pass traffic.  The southern half E16 (Mt Aukum Rd and then Shenandoah Rd) runs gently through lots of green Shenandoah Valley vineyards. We predict that together these will make for a fairly low rated but pleasant DH 

What wasn't pleasant was the keyless access flaps on the top of my Givi side cases intermittently popping open.  Especially because I didn't always notice them doing this.  At one point, Mike had to catch up and signal me that it had happened.  I didn't know why it was occurring but suspected it might have something to do with the wind catching under the flaps at a certain speed.  Which, apparently, I am starting to exceed often. Doesn't say much for the strength of the combination lock latches though, does it? 

Just east of Plymouth, E16 junctions with Fiddletown Rd heading east, a TE I had previously discovered (See Tues May 27 diary). 

We headed south from Plymouth on Hwy 49 down to Amador City where we took a break at the old Imperial Hotel (opened in 1879), restored as a particularly attractive restaurant/bar/B&B in 1988 (restaurant open Tuesday through Sunday, 5-9 pm reservations recommended 800.242.5594). 

When we stopped at the hotel, I noticed that one Givi sidecase flap had popped open again.  This was starting to really piss me off…. 

Mike power napped on a lounge under the trees in the secluded backyard patio garden of the Imperial while I checked out the rest of town which, other than the neat G-scale Little Amador Railroad across Hwy 49 from the Imperial Hotel, consisted almost entirely of tourist shops. 

Our next job was to suss out Hwy 49 from Amador City back north to El Dorado.  Initially, it had a lot of pylons (but much of them head to Sacramento at the Hwy 16 turnoff).  49 from Plymouth to El Dorado (also known as the Golden Chain Hwy) has a lot less traffic and is a sweet, winding lope through golden-grassed and green-treed countryside.  A good time to ride this road is in the late afternoon when the hills to the west of the road welcomely block some of the intense summer heat of the sun. 

Back in Placerville, we split up.  I headed north to check out minor Hwy 193 to Cool (which Mike had done this morning and thought could be a DH) while he checked out some possible TE's between Hwys 193 and 49.  On 193, you sure get out of Placerville in a hurry as you plunge down the cool twisties to the South Fork American River and back up the ones on Laumann Ridge on the far side of the river.  Then it's a much more mellow journey through the forest to the little town of Cool.  If you hate traffic, this option is certainly preferable to the motorized zoo on 49 between Placerville and Auburn. 

When I got to Cool, Mike was still ensconced in TE-land so I decided to take a closer look at my flapping Givi flaps.  I thought, maybe changing the combination on the locks would help.  When I did this to the first one, the lock decided to pack it in completely and refused to lock at all.  Which, of course, didn't really matter at this point, since its hinge was so weak that even the wind could apparently open the flaps. 

Pissed at the Givis, I took my mind off them by commiserating with a local about how the traffic on Hwy 49 had increased from almost nothing to insane levels in the last 15 years. Then I took to the cafe which I had parked outside for some refreshment.  When Mike showed up about 45 minutes later, we decided to backtrack along 193 and find a place to stay in pretty, little Georgetown (another gold rush town of course, originally --and preferably we thought-- known as Growlersburg). Mike had jaspered Georgetown for services that morning and found the historic, American River Inn stagecoach stop, now a B&B (800.245.6566).  It looked great and when we discovered that it had a large hot tub in the spacious back yard, well that was the kicker. 

On the advice of the manager, genial and loquacious Betty Reid, we opted for dinner at the local Chinese restaurant which, she assured us, provided the best food in town (after her own delicious breakfasts, of course).  She was right.  If not exactly gourmet, it  certainly had some of the best Chinese food we’d ever had on the road.  After dining, we walked through the town, which to us, still felt quite authentic and unspoiled by tourism. Which you can't say about a lot of the towns (especially those on Hwy 49) in gold country. 

We grabbed a couple of beers and retired to the hot tub to solve at least a couple of the world's problems before getting a great night's sleep in the cool, high-country air.  It had been a very good day. 

Sun Jun 29
Mike
Left Brian sleeping as I struck off early this Sunday morning to find the northwest passage—that is, the best way to get from Sacramento to Placerville north of Hwy 50.  The semi-rural Green Valley Rd is okay for a local bypass and a lot of locals use it.  Not much going on west of Cameron Park, though—except for straight, wide pavement and simmering urban sprawl-- and the Deer Valley Rd loop is, unfortunately, too bumpy for serious consideration.  If I was coming from Sacramento I might just take Hwy 50 to Bass Lake Rd and come up to Green Valley that way.  Have to review the tape and consider that further.  The morning’s real treat was Salmon Falls Cutoff Rd—a flashy TE that smoothly scales the heights above Granite Bay.  Gaping rock cuts.  High lake views.  And of course the beautiful sight of a smoothly paved road swimming back and forth through it all.  North of the South Fork American River crossing, the road narrows, the drops steepen and the steady, formerly-sweeping curves tighten considerably.  So unless you want to form part of the scenery, you better stop gawking and get that bike over.

 Then it was down Hwy 193 from Cool (we’ll have fun with that one) to Placerville.  Almost certainly a DH, this is one of those rides that’s two rides in one.  Sweepy and drawn out up top on the plateau and then a pitch of 15-20 mph curves down the steep canyon, back across the S.F. American River.  I loved the nifty little section between the river crossing and Placerville where the road flits through the trees.  You’ve got to get a little lucky on the traffic, though, especially since you’re sharing the road with whitewater rafting buses whose drivers have a blind spot when it comes to pullouts.   

Hooked up with Brian for lunch (his breakfast) and blitzed east to Pollock Pines where our taking different exits resulted in the discovery of Ridgeway Dr, a cute little exit to exit freeway bypass that adds a nice trailer onto E16 (Sly Park Rd – Mt Aukum Rd).  Some nice spots on this road down from mountains into wine region.  Great engineering through the vineyards, but you’d need to be going a good clip to get a lot of curves.  A probable DH.  It’ll be interesting to see the numbers. 

Out Old Sacramento and then back to Amador, stopping for some light refreshment at the old Amador Hotel’s cozy little bar.  The elegant dining room is a definite must for dinner (Wed-Sun only, if I’m not mistaken) if we’re ever around her again.  Looks like a funky place to stay, too.  Took advantage of the hotel’s quiet back garden to find a lawn chair and take a little snooze.  Twenty minutes of REM sleep.  Perfect. 

Back on the road north to Plymouth and Eldorado.  “The Road to Eldorado”.  (I feel an At A Glance coming on) and back up toward Georgetown to check out all the little pavement pieces between Hwy 49 and 193.  The gritty-but-smoothly paved power sweepers up Marshall Rd were a pleasant surprise and makes a great TE connection between Hwys 49 and 193 for Placervillians looking for an evening loop.  We’ll probably ALT the bumpy but twisty and nicely cambered spur that connects Garden Valley with Georgetown.  It’s one of those narrow roads that’s so overgrown with trees it’s like riding through a tube.  Wouldn’t want 50 miles of it, but 4.5 is cool. 

The evening ended with a comfortable night at Georgetown’s heritage (formerly Growlerville’s) American River Inn B&B, delicious Chinese food at the Royal Dragon and a couple of Sierra Nevadas outside in the hot tub.  Ah, biking. 

Mon Jun 30
Brian
After Betty's delicious breakfast, we struck out west from Georgetown to Hwy 50 on the Wentworth Springs Rd (FSR1) - Ice House Rd (FSR3) combo. Wow.  We had no reason to expect much but what we found was a great DH, the best experience (with the exception of a high Scenery rating) we had had since Moccasin - Bear Valley (Hwy 49). Some great Twistiness (with pretty good Engineering) throughout, top-quality Pavement on Wentworth Springs from Stumpy Meadows Lake to the junction with Ice House (a stretch which some maps show as being partly gravel), a very high level of Remoteness and very little traffic.  It has much that a good DH has.  It has absolutely no services, however. 

Once we hit Hwy 50, we turned east on it towards Lake Tahoe.  Lots of newish Pavement (some being laid down when we rode it), lots of curves (especially tight on the initial section following the South Fork American River), some cooler high-country riding over the Sierra Nevada and some good views over Tahoe down from the Echo Summit.  Sounds good, right?  Problem is, Hwy 50 is a major route to Tahoe and, although the basic Remoteness is pretty high, the traffic can be hellacious.  This is especially noticeable if you've just come off Wentworth Springs – Ice House, as we did.  Still, it will be a DH, although a largely californicated one.  Best time to ride it is probably about 3 am (except for the deer likely out to kill and maim at this time, of course). 

From the untidy sprawl of Meyers, we headed south on Hwy 89 to ride Hwy 88 back west over the Sierra Nevada via Carson Pass.  Double wow.  70 mi (113 km) of road with lots of top-quality everything (except heavy traffic).  The Twistiness leans heavily towards the high-speed sweeper variety through the stunning landscape.  Up high, this road is quite evocative of the high Cascades part of Washington’s DH1.  When you come off the top it’s still a nice ride through fairly remote forest until it ends at the junction with Hwy 26 at mapdot Red Corral (which doesn't appear on some maps).  The only thing I didn't like was my Givi flaps flapping in the breeze.  They are beginning to seriously piss me off….

 Hwy 26 spirals down to, across and then parallel to the North Fork Mokelumne River, twisting almost continuously through the foothill forest from its beginning to its end (at Mokelumne Hill).  If you're a curve demon, this is a great 20 mi (32 km) appetizer (or dessert) for Hwy 88, especially if you like the tight stuff which it consists entirely of. 

From Mokelumne Hill, we decided to head back up Hwy 49 to the American River Inn in Georgetown for the night.  The farther north we rode, the heavier the traffic got.  I guess it's why the deputy sheriff STC was hiding beside the motel in Drytown (just north of Amador City).  No worries though, since I was drifting through this mapdot at a quasi-legal rate of progress.

 As I congratulated myself on my observation skills and my speed discipline through the town, I passed the two pokey pylons impeding the clear pavement ahead.  Coincident with pulling out, I checked my rearview and, as I blew by the first car and was overtaking the second, registered the four pylons behind me followed by Mike.  Trouble is, the car in front of him was the deputy sheriff.  What was the problem, you ask?  Well, I'd overtaken the two cars on a double yellow. Quite safely, I might add.  Although I somehow thought the DS wouldn't agree.

 He waited until past the junction of Hwy 16 to flick on his light show and pull me over.  Mike rode by, shaking his head at the result of my being impatient to pass when the pylon vacuum of Hwy 16 was so close.  After advising me just to ride a “little more safely, especially because I was on a motorcycle”, the deputy let me off. Yes! I was 0 for 2.  I couldn't believe it.  I never had this kind of luck in BC and Washington; if I got stopped, I got ticketed.  Maybe I've finally mastered the subtle art of being contrite enough.  Maybe cops are more reasonable down here about the capabilities of motorcycles (after all, there are a lot more of them and a fair number of STCs ride themselves).  Maybe when he realized that I wasn't a squid, he decided that if, at my age, I hadn't schmucked myself by doing something incredibly stupid by now, I wasn't likely to.  Mike later pricked all these balloons by suggesting that it might simply be a paperwork pain in the ass for STCs to speed tax an alien.  Well, whatever it was, I was happy.

Once past the junction with Hwy 16, the traffic again thinned out as it had the day before and we again got to enjoy that engaging stretch of Hwy 49 between Plymouth and El Dorado.  From Placerville we took the also-good Hwy 193 back to Georgetown, completing the day’s circuitous circle route.  Yesterday had been good but today had been great.  

Mon Jun 30
Mike
“Made for motorcyclists” said a fellow traveler at the Georgetown 76’s gas pumps the next morning, speaking of the section of the Wentworth Springs Rd beyond Stumpy Meadows.  “How convenient,” I thought, “as that’s the way we’re going.”  This was my most enjoyable road by far even before I had a chance to confirm his pumpside advice.  By the time I reached the lake, I was loving this ride.  By the time I got beyond the lake and encountered the miles of fresh black top through the woods then over a cleared plateau, I was in motorcycling heaven.  First ride of the day, gourmet breakfast sticking to my ribs.  Sun high in the sky.  The tinge of cool in the air as I explored the outer reaches of my tires over the flawless macadam.  Poetry.  The fun didn’t let down much even when the great pavement ended and the merely good succeeded it on the steep descent down Icehouse Rd to Hwy 50.  Would have been even more fun if I hadn’t underestimated the length of time it would take to ride it and hadn’t had to stop and change tapes twice.   

Following the usual arcane discussion with Brian about some aspect of our rating of the road, we wagered the traffic wouldn’t be too bad on a Monday afternoon and headed east on Hwy 50 toward South Lake Tahoe.  Fortunately, this is one of the roads that has enough passing lanes to take the edge off the volume of eager eastbound gamblers.  Road repaving made rating a challenge.  But at least here in the land of lane-splitting, people don’t bust a sphincter over the fact you ride up to the front of the line as they sometimes do in BC and Washington. 

We stopped for lunch in Meyers, near the junction with Hwy 89.  Unfortunately, restaurant choices were limited to the local golf course.  Our very average lunch was quickly forgotten, however, as we rode south on Hwy 89 and then west on Hwy 88.  Rating top marks for Pavement, Engineering, Scenery and Remoteness-- 1,1,1 and 1 in TIRES vernacular—this beat out my former visceral number one established earlier that day.  Fact is this road is probably best ridden south to north, if only to avoid the letdown that comes riding south when you hit the first outpost of the development that sprawls north from Pine Grove.  We suffered through the disheartening series of strip malls to Jackson, where we took advantage of a couple of chairs in the shade outside of the Jackson Police Department.  Our usual post-DH argument—this about what should be the DH’s southern terminus—was broken up amiably by a local Sgt—ready for it?—Jackson.  Told us to stop by any time.  Not quite sure if that’s a good idea, but it’s always good to have friends in high places.  Even if it’s in Jackson. 

The long day got longer as we retraced our steps to try and settle the argument, enduring the trafficky trip up Hwy 88 to Pine Grove and beyond.  Punchy and exhausted from hours of hot riding, it seemed like the ideal time to ride and rate another road.  Fortunately, the twisty, foresty Hwy 26 is an easy call.  No 1,1,1 and 1 there.  Lots of 3,3,3 and 3, though.  Fatigue took its toll on this ride. Brian had forgotten to turn his tape on or something.  It’s funny the things forget to do when you’re tired.  Like zipping up your luggage or putting down your kickstand when you stop.  So far on this book I’ve done the former but avoided the latter.  So far.   

Sitting at the Hwy 26/49 junction, we decided we liked the American River Inn so much that it was worth the extra miles to get there for the night.  Especially since I’d left my cell phone there.  North we went, cheered by the fact I would get to ride Plymouth to Eldorado—quickly becoming one of my favorite easy rides—again.  The mellow cruise was interrupted coming out of Drytown.  I saw the Amador County Sheriff beside the road.  Brian must have seen him.  It seems logical that when you go through a town and see an STC sitting beside the road that you take a look in your rear views and ensure he’s not following you.  So imagine my surprise when I look in my rear views and see him behind me, only to look ahead and see Brian make a completely gratuitous pass on a double yellow line (just before the car he passed predictably turned off onto Hwy 16).  The STC, responsibly, waited for a legal place to pass, passed me, pulled behind Brian, presumably checked his plate and determined that he had successfully completed his parole (just kidding) and pulled him over.  Following the unwritten code that applies whenever a riding companion is pulled over, I got the hell out of there (avoiding the prospect of a ticket by association).  Brian got off with a warning which he attributes to his artful persuasion.  I attribute it to the fact that the cops don’t want to bother figuring out how to fill out the ticket on a Canadian driver’s licence.  I have to congratulate him on his improved attitude since he was first ticketed in New Zealand and I quote:  “Tell you what, why don’t you pretend to write me a serious ticket and I’ll pretend I’m seriously going to pay it?”  

Tue Jul 1
Brian
Dominion Day (Canada’s 4^th of July) started with another one of Betty's great breakfasts.  Another guest told us that he'd heard about this great motorcycle road near Placerville called Mosquito Rd.  We found it on one of our maps which showed that it hooked up with FSR 13 and could be a possible connector TE between Placerville and the Wentworth Springs Road DH we’d done yesterday.  Funny thing was, not only did our air recon suggest Mosquito was nothing but our map showed part of FSR 13 as gravel.  Of course that wasn't unusual given most maps normal inaccuracy.  Anyway we couldn't take a chance. If Mosquito was as good as he claimed, it might even be part of the Wentworth Springs - Ice House DH.  We had to ride it.  

But first I had to gas and air up at the one service station in Georgetown.  The air hose is located on the side of the building in the rough, gravel lane which sloped downhill. It’s the worst placed air hose I’ve ever had to use. 

We decided to attack Mosquito Rd from the FSR 13/Wentworth Springs Rd end since it was closer.  But something was wrong; FSR 13 started out bad, got worse and then turned to gravel (it was also crawling with logging trucks). Hmmm… in this case the map appeared to be correct regarding the gravel. We turned around and headed west on Wentworth to see if FSR 12 might connect to Mosquito but it was worse than FSR 13.  Okay, maybe Rock Creek Rd, which ran along the South Fork American River off Hwy 193 and connected to Mosquito Rd, was part of the equation.  Problem was Mike had checked the beginning of this road and written it off as shite. 

Well, perhaps he didn't go far enough along it. Since it seemed to be the only option for Mosquito to be anything we decided to take it all the way to Mosquito.  It turned out to be entirely as crappy as Mike had found the start to be.  Furthermore, Mosquito Rd back into Placerville was just as fecal, only getting decent pavement when it was inside speed limiting, heavy development.  We wrote off the frustrating morning as a complete waste of time (other than making sure you don’t waste your time doing what we did, of course) and dismissed the episode as just one more example of inaccurate information we often receive from people. 

Next up, Hwy 49 between Placerville and Auburn.  Lots of curves and great Pavement running through a varied countryside but almost entirely ruined by the brutal traffic between the two towns.  Just before Auburn, on the far side of the bridge across the Middle Fork American River, we turned off 49 onto the Old Auburn - Foresthill Rd.  This was more like it; only a few miles long, it nevertheless was a great, traffic-free, tightly-wound climb up to the main Foresthill Rd.  

This road, which starts from I80 just north of Auburn, turned out to be a smooth, recentlyly-recoated, beautifully Engineered hyperspeed blast out to the little town of Foresthill. We weren't complaining you understand but to us it seemed strangely overbuilt for the size of Foresthill.  That is, until we found out that a 5000 home subdivision was being put in up behind the town.  Couple of SUVs per home should ensure that very soon the traffic will get much worse than what we experienced. 

In Foresthill, I pulled over to the side to wait for Mike at the junction with our next road, the one out to French Meadows Reservoir.  There were a couple of sport bike riders in full leather stopped at the junction.  There’s a good sign I thought. They ambled over and asked the usual “What dat on yo’ head?” interrogatives.  After spieling and leafleting them I asked them what this next stretch was like. Very twisty and quite challenging, they said.  And very well-known among riders. 

Just then, Mike pulled up beside me and asked if I had noticed the name of the road.  I pulled out my map.  I’m looking… Foresthill, Foresthill… turn the page, here’s FSR23 just south of Mosquito Ridge, lemme see, yes here it is: Mosquito Ridge Rd. Aahhh……. apparently we’d finally found the right “Mosquito Rd” we had spent all morning hunting for. 

After sharing a rueful chuckle, we headed out and almost immediately plunged into deep thick forest on a very twisty --if sometimes coarse-- ribbon of asphalt.  It turned out to be quite a work-out, 50 mi (80 km) or so of never-ending curves through dense, very remote woods out to the fake lake. It was getting late in the day, which might explain why we saw virtually no traffic on it but we don't think you’d generally see much at any time. At least until they drop another subdivision out here.  

We stopped at the rough Lewis BCG at the north end of the reservoir to take a break and have one of our arcane TIRES discussions (was that asphalt merely a purplish-tinged gray or did you think it’s a legitimate chartreuse?).  Conversations which, if we have them in public, result in the people around us wearing completely mystified (and I maintain, very nervous) expressions.  In this instance, we only puzzled some kind of rodent who popped out of his den for a moment to check out the nutty bipeds. 

There's a couple of maxburner options that connect north from the reservoir to a non-interesting extension of the Foresthill Rd. There are also a couple of options off Mosquito which will take you south across the Rubicon River to the middle of the Wentworth Springs Rd - Ice House Rd DH out of Georgetown. But unless you’re partial to rough roads we don't advise it.  Unless your name is Caesar, in which case crossing the Rubicon will probably work out for you. 

So, it was another work-out back to Foresthill where we checked into the Forest House Lodge (530.367.2840).  This is a hostelry largely oriented to groups (like weddings) and so neither the bar nor the restaurant were open.  They will open the bar for five people or more though, and you can have an open fire on the patio out back where you can also store your bikes.  The rooms are very large and it seems like a great place if you're organizing a group bike event. 

Tue Jul 1
Mike
Canada Day, otherwise known as Mosquito Day, for reasons that will become apparent.  We already know to look askance at advice from well-meaning people about the location of the good roads.  Our answer is that we do everything anyway and like to ride it without preconceived notions.  Once in a while, however, the advice is good and fills in something that may have slipped between the cracks.  Brian thought this might be one of those times when, over our second breakfast at the American River Inn, he was advised of this motorcycle road that was so good it was on the Placerville Website—something called Mosquito Rd. 

Consulting the maps, we noted that there was a Mosquito Rd out of Placerville, however it had been eliminated after I had started down the other end of the loop it would make, Rock Creek Rd, and found nothing but a one and half lane gravel road—and not much of a gravel road at that.  

Being on the road, we had no easy means to check Placerville’s website (and haven’t yet) to confirm any of this so we headed down Hwy 193, turned onto the one and a half lane gravel road and waited for it to turn into something.  And waited.  And waited.  

After several miles of steep, crappily-engineered one and a half lane gravel road (surprise), we finally intersected with the famed Mosquito Rd, to find it was simply a few miles of so so curves through a Placerville suburb.  Hard to envision this as a sport bike mecca.   

We stopped for lunch in Placerville and, cursing the loss of a perfectly good half day, not to mention the guy that led us on this wild curve chase, we headed north on Hwy 49 toward Auburn and a couple of roads heading east from there that had looked good from the air.  

Hwy 49 was busy and its tight turns made it tricky to pass.  It was even busier north of Coloma where Lotus Rd intersects with 49.  By the time we made the final twisty climb off the American River to Auburn it was bumper-to-bumper sticker.  It’s looking very much like one of those DHs that’s a great ride as long as you hit it at 5:00 AM.  The ride to Foresthill was a vast improvement.  Despite the rush hour traffic heading out of Auburn, wide, new pavement and plentiful passing lanes made it largely irrelevant.  We got to Foresthill and, after chatting with some motorcyclists at the gas stop, left the traffic behind and headed out into the middle of nowhere on the road that carried on to French Meadows.  Ooowee.  Despite the lateness of the hour and the distance under our belt that day, the miles and miles of traffic-free, fair-to-well-paved twisties contorting narrowly along canyon walls and clear-shouldered through forest felt like a real find.  The lake access near the campsite at the end could have been a little more inviting, but that’s being picky, even for us.  Knowing the road, it was an even better ride on the way out, although it being after 8:00, we were keeping a serious eye out for Bambi & Co.  We decided to stay in Foresthill’s only hotel, which turned out to be a good call.  Patrick, the new owner, showed us around.  It’s an impressive facility that he mainly uses for catering to weddings.   He added that he had a private bar that he’d open up for groups of five or more motorcyclists.  We got across the street to the steakhouse just in time to order, oiled the chains while the steaks were broiling and then sat down to dinner.  That’s when I showed Brian the name of the road we’d just ridden—Mosquito Creek Rd.  Duh! 

Wed Jul 2
Brian
Mike left Foresthill earlier than I did in order to check out some air-scouted possibilities east of Hwy 49 between Auburn and Grass Valley.  I just boogied up 49 (a very dull stretch of road) and hung a left on Hwy 20 at Grass Valley. 20 has a decent stretch   between Smartville and the E21 (Marysville Rd) junction where Mike and I had arranged to meet.  Past the turn off for E20 (also Marysville Rd) E21 becomes F21 (Willow Glen Rd) and takes you to the small yet sprawling little town of Brownsville. 

Past Brownsville and then Challenge, the scattered development roadside doesn't entirely leave until you are past Strawberry Valley, although the traffic is quite light.  By now the route is known as the Quincy La Porte Rd (FSR120) and its moderately interesting blend of frequent curves and okay Pavement takes you to a junction with the road to the Little Grass Valley Reservoir.  You hang a right to stay on Quincy La Porte and it’s here that the road kicks it up several notches in the Twistiness, Engineering and Pavement categories. (Somewhat ironically, this is the stretch that some maps show as gravel.) A sweet ride with top-quality Remoteness across the heavily-forested, moderate geography  of the Sierra Nevada’s northern end, the road’s perhaps a titch less excellent than it looked from the air. 

The piece descending to the Middle Fork Feather River is an older and not-as-well Engineered step down.  Once across the river the landscape eases up and the road mellows out quite a bit as it heads into the American Valley and ends at the junction with Hwy 70/89, just outside East Quincy. 

We planned on staying in Quincy and taking the Bucks Lake Rd Oroville-Quincy Hwy (FSR119) combination back across to Oroville the next day in better light but there was some kind of a hippie convention (??) in town and every room was taken. Guess they don’t sleep in their VW busses anymore. 

So we headed out on Bucks Lake.  This road starts out well and gets better as you go along, although it is hard to get by people in spots.  By the time you get to the Y option that reconnects at Bucks Lake (both are good) you’ve already had some great Twistiness amid increasing Remoteness and it doesn't let up much on the way up to the Grizzly Summit. 

But it's coming down east from the Summit where you get an absolutely gorgeous, brilliantly Engineered section of butter-smooth Pavement twisting in a wonderfully varied way down from the high country. It doesn't get any better than this, I thought, as my subconscious flicked the VTEC zoned VFR mesmerizingly back and forth from tire edge to tire edge while using every inch of the consistent surface laid out in a heavenly fashion. I swear to God, this was one of the most nirvanic riding experiences I've ever had.  I rode in awe… if only more roads could be built like this. I'd be humbled to meet the road artist who lovingly put this stretch together, shake his hand and thank him for his artistry.   

Unfortunately, this work of art doesn't last and south of mapdot Mountain House the road deteriorates into a narrow, bumpy goat path of absolute crud, as terrible as the previous stretch was wonderful.  (Possibly worse, as it is such a downer from the high you were on.)  Perversely, some maps would lead you to expect (by the thickness of the line representing the road) that the section south of Mountain House would actually be better.  Paved Bald Rock Rd (which these same maps also perversely show as gravel) is a bypass option around this terrible stretch. 

South of Berry Creek, the road starts to improve and just get better and better as you get close to, and then follow the east side of Lake Oroville. Passing can be problematic around the twisty lakeshore stretch).  I was glad that this ride from Bald Rock Rd to the outskirts of Oroville was pretty good because I had forgotten to resume recording after stopping tape at the Bald Rock junction, and so had to redo this 35 mi (55 km) turnaround.  

This DH will end/begin at the junction with Forbestown Rd. (To be checked out another day, it takes you back over to Challenge and the Quincy La Porte Rd.) By the time I got back to Oroville, found Mike and organized the accommodation, our only dining option in this fair-sized town was a Pizza Hut greasewheel.  And because they were shutting down, we had to make it take out and eat what we could stomach back at our motel. Lovely. 

Wed Jul 2
Mike
Late start today as we took a little time for maintenance.  Installed my battery charger contacts and as a result, had to rewire the octopus of electrical lines we take off the batteries to run our gear.  Honda leaves even less room in there than Kawasaki (I formerly rode a ZX11, now deceased).  Chain adjustment and routine checks completed we went to the Robbers Roost coffee shop where Brian managed to spill his coffee on 3 separate tables (he’d spill on one, then move to another) as well as the floor.  To Brian, you don’t say “keep the rubber side down”, you say “keep the lid on”.   

It was after 11:00 by the time I left Foresthill and rode back to Auburn, only to crawl through its suburban nightmare along Hwy 49.  Doing it again, I’d try riding north on I-80 and cutting over on Dry Creek Rd.   The traffic couldn’t be worse.  Tried to pick up a TE that Brian had seen from the air but I didn’t have the county map and after experimenting with several hypotheses on the likely road names, decided to pick it up later.  Carried on to Grass Valley an then west to E21, just outside of Marysville.  It’s sure hot here back in the valley.

Hooked up with Brian at the junction and headed north.  I expected more from this road and was disappointed to find so few curves and so many farmhouses.  North of the E20 junction, things improved considerably, at least in terms of curves as the road wound along the foot of Chatterdon Ridge.  Sure tar-strippy, though.  We reached Challenge and, following our usual debate about how bad the tar strips really were, we veered northeast on the promising Quincy-Laporte Rd.   

At first, it was disappointing, little settlement in the trees after little settlement in the trees, all with speed zones.  Rough pavement, too.  But north of Strawberry Valley, a brave new world of smooth pavement, bold sweepers and glorious engineering took us to Laporte and beyond.  The engineering quality plunged on the descent down to the Middle Fork Feather River and though it improved on the valley run into East Quincy, it never did resume it’s former glory.  Great road, though.  One of those epics. 

East Quincy consists of several lanes of pavement sided by light industrial zoning.  Charming.  Quincy itself is a little better, but not enough to justify the “hippie festival” that precluded our getting a hotel room there for the night.  Maybe if we’d flashed the DHWA21 Grayland – Raymond or DHBC30 Fulford Harbour – Ganges At A Glances we could have convinced someone to let us crash on their floor, but decided against it.  Instead, we gassed up, watered-up, trail-mixed up and headed out the Oroville-Quincy Hwy.  I ended up doing this road in pieces, having to backtrack to pick up the Buck’s Lake Rd TE.  Going over the Grizzly Summit, however, made you forget the long day.  The miles of perfect blacktop, twisting effortlessly down the slope was like a dream.  So it was quite a rude awakening when it turned into a narrow, barely paved, horrendously-engineered path through a forest of overhanging branches.  It will end soon, I assured myself.  It didn’t.  To make matters worse, when it finally did, I looked back and saw that Bald Rock Rd, a road my map said was gravel was in fact paved.  Had to take a look and so I trampolined back to its northern junction.  And back again.  The bottom of this certain DH is impressive as well as the quality pavement and engineering returns for a scenic twisterama along Lake Oroville’s shoreline.  By the time Brian and I hooked up in Oroville and found a motel, it was getting on 10:00.  The best we could do for dinner was pizza delivery to the room.  Brian was still going on about the ride over the summit, babbling some nonsense about how the crappy part was some ways a plus because it made you earn it.  Sure, Brian, whatever.  Have another slice of pepperoni. 

Thu Jul 3
Mike
The day definitely did not start out well.  It was a flying day, so we got up and headed to meet our pilot, Don at the Oroville airport.  Found a lone tree at the end of the parking lot that, according to my celestial calculations would have the bike in the shade by the time I returned.  I changed into shorts and sandals, got my stuff for the plane organized.  As I was doing so, Brian advised me he’d found a hangar to put the bikes in.  So I had to move.  Helmet over arm, something else over other, stuff precariously stuffed in and around open luggage just enough to keep it on the bike for the 500 foot ride to the hangar.  I started the bike and lifted the kickstand.  Then realized my left sandal was undone.  Leaned down, forgetting the kickstand was up and—well, take a guess.  I hate that moment when you realize the bike’s just too far over and you have to let it go.  My only consolation is that Brian did the same thing a few weeks ago.  As a result, I won’t hear about it for the balance of this book.  Still, from his experience, I know that I just cost us about US$650 in bodywork, paint, replacement graphics and a new clutch lever.  At least the bike still runs.  And if I go fast enough, no one will notice. 

The good news?  I made it for the full air tour.  We flew out of Oroville airport—with GPS this time.  Getting more high tech by the minute.  Our mission:  to recon the area north of Hwy 89 to the Nevada border.  Beautiful day--  in other words, not too bumpy.  Landed in Susanville for lunch.  Took the municipal airport’s courtesy car into the local Black Bear for lunch.  Very civilized.  Don’t know about the restaurant, though.  The portions were so big we could have ordered one meal for the three of us.  After an afternoon’s flying, we landed back in Oroville.  Brian was flying back with Don to Turlock for a day’s R&R.  I, on the other hand, was back on the bike with a list of roads to ride before getting there two days later in time to store the bike and catch my flight back to Vancouver. 

I may only have ridden 130 miles today, but it was a boring 130 miles.  Down Hwy 70 to Sacramento and onto Hwy 50, south on Latrobe Rd, east on Hwy 16 and down 49 to Jackson.  Stayed in Martell, actually, up the hill from Jackson at the Valley View Motel.  I didn’t get a view, but I did get a pilot’s discount after mentioning that I’d seen their ad at the Jackson airport some days earlier.  

Jackson does their July 4^th fireworks on the night of July 3^rd (everyone goes to Ione for the fourth).  So it was quite a trip riding into Jackson for dinner at the local Safeway—one of my favorite restaurants.  A big tailgate party was on the Home Hardware parking lot and traffic was lined up the hill to the launching site.  Riding down the steep hill on the warm night with the fireworks exploding overhead was pretty cool.  I’m not really sure why, but it was. 

After chowing down back in the room to the latest Star Wars chapter on HBO—something about Clones—I showered and settled down to the dying sounds of celebration on the streets outside.  Another day on the road. 

Fri Jul 4
Mike
Lots to do today and I eyed my To Do list of roads with the best of intentions.  After a quick breakfast in the room, I headed south to Mokelumne Hill and Hwy 26.  This bit of 26 west of 49’ll make it as a TE.  Then to San Andreas and Pool Station Rd.  I’d done Pool Station at night but I was wasted from a long day and behind a car I didn’t have the energy to pass.  In the light of day, it’s just a bumpy waste of time.  Hwy 4 from Copperopolis to Angels Camp was good, though—a mixture of sweepy and tight curves. 

In trying to find a routing for Jacksonville Rd, I thought it best to take it from the south, which I did.  I spent some time on Jamestown and Rawhide Rds, choosing between them and then eastward to FSR 14 out of Tuolumne, a place whose pronunciation bears little relationship to its spelling (Tu-Lo-Mene).  The road to Cherry Lake was surprisingly good bearing in mind it doesn’t go anywhere.  At first the pavement had me doubtful but it picked up.  Mostly in the trees but the visibility was good around the long, non-stop corners.  No good end to this road, though.  The Cherry Lake campsite has no day use area.  There is one down by the boat ramp and I went down there to take a swim.  Looked for my bathing suit and discovered it was long gone.  Probably the American River Inn—the place I’d already gone back to once for my cell phone.  (I thought I’d easily replace that bathing suit when I got back to Vancouver.  As it turns out, you can’t buy a bathing suit these days that doesn’t come down to below your knees.) 

The drag about the Cherry Lake Rd is that unless you want to backtrack, you have to take FSR 17, a paved but narrow, pitifully engineered route back to Hwy 120.  Next time, I think I’d backtrack.   

Getting pretty tired by the time I hit Hwy 120, but mindful of all you “When is Northern California coming out?” types, I pressed on.  Down Hwy 120 to Smith Station Rd, down to Coulterville, south to Oakhurst and further south to ride North Fork Rd – Bass Lake Rd from the south.  By the time I found the Motel 6 in Fresno, I was beat.  Showered, confirmed there were no open restaurants serving edible food in the vicinity, and walked up to trusty old Safeway.  Dined with the Discovery Channel back in the room. 

Sat Jul 5
Mike
One nice thing about Fresno is that you can sit in the sun and read at 7:00 AM.  Which I did.  Though by 7:30 it got too hot.  By the time I hit the road at 9:00, it was already in the 90’s.  And it’s barely July.  We’re going to have fun here in August, I can tell.   

My goal today was to ride east and pick up Trimmer Springs Rd, then get back to Turlock by midday.  I then was going to get a ride to Pleasanton, BART to the airport, fly to Vancouver, cab to my truck and drive home.  Planes, Trains, Automobiles and Bikes.  

Trimmer Springs was a great last ride.  A scenic and twisty run along the Pine Creek Reservoir.  The pavement, generally good, is that gritty, grippy stuff that’s very good for breaking in a new set of tires.  And for scrubbing off that last bit of wear on old tires so you can justify replacing them.  At 40.3 mi, it was longer than I thought and left me a little strapped for time.  Still, whipped back to Fresno, found 99 and blitzed north at the kind of speeds you’d never get away with on a freeway in Canada.  Even got back to Turlock in time to wash the bike. 

It was quite curious to be getting on the BART in hundred plus degree heat in Pleasanton and to go through San Francisco en route to SFO and see everyone walking around in coats.  Tell you what, Brian.  Come August, I’ll do the San Francisco area TE’s and you can finish up around Fresno. 

Sun Jul 6
Brian
While preparing to put his bike in a hangar before air recon Thursday morning, Mike had a brief battle with his left shoe in which unfortunately his VFR turned out to be the loser.  Just to give the body shop some variety, he did his US$650 damage to the left side of his bike. Of course I was hardly in a position to criticize. In the klutzy move contest (prone motorcycle category) the score is now tied at one apiece. Oh well, at least Mike was able to stay in the air with us all of Thursday although I wouldn't exactly say he liked it, of course. 

We dropped him back in Oroville from where he had one more day of riding before he had to return to Turlock and then fly back to Vancouver.  I flew back with AirBoz to Turlock for a July 4 day of R&R and fireworks.  Saturday, Don and I flew back up to Oroville and resumed our aerial surveying, after which I spent another night in Oroville.  The dining was much better this time though, as I discovered C.L. & Harry’s (916.534.8797), a quite good restaurant in the old downtown. 

Sunday didn't start out all that well for me.  I had trouble finding Cherokee Rd between Oroville and Hwy 70 (east of Lake Oroville around the two Table Mountains) because my map showed the southern end of it incorrectly.  When I did find it, it turned out to be twisty but it also had very poor pavement and was not really worth doing. 

On the other hand Hwy 70, between Oroville and Quincy, is a fine ride.  It's one of those California roads following a river valley, in this case the North Fork Feather River (and then its East Branch).  The road crosses the river about 57 times or so and there is a major program going on to replace the older, narrower bridges. The waterway means there are lots of curves and since it's a pretty heavily used road, it has better than average Pavement.  So much of the road is fairly high speed.  The often substantial traffic and STC presence willing, of course. There are not a lot of passing opportunities and getting by the pylons will undoubtedly be an issue at times.  At the beginning and end of weekends as well as other heavy travel times we'd be rather inclined  to take either the Oroville-Quincy Hwy - Bucks Lake Rd or the Quincy La Porte Rd routes (see Wed Jul 2 Diary) between these two towns. 

Towards the end of Hwy 70, I had about two minutes of tape left and about 2 mi (3 km) to go to Quincy.  With four lanes, the road opened up and so did I.  Apparently, to 80 mph (130 kmh) in a 50 mph (80 kmh) zone.  This, according to the CHP STC set up by the side of the road who pulled me over. I couldn't demur.  There were no “What ‘dat on yo’ head?” questions from him. Bad sign.  He also didn't like it much when I inquired (politely, I thought) as to the speed of the pylon that had been beside me.  When he bridled at this, I concluded that I was hooped.  So, imagine my surprise when he let me off after only a brief remonstration (during which he let it be known that he rides).  Wow, 0 for 3! Imagine, if you will fellow Canadians, going scot-free after doing 130 kmh in an 80 kmh zone (the old “excessive” speeding rap) in BC. Wouldn't happen.  (From my experience, I also doubt you'd avoid a ticket doing 80 in a 50 in Washington.)  I'm beginning to wonder just how egregiously you have to ride to get a ticket down here.  Ya gotta love California… 

After jaspering Quincy and East Quincy for services, my next chore was to ride the Chandler Rd bypass to Hwy 70/89 around the two towns.  This is a quiet little TE along the north boundary of the American Valley.  Then it was south to the divorce of 70 and 89 at Blairsden.  I took 89 south past Graeagle and Clio to explore the Portola-McClears Rd link between Hwy 89 and Portola on Hwy 70.  A fairly remote (except for the golf course housing turnoffs) bypass TE option to that part of 70 on the other side of the (unseen) Middle Fork Feather River. 

It also looks up nicely with the Lake Davis Rd-Grizzly Rd loop TE off 70 out of Portola up to Lake Davis, where there are a couple of BCG campgrounds.  The Grizzly arm of this road is very nicely paved and the Lake Davis Rd piece is no slouch in that department either. 

Next up, the very straight piece of Hwy 70 out the Sierra Valley to tiny Chilcoot (which has a somewhat funky café) and north to reconnoiter Hwy 284 up to Frenchman Lake, nestled at the base of the Diamond Mountains.  While it does curve, the most attractive facet of this 8 mi (13 km) dead-end gem is the wild and weird crumbly rock formations in the canyon at its north end.  It starts off looking like normal granite, then becomes this crumbly stacked-up stuff.  It looks like a stiff breeze could knock tons of precariously-balanced looking stone down on you.  There are also BCGs up this road.  My day ended back in Portola (pretty much the only town around here with your standard-type motel accommodation). 

Mon Jul 7
Brian
I started by heading back out Hwy 70 to Chilcoot for breakfast. Not only did this cafe cook my bacon perfectly but at the end of the meal I received a Testamint with my bill.  The mint not only has a cross on it but it comes with enclosed Scripture, in this case Galicians 6:9: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap the harvest if we do not give up.” A good Destination Highways motto and encouraging guidance that I must remember to pass on to Mike. 

After breakfast, I rode back up 284 to Frenchman Lake to take some photos of those crazy rock formations after which I doubled back west again on Hwy 70. I turned north at Beckwourth (pub there, by the way) on the Beckwourth-Genosee Rd (FSR177/111/70/03) which runs up the Clover Valley between Lake Davis and the Horton Ridge eventually connect\ing to the Janesville Grade Rd. My map showed a tiny bit of gravel in the middle but I wasn't going to let a little maxburning scare me off what otherwise might be a decent ride, was I?  (“Let us not become weary in doing good…”) 

There turned out to be close to 5 mi (8 km) of the sometimes washboardy stuff and it felt twice as long as that.  That put the kibosh on this baby as far as TE status goes (of course maxburners will be drawn to it precisely because of the aggregate).  The Pavement’s okay but not great and the Scenery’s quite bland; a flattish mix of open areas and scattered forest that does not proffer much in the way of curves.  About the best thing you can say for it, is that the Remoteness is high. 

Once I hit the FSR01/03 junction I headed north to Janesville (on Hwy 395) down  Janesville Grade where I pissed away some time attempting to discover what turned out to be nonexistent backroads in any useable sense between Janesville and Marysville. 

Then, it was back up Janesville Grade Rd (FSR1) providing first, good vistas over the Honey Lake Valley along with lots of curves and second, a route across the Diamond Mountains to and around Antelope Lake.  From here, Indian Creek Rd (FSR43) takes over heading down along Indian Creek, connecting to Genesee Rd which runs through the Genesee Valley to Taylorsville in Indian Valley. These three roads linking Janesville to Taylorsville make for one Scenicly varied and pretty attractive DH.  Lots of Twistiness (it should top out) and lots of Remoteness.  There is sand crumbling off the side slope on  this route (especially Indian Creek Rd) but it's not really a problem because the generous width of the lanes means you don't have to ride on the stuff. 

From Taylorsville there are a couple of TE options both of which skirt the edge of Indian Valley. The quieter North Arm Rd - Diamond Mountain Rd TE just loops around one offshoot arm of the valley and connects to the second TE, the more developed North Valley Rd which begins in Taylorsville and ends in the old lumber town of Greenville. 

I was fortunate not to find the motel I was looking for in Greenville because it allowed me to end up at a very nice B&B, Yorkshire House (530.284.1794).  Each of the four suites has a theme, all of them relating to a famousYorkshire luminary.  I only saw the one suite I stayed in, the Captain Cook Suite, but it was great; cozily done up with everything you need and spacious.  There is secure parking out back (with washing facilities) and a hot tub.  Richard and Angie say they’d love to see more motorcyclists.  Highly recommended. 

Tue Jul 8
Brian
I struck out south on Hwy 89 from Greenville to its junction with Hwy 70. Hmmm… this might just be an ALT DH to DH Oroville – Quincy (Hwy 70).  The piece between Indian Falls and the junction is particularly good. 

I retraced my steps to Greenville then went on to check out the side road off 89 to Almanor on the south shore of Lake Almanor.  Too short to be a TE but there are some services down here.  Then it was back to Canyondam and north on Hwy 147 along the eastern shore of Lake Almanor up to Westwood on Hwy 36.  The southern part around the lake has a few curves but unfortunately the thick development of summer places along both sides of the road make them virtually unusable.  The northern part is pretty straight. 

From Westwood I struck out north on the Mooney Rd shortcut to Hwy 44.  Quite remote but very straight.  The logging trucks howl. Then, it was back south down straight 44 almost to Susanville to pick up Eagle Lake Road (A1), north off Hwy 36.  If you want Remoteness, you'll find it on this one as the winds through thinning forest up to and then around the more open area of Eagle Lake and the Brockman Flat Lava Beds all the way to Hwy 139.  Having as it does a moderate amount of Twistiness with passable Pavement, I think it will just squeak in as a DH.  The lake's a fake and actually feels a bit desolate in its geologically primordial-looking setting.  There are no services on the main road but there are helpful signs listing which ones are down which side roads to the lake. 

Once at 139, I turned north to ride (straight) along the western side of the shallow Grasshopper Valley. I turned off east on the even more remote Termo Grasshopper Rd through Dry Valley Gap and across the western part of the Madeline Plains to Hwy 395 (the last south-north route before you hit Nevada). If this sounds to you like dry, sun-baked and sparsely populated western rangeland, you’ve got the picture. 

Termo consists entirely of an ancient and windswept gas/store/restaurant combination that could, without any modification, easily portray a 1950s roadhouse. At first, when the premium pump sullenly refused to dispense any fuel, I wasn't even sure it was open.  After having better luck with the regular one however, I wandered into the wooden-floored store to pay the elderly gentlemen running the place.  I asked him why no premium.

“Well, the last time I got it, I only sold two gallons. The rest evaporated so I’m not gittin’ any more” Hell, makes sense to me.  

Oh, and one word to describe the “restaurant”: scary.  As I wandered back outside to my bike, a pack of Harleys thundered up to take a break from the relentless sun.  As I took this opportunity to market the California book, the guy I spoke with stopped me with “Oh yeah, I got both your BC and WA books”.  Turns out, they were all from BC, Oliver as I remember.  

Up the long and non-winding Hwy 395 to Likely.  East from here is likely one of the most remotely situated TEs in Northern California, the Jess Valley Rd (FSR64) dead-ender twisting out through Mill Creek canyon and then around the southeast border of Jess Valley and up to a BCG, right on the shore of sparkling (and natural) Blue Lake in the foothills of the Warner Mountains. I wouldn't be surprised if maxburners are tempted to take the good-looking gravel roads up and over the Warners to Surprise Valley, bordering Nevada and head north to Cedarville (see below).  

FSR5 is an ALT TE that goes north off FSR64 around this pretty little valley and up to the BCG located near tiny Clear Lake (both lakes boast good fishing, apparently).  This ALT has the newish (but rustic looking) cedar Mill Creek Lodge B&B (adults only, 530.233.4934) located towards its end with good views overlooking the working cattle ranches of the valley. If you're looking for a get-away-from-it-all hideaway in a peaceful, restorative setting, this could be your place (tricky gravel driveway though).  I would've stayed here but I had more work to do for you this day. And they were full. 

So it was back out to Likely and north on 395 to the decently-sized but quite dried-up looking Modoc County seat of Alturas.  I booked into a motel, dropped my side-cases and then headed out to do a preliminary scouting of the County Road 56 – Alpine Rd – Hwy 299 combination across the Warner Mountains to Cedarville. It was too late to get decent tape but if this route turned out to be at best a TE (which from the map I suspected all it might be) I could still get what I needed on tape while saving the time it would take me to do it tomorrow. 

In the event, it turned out to be pretty good; a nicely varied ride around the Modoc National Wildlife Refuge, then through farmland, foothills and finally across the pocket-sized (but very attractive) Warner Mountains.  I suspected it will make the cut as a DH. Not only that, but Cedarville turned out to be pretty cute (and has services, including nearby hot springs) too.  In the end, I would've saved time by staying the night here. Oh well, nothing for it but to head back over the mountains to Alturas before calling it a day.  

Wed Jul 9
Brian
After again popping over to Cedarville and back I headed west on the Centreville Rd (County Road 54) bypass to Hwy 299 around the south side of the Warm Springs Valley’s Pit River.  Except for the developments popping up around California Pines for no good reason (other than the cheap land, I suppose), it's a mildly interesting ride with less traffic than the main highway.  Don't expect too much Twistiness, though. 

From Canby, I went north at a great rate of speed up Hwy 139 (it’s VERY straight) to the Tionesta turn off (FSR97). After getting gas at the Tionesta store, I took County Road 10 north to the Lava Beds National Monument and on to Tule Lake.  The ancient lava beds are complemented by the ancient tumbleweed-lined asphalt flow making up the south end of this road.  It's very patchy, and broken up in spots.  It's not that it's even as bad as it looks, it's just too unpredictable to get up much speed on.  Once I got to the National Monument, the asphalt was new and black but wasn't much better except for the fact that it was a little more predictable.  What's with all the brand-new pavement in California that's rough as shit? 

You're actually supposed to pay at the Visitor Center to visit the Monument but when I asked the Ranger I waved down if I had to pay just for riding on through, he said I didn't.  At the end of the hellish-looking Devils Homestead Lava Flow below the foreboding heights of Gillem Bluff, the TE splits both literally and stylistically. 

One part continues as County Road 120 along the southern wetlands of the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge with more or less the same quality riding experience.  At one point, 120 heads south from the water as Rim Rd before looping back north along the base of the striking looking butte known as The Peninsula which you've undoubtedly been noticing for quite some time already as it dominates the surrounding landscape.  Opposite and across Hwy 139 (where this branch of the TE ends at Newell) lies the somewhat smaller but almost-as-equally-noticeable mass of Horse Mtn (which actually looks more like Horse Trailer Mtn). 

What you don't want to miss is the ALT arm of this TE which continues north as Hill Rd along the base of Gillem Bluff, then beneath Barntop Mtn, High Rim and Sheepy Peak. As well as, at one point, along the western shoreline of Tule Lake.  Unbelievably sweet high-speed Pavement, made even better by the crud you've just ridden. And no one on it (hint, hint). 

This arm ends at Hwy 161 right on the Oregon border. As I stopped, I thought I could hear a faintly whispered plea on the wind tempting me, “Come do DHOR, forget about California, we’ve got better riding…”  

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’ll get there as soon as we can.  In the meantime, I rode to Tulelake and grabbed a room in the Ellis Motel, the only motel option in this wizened little town  (it's actually a bit north on Hwy 139). Tulelake ain’t much of a town; the “Best Motel In Town” is closed. 

Thu Jul 10 
Brian
From Tulelake, it was back south down Hwy 139 to Tionesta. Today, I charged myself with doing FSR97 in its entirety followed up by FSR49. The latter is made up of the grandiloquently named (but vastly underachieving) Modoc Volcanic Scenic Byway and Powder Hill Rd which eventually junctions with Harris Spring Rd (FSR15). Harris, in turn connects a little bit further south to Hwy 89, some 25 mi (40 km) west of the Hwy 89/I5 Mount Shasta junction. 

97 has a very nicely paved, twisty stretch just before the junction with the FSR49 “Scenic Byway” south of Medicine Lake (which has several BCGs) but the rest of it is very rough. FSR49 is even worse and seems to get even rougher the further south you go, (as well as getting straighter, especially once you’re on the Giant Crater Lava Flow). 

How rough is this road? Well, I haven't whined about my Givi flaps lately have I?  Not because they've stopped flapping, I assure you, it's just that I didn't want to bore you to death (at least not any more than normal).  Well, they were flapping so much here I thought they might lift the back end of the frickin’ bike up.  Finally, on Powder Hill Rd, the hinges on the left case flap couldn't take anymore and the damn thing busted right off.  At least I was checking them so often in my rear views that I noticed not too long after it flew the coop.   

That’s it. After recovering the flap, I brought out the rider's best friend and duct taped both the toasted mother and the (as yet) un-kaput one securely into the place their pathetic, little combination latches were clearly incapable of keeping them in.  As I did so I muttered to myself, “Typical Italian junk, damned expensive and pretty but either not functional or not durable.” (Aprilians, Ducatistas and Moto Guzziers may now feel free to bury me in hate mail.) 

I decided Givi must stand for Goddammit, It’s Very Ineffective and mused about whether the luggage maker might possibly be owned by Fiat (Fix It Again Tony). Same kind of goofy four-letter name, right?  Hell, they even share the letter “i”. Very suspicious. 

After venting this spleen, I finished off FSR49 with my now red and silver VFR. The one thing I will say about this road is that Remoteness is very high.  I'm not sure I’d be tempted to do it again on this Pavement, though.  (Obviously, I certainly wouldn't advise it if you have flapping Givis.) 

After taking the little piece of Harris Springs Rd (FSR15) down to Hwy 89 I turned around and did the whole of Harris south to north.  Now this was better. It might even be a DH (although this could just be me anecdotally over reacting to my previous crap ride). Well, the numbers will tell in the end.  

What I can tell you is that the Pavement is fairly good and that Harris Springs curves quite consistently, if somewhat un-imaginatively, through remote, forested terrain.  Once it becomes Red Rock Rd, it skirts the northern edge of the flatter and agricultural Red Rock Valley with more or less nonexistent Twistiness for the last 10 mi (16 km) or so.  Red Rock does have good views of Mt Shasta to the south, however.  Traffic throughout is very light and there are no services.  The route ends at Macdoel on Hwy 97, which if memory serves has some sort of cafe. 

I went down Hwy 97 (very windy at the southern end towards its wonderfully named terminus, Weed), hence to get around Shasta via I5 and Hwy 89 and reach McCloud, an old milltown whose industry obviously shut down so quickly that there was no time to knock all the old buildings down. It's pretty touristy now (how does an RV Park dedicated to square dancers sound?) although it does have a couple of attractive looking food and accommodation choices.  

From town, I rode south on Squaw Valley Rd (FSR11).  It's 9 mi (15 km) of lightly-traveled, good, winding asphalt which dead-ends at artificial Lake McCloud. Funny, I never did find the Olympic ski hill though.  

If you’re of the maxburner persuasion, you can punch along Hawkin Creek from Lake McCloud, first on poorer asphalt and then on your preferred surface, before returning to some kind of Pavement at the Iron Canyon Reservoir. Then you can head south on FSR11 to Big Bend Rd which connects with Hwy 299 at Hillcrest. Of course we have yet to check out FSR11/Big Bend for dead-end TE status.   

After backtracking to McCloud, I continued west on boring old Hwy 89 (at the turnoff to the Harris Springs Rd, I completed my circumnavigation of Shasta).  Any interest I had in 89 had long since died by the time I got to the Dead Horse Summit.  Not long after the summit I turned off on the byway I was looking for, County Road A19. 

At first a fairly straight shot through the diminishing forest, A19 has some curves as it descends into the Fall River valley to the collection of houses masquerading as the town of Dana.  Then, it wanders through quiet, agricultural bucolia to mapdot Glenburn (nought there but a school).  From here, you get on County Road A20 (Dana Rd) as it winds pleasingly enough between the Fall River and the bordering forest at the base of Saddle Mt. A20 ends at the little, old, half-dead milltown of Fall River Mills on Hwy 299.  

After jaspering the services in the similar town of McArthur a few miles (a few more kilometers) further to the east I returned to Fall River Mills, booked into a motel there and dined at the old Fall River Hotel (which has a fairly funky bar) but did not partake of the wild rice they supposedly grow around here.  

Fri Jul 11
Brian
First up, the Pittville Hwy – Old Highway Rd from Fall River Mills to the east that allows you to stay off Hwy 299.  A meandering TE through quiet farmland, it reconnects with Hwy 299 just before this major road climbs up into the Big Valley Mountains. 

To the west (and butt ending with the previous TE) lies the more remote Cassel Fall River Rd – Cassel Rd TE. This also allows you avoid Hwy 299 but goes through the more rugged terrain of Hogback Ridge and Hat Creek Rim and offers a more interesting selection of curves.  From the collection of houses making up Cassel you have a choice of heading north on Cassel Rd back to Hwy 299 or taking Cassel Rd south to Hwy 89.  Both of these options lie in the lush agricultural land of the Hat Creek Valley. 

From the 299/89 junction I took 299 through Burney and Montgomery Creek and through the remains of a massive forest fire from about 15 years ago. At the mapdot of Round Mountain (about halfway to Redding from 299/89) I turned off to scout out a confusing welter of roads running through the foothills to the east of Redding.  The best combination is Buzzard Roost Rd – Oak Run Rd – Oak Run To Fern Rd – Fern Rd East – Whitmore Rd.  It ends up at the old-fashioned Whitmore General Store which still has sawdust on the floor (along with the tourist t-shirts).  If you get gas here, be careful; the other side of the one pump has diesel. 

Unless you really like having the crap pounded out of you (like I had), don't even think about considering narrow, rough and twisting Ponderosa Way south from Whitmore down and around Bear Creek Ridge to Hwy 44.  You're definitely better off taking the straight but un-punishing Whitmore Rd (incorrectly shown as gravel on some maps) down to Hwy 44 in the flatland. 

From the end of whatever name Ponderosa Way had mutated into, I crossed Hwy 44 and got on another piece of garbage, albeit not quite as punishing. This one’s a two-parter, made up of Black Butte Rd and Wildcat Rd. Don't get sucked in by the few blocks of smooth Black Butte servicing some houses. It gets rougher, believe me. 

The Manton Rd – Battle Creek Bottom Rd (from Dale on Hwy 36 to Manton) looked a lot better but I was only on it briefly before I turned southeast on Lanes Valley Rd and headed to Paynes Creek (on Hwy 36).  This was my third strike in a row.  Rough, straight and really boring; Lanes is not a good combination. 

 From the store that is Paynes Creek, I took the Plum Creek Rd – Little Chant Mill Rd loop off Hwy 36 east around the back side of Howell Ridge.  Yet another roughy I wouldn't do again.  Even the scrubby forest it went through was trashy. 

There was no motel in Paynes Creek as I had been told and the Dales mapdot looked too small to have accommodation. So once I was back on 36, I decided to continue east and take my chances in Mineral, about 10 mi (16 km) to the east. My luck had been bad today as far as the roads went, so I figured I was due for a break.  

And indeed, not only were there a couple of nice stretches through interesting countryside on Hwy 36’s mercifully smooth surface but Mineral had an old rambling motel/store/restaurant/bar combination that provided everything I needed. And I got to spend the night in the cooler, high country which was great after all the useless sweltering I'd done today. 

Sat Jul 12 
Brian
The next morning, I was reluctant to head back down into the heat but then that's what you pay me for.  It didn't help that on the map, Hwy 36 looked a lot more interesting to the east, where it squiggled south of the Lassen Volcanic National Park in some cool, high country.  But that attractive piece of road was going to have to wait until a later day. 

After heading east from Mineral to Dales on 36, my guess was that this stretch of 36 and combined with the Lassen squiggles mentioned above was going to get enough points to be a DH.  The part I rode had some straight stretches but also had sections where it curved quite nicely through the him lower Sierra Nevada slope scenery. 

From Dales (no gas, intermittent food), I headed northeast along A6 (Manton Rd).  Until it crosses Battle Creek North Fork (nice spot for a dip by the way), it's a straight run through scrubby rangeland west of Soap Butte and Little Inskip Hill. At the junction with Wildcat Rd (one of the crap roads I'd ridden yesterday) the road changes its name to Battle Creek Bottom Rd as it tracks the Battle Creek North Fork valley to mapdot Manton, which has gas (and beer). North of Manton, the Rock Creek Rd-Wilson Hill Rd combo climbed up to Shingletown on Hwy 44.  Wilson Hill, particularly has some nice tight curves.  It also had some deer loitering threateningly on the pavement. 

This collection of roads certainly made for the best and most interesting way I found to get between Hwys 36 and 44 east of Redding. 

From Shingletown, I headed west on 44 for about 10 mi (16 km) before turning back to that southeast on A17 (Derch Rd) This is a fairly heavily used back way into Redding but after a couple of miles A17 turns off and becomes Ash Creek Rd through rolling, quiet, foothill countryside.  Ash eventually connects to Jelly’s Ferry Rd which rolls along through flatter and more agricultural terrain. After bouncing off the Sacramento River a couple of times, it crosses the river and connects with I5 a few miles north of Red Bluff.  No question, if you are heading west on 44 in order to head south on I5 or otherwise (or vice-versa) and want to skirt Redding (and who wouldn't want to?) this TE is certainly the preferable route. 

Then I howled south on Hwy 99 through Chico to Oroville where I took Hwy 162 to the Forbestown Rd junction (162 north from the junction is, of course, the Oroville-Quincy Hwy DH, see Wed Jul 2 Brian). Forbestown Rd is a good TE winding up into heavily forested higher country and links nicely to the DH north of Challenge (again, see Wed Jul 2 Brian). 

I headed south from Challenge on E21 to pick up Marysville Rd (E20) which runs through Oregon House and Dobbins and then up to the New Bullards Bar Reservoir before heading down to Hwy 49 (which we expect will be a DH). They are laying a whole bunch of new pavement on the latter part of this TE which should complement its many curves quite favorably. 

 I retraced my steps on Marysville back to Oregon House where I turned north on Frenchtown Road which connects with E21 just south of Brownsville (and Challenge).  This TE cuts off the first, easterly straight stretch of Marysville Rd.  There is gas (and the Renaissance Winery) on Rice’s Crossing Rd just south of the Marysville Rd Frenchtown Rd junction. 

That night I stayed at the Brownsville Motel (cash only) and dined at the Rainbow Inn Restaurant/Bar featuring Mexican and American food just outside town. Outside this establishment I met Richard Jenkins who told me an interesting story.  

He got married way too early and to recover from this disaster did a wise thing; he bought a brand new 1970 Honda CL175 twin, threw it in the back of his pick up and took off for six months to clear his head.  Not all that unusual a story but the kicker is, he still owns the bike!  He says it only has 8000 mi on it, looks brand new (even the stripe in the tach is supposedly still red and not faded to orange) and he still takes it with him on his frequent retirement travels. 

On one trip he was puttering around Port Townshend WA when a couple of other riders pulled up beside him at a light and told him it should be illegal to ride his bike on the road since it really belonged in his living room.  They couldn't believe that the little CL hadn't been restored. 

How many of us have regretted selling that bike we wish we still had?  I know I do. Mine was a pretty, 1976 Honda CB400F that I owned for about four years. You know, the one with those beautiful four-into-one pipes sweeping interestingly across the front of the engine? Man, that was a sweet little mount I’ll always regret trading in... 

On the other hand, if you are looking for a replacement for that 1974 Honda CB125S single you wished you’d never sold, maybe I can help.  A couple of years ago I somehow inexplicably ended up buying one of these on the internet with only 75 miles (yes, 75 miles) on the clock. Originally it had been won by a senior citizen in some grocery store giveaway and was only ever ridden once, by his visiting nephew.  Hey, it may be a great bike for all I know but I’ve never even fired the sucker up so have absolutely no emotional attachment to it. Yes, the tach stripe is still bright red and it’s even still shod in its original rubber. 

So please, make me an offer (604.721.5001). And help make room in my garage for that 1970 Triumph Bonniville I was supposed to buy (or maybe even a burgundy CB400F). 

Sun Jul 13 
Brian
I started the day by checking out some possible TE's west of Brownsville and E21 but turned up nothing of interest.  After this, it was south on E21 to the junction with Hwy 20 where I headed east towards Grass Valley to pick up the Pleasant Valley Rd connector to Hwy 49.  This TE is made up of two parts: the first stretch is busier and developed around Lake Wildwood and there are lots of people also heading to the South Yuba River State Park at Bridgeport for a swim; north of the river the countryside gets very rural and the road twists tightly as it climbs up to meet Hwy 49 at Sweetland. 

I rode south on 49 (oh, yeah, a DH for sure) to check out some possible TE's west of Nevada City. I think we've got one made up of Newtown Rd – Empress Springs Rd – Bitney Springs Rd over to the Pleasant Valley Rd TE.  The south end of Bitney ends at Rough and Ready Rd so perhaps Bitney’s not that innocent.  And judging by Bitney’s  bewitching curvaceousness, we’d  certainly be very surprised if at least a few riders haven't gone down on her. 

Once finished with Bitney, I headed back down Pleasant Valley to Hwy 20 where I turned left off it a block or so farther east to suss out what will become the Penn Rd – Indian Springs Rd – McCourtney Rd (whoa --slow down, there’s a deer)  – Lime Kiln Rd – Duggans Rd – Wolf Rd TE to Higgins Corner on Hwy 49.  This combination allows you to avoid the heavily trafficked and heavily developed (not to mention straight and boring) stretches of Hwy 20 east of and Hwy 49 south of rapidly growing (what else?) Grass Valley.  This is a really sweet bypass cross shot between the two major highways meandering through pretty and varied countryside.  It has little traffic and lots of nicely paved curves with a surprisingly high level of Remoteness. 

And at Higgins Corner it butt with ends with the Combie Rd – Magnolia Rd – Dog Bar Rd – Rattlesnake Rd TE up to Union Hill on Hwy 174.  In many ways this is a mirror of the previous TE but looping instead back north towards greater Grass Valley but on the east side of Hwy 49. It's maybe a little twistier, spends more time in the trees and has a better surface (as much of it is being or has recently been repaved).  A highly recommended connector between Hwys174 and 49. 

Next, I checked out 174 down to Colfax, which except for its shortness might qualify as a DH.  It's a little busy but has a good surface and enough curves to make it worthwhile, at least until Grass Valley traffic grows and overwhelms it. (Oh and you better not take You Bet Rd about halfway along Hwy 174. Some maps show it connecting with the other You Bet Rd which is part of the TE I discuss next, but you can bet that it does not go through.) 

From just north of Colfax on Hwy 174 I put together a bypass TE to I80 (north) composed of Magra Rd – You Bet Rd – Rollins Lake Rd. Probably about 10 mi (16 km) long, the northern Rollins part has absolutely no one on it and appears to be the old highway.  It is very close (and has a couple of access points) to the interstate.  

It was getting dusky and I was pretty much done up in this area, so I decided to call it a day and headed back to Colfax.  The motel there (and the one farther south in Weimar) looked a little too Batesian for me so I continued down I80 to Bowman, just outside Auburn. By the time I organized a room, the only place open left to eat at was (surprise, surprise) a Denny's Diner. Sigh…. And yes, since you ask, the bar was closed. Not only that, but I finished “eating” too late to take advantage of the complementary drink coupon the motel had given me for the bar in the nearby bowling alley (though, I can't honestly say I was all that disappointed). 

Mon Jul 14 
Brian
Last time I had been in Auburn (see Tue Jul 1 Brian) I had ridden up Hwy 49 with Mike from Placerville on our way out to the two Foresthill DHs. Didn't get much of a look at the town, then and wasn't impressed with the little I saw. 

This morning, I had ridden down from Bowman looking for breakfast and ended up in the old downtown section right off I80.  At least here, the old gold mining town has some attractive bits of itself left. 

After breakfast, I hopped on I80 then headed north to see if I could put together another bypass TE to the west of the interstate running from Bowman up to Colfax. Hopefully it would connect with the bypass TE north of Colfax I had done last evening. The routing would be too confusing to describe here but I think we can put one together consisting mostly of Placer Hills Rd and running through Clipper Gap and Meadow Vista on up to Colfax.  There are couple of connecting roads off it that can take you over to the Magnolia Rd – Dog Bar Rd TE I had done yesterday. 

When I got to Colfax, it also turned out to be a better looking town than the part I had seen last night would indicate.  The old downtown has some remaining charm.  After jaspering it, I headed north on Hwy 174 to check out its full length to Grass Valley and as I suspected, although it's a pretty good scoot, it's too short to merit DH status. 

As it turned out, I was pretty glad it was short.  As I rolled to a stop in downtown Grass Valley, I felt that familiar loose-goosey feeling from the rear end that indicated little or no air in the back tire (in this case it turned out to be no).  Oh well, at least this particular tire was pretty much shot. I had only planned on using it to take me back to Turlock tonight for my flight back to Vancouver tomorrow. 

I booked a AAA flatbed (have a mentioned how handy the Canadian Automobile Association bike policy is?) and retired to a nearby cafe to check their phone book for a bike shop.  The large size of Grass Valley turned out to be advantageous right now as, lookie here, there’s Sierra Motorsports, a Honda/Yamaha/KTM dealer right in town.  The flatbed arrived in a timely manner and the boys at the bike shop had me back on the road in a little over two hours, total downtime.  We can't promise you’ll always get back on the road that fast if you have DHCA-N but we can promise you a dealer list (with phone numbers) for the area the book covers. 

After 174, my plans had been to head towards Turlock anyway, picking up one more TE on the way down.  I was too far behind schedule to do the TE so I just switched my brain off, got on Hwy 49 to Auburn, I80 to Sacramento and finally Hwy 99 to Turlock. The VFR performed its usual high speed freeway drone impeccably.  The more I rode this bike under different riding conditions, the more I liked it. 

           Go on to August