OrangevaleFJR
R.I.P. Our FJR Riding Friend
I received the call Saturday afternoon from Alan Clark. He said that the weather report looks good and asked if I wanted to go do a little riding. Now, Alan's idea of a little riding could work out an IBA fanatic, so I asked, "Where were you thinking about going and how early do we have to leave to get home by 7 p.m.?" So we agreed to meet at the gas station for a 5 a.m. departure the next day. I was looking forward to it. This was the weekend that BlueStreek was trying to pull together a ride up to Fortuna and I had to beg off, not being able to spend 3 days away at this time. The route that Alan had come up with was quite the coincidence.
We left Orangevale and rode I-5 to Red Bluff where we stopped for breakfast. Rode Hwy 36 to Fortuna taking a 20 mile diversion up Wildwood Road, went to Ferndale, and double backed to Fortuna for gas, then back to Ferndale to take the Mattole Road a.k.a. Lost Coast road to Petrolia, then through Humboldt State Red Wood Park to 101, then home via 101, 20, I-5.
If you don't know where all this stuff is, here route map:
Ride Route Link
For those that just want a general idea, here is a screen shot of the map:
Leaving out of Orangevale at 5am, it was cool, but not cold. The cool air through my summer gloves had felt good on my way to our meeting point. An hour after riding <the speed limit> up I-5 I had to pull over and put heavier gloves on. I was cold and shouldn't have chanced it. Oh well, I warmed up during breakfast.
The ride to Red Bluff would have been fairly unremarkable except for 2 things. First, there was a pretty stiff crosswind as we went through Woodland. When I-5 turned Northerly again, the wind was in our face and it was strong. I am riding with a stock windscreen now. I had a cee-baileys +4" height and +1" width screen before. I'm getting another one! Long rides with stock screens aren't as comfortable for me. I'll leave that to mile hardened riders like twowheelnut
Okay, that was the first thing.
Now the second thing was the amount of shooting stars I saw on the way to Red Bluff. It was like catching a really good night of the August Meteor shower. I must have seen 20+ shooting stars and it reminded me of when I was a kid and used to lay on the lawn at night and just watch them streak across the Colorado sky. It put me in a nice state of mind on that ride, and I was a little disappointed to see the sun coming up as we approached Red Bluff. I was not, however, disappointed to see our chosen restaurant and get a few cups of hot coffee and and omelet in my gut! I need the warm up from not having worn the proper gloves.
Somehow, I didn't think trying to take pictures of falling stars was a worthwhile pursuit, so let's just jump to the pictures now. We got our fill, got our bikes their fill at the Chevron conveniently located at the start of 36 and then this is the first picture I took on the trip. We had determined to stop at the sign to take pictures. Anyone that reads these forums enough has seen it. It is the kind of sign riders like to see for some reason Alan rode past it, and I just have to show him backing up!
Here is a better pose
Hwy 36. Is it rider nirvanna? For some it is. It certainly has some incredibly fun sections, and it doesn't have much traffic. It is 2 hours of a lot of fun, but I have to say, there are certainly roads that have better twisties. There are better roads for undulations. There are better roads for scenery, there are even less travelled roads. However, there are few roads that are 140 miles long that have as many nice twisty sections, so many nice views, including one particularly fine view of Mount Shasta in it's new pristine white coating, and so little traffic anywhere near here. Plus, it has that sign and it's just fun to ride by it.
Unfortunately, California is spending some money on reducing the curves and undulations on some sections of road. Hwy 36 got some of this treatment. The result wasn't as straight and boring as I had feared, but they did ruin one of my favorite sections of the road. At least it has some high speed sweepers now. You can see how they dug into the hill where the road used to follow the contours of the hills. It was a blast in this section, with a spirited rider ending up airborne a few times!
There are some cool sights to see. This hill, which is not given justice from this shot, seems to have a layered effect as if someone with a huge icing bag put layer after layer of earth down at an artistic angle that Picasso would have dug. If you see this hill, maybe you'll like my description, and maybe you'll be worrying about my ears.
Signs. Sometimes they seem to be in the middle of nowhere. I like them and often take snap shots of them to remember where I have been.
We stopped here so Alan could get more layering on. It was getting chilly as we climbed in altitude.
Where were we then? Signs. Remember them?
We were on 36 and Platina
Right by the Beegum Gorge campground turn off.
Alan's 2007 Yamaha FJR1300 looked nice in the sun.
More to come...
We left Orangevale and rode I-5 to Red Bluff where we stopped for breakfast. Rode Hwy 36 to Fortuna taking a 20 mile diversion up Wildwood Road, went to Ferndale, and double backed to Fortuna for gas, then back to Ferndale to take the Mattole Road a.k.a. Lost Coast road to Petrolia, then through Humboldt State Red Wood Park to 101, then home via 101, 20, I-5.
If you don't know where all this stuff is, here route map:
Ride Route Link
For those that just want a general idea, here is a screen shot of the map:
Leaving out of Orangevale at 5am, it was cool, but not cold. The cool air through my summer gloves had felt good on my way to our meeting point. An hour after riding <the speed limit> up I-5 I had to pull over and put heavier gloves on. I was cold and shouldn't have chanced it. Oh well, I warmed up during breakfast.
The ride to Red Bluff would have been fairly unremarkable except for 2 things. First, there was a pretty stiff crosswind as we went through Woodland. When I-5 turned Northerly again, the wind was in our face and it was strong. I am riding with a stock windscreen now. I had a cee-baileys +4" height and +1" width screen before. I'm getting another one! Long rides with stock screens aren't as comfortable for me. I'll leave that to mile hardened riders like twowheelnut
Okay, that was the first thing.Now the second thing was the amount of shooting stars I saw on the way to Red Bluff. It was like catching a really good night of the August Meteor shower. I must have seen 20+ shooting stars and it reminded me of when I was a kid and used to lay on the lawn at night and just watch them streak across the Colorado sky. It put me in a nice state of mind on that ride, and I was a little disappointed to see the sun coming up as we approached Red Bluff. I was not, however, disappointed to see our chosen restaurant and get a few cups of hot coffee and and omelet in my gut! I need the warm up from not having worn the proper gloves.
Somehow, I didn't think trying to take pictures of falling stars was a worthwhile pursuit, so let's just jump to the pictures now. We got our fill, got our bikes their fill at the Chevron conveniently located at the start of 36 and then this is the first picture I took on the trip. We had determined to stop at the sign to take pictures. Anyone that reads these forums enough has seen it. It is the kind of sign riders like to see for some reason
Alan rode past it, and I just have to show him backing up!
Here is a better pose
Hwy 36. Is it rider nirvanna? For some it is. It certainly has some incredibly fun sections, and it doesn't have much traffic. It is 2 hours of a lot of fun, but I have to say, there are certainly roads that have better twisties. There are better roads for undulations. There are better roads for scenery, there are even less travelled roads. However, there are few roads that are 140 miles long that have as many nice twisty sections, so many nice views, including one particularly fine view of Mount Shasta in it's new pristine white coating, and so little traffic anywhere near here. Plus, it has that sign and it's just fun to ride by it.
Unfortunately, California is spending some money on reducing the curves and undulations on some sections of road. Hwy 36 got some of this treatment. The result wasn't as straight and boring as I had feared, but they did ruin one of my favorite sections of the road. At least it has some high speed sweepers now. You can see how they dug into the hill where the road used to follow the contours of the hills. It was a blast in this section, with a spirited rider ending up airborne a few times!
There are some cool sights to see. This hill, which is not given justice from this shot, seems to have a layered effect as if someone with a huge icing bag put layer after layer of earth down at an artistic angle that Picasso would have dug. If you see this hill, maybe you'll like my description, and maybe you'll be worrying about my ears.
Signs. Sometimes they seem to be in the middle of nowhere. I like them and often take snap shots of them to remember where I have been.
We stopped here so Alan could get more layering on. It was getting chilly as we climbed in altitude.
Where were we then? Signs. Remember them?
We were on 36 and Platina
Right by the Beegum Gorge campground turn off.
Alan's 2007 Yamaha FJR1300 looked nice in the sun.
More to come...
