A weekend from Orangevale to Carmel

[OrangevaleFJR]

A lot like the title of this thread, it sure seemed like a long weekend! Not because time didn't fly, but because of all the things we packed into it. My son, my wife and I all travelled to Carmel last Friday with the primary reason being that my son's high school lacrosse team was invited to the Carmel Invitational Lacrosse Tournament.

I rode my bike, and my son and wife drove in the cage. Leaving Orangevale around 11:00, I super-slabbed it as far as I could, then switched to highways. The route there include I-80 West to 680 South to 101 South to CA-156, to CA-1 into the Monterey/Carmel area. It was about 220 miles and I made it on 5.3 gallons of gas. Less than a tank

It rained only a little on me as I left the Sacramento Valley. Other than that, I was dry and there was very little wind. Really, ideal riding conditions!

People, if you are not from California and you want to visit us, then Spring time is the time. Come here now through May for a beautiful treat of green and color.

What a great setting for his first game!

Do you know about lacrosse? I played it in the Springtime from 6th-12th grades. From 10th-12th grades I played for the J.K. Mullen Mustangs. 1982 was my Sophomore year and the first year that Mullen had lacrosse. I was one of 3 players with any experience as my previous school had a strong lacrosse program. Now, much to my surprise, my little school from Littleton, Colorado is being invited to lacrosse tournaments in Carmel! What a joy to see the good 'ol Mullen Mustangs!!!

I can't tell you how cool it was for me to be able to cheer them on! Then, I got a good dose of feeling old when their coach introduced me as one the first Mullen lacrosse players in school history! Hey! I'm only 39!

If you don't know lacrosse, it is physical fast and really fun to watch! There are a lot of goals scored and hits delivered.

The Carmel setting was beautiful and enhanced the great feeling of having 16 teams doing battle.

This post game celebration was for the game that sent the Bella Vista Broncos, my son's team, to the finals! The goalie was carried by his team mates!

and the end result (look low center for a clue)...

They won 1st place!!!:rad :hail

(my son is #52)

Motorcycle ride pics coming in subsequent posts...

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

Here I am in Carmel, games on Friday and Saturday. Should we go home after the last game? No way! Wer'e staying to enjoy ourselves in this beautiful area. Sherri has plans to do various things and I'M RIDING!

I took two rides from Pashnit.com and cut them in half so I could also ride the 200+ miles home and still be able to walk. I rode Carmel Valley Road far enough to get a really good taste of the fun parts and then turned back.

Starting off, the road is really nice because it goes through beautiful places. Here is my first pic after I climbed a hill on a side road. You can see the ocean in the distance

It looks better without the pesky road.

The road is flat and fairly straight in the beginning, and it might as well be because that is where all the traffic is.

So to get out from behind cagers, I kept pulling off on side roads to go look at things. Here is a bridge over the Carmel River on Rancho San Carlos Road.

Here is the Carmel River from the bridge. I like water, farms, hills and stuff.

Here is a golf course. I think it was called the Oasis or something catchy like that.

Here is a neighboring farm with fresh sprouts coming up.

Further along, but not too much further, I found this cool farm that was beside a nice looking fruit and veggy stand.

Before you reach the town of Carmel Valley, the road gains some altitude, which provide for this lovely view.

More to come!

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

Once you get past Carmel Valley, the road gets fun. Carmel Valley is the name of a town of sorts and up to this point, there are a mixture of farms, golf courses, neighborhoods and businesses. Past Carmel Valley, there is a lot of fun for bikes.

There weren't many cars, nor bikes on this section and I was glad. The scenery was awesome and so was the road.

There were two bikes. Andy has a Ducati Monster 750 and Dave has a Ducati Monster 900. Here they are with their bikes.

A few bikes went by as we talked:

Andy and Dave were parked here off the Carmel Valley Road on a side street. I pulled over and we talked. They were heading back to Monterey and I asked to if it was okay to follow and they said, "Sure thing!" Make sure to get ahold of me if you want to ride in Sierra! Dave lead and Andy was in the middle of us. The FJR eagerly tromped along eager to be with the Monsters and while we kept up, I could tell those Monsters were meant to move!

This is just a great riding pic. You know the feeling!

They took me up Laureles Grade Road (I think that was what it was) to 68 and it was nothing but FUN! Woohoo! Thanks for the great ride guys!

After this stop sign, I went to CA 1 to head down South of Carmel along the coast...more pics coming!

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

CA Highway 1, also known here as the Cabrillo Highway, is infamous and for good reason. It has astounding views, it's fun to ride and everything from the plants, hills, beaches, rocky coast lines and clear water just blend to create something that always gives me pause.

Nice curves

Beaches and curves

yep

The greens are new with spring and just reach out.

The views can be this good

Yep, that good. Good enough to zoom in on too

I guess there is a reason to trailer a bike on this road. I just can't think of it! Nice flowers eh?

This family must have one of the top ten backyards in the world!

I took that last picture from a bridge, on the other side of the bridge there was this

Up top, it looked like this

Yep...some more pics to come!

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

From that last bridge, I took a road up the hill just for fun. I like strange things and this one was strange to me. Look at this huge Eucalyptus Elm Tree. The huge dark portion to the left of the tree is a Burl! That's one of the largest burls I've EVER seen!

I hope you find things like that interesting too.

Then I rode home.

I stopped on 101 for this shot of Spring

This pic would be cool without the concrete barrier ;-)

Some bikes were in better places than trailers!:rad

I had a great day, leaving at 10am and getting home in Orangevale at 5pm. Another great ride to remember, and share. 400+ miles

 

[zzkenoman]

great story and great photos, what camera are you using?

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

great story and great photos, what camera are you using?

:lol: read the last line of my signature :lol: I get asked that a lot!

 

[twowheelnut]

Nice write up, Andrew. The Hawaiian shorts? Gotta be a good team to get away with those! :lol:

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

Nice write up, Andrew. The Hawaiian shorts? Gotta be a good team to get away with those! :lol:

You know it! :lol: :haha:

 

[Okie@Tulsa]

O'vale

Thanks for sharing..Great Pics....

 

[devanator]

orangevalefjr

Thanks for those pics. It brought back a lot of good memories for me seeing those pictures of Carmel and highway by Big Sur. I lived their for a short time when I was 20 years old for about a year. That was a great year of my life. Met some great people and just had a good time. (First time on my own you know). After being back in Minnesota for a number of years know, I came back a couple years ago with my wife for our 15th wedding anniversary just to look back and had a nice week-end. Looked my old roomate up and a few other friends. Thanks Again for the memories.

Devanator (Mike)

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

Thanks Again for the memories.

You are welcome!

 

[donaldb]

Great pic's Orangevale! Thanx again! When my wife and I vacationed there a couple years ago we also rode this same stretch of hwy 1 including Big Sur. I have the same picture of the coast w/the bridge. Of course we were in a car and not a bike at the time but your pic's sure brought back some fond memories. I remember we stopped at a vegetable stand not far outside of Monterey. They were selling fresh Artichokes (this was in September) and you could buy them hot & deep fried. Man were those things good!! Wish we could get fresh artichokes like that here. We had tons of fun. My mother-in-law just got back from a weeks vacation out there, her brother lives in Saint Louis Abisbo? (sorry for butchering that--I'm not sure how to spell it). He owns BigMac records--what ever that is--I've never heard of it. Anyway thanx again