Bridgeport - Gold Country Historical Marker

[CAJW]

While waiting for Beemerdons to show up this morning in Cathey's Valley, I chatted with a guy who used to race flat track on a XR750 Harley in Tulare, where I watched many a race in the 70's and we figured I'd watched him race for a year or two. Small world. Later I chatted with a elderly lady who informed me that her family just about ran the town of Cathey's Valley. She had been the past Postmaster, Coroner and was currently the store owner, her sister is now running the post office and one of her son's is a Sheriff Deputy, the other a CHP. Didn't want to hang around and find out she specialized in Proctology, or anything like that, so I gave up on Don (guess he's resting up for OM's ride tomorrow) and headed out. The old Highway off of 140 starts off a few miles West of the township and heads roughly East. Pavement is good for awhile (5 miles) then turned a bit goaty for another 4-5 miles then smoothed out. A couple of dogs gave me an escort for about a 1/4 mile and finally realized I wasn't going to stop and let them slobber on me so they moved out of the way. I hopped on 49 Eastbound for a few miles and stopped at the Mariposa Coffee Company where they do their own roasting. Jerry, the owner for 21 years, was kind enough to brew me a cup while we chatted about all the nutty tourists trying to drown themselves in the local rivers. The smell in that place was great, but with temps starting to climb, I purchased a pound of French Vanilla whole beans and donned my Shoei. I hung a left on Triangle Road and headed up to about 3300' where the pines greeted my schnoz and coolness permeated my vented jacket. A few miles prior to merging onto Hwy 140 a young buck decided to try and race me for the right shoulder on a 40 mph right hander. Luckily he beat me and scampered up about a 10' embankment and just stared at me like I was the idiot for being in the road! Gassed up in Mariposa and took 49 North toward Coulterville slowing for ongoing wall reinforcement at the Bagby hairpin. Some jerk with a couple of pedal bikes on the back of his truck was showing me how far he could cross over into the oncoming lane, but wouldn't pull over for me while running well below FJR speeds. After a few miles of watching his mirrors more than what was coming toward him, he finally pulled over and let me pass. I probably could have passed him earlier, but after watching the Kentucky road rage video recently, I wasn't about to be punted off of 49 down to the bottom of the canyon, some 1000' below. I got well ahead of him and then took an intermission behind a logging truck for a few miles, finally passing him only to catch a parade of RV's. Yep, it's a holiday weekend alright. Things thinned out after getting on Hwy 132 and headed for the barn before things got too warm. I stopped for a final phone check and found a Turkey Vulture unwilling to move from the shady spot I had picked to pull over. He finally relented and took off, but when I pulled up I found what was left of his snack, which appeared to be a gopher snake that had just about been picked clean. Not near as impressive as Carver's rattler, but a good study in snake skeletons. Hope you all get out and get some miles under you belts this weekend, I sure feel mine has started off right.

Old Hwy to Mariposa and Yosemite

Road going from good to not so good

Not a 3 dog night, but a 2 dog morning

Bridgeport Historical Marker

A dufus from Hazard County?

Glad the rock ahead had stopped rolling

More pics here SPOT link

 

[dcarver]

E Clampus Vitus rocks, as do your RR, CAJW!

You have a wonderful backyard... :yahoo:

 

[Happy Rider]

Thanks John, wish I could have gone. Looks like the last photo with the rock someone was having a little bit of rear braking difficulty.

 

[Bokerfork]

Nice RR John. You need to get out more often.