Central Coast Romp III

[OrangevaleFJR]

Before we left, we left the gear and tank bag in the hotel office while we took a walk on Pismo Beach. I had never been here and the neat thing, other than the clear blue water, the extremely powdery sand, the fact that you can ride a dune buggy, or ATV on the beach and the nice appearance of things was that the slope of the beach was perhaps the slightest slope of any beach I had ever been on.

Now I have travelled some and I have been to many beaches. This beach is the slightest of slopes I have ever seen. That means something. Getit? Gotit? Good

Here are some pics of the beach and out hotel.

Hills by Pismo...see the yellow flowers? In post I by TWN, I said we'd see these again and here they are!

The beach looking South

This is my beautiful and talented wife, Sherri.

Here's dorky O'vale

We stayed at this Hotel and it was pretty cool. Make sure to ask for an ocean front room! Sandcastle Inn.

Pismo is a long and deep beach which may be the best beach all time for little kids. You have to go out 100 yards to get 2 feet deep!

Mtf

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

We headed back up CA-1 and I'll let Sherri's action speak quite a bit on the home stretch.

Then we hit Naciemento Road (Hunter Leggett). Okay, there are good motocycle roads, there are great motorcycle roads, then there are roads that are better than anything we can imagine. Naciemento/Hunter-Leggett is the type that is better than you can imagine and better than our pictures can convey. Go ride this road from CA-1 All the way to Coalinga (blending in 198 and G-16)

The road leaves CA-1 and climbs the mountains heading inland. To do this, it has to rise above some high mountains and the switchbakcs are awesone and the views of the coast are simply jaw dropping

Down low on the hill it looks like this.

A little higher up

and higher

higher

Let's look North

then with some of where we came from

and where we are going

mtf

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

And looking inland

I thought this might be the last view of the Pacific as we climbed and grunted inland

I wanted to climb and get a pic of the road but the cut out was just too loose. I couldn'nt climb this without a ladder so I hopped up on the third string of barbed wire to try to show you guys the road cut into the hill.

This picture shows three levels of the road, backed up the the Pacific. Astounding in person. If you can, please ride this road.

Now we were inland. No more views of the Pacific and honestly, I didn't miss it. The road developed this pattern of 2-3 s turns to the right, 2-4 s-turns to the left then a sharp turn to the right and repeat. Do this 40 or so times. Prior to entering Fort Hunter Leggett Army Post, the road is almost goat trail. This is one step away from dirt road. However, the road was in good shape, other than the odd mud slide, one of which took up half the road! The moss in this area was so thick it smoothed the rough cut rock

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

Where the heck are we? Naciemento Road...got to Google Maps and look for Carmel, then Morro. Zoom into the area in the middle of these two and look for Gorda and Lucia. Naciemento is inbetween those 'towns' on CA-1.

As we descended on the other side of the range, we encountered this beautiful aquamarine creek.

We entered Fort Hunter Leggett and we immediately entered this inland valley between mountains

Who knew this was here? Apparently some Army guy did and they gobbled up this beautiful hunk of land. This place is awe inspiring and for the most part untouched. The incredibly nice two lane road is proof that the US Federal Government knows where to spend some money. Thanks Uncle Sam! Thanks for letting visitors ride through. You are requried to have a registration, proof of current insurance and your driver's license to be allowed to ride here.

We were told not to ride off the road, or even get off our bike as there were excercises underway. This is all we saw. The tanks were hiding in the hills. I kept an eye out for laser targetting but never saw any spots on my FJR.

Then we left and hopped on G-16 by a tiny little farming town

and we need a bigger chip for our digital camera as we ran out of space at this point, but we rode another 300 miles.

 

[twowheelnut]

Did I kid about H/L Road or what? And I've never been on the damn thing! Been by it lebenty-leben times, though...

Nice work guys! :good:

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

Did I kid about H/L Road or what? And I've never been on the damn thing! Been by it lebenty-leben times, though...
Nice work guys! :good:

Go take it! We took it based on your advice and on my seeing it on the map before. Sherri says she likes you and wants us to ride H/L Naciemento road with you. Schedule it Tim.

 

[Khunajawdge]

Yep, Nacimiento/Ferguson road has been there for at least 70 years! Glad that you have discovered it! It was a road carved by the William Randolf Hearst's crew to reach "the Hacienda" (still located at the Hunter Liggett Reservation) by "those" guests of William Randolf Hearst who enjoyed hunting in this region!

You can still book a reservation at the Hacienda which has its own restaurant and bowling alley!

Julia Morgan was the architect of the Hacienda as well as Hearst Castle, she graduated from Cal Berkeley! The next "best' feature of the area is Arroyo Seco. More on that when I announce " The first annual Arroyo Seco FJR 1300 Ride to Camp"

Cheers ...from a California Central Coast Native...Later,

 

[twowheelnut]

Maybe, I can convince the missus to do an overnight in Pismo and ride back over with you guys to 101 and home... Possible, we'll see! Though, I'd better call geraud and get a rack and rest on order first!

Making the video now. Dang! So many good clips on 25 that I'm at 10 mins and have more to edit before I get to Hwy 1! More tape to the floor, cuz I need room for our pictures yet!

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

Maybe, I can convince the missus to do an overnight in Pismo and ride back over with you guys to 101 and home... Possible, we'll see! Though, I'd better call geraud and get a rack and rest on order first!
Making the video now. Dang! So many good clips on 25 that I'm at 10 mins and have more to edit before I get to Hwy 1! More tape to the floor, cuz I need room for our pictures yet!

i was a bit bummed to hear that when I decided to lead the pack the camera adjusted itself. I guess it's best not to show all that irresonsible passing stuff

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

Yep, Nacimiento/Ferguson road has been there for at least 70 years! Glad that you have discovered it! It was a road carved by the William Randolf Hearst's crew to reach "the Hacienda" (still located at the Hunter Liggett Reservation) by "those" guests of William Randolf Hearst who enjoyed hunting in this region!
You can still book a reservation at the Hacienda which has its own restaurant and bowling alley!

Julia Morgan was the architect of the Hacienda as well as Hearst Castle, she graduated from Cal Berkeley! The next "best' feature of the area is Arroyo Seco. More on that when I announce " The first annual Arroyo Seco FJR 1300 Ride to Camp"

Cheers ...from a California Central Coast Native...Later,

know of any good deals on a house down there???

 

[JBad]

OrangvaleFJR,

Thanks for posting the very excellent pictures and ride reports! Compliments to Sheri on some great camera work while in motion. I expecially enjoyed seeing the parts of the trip we missed.

We sure enjoyed meeting all of you. Thanks for a great trip.

 

[weekend rider]

What can one say except "Awesome roads, scenery, pics just everything was perfect. O'vale you are correct it is a must ride anytime it seems.

I hope I am able to ride it in a couple of weeks and any others that are intrested lets make it a group ride if need be? What does everyone think?

 

[Bluestreek]

RicnSac and I did this road last year on the way to Avilla Beach last year. Its a great road. If you need a place to stay the night the Motel 6 in San Simion is pretty nice and has decent rates for the area. I think wife and I paid about $62 for a room with a king size bed. Also a nice little restaurant on site.

 

[FJR Gary]

Hey, I really enjoyed those pics. Made me kind of homesick. I grew up in Central CA and went to school at Cal Poly in SLO. I live on the other coast now.

 

[worldbound4now]

That trip looks amazing. I was grinning just thinking about taking that ride. I may have to make an "escape the heat" run over there from Vegas just to check the area out. I usually stay on the east side of the Sierra's because when the weather is finally nice in the spring for me, so many of the mountain passes are still closed.

Great ride report!

 

[radman]

Nice, but where's all the naked Wimmins beaches I hear so much about? Oh, and I've done 1 driving truck/trailer. One of my favorite trips, especially when I looked in the mirrors and was glad the trailer had duallys....

 

[twowheelnut]

Nice, but where's all the naked Wimmins beaches I hear so much about?

I showed up and they all ran for cover! :blink:

 

[rogerfjrfaster]

2whn

they ran real fast.

rogerfjrfaster

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

Nice, but where's all the naked Wimmins beaches I hear so much about?

I showed up and they all ran for cover! :blink:

Oh, so you covered them?