Going To Templeton CA Mid October 2012

[ionbeam]

We are flying to SF on or about 10/11 then traveling to Templeton for a wedding on Sat afternoon and leaving on 10/15 . Around that event we will have some time to travel and do some sightseeing. The plan is to pick up a motorcycle and do our traveling on that, which brings us back to the opening request for travel suggestions. The only solid time commitments will be the wedding on Sat afternoon and breakfast on Sun morning. Depending on what we find to do we may add a day or two to the trip.

 

[dcarver]

WooHoo!

 

You can borrow my FJR, DL650, but not the Harley and I'll show you all the bitchen roads and things to see in the hood.

 

Yer in good hands, Alan!

 

:yahoo:

 

[Fairlaner]

yeah ha.....I'm in.

R

 

[biknflyfisher]

Bring a desire for some great red wine, the Zinfandel in the templeton/paso Robles areas is outstanding!

Biknflyfisher

 

[airboss]

We are flying to SF on or about 10/11 then traveling to Templeton for a wedding on Sat afternoon and leaving on 10/15 . Around that event we will have some time to travel and do some sightseeing. The plan is to pick up a motorcycle and do our traveling on that, which brings us back to the opening request for travel suggestions. The only solid time commitments will be the wedding on Sat afternoon and breakfast on Sun morning. Depending on what we find to do we may add a day or two to the trip.

You will find that you'll be needing to add more than a day are two to your trip. :lol:

 

[Bokerfork]

WooHoo!

 

You can borrow my FJR, DL650, but not the Harley and I'll show you all the bitchen roads and things to see in the hood.

 

Yer in good hands, Alan!

 

:yahoo:

Don't do it. Carvers just looking for someone of your expertise to get the damn thing running again.

 

[dcarver]

WooHoo!

 

You can borrow my FJR, DL650, but not the Harley and I'll show you all the bitchen roads and things to see in the hood.

 

Yer in good hands, Alan!

 

:yahoo:

Don't do it. Carvers just looking for someone of your expertise to get the damn thing running again.

Damn It, you're onto my game plan! Ionbeam rides KrZy8. KrZy8 breaks down. To get home, IonBeam has to fix KrZy8! Purrfect! :lol:

 

[ionbeam]

You can borrow my FJR...but not the Harley

Damn, I was looking forward to a whole lota shakin' going on.

Bring a desire for some great red wine, the Zinfandel in the templeton/paso Robles areas is outstanding!

I'd have to box 'n ship because a day of wine tasting on a motorcycle may not be such a good idea. It isn't the coordination so much as it is good sense that goes away with a little alcohol. Sounds like it would be a good taxi tour

Damn It, you're onto my game plan! Ionbeam rides KrZy8. KrZy8 breaks down. To get home, IonBeam has to fix KrZy8! Purrfect!

You will need to arrange for the tool truck with fans and work canopy to follow us.

This weekend we need to size up the agenda and available time to figure out what we can squeeze in on what day. Really looking forward to having some time to do a little riding. If I rent a bike I would probably be riding down the coast from Mountain View to Nacimiento-Fergusson Rd or perhaps the Skyline Blv to Big Basin Way, then maybe 236 to Empire Way then down to the coast. Gotta check time to distance and plot a route.

 

[SacramentoMike]

Have you ever been out this way? I'd recommend different things to somebody depending on whether or not they'd ever seen the "basics." The basics, IMO, at least in the north state, are the PCH, some of the main touristy SF stuff, Yosemite if you have time, stuff like that. Then the hidden gems, like maybe Naciemiento-Ferguson and lots of others. Also depends on which direction you want to head out of SF by. I didn't even know where Templeton was till I just now googled it, so the SoCal guys would know more around there than we do up here in the sticks.

 

[dcarver]

We are flying to SF on or about 10/11 then traveling to Templeton for a wedding on Sat afternoon and leaving on 10/15 . Around that event we will have some time to travel and do some sightseeing. The plan is to pick up a motorcycle and do our traveling on that, which brings us back to the opening request for travel suggestions. The only solid time commitments will be the wedding on Sat afternoon and breakfast on Sun morning. Depending on what we find to do we may add a day or two to the trip.

Hmmmm,

10/11 = Thursday

Saturday = 10/13

10/15 = Monday

 

Commitments = Wedding Sat 10/13 afternoon and Breakfast Sunday 10/14?

 

So then,

10/11, Thursday, = pick up bike, ride into the hood? About 225 miles? 4 - 5 hours, CBA style?

10/12, Friday = Free day or take that day to ride into the hood?

10/13, Sat, = Morning open, Afternoon wedding?

10/14, Sun = Breakfast, Afternoon clear? Or is the Sunday morning affair beverageoholic?

10/15, Mon = add a day to the trip, ride with dcarver and crew?

10/16, Tues - ditto?

 

Or, if you prefer, I can send you some killer .gpx routes for you to review then ride solo if you want!

Don't want to interfere or turn this into a mega ride if all you're really wanting to do is find some bitchen local back roads and ride solo - Trust me, I get it!

 

SacMike hit the nail on the head -

What are you looking for Alan?

Rider's roads, scenic roads, touristy roads, or a blend?

 

PM me!

 

 

 

 

 

[ionbeam]

(Life interrupted the important stuff.)

We will be looking mostly for el turista type rides. We have pretty well covered S Ca and would like to see central/north CA.

It looks like we will be there from 10/11 until 10/19 giving us almost a week to play. We will have to figure out where we will be staying once we leave the Dancing Deer Farm on Sunday morning.

Does anyone have any info or experience with California Motorcycle Adventures rental in Mountain View? Does anyone have a better suggestion for a rental place? This is gonna be big $$$!

We are working on our plane tickets right now.

Tomorrow we will be hooking up with a bunch of NERDS and making a Lobstha run up coastal ME and may only have intermittent interweb connections until next Tuesday.

 

[ionbeam]

Plane tickets arranged. Arriving on Thursday the 11th, the bike rental place will pick us up from the airport. We will leave the luggage at the rental shop and head off to Templeton. Sunday we have to leave the Dancing Deer and find a room. We will be in tour mode Monday to Thursday. Friday back to the bike shop and home to foliage season in New England on Sat.

 

[Fairlaner]

so whats the plan?

R

 

[SacramentoMike]

If you'll be in Cambria you'll have seen the coast. No point in following Hwy 1 all the way up. Unless it looks like storms are heading in, I'd suggest you get across the valley and start with Yosemite. Beautiful in the fall. Then go north out of there through Gold Country up through the Sierras. See Lake Tahoe, up around the Quincy and Susanville area, maybe Lassen Park, then cross again, see some of the great roads heading toward the coast, and back down to the Bay Area to return the bike. Specific ideas will be easy to get from lots of Norcal guys (edit: and Tyler. Sorry, Tyler) if you want 'em. More than you need. :lol:

 

[Khunajawdge]

so whats the plan?

R

I guess(?) if Eye On the Beam (Alan) remembers me in any way? then I oughta join this SLO county cluster for a ride in the hood on Friday, 10/12/2012 but where?

Aye say, we ride up to Mt. Baldy, for the view. You can see the edge of California from here, unless it breaks off while we're watching? :nono:

PS - This is how I would look at the Big Sur Coastline

 

[dcarver]

Inland ride - https://maps.google.c...8e212afa3314474

Coast ride - https://maps.google.c...8e4bc1a50c39fc4

 

Really, any road up here that squiggles on the map is a bitchen riding road. Let your sightseeing and climate dictate road choice and you'll do great.

 

Off the top of my head, cool yet not too touristy stuff to see in hood...

• Hearst Castle
• Cayucous antique shops and Sea Shanty restaurant (home made every day)
  
• Elephant Seal rookery, San Simeon
• Pozo Saloon, Pozo
• Parkfield Inn, Parkfield
• Morro Bay Rock, state park and 9 Sisters (Miss Kitty's for breakfast, yumm)
  
• San Luis Obispo downtown, mission, bubblegum alley
• San Miguel Mission, San Miguel
  
• Naciamento and San Antonio Lakes
• Loading Chute and Long Branch, Creston (LC for good food, LB for 'ambiance'!)
• Of course, the infamous Hondarosa!
• Winery tour - too many to list, really.
  
• San Simeon and NitWit Ridge
  

More in a bit..

 

[ionbeam]

[Edit] I see DCarver has been posting while I've been typing -- great list, I will be spending some time with a map this evening. Unfortunately, I can't get my GPS on the bike so routing trips will probably be out of the question.

[/edit]

Well, I've done it, and even know the flavor.

Thursday ~noon the rental place is going to pick us up at the airport, we will unload our suitcases into a '10 K1300GT and don on the balance of our riding gear and head out ~2:30. Our first big plan is to go south and spend the night on the road someplace -- do ya like these big goals and objectives? A local friend suggests that after a very short ride from San Jose we may want to spend some time in Monterey and recommends stopping at the aquarium which we would like to see. I see a number of hotels and inns offer a package deal.

Friday wander around on our own, or follow a local if they are available to show us the beauty of the area. I guess we will be biased to the Tour part but won't forsake the Sport part of seeing CA.

Saturday we need to end up in Templeton in the early afternoon. DCarver, a local NERD has ¿something? for you that we are trying to pick up if we can. Hopefully it will fit in a suitcase *and* pass through security at the airport (and won't leak from altitude changes). We will need to find a time & place where our schedules cross. Hmm, I need to see if I can find some pixs of 'Carver hanging with the NERDS in Stowe, VT.

Sunday afternoon we will be leaving the Dancing Deer in Templeton so we will need to find a hotel for the night.

Monday until Thursday -- at some point we want to go to the Half Dome area in Yosemite. We will be looking for scenics in the area. Making memories don't cha know.

Friday at noon the Kool-aid machine has to be turned in.

Sat. @ 6:00 am the wheels on the plane will be leaving the ground, bound for NH.

We would love to have a chance to meet (and ride) with you left coasters. I know that it is challenging to find time during a work week.

 

[Khunajawdge]

We would love to have a chance to meet (and ride) with you left coasters. I know that it is challenging to find time during a work week.

DCarver's suggestions and map route are very good but Dang! I can't get on a bike until 1:00PM. Need to deliver the wifey to a class that she takes every Friday from 10:00AM until Noon, then transport her back to home. Maybe if life permits(?) I could meet you guys on the Kool Aid Ride in Morro Bay after you finish lunch, and we could head out for an afternoon ride?

I suggest Here

Hey Don, are you working on Friday?

 

[ionbeam]

Arrived in San Jose around noon on Thursday. Left the rental place ~2:30 and headed out sort of west by south. This has been absolutely tremendous riding.

Took Rt 9 out of Saratoga. By Sanborn Skyline it started to sprinkle. By Castle Rock it was raining and the new tar snakes had me singing "slip sliding away, you know the nearer your destination, the more you slip sliding away ..." Then the weather did something that I didn't know it could do. I've seen mist, I've seen fog and I've seen rain but never all together and still remain distinct events. The air was so full of mist you couldn't breath but the fog was separate, reducing visibility while the rain seeped in around all the helmet openings and the face shield, windshield and mirrors fogged up and wouldn't/couldn't be cleared. Then the tar snakes were joined by carpets of wet pine needles. At this point we turned onto 236 where the winding roads got really wound up as we entered Big Basin and the magical world of giant red woods, moss and limited visibility. The pace slowed to almost a walk but what we could see was stunningly beautiful. The slow pace let us miss a full rack Bambi in the middle of a hairpin curve. The weather protection of the kool-aid machine is less than the FJR by a noticeable amount. After stopping to hug a few trees that measured >64 feet in circumference we left the park but not all the groves of eucalyptus trees interspersed with red woods and green moss beards on all the trees and power lines. After a good ride through Fall Creek and Henry Cowell Redwoods we got on Rt 1 in Santa Cruze to buzz down to Monterey.. Of course you locals know how that turned out :dribble:

So, after driving through field after field of brussle sprouts and artichokes we decided to stop around 8:00 in Marina. Inexpensive but no wifi. Monterey would next up.

This morning we got to Monterey before the engine even had a chance to warm up. We burned a good chunk of the day in the awesome aquarium and around town. Leaving town our plan was to go down the 17 mile highway. Wrong -- a bunch of "loud pipes save lives" guys caused them to ban motorcycles a few years ago and the ban remains. So, it was to be Rt 1 down to San Simeon. We did stop and see otters, seals and we stopped by the elephant seal rookery which was pretty amazing. Too much was seen to sum up in words, someday pixs and a travel report.

Tomorrow the wedding in Templeton, Sunday morning a big send-off and then we are going to roam about until Thursday. The ocean is crashing a few feet out our back door and the amazing Milky Way is ablaze overhead so I'm on my way out to soak it all up.