On Feb 12th 2023, Akshay (KTM 1290 Adventure S), Mahesh (Ducati Scrambler 1100) and me (Kawasaki Versys-X 300) rode to the Panoche Hills BLM area. We met up at the usual corner of Bailey and McKean and took Uvas road southbound towards Gilroy. We got gas at the Tres Pinos gas station and headed towards the first dirt section of the day: Browns Valley Road.
The winter of 2022-2023 was the wettest winter on record since the 1800s. The grass was green everywhere and the soil was damp. The traction in the dirt was awesome.
Browns Valley Road was fun. We enjoyed the greenery, with the warmth of the bright sun on us. Yellow mustards had started to bloom early. There was also a short water crossing right before we hit Panoche Road.
We took Panoche Road down to the Panoche Inn and then headed up to the Panoche Hills recreation area.
This was an easy dirt ride into the park. The roads were in great condition and the dampness gave us great traction. We rode on the main dirt road P1 till the end and then took a longish off-shoot P20 towards the end of the park.
Both these roads tend to follow the mountain ridges and there are many steep but short changes in elevation, almost like a roller coaster. It was a lot of fun for all of us and the three bikes could handle the dirt with ease.
At the end of P20 we came to a locked gate. So there two options at this point – make a u-turn and go back all the way to the park entrance (20 miles of dirt) or drag the bikes across the gate and try to make it to I5, which we could see was only a few miles away. There was a pretty sharp drop off on both sides of the gate. I was able to take the Versys across the side without too much issue. Mahesh and I then took his Ducati also, and it was fine, but when we had to move the big KTM, we struggled. With some heavy lifting and pushing, we were able to get the KTM across and then continued on our ride.
As we made it across the gate, we were out of the BLM land and into private property. The trail was narrower and showed lesser signs of use. About a mile in, we came across a huge herd of sheep being guarded by two Maremmano Sheepdogs. The sheep were on the trail and as we rode though, they all panicked and ran up the hills. The dogs were not happy, one of them even chased us.
Anyway, we rode across the private land towards the general direction of I-5. But soon we came to the end of the property and were blocked by a fence.
There was no way to get across this locked gate and fence, so we decided to ride parallel along the fence to see if we could find an opening. There were none, at least for a mile in each direction, and it was getting late into the short winter day. The only option was to roll down the barbed wire fence and push the bikes across. Akshay pulled out a pair of pliers from his toolkit and we unhooked the fence in a couple of places, held down the wires and rode the bikes across.
It was a bit sketchy to do this on private land, but we had no other way out. The interstate was less than a mile from there, so we gassed up quickly and made it home in good time. It was quite an adventure – dragging heavy bikes across a steep hill side, riding through a flock of hundreds of sheep and breaking through a private fence. Luckily we didn’t get into any trouble, not that we had any in mind.
During this ride I couldn’t help but think about my uncle, Vinayak Bhand, who passed away a couple of months ago in December 2022. Vinu Mama was a childhood hero of mine, introduced me to scooters and motorcycles at a young age and was a constant source of fun and laughter, while being an inspiration throughout my life. He passed away due to cardiovascular complications, with suspicious links to covid-19. His life was cut short too soon, he was only in his late 60s and I wish he were still around. We all miss him dearly 😦
Sujit Kirpekar 