Category: Video

The Sheetiron 300 Dualsport is the most popular dual sport ride for Bay Area dirt and adv riders. This ride is put together by the Oakland motorcycle club and they’ve been doing this for several decades now. This post is going to be a long collection of stories because this was such an interesting ride. It’s been a busy summer and I’m actually writing this about three months after the ride, so I may not have all the details exactly right, but we’ll see.

The first story, I guess, is of the motorcycle – I did this ride on my 2019 Kawasaki Versys-X 300. I sold my KTM 990 adventure in 2021 after it became too unreliable. I picked up the little Versys on my birthday, Christmas 2021. It’s an amazing little bike that can run 80 miles an hour on the freeway and tackle some moderate dirt roads on the same day. It’s not a “real” dual sport like a KTM or DR650, but it’s modern, fuel injected and runs very well on the street where I intend to ride about 90% of the time anyway. It did well on the Sheetiron, being so light and easy to ride, never was I stressed out about dropping the bike or getting into some sort of trouble.

The second story is of registration. The Sheetiron is a popular ride and with only  500 spots, the ride fills up quickly. Typically this event is held the weekend before Memorial Day Weekend, and applications are accepted on, but not before, April 1st. So one could technically mail in the application the day before – but we all decided to simply drive up to San Ramon and drop it off in person. It turns out that I was doing a trackday in my car at Thunderhill on April 1st, so I dropped off my application at 5AM on my way to T-Hill. Vijay and Gokul dropped off their applications at midnight, while Mahesh dropped it off at about 9AM. Thankfully we all got in – my number was 110 – and I was excited!

The third story is of the ride itself. And what a great ride it was. I connected with a Vstrom rider from Redwood City, Philippe, on advrider and we rode a bunch of sections together. Mahesh dropped out because of his daughters birthday so finally it was 4 of us – Gokul (KTM 690 Enduro), Philippe (Suzuki Vstrom 650), Vijay (Beta 390RRS) and me (Kawasaki Versys-X 300).

Gokul and Vijay camped at the Stonyford campground, while I stayed the night before at the Traveller’s Inn in Williams. It was a very mediocre hotel, but it was the closest to Stonyford. The ride up to Williams was uneventful, but the long drone on I5 was boring. The stock Versys windshield causes buffeting and turbulence on the highway, and by the time I reached  Williams, my head was hurting. I had dinner at the Taco Bell nearby, gassed up the bike and called it an early night.

The next morning, I made a quick stop at Starbucks and rode over to the Stonyford campground staging area. The place was packed! With 500 riders, there were a lot of trailers, bikes, equipment and excitement! The weather was perfect – in the 60s – not too hot and not too cold. The check in process was easy, I got maps loaded on to my GPS unit and also loaded up the roll chart into my roll chart holder.

Philippe and I left a little earlier than Vijay and Gokul, at about 7am. Here was the route we followed, “the easy split” —

The ride started off on M10 a big paved road in Stonyford, but quickly took a detour over a ridge and back down to M10. This detour was only 2-3 miles, but the dirt was almost single track and had a few whoops and jumps. Well, OK, I thought, it’s going to be an interesting day. Back on to M10, a couple more detours and then we hit Fouts Springs Road towards Fouts Springs OHV. As the dirt roads got wider the terrain was not too bad, and I enjoyed the ride. The Versys was very easy to ride in the dirt. We passed by Letts Valley, where there are a couple of lakes. Everything was lush green in the forest, a welcome change from the dry Bay Area.

Weaving across various Forest Service roads and tracks, the group split up and rejoined several times. I was pretty slow on the Versys and generally Philippe was keeping up with me, but Gokul and Vijay were flying, mostly ahead of me, even though they had started later than me.

Lake Pillsbury in the background

After a long morning, about 7am to 12 noon, we reached the Soda Creek Store. This marked the end of the tough dirt section of the day and the rest of the ride was more relaxing and easy. With about 200-300 riders at the store, Vijay, Philippe and I decided to skip lunch and just munch on some snacks. The sandwiches there did not look very appetizing 🙂

From the Soda Creek store, we took Elk Mountain Road, a nice easy fire road which eventually becomes paved as it goes through Potter Valley. I gassed up there, my only gas refill of the day, After a short section on Hwy 20, we took Tomki Road north towards Willits. We passed by Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery, and I made a note to myself, to look this place up – interesting place! The road turned to dirt soon and surprisingly there were many water crossings along Tomki. I was riding with Gokul and recorded a few water crossings.

The last road of the day was Sherwood road from Willits to Fort Bragg. This was a lovely section of dirt with good forest cover and and an easy wide road. There were a few water crossings, but nothing too deep or crazy. It hadn’t rained recently so the clay soil was moist and grippy, I had heard that after the rains Sherwood becomes slippery and impossible to ride.

I reached Fort Bragg around 5:30PM. It was a very long day and I was exhausted. Gokul and Vijay reached around the same time. As you get into Fort Bragg the club lines you up and takes a picture.

I checked into the Super 8 motel, took a quick shower and headed down to Mountain Mike’s Pizza. We had a few beers there and enjoyed the pizza. Vijay and I also walked to the Safeway a block over and picked up some whisky. We were shooting the breeze for a little while in Gokul’s room and then turned in for the night.

Day-2 was much more mild than Day-1. We started off riding South on Hwy-1 and made a left onto Navarro Ridge Road. This was another amazing gem. The road slowly turned to dirt and the moist grippy clay was super fun to ride. It was cool and shady, no dust blowing up, a perfect way to start the day. Vijay’s wrist was stiff and locked up from the excessive usage on Day-1. He was not able to extend his fingers enough to engage the clutch and so he decided to ride his bike on the paved section (Comptche Ukiah Road).

From there we rode a long section of paved road – Flynn creek Road to Comptche Ukiah Rd to Orr Springs Rd. Very nice twisty pavement and I enjoyed it on the light and flickable Versys.  After about 40 miles on pavement, we came to Hwy 101 where we gassed up and had a bite to eat.

I wish I had taken any pictures of Day-2. So I reached out to Gokul and he sent me a few pics he took during the day.

It was getting hot by then and we rode through Cow Mountain to the edge of Clear Lake. From there I bailed out and headed home – we were all solo now. Gokul decided to take the paved route to Clear Lake, Vijay was ahead of me, so I was on my own. I took Hwy 175 back to Hwy 101 and rode straight home. I made it home around 6PM, dead tired, exhausted and numb – but with a sense of pride and accomplishment. Conquered the Sheetiron!

The idea for every trip usually comes from something buzzing around in my head, either a song, a movie or a story. This year it was a podcast. Anushka and I had become obsessed with Crime Junkie a podcast on true crime, narrated in a very engaging and inviting way. One particular episode was especially thrilling: “MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF: The Yuba County Five“. We listened to this episode several times in the car and we both became genuinely curious about the fate of Gary Mathias, the only person of the Yuba County Five that has never been found.

With this in mind, Anushka and I searched through maps of the area where this occurred and that’s how the idea for this trip was born.

Shobhit flew in from Seattle the day before. Akshay and I went to get him at the Oakland airport. Notice the color of the sky in this picture. The Northern California wildfires were raging and the skies were dark (and deep orange for a few days). This was also at the height of the covid pandemic, where everything, including airline travellers, were to be sprayed down with disinfecting lysol.

Day 1 (September 11, 2020):

Early in the morning on Day-1 I got a call from Bobby saying that his bike is not starting. Yes, the adventure had begun. We gave him a few tips on WhatsApp and eventually I went over to his house in the morning with my Deltran trickle charger. It was obvious that the battery was discharged, so we decided to jump start the bike from his car. The jumper cables he had were unusual – probably just bad – as they started heating up and sending out some smoke. Nearly burning his fingers, Bobby was able to pull off the jumper cables and then we decided to push start the bike. Luckily it started on the first try, and we were back in the game.

The group then met at the usual place in Niles, where Bobby and I picked up coffee from Devout Coffee. This time year were 5 riders, from left to right: Bobby (BMW R9T), Ayon (BMW R1200GS), Shobhit (Honda VFR1200), Akshay (Ducati Multistrada) and me (KTM SuperDuke).

I decided to take the SuperDuke over the 990 Adventure because this was primarily going to be a twisty street ride with no chance of dirt riding. So while the Superduke has much lesser storage & luggage capabilities, it’s an amazingly entertaining street bike.

We left the Bay Area on Hwy 84, taking Tesla and Corral Hollow via Carnegie. We crossed into the Central Valley and stopped for our first gas at the Keyes Chevron gas station. This was the same place we usually stop when we ride the Sierra foothills. At this point we were step 2 into our adventure.

The fender eliminator on my bike was coming loose and breaking apart – so we took it off and I rode the rest of the 3-day ride without a license plate at the back. So much for the R&G fender eliminator – it failed in the middle of a ride.

Bobby also noticed that his front tire was low on air, so after a bit of struggle with the portable air pump, he was able to get it pumped up sufficiently. It was only about 10AM on the day-1, but amazingly there would be more mechanical failures and breakdowns in this trip.

We continued through the Sierra foothills, riding through Hornitos, Bear Valley and the Little Dragon. We didn’t take many pictures because the visibility was very poor and only short range pics were possible, not wide panoramas.

We braked for lunch at Coulter Cafe in Coulterville. The impossible burger was nice with a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

We then took Priest Coulterville Road to Hwy 120 and then took Wards Ferry Road down to the bridge. We stopped for a long time here, took lots of pictures and Shobhit flew his drone here taking this nice video:

From there the ride was relatively simple (but still a long one). We rode past the Archie Stevenot bridge across the New Malones Lake. Once we got to Mokelumne Hill, we turned right on to Hwy 26 and rode those nice twisties for the 3rd or 4th time this year. We stopped for a quick dip in the South Fork Mokelume River. The waters were cool and relaxing to dip our toes.

From there on it was a straight (but long) shot to our hotel in Grass Valley. I discovered a few nice roads along the way: Ridge Road off Hwy 88 was nice, so was Latrobe Road off Hwy 16. We rode around Folsom Lake through a heavy blanket of smoke. I has no idea there is a dam there, it was clearly visible from the side of the road.

I was riding the VFR1200 as we were riding to Grass Valley. Somewhere along Hwy 49 a few miles from Grass Valley the brakes on the bike locked up. I was trying to start riding from a traffic light and the bike simply would not move. I revved the engine and pumped the brakes a few times and then it got going. Anyway I ended up exchanging the bike back and rode the rest of the way to the hotel on the Superduke.

We stayed the night at the Gold Miners Inn in Grass Valley. It was full of firefighters from all over California battling the Bear Fire and other fires nearby. We had dinner at the Grass Valley Brewing Company, which had a nice selection of beers and food. We turned in for the night around 11PM, exhausted from the long ride in the smoky weather.

Day 2 (September 12, 2020):

The original plan for Day-2 was to ride Quincy-LaPorte Road and Bucks Lake Road, but both were closed due to the Bear Fire of 2020.

The skies looked like this at 9 in the morning:

So we planned a route change and decided to ride to Lassen National Park. The first road of the day was Hwy 49, by far my favorite road of the trip. Hwy 49 offers excellent wide sweepers, a few tight turns, great scenery and freshly laid perfect pavement. A couple of the turns were perfectly banked wide sweepers that last over 180 degrees. I was able to lean over the Superduke to the max and relax and have fun at the same time. A very free flowing road, excellent for sport bike riding. We passed through the quaint town of Downieville, it looked nice and cozy – a perfect place to visit for some outdoor action like mountain biking or skiing. Bobby wanted to move to Downieville, and start making whisky with the water of the Downie River! I wish we had more time to spend there, but it looked like an awesome place – surely on my list of places to revisit.

From Hwy 49 we took Hwy 89 up north through Graeagle, and then Hwy 70 on to Quincy. The smoke was getting very heavy as we rode through Quincy. We rode further on Hwy 89 towards Lake Almanor and stopped for lunch at Tantardino’s Pizza And Pasta. The pizza was pretty good and so was the beer.

We then rode on Mooney Road and Hwy 44 to reach the northern entrance of Lassen Volcanic National Park. These roads were only mildly interesting. Wide open vistas and good pavement, but mostly straight for long distances.

As we rode through Lassen Park, Akshay crashed the VFR he was riding. He was trying to come to a stop on the side of the road, the shoulder was dirt, not paved and he lost the front end coming to a stop. He went down at about 5 mph and scratched up the fairings on his VFR. The shift lever also broke off, but there was sufficient left behind to continue the ride.

Thankfully he was not hurt, everything was ok, and after a sip of water we were on our way. The rest of the ride through Lassen was boring, slowly following the traffic through the park.

The last road of the day was Hwy 32, also a lot of fun. We were a bit tired at this point so were not pushing the bikes too much, but the twisty road was a lot of fun. Hwy 32 follows the Deer Creek for a long time, so we stopped by the side of the road and dipped in the creek. The water was freezing cold, maybe about 40F, so it was an interesting experience. I submerged my whole body in the water about 5-6 times and every time it felt thrilling.

My SNK803 turned out to be fully waterproof.

Hwy 32 runs to Chico and we stayed the night at the Rodeway Inn, a basic budget motel run by a Gujarati family. We walked to downtown Chico from our hotel and had dinner at Burgers and Brew – they had a decent burger and some good beer!

Day 3 (September 13, 2020):

The last day of this trip was the least exciting. We were all pretty tired from 2 back to back days of 350 mile riding, so we decided to head home, with a little bit of twisty stuff along the way.

We took Hwy 45 and Hwy 20 to Clearlake. It was a mellow pretty and straightforward. As we took a short break on Hwy 53, Shobhit noticed that the oil cap (Chinese one off AliExpress) on the VFR1200 flew off while riding, so his right boot was getting soaked with oil.

After jerry rigging a solution, we rode to the Auto Zone in Clearlake where we found a replacement oil cap (turns out an oil pan drain bolt is the same size).

We had lunch at Russian River Brewing, where they had Pliny for President on sale. Double dry-hopped Double IPA, good stuff and a great way to end this ride!

The lure of “dual sporting”… Riding off into the unknown, where the paved road ends and the wilderness begins. Like Springsteen’s song from Philadelphia, “It’s just you and I my friend”. I turn 40 years young in 2019 and it seems like a big moment to celebrate. While lots of trips have been planned for the birthday, a celebratory motorcycle trip is sure called for.

I have always wanted to ride the SheetIron 300 – a dual sport ride organized by the Oakland Motorcycle Club through the Mendocino National Forest. Unfortunately due to the 2018 Ranch Fire the 2019 Sheetiron was canceled. And that’s how, as sort of “the next best thing”, I signed up for the North Bay Motorcycle Club Lost Coast Dual Sport Ride. The ride starts and ends in Ukiah and we spend the night in Fortuna, riding through the Lost Coast on Day 1.

Here is the map of the complete route. Mostly public roads, but it does go through some private lands, so explore at your own risk.

Ayon joined me on this ride on his R1200GS. We left Fremont late Friday night (September 27th) and reached Ukiah around midnight. Traffic was very light because it was so late at night. I was impressed by the KTM auxiliary lights; they cast a bright beam of light down the road. We checked into our hotel (Motel 6) which was a basic, run-down motel in a not-so-nice neighborhood of town. Notice the trash bag with the Coors cans…

The next morning, Saturday, we were up early and the staging point for the ride was close by. We gassed up and went down to registration. I checked in my bag with the MC and they trailer all luggage to the end point.

Some guy was checking in a regular India style suitcase. Ayon did not miss the photo opportunity.

Our first road for the day was Low Gap Road. Reasonably easy 30 miles of dirt, but the temperatures were still cold in the morning. My bike read 44F at the top of the summit.

Nice wooden bridge on Low Gap Rd

Interestingly there was a guy who did the whole ride on a Harley Softail. He did just fine. But the lady with him on the BMW GS broke her ankle in a get-off and had to be rescued by fellow riders.

Dada lost it on somewhere Low Gap Road, but no harm done, the GS is a tough bike.

From Low Gap Rd we rode to the Coast and took Hwy 1 till Fort Bragg. We stopped in Fort Bragg for gas and Ayon decided to get a quick bite at Cravingrill which is small quick-serve Middle Eastern place along Hwy 1. The food was awesome there – the babaganoush was superb. We spoke to the server there and he was from Pakistan. It turns out that a lot of people from Pakistan come to Fort Bragg to live and work!

Our lunch stop for the day was this private beach a few miles north of Fort Bragg. Lunch was simple, some hot dogs, chilli and snacks, but it was fun hanging out with the rest of the crowd there. We rode up to the ocean front and took some pictures.

After lunch we tackled the famous Usal Road and it did not disappoint. Beautiful views of the coast and a long way through the coastal redwoods. It was tiring, but fun.

We then rode up to Shelter Cove for a few pictures and made our way back to the hotel for the night. The official route for the day followed Kings Peak Road to the Lost Coast (see RR34), but we were tired by that time and decided to head back to the hotel on Hwy 101.

We stayed the night at the Super 8 in Fortuna, a much better room than the Motel 6 of the previous night. We drank a few beers at the Eel River Brewing Co in Fortuna where we met Eddie Benson, the owner of Fremont Honda Kawasaki. We were really tired that day and slept well at night.

Day-2 was easier in terms of dirt. We first rode through the Avenue of the Giants (see RR42) and then made our way inwards away from the coast. Day-2 was full of hard packed fire roads with little technical stuff. It made for easy riding and was a welcome break from the previous day.

We had a quick lunch at Wheels Cafe and Pub in Laytonville, and made our way back home. We didn’t do the full route for Day 2 either – gotta keep something for next year! It was a long ride from Ukiah back home to Fremont, but the dirt sections of the day were easier and we weren’t super tired.

Here is a video I edited, turn up the volume.

Overall this was an excellent 2 day ride. A little exhausting, but “the adventure” total made up for that. Among the “big bikes” the most popular bikes there were by far KTMs, followed by Honda’s Africa Twin and the BMW GS.

I have been wanting to ride Clear Creek for a very long time. I had only heard of this place from others (e.g. on SBR) and I’d seen all the pictures, but I’d never actually been there. Clear Creek was shut down by the BLM back in 2011, but a couple of years ago reports started coming in that vehicular through-traffic was being allowed as long as you had a permit.

With the recent KTM 990, this ride suddenly became a possibility and so I was excited. I got 4 permits (for Anil, Akshay, Ayon and myself) and we did the ride on Sunday August 4th. It was the middle of summer and the temperatures varied from 50F at the coast to over 100F inland, all in a matter of 5 hours.

Akshay (Triumph Tiger 1200) & I started the ride from Fremont and met up with Anil (V-Strom 650) & Ayon (R1200GS) at the Bailey exit on 101 in South San Jose. From there we took the freeway all the way down top Gonzalez and filled up on gas. This was at about 8 in the morning and the coastal area was foggy and cold, down to the low 50s.

First up was Gloria Road. This is a graded fire road that runs between 101 and Hwy 25. The road is super smooth and it was very easy to ride. We climbed to the top of the pass and by the time we descended, I was comfortably doing 30-40mph in the dirt.

Next up was Old Hernandez Road, and the famous water crossing. I was a little nervous as I approached it, but I simple road it slow and crossed over with no drama.

We rode down Coalinga Road and entered Clear Creek. There is a locked gate and the the permit gives you the code to the locked gate. It was getting very hot by now, so we kept moving.

The road through Clear Creek was amazing. The rugged terrain, rocky cliffs and the general desolate nature of the place was fascinating. There was nobody there, we were literally the only ones inside Clear Creek that day. As the road climbed up the mountain we got some amazing views. The road back down was fairly challenging, with lots of rocks, ruts, dips and bumps. Anil got stuck in one of the ruts and he needed a little help getting out.

As we exited the BLM park, the lock code at the entrance did not work at the exit. We had to go around the locked gate. There was just enough space for a big Adv bike to make it around, but we did so successfully.

On our way out I stopped briefly at Idria for a picture

The last leg of dirt was along Panoche Road which runs from Panoche Inn to I5. The road was mostly flat, smooth and well graded, with one interesting water crossing. Anil was riding my KTM 990 then, he crossed the water with ease.

We got to I-5 exhausted with the heat and off-road riding. After a quick bite at the Baja Fresh, we headed back home along I-5.

It was a great first adv ride for me on the KTM and I learnt a lot about riding off-road.

May 18th 2019, Friday

May 19th 2019, Saturday

May 20th 2019, Sunday

On the last day we had a decent hotel breakfast, geared up and were on our way. The skies were clear initially, and we made the long flat boring ride across the central valley on Hwy 198. Just as we hit Coalinga, it started to rain, and it got very heavy at times. We gassed up in Coalinga and rode Hwy 198 and Hwy 25 up to Hollister. This was the last twisty bit of the ride, so everyone was trying to enjoy it. With all the rain, the roads were wet and I was not pushing it at all. We caught a nice break from the rain at the intersection of Hwys 198 and 25. We got some nice pictures there.

On Hwy 25, I stayed back with Ayon and Shobhit, riding cautiously on the wet tarmac. A few miles down the road, Sravan low sided his KTM Adventure on a lefthander. We all stopped, recovered his bike and thankfully he was OK. After reviewing the video of the crash, I was amazed at how little damage that did to the KTM. We took some pics and started back on our way.

Lunch was at La Villa De Jerez in Hollister, continuing the Mexican choice for cuisine. We said our goodbyes there and rode back home. It did rain some more but at this point I didn’t care much. With the Aerostich, my body was warm and dry.

The Busa odometer showed a total of 881.9 miles.

The most enjoyable ride of this summer was on July 29th 2018, riding the usual route through the Sierra passes. The route was identical to RR40, RR37 and RR14… seems like an annual tradition now. I posted a thread on BARF and surprisingly a large group of riders joined. In total we had 8 riders and a wide variety of bikes: BMW S1000R (Akshay), BMW R9T (Bobby), Suzuki Hayabusa (me), Yamaha XSR900, Triumph Tiger, another BMW S1000R,  and two Ducati Multistradas, one of them the Pikes Peak edition.

Group photo of all riders, on Hwy 4 near Alpine Lake:

One of the Multistrada riders compiled this video, I think it came out very well. It clearly shows the smoke in the central valley from the various forest fires.

450+ miles, not a bad day!

All we ever do, is all we ever knew…

Among other things, Seattle has produced some amazing music, through the 90s, 2000s and even today. I don’t know when it went from grunge to indie folk, but every now and then I hear an interesting band, I Google the name, and they’re from Seattle. Coincidence?

Motorcycling, music and nature: there is some connection, I just don’t know yet, or maybe I do. Like Kurt Godel’s connection with Escher and Bach. Maybe the neurons in my brain treat these experiences in the same way. Or maybe I’ve developed a cognitive association, so my brain thinks that riding a motorcycle is a like hiking a trail in Yosemite.

We started Day-1 (July 2nd 2017) from Niles, customarily for the fifth year in a row. Akshay (FZ1), Shobhit (FZ1), Bobby (R1200GS), Bill (Ninja 1000) and me (Hayabusa) – five riders this time – one more than last year. Bill was the oldest of the group (pushing 70) but arguably the youngest and wildest at heart. I met Bill through the ZRXOA (“the OA”) and he’s been super fun to ride and hang out with.

Our first stop was at Boonville, CA along Hwy 128, which is a long ride from Fremont, most of which is on the freeway. It was getting hot by then so the mesh gear helped. The Hayabusa handled the freeway with ease, it’s just mostly putting along at speeds below 100 mph.

There is a little bit of fun on Hwy 128 before you hit Boonville – I played around with the Busa, throwing it bit by bit into the turns as I started getting comfortable. Lunch in Boonville was at the Buckhorn Pub – below average food with average beer. It was 100F by then. The problem with Boonville is that there’s this awesome brewery in town but they don’t serve any food. Food is a mile+ away, so you have to skip it, or bring it with you to the brewery which is not easy on a motorcycle. I also noticed that the restaurants are expensive in Boonville.

We continued on Hwy 128 and turned off on Flynn Creek road. Rode to the little town of Comptche and took Comptche – Ukiah to the coast. Both these roads we nice, with thick forest cover, low traffic, good tarmac and nice turns. On Hwy 1 we road up to Fort Bragg and stopped for coffee. It was in the low to mid 60s on the coast, much cooler than the inland, so some hot coffee felt good.

We continued along Hwy 1 – riding the incredible stretch between Westport and Leggett. I’ve ridden this part of Hwy 1 a few times now and it is by far my favorite part of the coastal highway. We gassed up at Leggett, at the same gas station where I bought my Ninja 1000. The kid manning the gas station was talking about how cannabis prices have fallen drastically since it’s become legal in CA. Hah, who would have known!

Our next stop was the Avenue of the Giants, CA Hwy 254. There was a little bit of twisty fun at the beginning and road is pretty scenic but the whole experience was a tad underwhelming. Maybe I’m just spoilt having been to Muir Woods and to Sequoia NP so many times. The “Giants” were magnificent, yes, and the shaded road in very scenic.

We switched bikes briefly while Shobhit rode the Hayabusa and I rode his FZ1. We rode 101 to our hotel in Fortuna (The Redwood Riverwalk hotel) and had dinner at the Eel River Brewing Co. The food and the beer were both great after which we retreated to our rooms. The drinking continued a little with some nice Battlehill Invergordon.

On day 2 we left early after having breakfast at the hotel. We took Hwy 36 to Hwy 3. Both roads were superb as expected, having ridden them back in 2014. There was a little bit of construction on the west side of Hwy 36 where the road narrowed to a single lane. We didn’t stop in Mad River or Hayfork, but continued on towards Weaverville where we had lunch at the Stagecoach Pizzeria and Cafe. At this point, Bill decided to leave the group and ride straight to Willow Creek, our final destination for the day.

We pressed on, Hwy 3, through Trinity Center, Coffee Creek, Callahan and Etna. These are all really small towns, like 5 houses and a store each. It was very hot again (105-110F) and the tar snakes were making it tricky to ride. I slowed down considerably, not keen on pushing the big bird on soft unstable tarmac. We stopped at a Trinity Lake vista point and took a much needed break from the heat.

We gassed up in Fort Jones and took Scott River Road towards Hwy 96. This is a nice goaty single lane road with steep drops and no barriers on either side. We stopped for a dip in the Scott river (now easily 110F).

Hwy 96 was a great discovery. It’s not a tight racetrack like Hwy 36, but it has wide open sweepers with a clear view of the road and amazing scenery to go along. The small towns along Hwy 96 are quirky filled with interesting people. We stopped for gas in Happy Camp. Here’s a picture with Bigfoot.

Shobhit and Akshay decided to ride on to the Oregon border from here. It’s only 20 miles or so, but being exhausted from the heat, Bobby and I decided to stay back in Happy Camp. We chatted with the locals in Happy Camp and their stories were truly amazing. One guy was a fire captain with 7 kids who talked about his daily work routine during the fire season. We also chatted with the lady who worked at the town store. Turns out her sister was married to the fire captain. Then there was this other lady who seemed paranoid about an impending nuclear disaster there. We met a few more – a Ukrainian programmer and a Nigerian girl wearing a Black Lives Matter hoodie … who spoke Hindi… really bizarre town.

The rest of Hwy 96 was excellent. This is a relaxing road, great for cruising along without worrying about blind corners. The road follows the Klamath River, gently meandering through the mountains. There was no traffic at all – we probably passed 4 or 5 cars on that entire highway. We rode through the Indian reservation and made it to our hotel (The Bigfoot Motel) in Willow Creek. Dinner was across the street at Pizza Factory after which we sat outside our hotel rooms for some more drinking. We ended up chatting and drinking till late at night with Bill entertaining us with many of his stories.

By the third day we were quite tired, so we decided to head straight back home. We rode Hwy 299 to Weaverville and had omelettes at the Nugget. It was the 4th of July and we were just in time for the parade. As we started to make our way out, Shobhit’s battery died. A local policeman tried to give him a jump, but the FZ1 battery was completely dead. Being the 4th of July, most stores were closed, but luckily a local mechanic spotted us and came to help. He went over to his shop and brought Shobhit a replacement battery and we were on our way.

From Redding we took I5 all the way home – the long, straight, boring freeway, but we were eager to get home soon. Bill left us at Redding as he went to see his mom. We made it back home, tired, but in a good way. The Bay Area had cooler weather (90s) and that was a big relief.

A thousand miles on this bike now and I’m starting to get to know her. The bike obviously has tremendous power, but the pull in the 5k-9k rpm range is downright scary. It corners well for being 575lbs. It’s not a nimble 600, but it is a mighty fast and comfortable touring bike.