Lost Coast Ride
Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2013 2:00 pm
I had a couple of knobbies that needed to be worn down enough to put the new ones on so I headed down to the "lost coast" area of northern California to work the last few centimeters of rubber off. Camped in the big redwoods along the Van Duzen river, a liitle frosty in the morning but nice sunlight in the day. This was November 24-25, some of the last good fall days. Sunday I headed north, after just 0.9 miles of pavement I was on dirt, I went up into the almost uninhabited "Kneeland" area, then on into Maple Valley, then east, them south into "Bridgeville" on hiway 36, then back to camp. 145 miles, got in at dark 530 PM, still had some rubber left on the olde knobbies.
So Monday I headed South from Bridgeville up on the ridgetop thru Blocksberg, past Alder Point, Cut over to old "Harris" then "New Harris", then diverted into the "Island Mountain" area where probably half the marijane growers have their "farms". Talk about bad roads and worst drivers, I was glad to get out of there without being a hood ornament on a F350, they probably would not have even noticed. Once I got out of that area I turned south on Bell Springs Road, and saw almost no traffic for 30 some miles, just 1 quad and two road graders up on that ridgetop. I ended up hitting hiway 101 at about 3 PM, some 100 miles from camp and about 4 hours the way I had come without all the detours, so I had only one option, check it in sixth and drone up the 4 lane 101 at 50 MPH being passed at 70+ constantly, but I made it back to camp by 530 PM, dark, this ride was 188 miles & I still had a little rubber left but my calves were not up to another day. Shucks, I have to go back there again... There are a good 5 different days that I know about in that area and the safest time to ride down there is the "off season".
So Monday I headed South from Bridgeville up on the ridgetop thru Blocksberg, past Alder Point, Cut over to old "Harris" then "New Harris", then diverted into the "Island Mountain" area where probably half the marijane growers have their "farms". Talk about bad roads and worst drivers, I was glad to get out of there without being a hood ornament on a F350, they probably would not have even noticed. Once I got out of that area I turned south on Bell Springs Road, and saw almost no traffic for 30 some miles, just 1 quad and two road graders up on that ridgetop. I ended up hitting hiway 101 at about 3 PM, some 100 miles from camp and about 4 hours the way I had come without all the detours, so I had only one option, check it in sixth and drone up the 4 lane 101 at 50 MPH being passed at 70+ constantly, but I made it back to camp by 530 PM, dark, this ride was 188 miles & I still had a little rubber left but my calves were not up to another day. Shucks, I have to go back there again... There are a good 5 different days that I know about in that area and the safest time to ride down there is the "off season".