Leading up to today our riding group has suffered some casualties to work, in fact this trip will just be the brothers.
The two of us can raise a bit of hell on the trail so I'm looking forward to a day of fast dirt riding, though we will miss the other riders in the group, it's such a great time with the whole group.
Today I'm traveling with just a backpack and Pat has his two side cases in their collapsed or lowest profile position, we set out at 8am and head for Hollister CA, lots of motorcycle history hear, but it's long ago and most locals would rather forget the troubled past of miss guided bikers. We move on with just a fill up of gas, and a quick stop to get lunch supplies and a top off of coffee for the riders!
A short time later I need to stop and shed two layers to keep cool.
This photo is taken at the start of our New Idria loop, we will (if all goes according to plan) pas by this location of the way home.
From hear the road is paved but rough for the next 50 miles, with some great views and changing road conditions it's good to be on a adventure bike.
The photos below and above you can see the wide strips on both sides of the road, it a cool site to see the the big bikes flying on the dirt at 70mph, I was thinking I captured all of it on the go pro (small issue of turning it off when I thought I was turning on) we did capture a bit from Pats go pro mounted to the back of his bike! (Video of this trip coming soon)
A our next stop takes us to an abandon mining town, it was an odd place and the start of the real dirt section of the trip.
Some of the sites were a little odd!
Time to move on
From hear the road become rocky rutted and steep in places, no real traffic other than quads and dirt bikes for the next 50 miles or so. And of course we were following Pats trusty GPS, it's has never let us down in our search for adventure, and we are not let down today! as we are way off course of our original plan and the GPS, well, its cheerfully plotting new adventure courses for us at every turn. We would not come to realize just how far of we really were until we reviewed our trackers from the Spot-devise later that night, GPS locations link on side bar ( available for 7 days post trip)
A word about the GPS, we do know that we should place many more way points in our trip planning to keep the GPS on our intended rout, but then again we would miss out on all the adventure if we do that, so we keep the course general in detail and go with the flow, if a trail or road looks good we take it, then latter look at the GPS and see where we need to go next to get us back on our general course. I guess we do want to get lost a little, and the GPS will give us a direct rout out if we need it, and that adds a bit more confidence in heading out in an unknown direction.
It seems there is another abandon mine at every corner
Pat making a photo stop, notice the go pro strapped to the back of his bike, we have some great video form that view.
The ride took us from one ridge to another with a intersection every mile or so, its vary easy to get lost out hear, so keeping your bearings North and South is a must. We also encountered many looked gates and no trespassing signs. Most of the no trespassing signs look like they were left over from long ago so I'm not sure they are official, the gates are quite substantial so I'm assuming they are intended to keep you out..... But form witch way, I'm not sure what side we are on, are we in and need to get out or are we out and should turn around so we do go in, looking behind me it says no trespassing! O hell I'm confused, and this may not make a lot of sense but If you are traveling east to west the roads appear to be open, and if your traveling west to east they are all closed. In other words you can find your self traveling all day on open roads in one direction just to find that the gate is locked at the pavement? I'm just trying to find an exit and i don't have enuf gas to make a return trip i'm left with little choices.
Finding our selves between two locked gates it seems like a good place for lunch, we could hear dirt bikes racing around in the background so we followed a short trail to a new road that intersected just the other side of the gate. Soon we were out to the road and we headed back to Hollister for fuel finishing our adventure loop of 150 miles, back home we were just over our 300 mile estimate for the day!
The video will be up soon.
This trip was a blast, I found myself laughing so much I'm thinking I may have sounded a bit like a loon over the communication system, my brother is a good sport and never complained a bit! I think he was having just as much fun as I was!!!
Next trip Clover Valley CA Trains, Logging and lots of history to this area, look for the blog mid November
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