Norcal Extreme. Rain. Snow. Tickets.

[Guest klinquist]

Two months ago I began planning what would be the longest trip I've ever taken - 1350 miles. I was in Thailand from Sept 20th-30th with my wife and it would be ideal to tack this trip onto the end of that vacation. Upon my return from Thailand, I see that the forecast calls for some light rain. Oh well - we'll manage... I've been pretty lucky with rain in the past and I can't postpone this trip. We're very busy at work and there's no way I can take another week off... or return to work for a few days only to leave again.

Just in case, before I left for Thailand I ordered a set of Hippo Hands (www.hippohands.com) and gave my 'stich an extra coat of Nikwax waterproofing spray.

So... on Thursday morning from San Jose, my friend Aleks (Monster 900) and I (VFR 800) rode up to Berkeley to pick up Raza (CBR 929). From there we proceeded across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge up 101 North. Lucas Valley Rd to Nicasio Valley Rd to Pt Reyes-Petaluma Rd to Hwy 1.

Continued up Hwy 1, eating lunch at the Salt Point Bar & Grill in Tomales Bay. I wasn't looking to spend $16 on a burger and fries, but we were all pretty hungry. The fries were actually very good.

A waitress assured us that we would not likely see rain until tomorrow (Fri). That was good to hear.

We started seeing light rain 10 minutes later. That bitch.

We gassed up in Bodega Bay (the CBR has the smallest tank of the three bikes and usually has a range somewhere in the 120-140 mile area. I researched gas station locations and programmed gas stops approx every 100-140 miles into my Zumo 550) and proceeded north on 1. Turned right on Stewarts Point Skaggs Springs. The light rain was off and on. Those that know Skaggs know that there is a bridge approximately 11 miles from the east end that signals the beginning of the truly epic portion of the road (N 38º 40.277', W123º 05.244'). By the time we reached this point, the road was dry and the clouds gave way to blue skies. The motorcycling gods were with us! Other than keeping cautious due to water running through some corners, we had a fantastic run.

From the end of Skaggs, we took Dry Creek to Canyon Rd to 128 (Geyserville Ave) through Geyserville to Geysers Rd. We saw clouds and light rain off and on while riding Geysers...parts of the road were great while others were pretty goaty. They were doing some road construction which required a few hundred feet of gravel riding. Much to Aleks and Raza's dismay, I enjoy goat trails a lot. I've learned to body steer my pig of a VFR fairly well .

From Geysers Rd we trekked up 101 into Ukiah and stayed at the America's Best Value Inn (I seeked out the cheapest hotels in town for this trip. Already spent too much money on Thailand). The hotel was rather dated but it worked. About the same as your average Super 8. Ukiah was dry with blue skies. Hooray! I was mostly dry as well - a little wet around my collar and around my wrists. About 250 miles covered on Thursday.

I put my bike cover on but woke up on Friday morning to see that it had not rained at all overnight. Fantastic.

We had a good and inexpensive breakfast at Henny Penny's restaurant (697 S Orchard Ave) on Friday morning. We then proceeded down Hwy 253 to Hwy 128 back to the coast. Once we hit Hwy 1 and headed north, the rain started coming.

Here I need to plug the Hippo Hands. I had a set of Widder heated gloves that plugged into my vest and I hated them. They were so big and clumsy I felt like I had no control over the bike. The Hippo Hands are simple nylon? "pockets" that velcro over your hand grips. You stick your hands into openings and it keeps them mostly out of the elements. This allows you to wear your thinner sport gloves in inclimate weather. I originally read reviews on advrider.com and decided to pick up a pair. Lets get this out of the way - they look completely ridiculous.... but they work awesome. While the other two guys were literally wringing water out of their gloves, my hands were dry! They did end up wet by the end of the day, but so was most of the rest of me. My hands got cold in areas - a set of heated grips and I think I'd be good in almost any weather in my Dainese Duel gloves.

We continued up and turned right on Branscomb Rd. Branscomb is pretty thin and slow as you climb, then opens up width and speed wise. Lots of great corners. Unfortunately the rain continued, slowing our progress. We turned right when we reached 101 to get gas at the Chevron in Laytonville.

Here I was a bit more wet than I was Thursday evening. Aleks and Raza already had boots full of water. The rain wasn't letting up. I put on my Widder heated vest... it was about 50 degrees.

We went north on 101. I had programmed in the Avenue of the Giants into my Zumo, but we decided to continue on 101 given the rain, save for a little detour to the Chandelier Tree (Side note: My Zumo and Mapsource software have the Drive-Thru Tree Rd incorrectly placed. The exit off of 101 is correct, but they show it on the east side of the freeway when it is actually the west. The coordinates for right in the tree is N39º 51.501' W123º 43.180'). It costs $3 for motorcycles to get in.

Continuing up 101, the original plan was to go all the way to Hwy 36. After stopping at the Chandelier Tree and being soaking wet and f'ing cold, I decided to tell my Zumo to take us the fastest route to the hotel (in Weaverville) rather than follow the previous route. I suspected that the routes would be the same anyway. I was wrong. The Zumo disappointed me. It originally said we should arrive at the hotel at 3:20PM or so.

I lead Aleks and Raza down Alderpoint Rd (just north of Garberville) to Hoagland Rd to Zenia Bluff Rd to Alderpoint Bluff Rd to Ruth-Zenia Rd to Van Duzen Rd to 36. About 20 miles into Alderpoint Rd, I decided to check the Zumo's next road/routing, figuring that we'd be reaching Hwy 36 soon. We had a long ways to go, but turning back to follow the original route would be worse, I suspect. At the corner of where Ruth-Zenia turns off and Van Duzen begins, we stopped and all huddled in a little covered bus stop for a few minutes. We were all completely soaked head to toe. The aerostich keeps you mostly dry.. maybe even for a few hours.. but we had been riding for 5 hours in moderate rain.

I was the most hated man alive.

By the time we stopped at Highway 36, we needed gas. We found a single pump in Mad River that had 87 octane (N40º 27.146', W123º 40.484'). My VFR runs fine on 87, but the Monster and 929 really like 91+. Aleks and I put in 1.5 gallons giving Raza 2.0 gallons.

Funny thing is, the gas pump didn't display the price and there was no display for the counter inside to see how much gas you used. I shut off the pump between each bike, so when I went inside to pay, the cashier just peeked through the window and saw 1.5 gallons used. I was honest and said that we had used about 5 gallons. I gave him $20 and he said we were square .

We continued down Hwy 36 to 3 to 299 to our hotel, the Red Hill Motel & Cabins in Weaverville. Over the passes the temperature ranged from 46 to 51 degrees. I was pretty disappointed that we were so miserable on what is considered one of the best riding loops in the state.

By the time we arrived at the motel (at 5:11pm, after leaving breakfast at 8:54am), my teeth were chattering for about the past hour and we were probably all just on the good side of hypothermia. Our spirits were pretty dampened at this point. Pun intended . Note to self: Get frog togs (Raza had them, and his body was moderately dry. His hands and feet were still saturated, however). Today was our longest day of riding at somewhere near 330 miles.

A bit about the Red Hill Cabins - this place is a steal. We had our own little cabin with 3 beds. The room was small and the decor was from the 70s, but the place had quite a bit of charm. There is covered parking for each cabin, which was awesome. Under $60! We had Round Table pizza delivered for dinner.

The cabin had an old school electric heater on the wall (and another in the bathroom) which we used to dry all of our gear. Of course, the heater made it very hot in the room. We opened the windows but that wasn't enough... so we turned on the air conditioner. The A/C will pull moisture out of the room anyway, an added bonus. I try to be somewhat energy conscious, but having completely dry gear for Saturday morning is really important at this point.

Another plug for gear - I previously had a set of Daytona GTX Highway sport touring boots which I liked very much. I wore several holes through the heel after 30k miles. I wanted another pair of sport touring boots but didn't want to pay the $400 that Daytona wanted. I read reviews on advrider.com of the TCX Matrix IIs ($200) and bought them from newenough.com. These boots are comfortable, fit great, and performed incredibly in this weather. My socks were a little moist around the tops - after many hours of rain. Very happy with this purchase.

We woke up to a cloudy sky but chilly and fairly dry roads on Saturday morning. We ate leftover pizza for breakfast, gassed up, then continued down 299 to 96. This stretch was very fun. We came into some light rain, but the sky would then open up to blue ... then back to light rain several times on this road. My spirit was still high and we saw several rainbows. Gorgeous piece of road.

Putting on Hippo Hands under a bit of covering:

We took a right on Salmon River Rd. The first few miles are nice and wide with awesome pavement, great corners, and incredible scenery as you follow the Salmon River canyon. Shortly thereafter it turns into a serious goat trail. What makes this road so scary is that it is only wide enough for one car 80% of the time.. and there are drop-offs like I had never seen in my life. Parts of this 10' wide rd drop DIRECTLY and STRAIGHT down into the river canyon. No trees or shoulder to stop you. I should have stopped to take a picture... but I didn't want to stop. It was completely nuts.

Raza at a corner that actually had a big shoulder on Salmon River Rd:

Salmon river below:

Salmon River Rd then turns into Cecilville Rd heading into the town of Cecilville (population: probably a dude and his dog). We went offroading for a bit through some sand to get our bikes down to the Salmon River (the road has come down into the canyon at this point) for some pictures and for a short break. Raza exclaims, "at least it stopped raining!" Yes Raza, it has stopped raining for the past 10 minutes. Also, thanks for jinxing us by saying that. Really appreciate that.

The throw...

...and miss.

As soon as you reach Cecilville, the road goes from crappy to pure bliss over a mountain pass (6160'). The pavement looks brand new! Unfortunately, the rain started back up and we had to proceed slowly. We passed 4 or 5 other motorcyclists together. They looked a little better dressed and prepared than we did . Previous to this pass, the coldest weather we had seen was 46 degrees the day prior. On the top of this pass, my thermometer read 37º. Cold, but moderately dry. Pretty miserable, but not physically dangerous . Having the GPS in these situations really helps me stay focused and happy - I know exactly how long it'll be before the road descends (Garmin topographical maps) and therefore the temperature rises. We turned right on Hwy 3 and then left to follow Gazelle-Callahan Rd over another pass (4965' according to my Zumo). This road is another one of epic proportions. Brand new pavement, great visibility. As we came down, the skies once again opened up and you get an awe-inspiring view of the entire valley ahead of you. It was dry and we were doing well.

We turned right on Old Highway 99 and jumped on I-5 South for a few miles. Going over the Black Butte Pass (3894'), it was raining again... and at 80mph, the drops were stinging the skin even through the stitch and several layers underneath. The rain turned into a light sprinkle as we pulled into our third hotel of the trip, the Alpine Lodge in Mt Shasta. Coming off of the freeway I spotted the Black Bear Diner which we went to for dinner. Today was our shortest day of the trip at about 210 miles.

The Alpine Hotel was actually pretty nice (it used to be an Econolodge I believe). Once again, fairly dated, but we had a huge room - one bed in a front room with a couch and desk, and two more beds in another room. They have 5 or 6 covered parking spaces, one of which was available and we were told we could use. Score! "Chris & Dena's Deli" next door had good made-to-order sandwiches as well as a great snack and beer selection (Stone Brewery...mmm).

Sunday morning it was once again pretty chilly (low 40s) but dry. We returned to the Black Bear for breakfast and jumped on I-5 south for 1 exit to Hwy 89. We gassed up at the Chevron in McCloud about 10 miles later. This was my plan to make it to the next station later that day . The forecast that morning called for mostly dry weather. Raza saw the numbers "5500'" on the screen and thought that had been the snow level. I corrected him saying that no, it was simply the cloud ceiling.

The plan today was to get to Glass Mountain - a mountain of obsidian rock described in detail on pashnit.com. It would include a few miles of dirt riding to get to the viewpoint, but it should be worth it.

To get there, we continued east on 89 and turned left on Harris Spring Rd and right on Mayfield Rd. At this intersection we stopped so Raza could put his Frog Toggs back on - it started sprinkling for the third day of our trip in a row. It was sprinkling because we had just reached the cloud ceiling. We were now riding in the clouds.

A viewpoint just below the cloud ceiling:

Mayfield turns into Medicine Lake Rd. Turn right on National Forest Rd 97 (NF-97) aka Tionesta Rd. As we continued, the temperatures dropped.. I was watching my thermometer go from the lower 40s (the guys must be cold) to 39.. to 37 (jesus, tied the record for the coldest temp of the trip, the guys probably are not happy)... to 35... to 33... (shoot me now)... to 32 (this is r i d i c u l o u s). At 32 we had to pull over and warm up. I kept my bike running and took off my gloves to put both in front of my exhaust. The elevation peaked at 6873'. The visibility was about 100', so needless to say, we didn't take the dirt excursion up to Glass Mountain .

Good road quality up there!

We continued on Tionesta Rd and the skies turned blue shortly after dropping out of the clouds. We were now in a new barren landscape in Modoc county - a completely different kind of beautiful country. This is one reason I love California - it's like so many different places in one.

We turned right on Hwy 139 and then right again on Lookout Rd. If it weren't for my OEM top case ("do not exceed 80mph with this on the bike"), I would have done a top speed run on this 30 mile long road. You can see miles in front of you and there are almost no intersecting roads. We did exceed 80mph, however (closed course, professional rider) .

Once we reached 299, we gassed up at the Red Barn store on the corner. Like many stores out in the middle of nowhere, this one carried everything. You could get a made-to-order cappuccino while you waited for lumber and concrete to be loaded into your truck. Very cool little place.

We continued southwest on 299 to 89 south which would take us into Lassen Volcanic National Park. It was in the low 40s again wight light rain when we reached the entrance station. My National Park Annual Pass was good for 2 motorcycles to enter, the third only cost us $5. The station was at approx 5800' and I asked the ranger if the road went up or down in elevation from here. "Oh, it goes up. To 8500', nearly another 3000'... and there's snow up there. Not on the road, but on the sides."

Wow. Wasn't expecting that.

We proceeded ahead and stopped to take a picture at the summit - 8511' and a temperature of 33º. We were pretty darn cold, but the excitement of being where we were kept us pretty happy. There were beautiful views on the way down the hill and we stopped for some pictures at Sulfur Springs. I would have loved to hike to Bumpass Hell where you can find boiling mud pots and such (I had been there once before several years ago), but hiking 1/2 mile in gear in temps of the upper 30s didn't really strike our fancy.

We continued down 89 toward Quincy, where we would spend our fourth and final night. This stretch was warmer and dry and we were keeping a comfortable pace. A CHP passed us going the opposite direction, but I figured that we weren't being too ridiculous so he wouldn't bother turning around. About a minute and a half later, I see flashing lights coming up fast behind us. We all pull over quickly. He wrote all 3 of us tickets for "65+ in a 55" (he had us on radar at above that speed) and then said that in his county, 3 of the 5 road fatalities this year were motorcyclists and that he couldn't let us go because the department was cracking down on them. Bummer.

We gassed up in Chester and then had dinner at the Plumas Cafe in Quincy. Small diner that looks like it had just changed ownership. The menu had an apostrophe before every "s" - in places that the word was simply plural, not possessive. This bugs me. A lot. Enough to mention it here. Management of the Plumas Cafe, if you're reading this, send me your menu in an electronic format and I'll fix it for you.

We went on to the Lariat Lodge in Quincy. This was probably the worst of the four hotels - we got a room with 3 beds once again. The two single beds were in a VERY small room off of the main room with painted cinder block walls. All the ambiance of a jail cell. The shower was pretty nasty looking and if you touched the shower head, it popped off. We were one of two or three guests in the hotel that night.

Raza checked the forecast on his iPhone which said that it should be 56º in Quincy by 10AM. Warm! We woke up on Monday morning and went back to the Plumas Cafe for breakfast. On the way there about 9AM, it was 42º. We sat down for about an hour and a half hoping it would warm up. When we left, my thermostat said it was 46º.. and a mile down the road, it went down to 42º. Ugh.

We turned right on Quincy - La Porte Rd. We discovered this EPIC stretch two months ago on a Sierras ride I lead. For 30 miles from La Porte (Population 43) to Quincy, the road is nearly empty with brand new pavement. We were heading north (down the hill) at the time and talked about how great it would be to head up the hill instead. That's what we're doing now.

A few miles in, the clouds open up to blue skies and the temperatures rise dramatically. Close to La Porte, I remove my heated vest and thin under-jacket thing and we all turned around to do a stretch of the road again. We stopped for some pictures and other shenanigans (we were stopped for a total of about 45 minutes and saw one other vehicle). The road absolutely did not disappoint. Perfect weather (at this point) on top of the road made it the highlight of the 1325 mile ride.

Imagine this for 30 miles (can you spot the VFR?)

More shenanigans:

We continued down La Porte Rd which is another 30 miles or so. The road quality greatly varies from good to goaty as it decends into the central valley. On one good quality and mostly straight stretch, I tried my hands at some on-bike photography. These were carefully taken at about 55mph.

We gassed up in Marysville and did the last 155 miles back to San Jose straight through. A sandwich, a beer, and two advil upon my return home made me very happy. Even with all the cold and rain, all of us agree we would still take the trip - it was a great adventure.... truly the NorCal Extreme.

Aleks's tire, day 2:

Aleks's tire, day 5:

Elevation profile of the ride:

[ShayneJack]

AWESOME!!! Thanks for the gear advice too, will be saving that info for my Big Bear Excursions...

Looks like a good time (although chilly) was had!!!

:goofy: :biggrin:

[vfrcapn]

Nice pics, looks like a fun ride despite the rain and temps. :goofy:

[toddulu]

Go back and do it when it's dry. Some epic roads there!!! (like you didn't already know)

[keny]

Nice wheel :fing02:

And a great report of trip!

[Guest]

Nice trip report. On my last trip I encountered incredibly dense fog (clouds) in the mountains on the Blue Ridge Parkway but simply chalked it up to just being part of the experience and carried on. Planning a trip like yours that takes you up at high altitudes during this time of the year was a bold move. I applaud you.

[vfr_steve]

What a journey, pleased you didn't suffer from my VFR gremlins whilst out in those conditions! :fing02:

[Stucky]

Wow, looks like it was an epic adventure. Glad you all made it through the conditions unscathed.

[fuldogg]

Thanks for the pics and description of your ride. I'll be sure to try LaPorte-Quincy road next time I'm in that neck of the woods. Too bad about the speeding tix though, I feel your pain. BTW, it's a good idea to chart all the CHP offices along the way next time you plan a ride. They usually don't patrol too far from their offices and give out the vast majority of tickets within a 20 mile radius of their office. I think you will find there is an office in Quincy.