Sunday, November 1, 2009

California 09 - Day one


Once I'd gotten to San Francisco, the reality of six day to ride really hit home. In a good way... after a nice night spent in town, I loaded up my rental and got ready to head out. Cherie had arranged to have the weekend off which meant we had the next two days for her to show me some of the best roads in the bay area. We'd been chatting for a year about getting together for a ride and this would be our chance.
We headed north out of the city on highway 101 making quick work of the short section of highway we'd need to reach the "good stuff."
After a quick stop to fuel Cherie's FZ1 and grab some water, we motored onto Lucas Valley Rd. It quickly became clear to me that we were going to have a great day. We fell into a nice rhythm as the road became a series of left, right, up and down. The sort of road every motorcyclist dreams of.

I always struggle with the balance between riding a ride, and taking pics to remember it with. Too many stops and you kill the fun, too few and later you regret not having photos of a great time. On this trip, I tried to make it as much about enjoying the ride as possible with enough stops to get a flavor of things. Honestly, for the first part of the day, I was having too good a time to stop.
My first picture of this trip is really unremarkable. The second and third not much better but here's one anyway.



We weaved our way north, riding just inland of the ocean on roads blissfully free of traffic. The curves simply seemed to get better and better. I was quickly losing track of time when we arrived in Occidental, CA. Cherie suggested we stop for a late breakfast which turned out to be a great idea.
Yum!



I rarely eat more than a simple packet of peanuts when riding solo but I can be persuaded to change my habits from time to time.

Back on the road, our travels took us along the oceanfront for my first good glimpse of the Pacific Ocean on this trip. It felt great to look out at the water knowing I'd be seeing more of it as the week progressed.



Back on the road, Cherie showed me more great California asphalt. it's pretty hard to overstate how great the riding was that day. One great road after another with little traffic and great views. I've had great days on two wheels but this just kept getting better.



Motoring east, the road continued to impress. The weather was perfect as we worked our way south through rural areas, wine country and even places where we'd have had creek crossings had the water been higher.


As the sun started to settle behind the mountains, we rode into the East Bay area to store the bikes for the night. As we filtered through freeway traffic in the dark, I could not help reflecting on what had been a perfect day on two wheels. 359 miles of great roads with a good friend, nothing could have felt better or more natural.

2 comments:

fuzzygalore said...

Them there pie crust hills look delicious!

Gee, i'm shocked - looks like you had beautiful weather ;)

drd said...

Perfect barely begins to describe this day...