Tag: Central Valley
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Riding Shotgun on 4×4 Day: BARC at Tumey Hills
BARC, the Bay Area Rivian Club, held its Tumey Hills run on the calendar for April 4th: 4/4, known as 4×4 Day in the offroad community. When I first signed up, I didn’t really think about two massive things colliding in my schedule that weekend. While it sounded awesome when I initially saw the event,… Read more
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Two Generals, One Long Overdue Visit
For over 15 years, every Wednesday at Camp Sequoia Lake, we’d hike to the Grant Tree. The camp sat just outside Kings Canyon National Park — a week each summer for teenagers with Type 1 diabetes, up in the Sierra where the air is thin and the trees are enormous. This is a very special… Read more
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Same ride, completely different experience 
The BMW Club of Northern California’s Range of Light ride has stuck with me for a couple of weeks. Being up in Quincy reminded me how much I really do enjoy that part of California and how much I miss the many secondary roads that crisscross the landscape. In the central Sierra, many motorcyclists know… Read more
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Flat Stanley Comes to California!
Background A few weeks ago I got a special package in the mail from my niece. I had been selected for a Flat Stanley project. Flat Stanley is a children’s tale where Stanley gets a new bulletin board for his room. One night as Stanley is asleep the bulletin board falls on top of him… Read more
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2013 Sierra Stampede
Ross called me up a while ago to see if I wanted to go to this year’s rodeo in Sacramento. At the time it seems like a great idea. We both look forward to it quite a bit each year. As we got close to the date it looks like it was going to be… Read more
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Day 4: A New Way Home (285 Miles)
The rain and snow never really materialized over the Kings Canyon area so I was in luck. The weather was good and the loud as all get out stream was still rolling in the morning! Normally I just take 180 out to 99 to 152 to 101. CA-180 is a nice ride down to Sanger… Read more
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The Eastern Costal Mountains (300mi)
Wow… Somehow it seemed like I just got home from THE Moto 2011 and now it’s time to hit the road again. As usual I’ve procrastinated till the last possible moment on things. The V-Strom was needing some major love. The rear tire would have to be replaced. The chain was louder than the motor… Read more
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The Journey Down (250 Miles)
So like many good rides, this one started with a phone call from John saying he wanted to go see the Eureka Dunes. I didn’t even know where the Eureka Dunes were. Turns out they were 25 miles down a dirt road after riding 25 miles down a lonely paved road from a one horse… Read more
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The Return (260 miles)
I was going to get wet going home. The real question is how much. We had a series of storms blow over the entire northern California area last night so things were damp to say the least. At about noon it appeared that the worst was to the east and south. Now it was just… Read more
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Chico and the Brewery
Chico is a neat little town. One of the main things I wanted to do there was to do the Sierra Nevada Brewery tour. I’d heard a few people speak well of it, so it became a bucket list item (yes, I have a large bucket of random stuff). We got there two minutes after… Read more
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Home to Palm Springs, CA (460 Miles)
After taking care of the functional items of bike maintenance, I needed to pack and get on the road. My roommate’s dad was in town for thanksgiving and was very interested in the bike and the trip. I have to admit, it’s fun to share your passions. Once on the road at 10:30 I had… Read more
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Morning Calls Early
Today began early, really early. I woke up about 4:30 and started packing. I needed to be on the road by 6:00 am to beat the heat. It was going to be 100 in the valley and that was a ride I did not want to do. A diet coke down, the tire pressures checked… Read more