March 15-17, 2024
All right fellers. Here's the general plan. BUT, we must be reasonable and plan for snow. I don't expect any of the tracks to go through to anywhere after we leave Stonyford. The big key is for us to find some good camping. We can explore and shoot and fish as well. It's a slow roll this weekend due to the recent storms. Actually, it might be quite a while before we can get over the range toward the coast this year.
So, the main hub is Stonyford. Chico guys can roll the canal/levee to Willows, then over the 303 to Stony. That's all for sure fun and good gravel/dirt. I don't expect problems, but again, who knows about washouts and trees.
South guy...just Rig this time I think, we will connect at the Stony store. OR camp. However, I don't expect camp 1 to work out because it's at 3600 feet. Old Mill on the M5. See the track out of Stonyford that starts on the M10. It takes a left before Fouts and heads on dirt up the hill. We'll give it a try. Assuming it won't work, we'll camp back at Fouts, which is at about 1600 feet.
My other tracks are Goat Mountain Road just south of Stonyford. This is below 2000 for quite a while, but then heads up toward the M5 and to Letts Lake. However, that is above 4000 feet. So again, I doubt we can go far. I do have a couple of playtime tracks off of Goat Mountain Road too. Not sure they are usuable or not.
Departure times vary for Friday. So worst case, we can meet at the Stony store around 5. However, if nobody is there, let's assume this: They tried for Old Mill first. Then ended up at Fouts. I would say, just go look around Fouts on the M10 first....it's just around the corner down the hill from the M5 intersection. Then, if none of us are there, go back to the M5 and head up to Old Mill. Sound like a plan?
Jeeps/trucks: bring chainsaws and other such stuff to clear tracks if necessary.
Cheers.
It has taken me two weeks to get to this final write up. Why? Well, I was processing a lot about this ride. Plus, I'm never really sure I'm writing this just for me or do other guys actually like reading this stuff? AND, Colleen, my amazing wife, turned 60 and I had some plans to make it special. SO, here we are. On a Thursday, before Easter weekend. I looked at my laptop and grabbed a beer and here I am. If you are reading and enjoying....thanks for joining. If you aren't reading, well then nevermind.
I have been riding motorcycles since I was a teen. Then bought my first motorcycle, as a secret, while in college at Davis. And the adventure began. I'm blessed that I have not ever had a truly bad mishap. But I have also been a student of motorcycling. How can we enjoy this inherently dangerous activity and live to tell the tail? Or in this case, do a ride write up? I just continue to be a student. And this weekend was a great example of learning some new things and categorizing riding styles that I don't and do want to do as I continue on the adventure. More on this later.
I had to work on Friday. I had to teach PE to two 5th grade classes. I just wanted to leave and take off. But it went well and I was home by 2:15. Several Chico guys waited for me. We didn't have far to go really, and it is now daylight savings, so we really were just fine for time. As the summary above states, we had a solid plan for Friday night, we just needed to get the variables to settle down. Meet at Stonyford store at 4:30, try for Old Mill campground on the M5, if it was snowed in, go back down to the M10 and camp at Fouts/Davis Flats. Good plan.
Raf took off earlier. So he was the main scout. He ended up finding that Old Mill was just fine. Then he headed back to meet Rig at the store. That's some good scout work there. Even sent us a picture. Chico crew met Dorian at Dayton 4 corners. Steve, Forrest's BIL, didn't have the track. Had gaia though.....which is nice...but no track. We couldn't get the website to load at 4 corners, so he couldn't click the hyperlink for the track. Try again in Willows? Dorian didn't have the track either. Try again in Willows? So Pete, Forrest, Steve, and Alan leave Chico, catch Dorian, then mosey along to the levee/canal route. We connect with Chris on his Africa Twin. It's gorgeous and a little windy, but damn, the canal road is better than most Chico roads, I'm sad to report. We arrive in Willows and get gas at our usual Chevron. Plus beers and such. Dorian and Steve don't load the track.
Let's go down a little side tangent here, shall we? So we kind of really started doing this gps "tracks" thing back in 2008. When Wade convinced us this is the new way to enjoy motorcycling. Prior to this, we would stay on the street and easily make a destination. Now mind you, we sometimes got disconnected from each other, but by and large, we made the destination and met up again. No worries. But out in the woods is different. There's dirt tracks everywhere and the best thing to do is have a working track marked in front of you. In years past this was a gps. I currently am using Alan's old gps. But the reality is, I really don't use it. I have it for backup. The thing about the gps is that you have to actually connect it to a computer and load the tracks. It's not convenient or easy. In fact, the funniest thing is that I don't think, and Alan is the first to say this, that Alan ever loaded a track. He just brought his gps to me and I loaded them for him. And from my point of view, if Alan had the track in front of him it was worth it to me. He's actually a great navigator, but the tech part is not his thing. Then, to make it even more difficult, if you were the guy making the tracks, you invest hours in mapping, then you have to make/convert it all to gpx, so it works with all gps units, and then you have to email all of this out to the riders. THEN, if there is a change, you have to do it all again. Complete pain in the ass....for the mapper and the riders. But, it if it all was good, it worked. And quite nicely. So now, we have the new and improved versions of this: gaia. On your phone. For free. And gaia works pretty damn well. And it's free. So just get the app. Then, Pete does this: he makes all of the tracks (Rig does it too)(and this part is still a lot of work, but not quite as bad as the old days), then creates a bundled hyperlink of the tracks for gaia, puts that on the website page for the ride so that everyone can click that link and have it load in their gaia app automatically. Is it perfect? No. But overall, it's the best we have as of now., But I take pride in the fact that's it's pretty damn easy for everyone to have the track. To be honest, it's not easy for me. Or any of the track designers. Making the tracks and thinking about gas stops and so forth takes a lot of time. A lot. Double checking a couple of resources, like google, or gaia, or even paper maps. And we all have agreed that the tracks rarely work as intended. But guess what, this weekend they actually did. Because in the ride plan/summary I stated that we knew we'd be stopped by the snow line. But otherwise, it was just as planned. So....
We have the three bikes in our group and we arrive at the Mendocino Forest station in Stony. I tell Doc that I'll just go check the store...it's 5 oclock so we missed the meet time. Raf and Rig are not there. I come back. Steve shows up and rolls right on passed us. Missed us. Doc's yellow jacket wasn't turned on I guess. He goes and gets him. Alan and Dorian show up and off we go up the M10. We get to the M5 intersection and I pull over and wait. Alan is the sweep and he has the track, but I figured let's just make eye contact. Alan and I have camped at Old Mill once before and I know the M5 pretty good, but still, let's just make sure we start together. The M5 is well signed. That said, it has many trails and tracks that cross and connect with it. And this leads me to the first "incident." The M10 is a track, both the blacktop and the dirt/gravel, where the Jeep guys can mostly keep up with bikes...it's smoove....better than Chico roads. Arghhhh.. But the M5? it's rutted, uphill, tight and twisty, potholed. 4 wheeled guys simply cannot go as fast as the bikes. There's an intersection. Halfway to camp. It's prompting you. Go right? Stay straight? But there is an M5 sign up on the hill to the straight left. Hmm. Somehow Steve and Dorian made the right. The sweeper was too far behind to fix this. Pete and Forrest and Chris were too far ahead. We caught Rig and said hi and passed him. Met Raf at camp. Then Rig showed up. Then Alan.....the sweep. Man, over the years, when the sweep shows up before the guys that are supposed to be ahead of him....arghhh....again.
So Rig starts in on me. All in good jest. But dog on it. I do feel bad. How did they get lost? So Alan and Doc jump in the truck and go on the rescue mission. I like that it's not motorcycles doing it. That's more worrisome. You ride in the dark and could possibly fall down and get a boo boo. But not in a truck. They see the two guys down at Fouts from the ridge. They go back down to the M10 and head down, catch Dorian on the M10 heading home, evidently. Steve was still down at Fouts. Got them both. Came to camp. Yessssss!! Just before dark too!
I guess Steve was kind of mad about the whole thing. But overall, it all worked out. We had tacos. And poker. And Rig went to bed. We played more poker. I lost 30 bucks. Ouch. Chris bought back in for me....nice that, but damn, I was having a bad night...was able to pay him back though.
Chris and Rig got busy earlier chainsawing firewood. Well, Chris is a fire chief after all. Nice that. We had plenty of fire wood. Raf got his Paul Bunyon on on Saturday and made a freaking pile of wood with Rig's axe. That was pretty badass. See pictures below.
So Saturday was really just simply a blast. Dorian was supposed to go home for date night. Chris was going to go home to be a great dad. The rest of us were going to explore the snow line. Alan packed up his tent and was ready for a new campground. But that wasn't happening. Because somewhere between coffee and breakfast, somebody, not me, decided to just stay here again.... and why not? Great neighbors, great view, the temperature was fabulous, no wind, plenty of wood. AND, in all likelihood, we wouldn't be able to get anywhere above here. Alan got upset for a minute. Laser eyed me, like it was my decision and I didn't tell him. Like I played a joke on him and let him do all this work of cleaning up, only to drop the bomp on him. But it wasn't me at all! Dude.
So Dorian can play for the day, but Chris had to head on home alone. Nice to have you with us Chief. Me and Raf take off our hard luggage and get set for play. We decide to follow my tracks to Goat Mountain road. That's the Road Closed sign in the pictures. It was. Closed. Washed out. But some snow and mud too. But we shot guns. Talked medical systems, and politics, and the Constitution. Solved all of the world's problems. But needed a beer and a gun. Weird. Alan almost shot Diesel. Dude.
We backtracked up to the M5 for lunch. Hit the snow line. Rig was out front and gone, but Raf, thankfully, stopped. Forrest was a firm "No." Yes! I like this new version of the Doc. Let's say no to tracks where we crash our shit, scratch our motorcycles, and maybe hurt ourselves. Let's let the old Doc go. Bye old friend. You chased many a ball down a challenging track. Let's let that be a good memory now. Bye ball! Bye old Fo!
Dorian was a good friend and was making tire tracks in the snow for the bikes, not knowing we were a hard no. Thanks man. Noted. We told him our intentions, so he went and got Rig...and sure enough, it got worse up there. So we had lunch where we were....and frankly, it was amazing. Great spot to sit....Rig opened up his amazing Jeep, got the cutting board out, refrigerator, and we had house made turkey sammmiches. What??? There was a dirt bike club out of the east bay there...so they kept coming through....but getting stopped by snow too. Nice fellas...some old dudes too....and wives....so that was cool. Met a bunch of cool people.
Time to explore more so we decided to try my red track.....Sullivan Ridge. Doc was out front. Missed the turn, came back and rolled up next to me....and this was it. The moment of the comment of the weekend: I don't wanna. Now mind you, the old Doc? The chase the ball Doc? That dude never spoke those words. He was kind of crazy. I like this new version. But I took off anyway. Raf followed and Doc caved. It's a pretty tight atv trail and it's rather steep and rutted. The Jeeps and Truck were most certainly going to get really scratched up. Raf and I went down a second steeper section and I pulled over. Doc wasn't having it and we could see his yellow jacket up the hill at the previous flat spot. The Jeeps rolled up to him.
So Raf and I talk. It might work. It could get worse. We can do this. Blah blah blah. I think Poker Flat. Two side by sides come by. I guess they said to the Jeep guys: Good luck. WTF? Bad sign.
So Raf and I decide to head back up and stop doing this. It's a bit steep and a little tricky of a turn around, so Raf says, "We can help each other get our bikes turned around." Good idea I think. I help him first..........
Then he takes off uphill without me? Ummmmm.....Raf?
So I'm down there, getting my Roxy moved around to point back up hill. Get up the hill next to the Jeeps and Raf. Raf nearly drops his bike...but holds it up...good thing you work out Paul Bunyon. Strong man. So we head uphill to find a certain white Tacoma heading down at us. There's nowhere to turn around. Too tight. He has to back out. I'm hopefully no side bay side is hauling ass down...and we got lucky. See video.
We get back up to the M5 and actually find a great place to camp. We just hang out here for a while. Dorian puts on Fireball and we dance. Yeah. I said it. We danced. Rig sat on Fo's GS. That's kind of a big deal. See pic.
We head on back to camp. I didn't like the idea of Dorian driving home at this point. He had some trail cocktails and it's not a short drive. So we start in on him and he asks Alan to call DaNelle. Turns out, because of this, DaNelle joins Colleen and Margaret for a concert at Gold Country for Melissa Etheridge. But Dorian doesn't know this, so he drives home after poker at about 8 oclock. And I'm all wait! The guy that got lost in daylight on Friday is going to drive home in the dark? WTAF?
But we love our boy. We don't want a dui or worse. Right? We all agree. Kadoosh.
But he did fine and got home about 11.
Went on an evening walk and met our neighbors. Cool folks from the Bay Area. Alan got ideas for his truck. The dude was curious about motosandjeeps. Well why wouldn't he be? Sheesh.
After the walk and dinner, back at camp, Rig went to bed. He did play poker for a bit though, and that was fun. Plus there was some cigar smoking, which is also fun.
But then, Fo and I got Alan to tell his meet Margaret story. And what a story it is. But the best part is? Alan tells it so well. Dudes, you will fucking be on the edge of your seat as he tells it. Timelines. Timelines.
Then Raf told his meet Holly story. Cutting balls off of calves. That's what I remember most. Raf. Way to show a girl a good time.
Sunday is always a bit melancholy for me. I hate to see it end. I was a slow roll all morning. I was in no hurray personally. Rig took off earlier, after breakfast this time, which was gentlemenly of him. But we said our goodbyes. Sad face there.
Then we rolled on to Willows. Pavement so Alan could keep with us. Nice ride actually. Saw two bald eagles. Quite a pleasant ride to Willows. The Last Stand at 11. Sat outside, ate pretty good food. Then I tracked us all crazy farm roads back to River Road and home. Really nice.
And so another motosandjeeps weekend was a success. We really do have an amazing thing going on here. I mean, if we go back and look at these rides, it's just so fun. It's just fun. But each time, something new occurs and there is new learning. Sitting around and listening to the Alan and Margaret meeting and the Raf and Holly meeting, that was new. And so very fun to listen to.
Doc got to shoot is new Springfield. That was epic fun. Did you really have red lipstick bullets? I seem to remember them. But gosh darn it! Being out in the woods....in my opinion, God's country, and it's beauty and fresh air and stars and trees and dirt, that's so motosandjeeps. Right?
But in the end. I really could do it alone. I could. But I don't want to. I love you guys. You make my life richer and more fulfilling. That's why Colleen loves that I have this. It's because of you guys. Her brothers.
While the risks of riding a motorcycle are a smidge higher than some other things, it's just who I am. For whatever reason. But at some juncture in my life, I will have to say goodbye to it. And it gives me comfort that I can join the 4 wheel group and carry on. Because it's not how we get there, it's that we do get there. Built to explore by two or four. That's it. Let's just keep exploring and adventuring until we have to say goodbye with the long sleep. Deal?
Until next time my brothers from other mothers. Cheers.
