Funduro, Sheetiron Mountain, Eclipse ...

Took off last Wednesday to Deer Valley Campground to hang out with Shawn Campbell and the Funduro gang ... this year was the 12th annual Funduro, which is a low-key camping and dual-sport or real dirt-bike riding event ... attended mostly by vintage bike, Moto Melee, enthusiasts ...

I took the usual Napa, Knoxville, Rieff Road, Walker Ridge, Bartlett Springs, Twin Valley, French Ridge route ...


Started off the riding by crashing in one of the western-most causeways on the Knoxville-Berryessa Road that was slick with slippery algae ... no harm done in the fall, but in my desperation to pick the bike up before an automobile came along to witness the KLR spread out in the middle of the road, I managed to tweak my back pretty well ... I can't pick the KLR up by myself without unloading it ... ha.


The view on the road to Buck Island ...


The stone barn by the zero-ton causeway ...


A snake near Walker Ridge Road ...


A view from French Ridge ...


Rob D and Shawn at the Funduro Bivouac in the Deer Valley Campground, Mendocino National Forest, near Lake Pillsbury ...


Rob D's Studebaker tow vehicle and Suzuki DR350 ...


My campsite in Deer Valley ...

On Thursday I got up and went for a ride around the Mendocino National Forest ...


High Glade watch tower ...


The Pine Mountain lookout ...



Some of the pretty vegetation near High Glade ...


I tried to ride up and over Mount Hull on M1, but was only able to get up to the summit intersection, where M1 was still hidden under northern exposure snow drifts ...


So I found a place for a nap below the peak ...

After waking up, I rode back down M1 to M6 and took that to M61 and back up to M1 ... I wound up being caught behind a locked gate meant to keep people out coming from Covelo ... managed to find a way around, and wound up getting gas in Covelo at 6pm ... rather than deal with the gate again, and anxious to get back to Deer Valley before dark, lest my riding buddies worry about me, I decided to head home over Mendocino Pass ...


A vista from FH7, Mendocino Pass ...

I got back to camp about a half-hour after dark ... the road over Mendocino Pass, FH7, turned out to be in great shape, and I made good time down to M3 and M6 and back to Lake Pillsbury on M1 ...

The plan for Friday was to say goodbye to the Funduro gang and head over to Stonyford for the Sheetiron 300 Dual Sport ride that the Oakland Motorcycle Club puts on every year, and to see if I could find Sheetiron Mountain on the way ...

A nap ? OMG I wouldn't be able to sleep with all that amazing scenery around me, great pics !

undertheoaks said:

A nap ? OMG I wouldn't be able to sleep with all that amazing scenery around me, great pics !

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Hey undertheoaks,

Ride to nap, nap to ride ... ha.
Lots of amazing scenery up there, for sure!

see you around the campfire,
-- SFMCjohn

SFMCjohn said:

I took the usual Napa, Knoxville, Rieff Road, Walker Ridge, Bartlett Springs, Twin Valley, French Ridge route ...

Started off the riding by crashing in one of the western-most causeways on the Knoxville-Berryessa Road that was slick with slippery algae

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That causeway has claimed quite a number of victims of late. I rode through there last weekend and discovered a couple of guys wrestling with a Harley Bagger out of the pond. Initially by themselves, they were unable to move the bike. They were executing the "strip to underpants and disassemble - re-assemble plan" when I and another passer by showed up. Four of us were barely able to drag the bike out.

Reiff/Rayhouse - Walker Ridge - Bartlett Springs, dinner in Upper Lake and then 175 for desert. Can't wait to come back.

Thanks for the report.

Sheetiron Mountain ...

So I've been doing the Oakland Motorcycle Club's Sheetiron 300 Dual Sport ride every year for a long time ...

I joined the SFMC in 1995, because my brother had a couple of friends who were members ... I was never much of a joiner, but the history of the club (founded in 1904) was pretty neat, as was the clubhouse, and the people were nice ...

At the time, I was a Harley-Davidson rider and club racer (LRRS, WERA, and AFM) so I kept myself busy riding on my own and racing ...

I certainly didn't anticipate how much the club and its members would broaden my motorcycle life ...

For example, they rode down to Baja every winter, and after a few years I got a K75s, so I could go too ... They rode in vintage bike rides, so after a few years I got a '73 Triumph Tiger so I could go too ... and they did the Sheetiron every year, so I finally got a '95 DR350, so I could go too ...

Finally I got my KLR, which I've had up to the Arctic Circle, to Death Valley and down to the Tropic of Cancer ... a bike and places I probably never would have gotten or gone to, except that SFMC members turned me on to websites like BARF and ADV rider and the ride reports motorcycle people post there ...

ANYway, I had seen Sheetiron Mountain on the Mendocino National Forest map I'd purchased from the nice ranger lady who collects the camping fees up at Deer Valley ... and I'd seen photos of the summit on the Internet ...


According to Fred Johnson, who took this pic of the summit of Sheetiron Mountain in 2005, that's St. John Mountain in the background ... There's a list of 501 California Lookout Tower sites, active and abandoned on (I guess) his peakbagger.com website here: http://www.peakbagging.com/Peak%20Lists/CA_Lookout1.html

So: me too! I wanted to find Sheetiron Mountain ... on Friday I said goodbye to the Funduro folks, and was off to explore on the KLR ... and I found it, here's my pic:




The view towards Anthony Peak and Mendocino Pass from Sheetiron Mountain.


The Sheetiron Mountain survey monument from 1933 ...



I resisted taking a nap on Friday, but my KLR took one of its signature u-turn siestas ... ha. I had to hike after the KLR's forward progress was halted by felled trees across the road, but the view at the summit was worth the walk.

After snapping a few pics, and picking up the KLR, it was off to Stonyford ... I took the jeep trail that plunges down from M3 and brings you right out in Stonyford after a water crossing ...



This area is to the north of Fouts Springs, up the other side of the valley above Stonyford ... very pretty area that you can see from the Rodeo Grounds ...


The view of my route down to Stonyford from our campsite in the Rodeo Grounds ...

Drew/seavoyage stopped by to say hi on Friday night with his nice DR250, but I forgot to take a pic ...


Our campfire on Friday night ...


And our group, ready to go on Saturday morning ... I missed the group shot, because I get up at 4:50am and try to hit the trail just after 5am, to avoid the rush and the dust ... works pretty well, and I get to watch the sunrise from the trail ...

I knew that Mendocino Pass was in good shape, so I planned on going that way, to avoid the creek crossing at Bear Creek, and intended to hook up with Sherwood Road via Covelo from the north ... so that's the plan ...

Treacherous Causeways ...

smm said:

That causeway has claimed quite a number of victims of late. ... Reiff/Rayhouse - Walker Ridge - Bartlett Springs, dinner in Upper Lake and then 175 for desert. Can't wait to come back.

Thanks for the report.

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Hey smm,

Wow, H-D in the pond? Underwear? What a scene! Ha. Lucky for them that you came along and were willing to help ... I had slowed down to 10mph so the KLR just dropped out from under me when I hit the slickness ... should have walked it, because it was only super-slick right in the middle ...

Love 175 ... thanks for reading and posting!
See you around the campfire,
-- SFMCjohn

Mendocino Pass, Eclipse ...

So, I got up at 4:50 am on Saturday, and hit the road ... I like to leave Stonyford early enough to get the feeling that I'm the first bike to leave ... who knows, maybe I was ... got a glimpse of a mountain lion jumping over a fence on the road to Elk Creek ...

Wanted to check out Road 308, and see what that was like ... The sun came up as I made my way up to M3 .. I turned right and found my way over to Mendocino Pass ... by the time I was up and over my hands and feet were cold, so I scouted around for a place in the sun to stop and make some coffee at around 8am ...



Got my book out (Neal Stephenson"s "The Confusion" from his Baroque Cycle), warmed up in the sunshine, and had a siesta ... bliss! Suitably refreshed, it was off to Covelo and on to Sherwood Road and Fort Bragg ... stopped and visited with Bungie Brent, the OMC member who was taking the photos on Saturday and had him take my photo ... Oakland loves to see our streetbike guys show up in Fort Bragg to be a part of the festivities and will usually take a photo of us on our streetbikes ... Brent said he used to leave early from Stonyford to watch the sun rise on the trail, too ...


The parking lot at the Best Western ... Fort Bragg was hopping with well over 500 dirt bikes ... our club puts on a "Streetiron" ride for the streetbike guys, and Cary lead a group of them from San Francisco on Saturday morning on her 1999 Honda VFR 800 ...

.

Boyd, one of our streetbike guys, wound up crashing his new-to-him BMW on Route 1 up by Leggit, and had to be transported. We called a tow truck to get his bike out of a ditch ...


Breakfast at the Route 1 Cafe in Fort Bragg on Sunday morning ...


We watched the eclipse later that day ...


The eclipse image from the pin-hole camera we made ...


We like to eat at the Roadhouse Cafe in Elk when we're up that way ... good coffee and food ...


Rode Route 1 home with Cary on her streetbike ...

Thanks to the Oakland Motorcycle Club for putting on another fantastic Sheetiron 300 ... looking forward to next year!

Epilogue ...

I'd been on the road for six days by the time I got back to my home in Lower Haight ... Unpacked the bikes and got them locked up in the garage.

Later that evening I got on line and learned that Ben and Gary had both suffered fatal accidents while riding their motorcycles ...

Ben had fallen on some black ice on Sonora Pass and was hit by an oncoming truck, and Gary had gone down on his Ninja 250 in the Santa Cruz mountains and passed away on the way to the hospital ...

They were both my age, and they were both "one of us" ... motorcycle guys. Ben had ridden Harleys and had a well-loved KLR he rode around on. We used to talk about the KLR trips we had taken to Alaska and Baja ...

Gary had given me one of the "how to ride" books that he had written back in the '90s, when I was club racing and editing a little newsletter about sport-twin motorcycles, so that I could review it. I enjoyed reading his posts on BARF, and hearing about his "deer hunter" exploits up on Rt 9 ...

Ben and Gary both shared their passion for motorcycles and motorcycling with me, and with many others in our community ...

Thanks for sharing, guys.
Hope to see you around the campfire again, someday ...
-- SFMCjohn

Condolences to Ben and Gary's families.

SFMCjohn said:

Drew/seavoyage stopped by to say hi on Friday night with his nice DR250, but I forgot to take a pic ...

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Brilliant ride report and pics. Glad we got to chat on Friday.

I was up and ready at 5AM Saturday, and maybe should have ridden out with you instead of riding 4 hours later with my compadres. Decided to avoid the Saturday morning traffic, and Soda Creek/Potter Valley lines; so went rogue after Goat Mtn.,and took M-5 to Bartlett Springs. Rd. Lunch at Upper Lake, before rejoining the hordes on the way to Willits.

The DR250 performed flawlessly, and was able to hold a competitive pace against other plated dirt bikes on flat dirt road twisties, and the slab. Traversed all the up hills and water crossings without issue.

seavoyage said:

Condolences to Ben and Gary's families..

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Yes indeed, heartfelt condolences to their loved ones ...

Brilliant ride report and pics. Glad we got to chat on Friday.

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It was nice to see you in person, Drew! Nifty DR250, happy you had a good Sheetiron experience ... I always got lost on Saturday morning untill I figured out I could just stay on M10 ... They haven't done Mendocino Pass the last couple of years, so I went that way ... M5 south of Goat Mountain is fun except for the water crossing ... ha.

What I really like to do is the 300 mike loop (all easy splits) and camp out again at Stonyford on Saturday night ... This would have been a good year to do that because the conditions were perfect, but I had to spend the night in Ft Bragg with Cary and the gang ...

I've found that if I leave by 5 am or so and skipping the lunch stop works well for me ... I only saw three bikes on Sherwood Road ...

Thanks for reading and posting, Drew, and for all your ride organizing here on BARF and ADV ... super cool of you!

See you around the campfire,
-- SFMCjohn

Sweet report John. Thanks for sharing the pics and words, it looks like it was a load of fun and then some.

Load of fun and then some!

jimboFosho said:

Sweet report John. Thanks for sharing the pics and words, it looks like it was a load of fun and then some.

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Hey jimboFosho,
Yes, I think all 500 plus riders had a great time ... between the streetbike and dual-sport guys, I think our club had over twenty people show up to sit around the campfire ... big increase over last year, where only 4 of us showed up in Stonyford ... funny how things ebb and flow ...
Thanks for reading and posting! I love sites like BARF Adventure Riding, because I get lots of tips about places and activities I can ride my KLR to from San Francisco ... maybe I can make the 2nd Sunday Adventure Riders ride from Fairfield this month ... RD-41, Buzzard's Lagoon, Train Tunnels, FTW! Ha.
See you around the campfire,
-- SFMCjohn

Fantastic ride report.

It's giving me more and more ideas for exploring around Stonyford and Mendo.

Thanks.