Ridea™: All 58 Counties

[vaara]

Day 2, 2/28/22
Kernville to Yucca Valley
288 miles
 
Monday morning dawned bright and cold in Kernville.
 

 
But even though the hotel was nice and quiet, I didn’t sleep well because of the increasingly painful sore on my calf. There was nothing for it but to have a large, leisurely breakfast at Cheryl’s Diner next door, and then hit the road at the crack of 10:30am. Before doing so, I took a couple of puffs on my albuterol inhaler, then idly looked at the little counter on the back: 5 puffs left. Fuck.
 
Back to the road. Sierra Way runs along the north shore of Lake Isabella. I’ve gone this way several times before, and thought something was a bit ‘off’ on this day. Then it hit me: There’s no lake. Lake Isabella is currently a medium-sized pond, whose nearest shore is at least a mile from all of the campgrounds and parks along this road.
 
We turned left on 178 for the run up to Walker Pass. I pulled over to attach the GoPro to my helmet, then turned it on – only to hear the dreaded three beeps a few seconds later. The battery indicator on the little display screen LIES! This will become a bit of a running theme, and a sore point, throughout the trip.
 
Anyway, we got over the pass, and all of a sudden we were in a new world.
 

 
I’ve always loved the desert. So I was keen to ride further into it.



The weather was perfect, and the traffic was light – then we got to Inyokern and 395. This has long been one of my least-favorite stretches of road in the entire California Republic, but today it really wasn’t that bad. I really appreciated the absence of wind, which usually plagues the High Desert this time of year. And the rest of the year too, but especially during the late winter/early spring.
 
After a quick fuel stop in scenic Kramer Junction…
 

we got onto 58 toward Barstow. As with the previous stretch of 395, this was thoroughly unremarkable, and over with quickly. Once we got to Barstow, 58 spat us onto I-15 north, which was awful, but was the only way I could find to get onto 247 – which would take us to our chosen lunchtime destination, Lucerne Valley. Once we found 247, the riding immediately got better. After a couple of low passes, we entered the valley and were immediately confronted by a wall of mountains. A road that seemed to climb vertically up them was beckoning us, but first it was time for lunch.
 

 
If you’re reading this, you would like this place.
 




It’s right at the main crossroads in Lucerne Valley. You can’t miss it.
 

 
Here we needed to make a routing decision. Tom was meeting a friend in Palm Springs that evening, whereas I wanted to go into Joshua Tree National Park to grab some sunset photos. The mountains were, as mentioned, beckoning. And we still had plenty of daylight left to burn. So up Highway 18 we went, toward Big Bear. We got stuck behind a slow semi for a while, but otherwise the ride was enjoyable. In typical SoCal style, the transition from desert to mountain was abrupt.

So we soon found ourselves in South Lake Tahoe, which Big Bear resembles in most respects – except that there isn’t really much of a lake at the moment. “Small Cub” might be a better name during these drought-stricken times.
 
(
 
Oh yeah, and there was snow.
 

 
From here, we had two choices: continue on 18 toward the SoCal freeway vortex, or backtrack to 247. We Google Mapped it and found that the time difference for Tom would be negligible, but for me it would take an extra 40 minutes to ride to Yucca Valley via 210 and 10 and 62. So we did the only sensible (for me) thing and rode right back down the way we came.
 
[YOUTUBE]-RgtsZ-sKG4[/YOUTUBE]
 
Back on 247, we encountered Joshua trees again.
 

 
After saying goodbye to Tom at a pee stop just before Yucca Valley, I rushed to check into my hotel so I could head into the national park for those sunset shots. It was just after 5:00, but already pretty dark. I realized a little late that this area is much farther east than SF is, and (duh!) surrounded by mountains. It gets dark early here, which of course is one drawback of traveling this time of year.
 
Despite the failing light, I rode over to the west park entrance, went a few miles, and got a few pics. Have I mentioned how much I love the desert?
 





 
Then I rode back in almost full darkness, via Vons where I bought some dinner and some breakfast. I wrapped up the day with a packaged salad, a can of wine, and a cookie. And some wound care, because the lesion or boil or whatever it was continued to plague me with pain. I decided that I would seek treatment for it in Palm Springs, and get a refill for my inhaler. But first I had a national park to see.

Additional county visited on day 2: San Bernardino.

 

[berth]

Wow, sorry to hear about Lake Isabella. We used to go there to romp around. It was fun in the morning, but got too windy in the afternoon.

 

[vaara]

Wow, sorry to hear about Lake Isabella. We used to go there to romp around. It was fun in the morning, but got too windy in the afternoon.

The lake is down to about 10% of capacity apparently.

 

[boney]

The lake is down to about 10% of capacity apparently.

Wow. Not good...

And the pics from J-tree are

 

[vaara]

Day 3, 3/1/22
Yucca Valley to Palm Springs
143 miles
 
Today’s agenda: Visit national park, go to doctor and pharmacy, meet friends for cocktails & dinner.
 
I arrived back at the west gate of JT National Park at 7:30am. The sun was already well above the mountains. I had a yearly national park pass, but the guard didn’t even ask to see it.
 
First stop was at Keys View. This involved a somewhat twisty climb up to 5000 feet, from where there is a panoramic view from the Salton Sea all the way to Banning.
 


Salton Sea:
 

 
It was phenomenally windy up here. I had to brace myself against the railing in order to take pictures. I quickly rode back down into the Joshua tree zone for more photo ops at Cap Rock, which is evidently a popular place for “influencers” – the place was crawling with them this morning. But they were still easy to avoid.
 



 
Whoever graffiti’d this rock should be killed to death until they’re really, really dead. I fucking hate graffiti – especially in national parks.
 

Back on the park road, it wasn’t long until I reached the right turn onto the long descent from the high (Mojave) into the low (Colorado) Desert. The road wandered through increasingly barren stands of cholla and ocotillo. At Cottonwood, I stopped for a much-needed pee, then rode to the oasis, where the bright green cottonwoods stood in startling contrast to the surrounding tan and brown.
 



 
That fluffy-looking plant is not fluffy.
 

 
As usual whenever I visit Joshua Tree, I vowed to return and spend more time. I said that the last time I visited, and here I was leaving the park after only about 3 hours. I needed to get to Urgent Care before 3pm, so with a sigh I got onto I-10 for the ride westward and downward into the Coachella Valley.
 
When I got to Palm Springs, it was already about 90 degrees. I took the wrong exit, so it took me a while to find the urgent care facility. After a mere 90-minute wait, I saw a doctor who examined the thingie on my leg and prescribed antibiotics. They asked me which pharmacy to send it to, and I reflexively said Walgreens, because it’s my “home” pharmacy. Little did I know that SoCal is Rite Aid country. The Walgreens at Vista Chino and Sunrise is – how shall I put this? – not very nice. I got there at 2pm only to discover that the pharmacy was closed for lunch until 2:30. So I rode over to the hotel, in the heat, in my leathers, hoping I’d be able to check in a bit early. I got to the front desk, and was stuck waiting behind another guest while a crew was shampooing the carpet and HOLY SHITBALLS THAT NOISE IS WORKING MY VERY LAST NERVE oh man, was I annoyed.
 
So. Checked in, rode back to Walgreens, got my meds after standing in a 20-minute line, and finally got back to the hotel. Which, incidentally, is quite nice. Best Western Las Brisas.
 

 
I met up with Tom, who had stayed here the previous night, and enjoyed a long-overdue cocktail at the poolside bar – and some lunch, since I hadn’t had any yet. Later we met up with a local friend at a tiki bar/eatery. I had a Painkiller. Lo and behold, it worked! Soon I was feeling no pain.
 

Additional county visited on day 3: Riverside.

 

[vaara]

Day 4, 3/2/22
Palm Springs to San Diego
254 miles
 
After an indifferent but filling hotel breakfast, Tom and I hit the road around 8:30am. We knew it was going to be a hot day, hence the early start. I determined that it would be faster to get to the east shore of the Salton Sea via I-10 and CA-86 and CA-111 than to take 111 the entire way, so that’s how we went. I was running a little low on gas, and planned to get some before leaving Palm Springs, but there weren’t any gas stations on our route. I thought nothing of it…
 
until we got to this Salton Sea overlook just inside Imperial County.
 

 
My dash said 35 miles to empty, and Niland – which was apparently the next gas stop – was 25 miles away. I didn’t want to chance it. So we backtracked 12 miles, past the same huge date palm groves we had just seen, to Mecca. I half expected to see mosques and bazaars, but Mecca (elevation -187 feet) proved to be an ordinary little Valley town. I gassed up and tried to buy a snack, but there was too much of a line. A friendly local told us to try the great burgers in Niland, then quickly added, “Just kidding. There’s nothing there!”.
 
Onward, back to where we had been. The scenery grew monotonous – dry scrub sloping down to the Lake That’s a Mistake. Eventually, after passing the turnoff to an unlikely-looking large spa resort (“Fountain of Youth Spa”) and speeding past the creepy-looking ghost town of Bombay Beach, we reached Niland and the turnoff toward Slab City and East Jesus.
 
After a stupid wrong turn – today was turning out to be a derpy one for me – we found Salvation Mountain and then, after traversing Slab City with its numerous guard shacks, signs warning of stray dogs, and towers inscribed with Burning Man aphorisms (“Be Here Now”), we got to East Jesus.

We were greeted by two nice women who were relaxing in a shade structure. They gave us a capsule history of the museum – the only art museum in Imperial County! – and encouraged us to donate, which we did. They also offered sunscreen and an umbrella, once I explained I was on antibiotics and had to avoid the sun.
 
I’ll let the art speak for itself. I have intentionally omitted the political stuff. Mostly.
 

 
We debated whether to visit Salvation Mountain, and decided against it. It was hot, and we were getting hungry. So the next item on the agenda was lunch. But first, I had to go see this really tall flagpole in Calipatria (elevation -180 feet).
 


The top of it is at sea level. Or maybe slightly below, what with land subsidence here in the Imperial Valley. Tom googled a likely-looking lunch spot in Brawley, and off we went.
 

I had two tacos, one with birria and one with carne asada, and some horchata. All were delicious. As we remounted out bikes and headed west, I had a vague sense of being a long way from home (later I googled the distance: 510 miles). The sky clouded over, which cooled the air a bit. I was looking forward to the twisties heading into Julian, but first we had to get through about 25 dreary miles of CA-78 through Westmoreland and more Imperial Valley flatland. Just after the border patrol station, we turned left for the run toward the mountains. At first the road was laser-straight, boring through endless scrub dominated by Dr. Seuss-looking ocotillo shrubs. Then it entered an entertaining little canyon before flattening out again, after which we started the climb up to Julian. Here the weather abruptly cleared, so within a few minutes we went from a realm of tan and gray to one of lush green and brilliant blue.
 
And so to Julian (elevation 4226 feet)…
 

where of course we had pie. At one point Tom looked at his phone and yelped in excitement. It turned out that a project he had been working on had been a big success – to the tune of a large bonus in his next paycheck. He paid for the pie.
 

 
The riding both into and out of Julian was fantastic, even though we once again encountered some roadside snow. Excellent twisties despite some remnant grit. But all good things must come to an end, and in due course we reached I-8 and turned westward again. The ride into San Diego was uneventful – all the traffic was heading the other way. After a trouble-free hour or so, we got to our hotel. I had a room on the fourth floor, so I was delighted to discover that the elevator was out. Could have been worse, though – Tom’s room was on the fifth floor. At least I had a nice view of San Diego (elevation 60 feet) and even a bit of the bay.
 

 
After all we’d seen this day, it was a little disorienting to be suddenly back in urban coastal California. We made the best of it and headed out for nice cocktails and a nice dinner.
 

 
And then to bed, in a very strange hotel room that I will complain about tomorrow.

Additional counties visited today: Imperial, San Diego.

 

[Tally Whacker]

It's too bad you skipped the Desert View Tower. I think you would have liked it.

 

[vaara]

It's too bad you skipped the Desert View Tower. I think you would have liked it.

Next time

 

[Tally Whacker]

It's the exit right at the top of the climb up from the desert on I-8. You rode right by the place, and if you'd looked up the slope as you were climbing you could have seen it at various points.

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/9178

 

[vaara]

Actually we stayed north of I-8 almost all day. Basically we rode around the east side of the Salton Sea and up a bit of the west side, then west to Julian and south to I-8. Where 79 joins 8 is well west of where the tower is. I’ve ridden that way before though, where the eastbound and westbound lanes cross over. It’s spectacular!

 

[Tally Whacker]

You went up Banner Grade? That's a much better route than I-8.

 

[vaara]

Yep! It was fantastic.

 

[berth]

And so to Julian (elevation 4226 feet)…
 where of course we had pie.

Julian Pie Company is my Go To for pie in Julian, it's up the street a bit from the intersection. (Yes, "THE" intersection, there's pretty much only 1 in Julian.) Never cared for "Moms" Pie.

Fun story.

I asked a friend to come along, our goal was to drive south from the 91 and to avoid the 15 at all costs, just to see where we went, and so we did.

Two things of note happened that trip. One, we discovered Fallbrook. We pulled in to a town, and stopped at a gas station. But we came in the back way, through avocado groves. We honestly had no idea where we were. We had to ask someone.

Later, we stumbled upon Julian. It has lots of signage going in, but it does just "appear" out of the trees up there. It's a neat little touristy town.

 

[vaara]

East SD County is a great place to get lost. So many fun roads.

 

[vaara]

Day 5, 3/3/22
322 miles
San Diego to San Luis Obispo

Now that we had gone about as far south in California as we could, it was time for us to turn north and head for home. After an excellent breakfast at the friendly Crest Café, we returned to our hotel…
 

 
to retrieve our stuff and push off.
 
A quick word about this hotel: No. Imagine, if you will, a long, narrow room with a bed stranded at the far end of it, far away from any table or light switch. Imagine further that there is nothing between the main room and the toilet except for a non-functioning swinging magnetic door thing. The hotel was weird in every respect, including its name, but at least it was cheap and well-located (as opposed to the ones in Hotel Circle, which are within walking distance of nothing at all). And there was a nice view from my room.
 
We quickly and gladly left it in our mirrors, and hopped onto the superslab through north San Diego and then Orange County. At Long Beach, it was time for a fuel stop. We had planned in advance where to get gas, but I whiffed the exit and we wound up somewhere in Signal Hill (I think). Then back onto 405 to LAX, where we briefly got onto 110 and then onto Sepulveda Blvd. The plan was to ride along PCH as much as possible, and I figured this route would avoid the chronic congestion on 405 past LAX.
 
Not so much, as it turned out. Traffic through Marina del Rey and Venice was stop-and-go. It improved by the time we got to Santa Monica. Finally we reached the actual coast highway. At Topanga Canyon Road, it was time to de-layer and hydrate, because it was suddenly quite warm. Through Malibu we looked for likely spots to pull over and enjoy the ocean views, but the state beaches all charge for parking, and who needs that? Finally, after Zuma, just past the Ventura County line, we found a nice wide spot.
 

 
Here too I suddenly remembered that I had a GoPro, and turned it on for a bit.
 
[YOUTUBE]1AOSgInW_K4[/YOUTUBE]
 
Through the strawberry fields and office parks of Oxnard we rode, and then we got onto 101. One wrong turn later, we reached our preordained lunchtime destination: the seafood restaurant at the Ventura Pier. I can’t remember what it’s called, but it doesn’t matter, because the fish & chips weren’t really that great.
 

At Santa Barbara we turned inland and took 154 past what’s left of Lake Cachuma, and on into Solvang. By this time it had clouded over, and there were even a few raindrops. A quick look at a weather app confirmed that it was raining steadily in San Francisco, but fortunately we weren’t going there just yet. Instead, we spent the night at the Peach Tree Inn, at the north end of San Luis Obispo, just down the street from the ruins of the Motel Inn – supposedly the first motel in the world. We arrived right at sunset.
 
We checked in and later wandered down Monterey Street looking for sustenance. We settled on the 1865 Craft House, which was rather posh (with prices to match). But the drinks and food were good, as was the service. Maybe a little too good, for the server responded to our every utterance with a beaming smile and the words, “Thank you so much!!!!”. It got weird after a while.
 
Back at my “king deluxe” room (it was “deluxe” because it had an ironing board), I enjoyed a very quiet night – the last one of the trip.

Additional counties visited today: Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo.

 

[vaara]

Day 6, 3/4/22
San Luis Obispo to San Francisco
237 miles

tl;dr: And then we rode home. The end.

Slightly expanded version:

After breakfast in lovely downtown SLO (not being sarcastic here; SLO really is a lovely city)…

it was time to get back on 101 north to finish up our adventure. At King City we stopped for gas, and I realized that a handy cutoff to CA-25 was right there. So the only reasonable thing to do was to head east on Bitterwater Road and then turn left onto 25. I tried to use my GoPro and caught about 6 seconds of footage before the battery died. Once again the battery indicator LIED to me. So the best I can do is a screen cap.

25 was tons of fun as usual, but somehow it seemed to go by much too quickly (and I was riding at my usual geriatric pace). All too soon we reached Hollister and the end of the fun riding. At Starbucks I called my doctor to see if I could get an appointment, and they were able to offer me one at 3:30. It was then 2:00. I might have been able to make it, but turned it down anyway.

After Hollister, it was just a matter of getting to Gilroy and then back onto 101. I managed to fuck that up, since there was no “101 North” sign where there ought to be a “101 North” sign. Again: derp. From here it was a quick freeway ride back to San Francisco. After stopping off at our respective homes, Tom and I regrouped for a celebratory end-of-ride beer.

California Bear approves.

Additional counties visited today: Monterey, San Benito, Santa Clara, San Mateo.

 

[vaara]

I did a little bit more riding last weekend.

 

[vaara]

Prologue: The week of April 18 was not an easy one. On Monday I had to pay a large tax bill. On Wednesday I got screwed...
 

 
and opted for a new tire, since that one had 11K miles on it.
 
And on Thursday I learned that my company – the one for which I’ve been working since 2006 – is the target of a private-equity takeover bid.
 
But Tom (see previous posts) was two years overdue for a birthday ride on legendary California Highway 36, so how could I say no? (Spoiler alert: I couldn’t.)
 
Which takes us to:
 
Day 7, 4/23/22
San Francisco to Red Bluff
248 miles
 
This time we escaped San Francisco northwards, not eastwards. We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and followed 101 to just north of Santa Rosa, where we exited to enjoy a cup of “Bad Ass Coffee” [sic] and then headed toward Calistoga on Porter Creek/Mark West Road. We looked into getting lunch at Buster’s….
 

 
But the Porsche club was there, so we left. We ended up at a perfectly satisfactory alternate eatery on Highway 29. Establishing shot:
 

 
So about Highway 29. I’ve been kicking around NorCal for 15+ years, but can’t remember even having ridden this bit between Calistoga and Middletown. You’d think I would have remembered.
 
[YOUTUBE]jEr8YincG34[/YOUTUBE]
 
Over the top of Mount Saint Helena we went, down into the strange little world that is Lake County. We turned off onto Highway 53, which parallels the east shore of Clear Lake without actually providing any views of said lake. A right turn onto Highway 20 took us through endless sweepers through grandiose hills north of Lake Berryessa. Eventually the road flattened and straightened out, and we were treated to views of the mysterious Sutter Buttes.
 
At Colusa we turned north onto CA 45, which turned out to be a tunnel through endless walnut trees with the occasional view of the lazy Sacramento River. In due course we took a left onto CA 132 back to I-5, which took us the remaining few miles into Red Bluff.
 
Additional counties visited today: Marin, Sonoma, Napa, Lake, Colusa, Glenn, Tehama.

 

[vaara]

Day 8, 4/24/22
Red Bluff to Fortuna
167 miles
 
And now for the ride we had both been waiting for: Highway 36. Tom wanted to ride it for his birthday in 2020, but life got in the way.
 
So here we go.
 
I hadn’t ridden 36 in quite a while – probably 7 years – so it was almost like riding a brand-new road. The first bit out of Red Bluff was entertaining, even though some of the blind off-camber turns of yore had long since been straightened out. Another unfortunate development was the removal of the “*twisty road symbol* Next 140 Miles” sign, a mandatory photo op for every motorcyclist. However, there is now a brand-new “*twisty road symbol* Next 130 Miles” sign. According to my calculations, it is 10 miles east of where the other sign used to be. Unfortunately, I flew right past it and couldn’t be bothered to turn back. So, no photo.
 
Just like the sign promised, things started getting twisty. We crossed into Shasta County, then pulled over at the hamlet of Platina. There used to be a store and gas station here, but it’s gone now.
 

 
While we were standing there, a car pulled up and someone got out of it and actually entered the store. We decided against doing the same. There was a radio playing in an open upstairs window, so someone might have been up there watching. Incidentally, the closure of the Platina store means there’s no gas on 36 between Red Bluff and Dinsmore – roughly 100 miles.
 
After Platina, we crossed into Trinity County…

And then passed the former site of the Wildwood Store, an erstwhile biker hangout that burned to the ground in 2012. Alas. It was a great place to enjoy a beverage while watching MotoGP on big screens. But there now seems to be a trailer or shack nearby; they’re apparently serving snacks and coffee and whatnot.
 
The scenery - and the road - gradually became somewhat more alpine.

[YOUTUBE]X06zygUwtRA[/YOUTUBE]
 
At the summit where Highway 3 branches off, we stopped for another photo op.

36 is a great place to “get into the zone”. That new rear tire got a good scrubbing-in today. (Yesterday too, come to think of it. And tomorrow.) There was a tiny bit of snow on the roadside, and quite a bit more on top of the Trinity Alps. It had just snowed here a few days earlier.
 

 
And so to Mad River, where there were burgers with our names on them.
 

 
The irascible woman who runs the Burger Bar – which is a trailer – is looking to sell.  But for now, she’s still serving up excellent chow.
 
After Mad River, I fired up my GoPro in eager anticipation of the “goat trail” section of 36 – i.e. a section where the centerline disappears and the road shrinks to 1.5 lanes. But that never happened. This is about where it used to be:
 
[YOUTUBE]YSg3WQqTNZQ[/YOUTUBE]
 
A screen cap, for those who - like me - can’t be bothered with video:

Then the tight twisties ended, and I was thoroughly puzzled. Later I learned that 36 had been widened and striped a few years earlier. I had no idea.
 
Not long after crossing the TRI/HUM county line…

we re-entered civilization, and joined the redwood-lined Van Duzen River for the run to the coast.

At Alton, just before 101, we had one last photo op.
 

We reached our hotel in Fortuna at the ridiculously early hour of 2:30. I wasn’t done riding yet, so we decided to head to Ferndale and onward to Centerville Beach. Here we played a fun game of “Putting Things On Top Of Other Things.”
 

 
Then back through cow pasture…
 

 
to the Victorian village of Ferndale, which is perhaps best known among adventure riders as the northern terminus of Mattole Road, which leads down the Lost Coast and through totally untouched (except for huge grow operations) backcountry. I rode that last year, and felt no need to do it again – the last time, it just about shook me and my poor bike to pieces.
 
Ferndale on a Sunday afternoon is not the most happening place. Everything closes at 4, and it was now 4:15.
 

 
So back to Fortuna we went, via the historic bridge over the Eel River.
 

 
Followed by the traditional beer & fried food at the Eel River Brewing Company, and finally a sunset walk along the aforementioned river (the Eel, in case I haven’t mentioned it enough yet).
 

 
A fitting end to yet another perfect - if short - day of riding.

Additional counties visited today: Shasta, Trinity, Humboldt.

 

[berth]

Wow, all that in only 167 miles. This is part of what make California so amazing.