Mountain House Road, Sierra City, California

[SFMCjohn]

did a fun overnight sport-tour this weekend, thanks to Norcalslowpoke, who had arranged this ride last year, also.

it's ostensibly for vintage bikes, but we're relaxed about that as is appropriate. the threat for next year is "vintage only!" but we'll see ...

anyway, I got the "old bike" award this year with my '88 K75s ... turned out to be the "most inappropriate bike," too, maybe:

off like a herd of turtles from Lower Haight at 9am, Saturday morning ...

met the gang at the Northridge Restaurant in Nevada City at noon ... dsjanssen posing with the old K75s. everyone showed up on big late-model ADV bikes, except wowens on his trusty '02 FZ1 bumblebee ...

the rest of the crew had met up in Sacramento for a KSU of 8:30am and a nice ride through the western Sierra foothills. I was all like "no way" to that, see you at the lunch stop.

our route after lunch to Forest, California and Goodyears Bar via Mountain House Road ...

Forest, California ... we got to meet a couple of locals who gave us a tour this year of some of the cool homes, and of the inside of the Dance Hall, which we missed last year.

the nice local tour-guides told us how to find the compelling Forest City Cemetery, which had many of these mini obelisk-style grave markers, which I thought were unusual. Forest went through four boom-bust cycles, where to population reached 4000, depending on the price of gold and as mining technology improved.

FlyingDutch73 on his 2015 Triumph Tiger, Norcalslowpoke on his brand new T7, and Peter on his mighty GS 1150 showing wowens and SFMCjohn, the lowly street-bike guys, how it's done on Mountain House Road.

Mountain House Road is super-fun dual sport maintained dirt fire road the plunges down from about 4000' at the summit of Mountain House Road to about 1700' at Goodyears Bar and the North Yuba River, suitable for a street bike if you ride slow and the weather has been dry ...

Norcalslowpoke crossing the North Yuba River on wowen's FZ1 ... Mr wowen's got to sample Mr NCSP's Yamaha T7 and pronounced it "awesome."

Mr dsjanssen snapped this pic of the K75s on location at the North Yuba River ... arty

we usually camp at the Wild Plum campground in Sierra City, but Norcalslowpoke had his eye on the (cold) weather, and we decided to punt the camping this year (mostly because the Forest Service still had a "no campfires" rule in effect) and stay at the Sierra Pines Resort, which was super-nice, with a good restaurant and rooms with wonderful views of the North Yuba River ... and the Sierra Buttes.

FlyingDutch73, Norcalslowpoke, dsjanssen, anytwowilldo and wowens and Peter, who I don't think is on BARF, enjoying the little trout pool before dinner. the trout pool is chock full of 12" and bigger fish, which we could have caught and had the nice folks at the Sierra Pines Resort fix us for breakfast. maybe next year.

dsjanssen was mounted on his BMW GS 1250 and anytwowilldo was on his ex-Cabrito KTM 990 ...

I baled the next morning and wowens and I had a glorious ride down Hwy 49 and then a lane-split-like-bandits return to San Francisco, while the rest of the guys continued their ride Sunday and Monday, with a planned return to civilization on Tuesday morning.

Looking forward to the third annual Norcalslowpoke Golden Chain Tour next year ... hopefully an appropriate bike for me will be running.

anyway, need to remind myself to treat my FJ-09 riding wife, Cary, to a road trip to the Sierra Pines Resort, asap. very nice. it's just over 200 miles from San Francisco to Sierra City if you take I-80 to Hwy 49.

thanks to Norcalslowpoke for another wonderful opportunity to get to this part of the world.

 

[buellistic]

Any trout left in that pond?

 

[Cincinnatus]

Looks like a fine time was had by all!

How do you get invited to the party?

 

[SFMCjohn]

Any trout left in that pond?

one of the guys told me the trout pond is ten feet deep in the middle and is said to have some crazy number of rainbow trout ... was certainly easy to see lots of big ones.

Looks like a fine time was had by all!
How do you get invited to the party?

you probably met most of these guys at the last
StonyBARF you were at.

Norcalslowpoke and wowens I’ve known for years and years from the annual multi-day vintage rallies we’re lucky enough to have in this part of the world, and the other guys from BARF Baja. super chill motorcycle guys, ready to ride, just like you.

though I’m pretty sure they include me as a pathetic KLR charity case, from a sense of kindly pity ... their motley mascot.

 

[Cincinnatus]

though I’m pretty sure they include me as a pathetic KLR charity case, from a sense of kindly pity ... their motley mascot.

In terms I understand, they put you on point. "If John can get through that on his KLR, the rest of us probably can on our bikes."

 

[buellistic]

one of the guys told me the trout pond is ten feet deep in the middle and is said to have some crazy number of rainbow trout ... was certainly easy to see lots of

You used to be able to catch one and the restaurant would cook it up for you...

 

[Cincinnatus]

You used to be able to catch one and the restaurant would cook it up for you...

Can I use a net and feed a crowd?

 

[buellistic]

Can I use a net and feed a crowd?

Pond trout still on the menu

 

[SFMCjohn]

In terms I understand, they put you on point. "If John can get through that on his KLR, the rest of us probably can on our bikes."

pretty sure I'm just there for comic relief ... like you are, they're all much, much better riders than I am.

Pond trout still on the menu

more evidence that I look, but don't see, when it comes to taking pics. they had a chalk board by the trout pond with a price list, based on how big the fish were. seem to recall it went up to 20" ... anyway, I failed to get the pic.

next time ... maybe get one with Cincinnatus and his net, too.

 

[Cincinnatus]

pretty sure I'm just there for comic relief ... like you are, they're all much, much better riders than I am.



more evidence that I look, but don't see, when it comes to taking pics. they had a chalk board by the trout pond with a price list, based on how big the fish were. seem to recall it went up to 20" ... anyway, I failed to get the pic.

next time ... maybe get one with Cincinnatus and his net, too.

John, if you actually think I'm a better rider than you, I don't know what to tell you, since I think the opposite is true.

And I think I'm going to need a bigger net.

 

[wheel_muse]

Looks like a lotta fun, and scenery, and fellowship...

Thanks for sharing, John!

 

[budman]

Cool stuff John

 

[gixxerjeff]

Cool stuff John

^This^
All your threads are awesome, John.....all of 'em.

 

[Eric B]

Great stuff John. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Cabrito]

Nice! Beautiful country. Were there a lot of fall colors? I think I see some Aspens in the background on on pic.

As far as vintage bikes go, I'm pretty sure Anytwowilldo's 990 is vintage because that's what Scuderia told me when I took it in for service a few years back. The service writer said "We don't usually work on vintage bikes here"

 

[1962siia]

Can believe I missed this ride again. Super cool pics. Thanks for sharing! Next time I’m in for sure and I hope it’s vintage next year!

 

[matty]

I love this area of the world, I need to explore and learn it better. Great pics and write up, as always.

Now does this mean my 88 Hawk qualifies as vintage? I never thought I'd see the day

Next time you and the wife are at wild plum, there's a great swimming hole off of the trail leading out of the campground, half mile or so out, under a foot bridge. And lots and lots of water garter snakes which is neat.

because that's what Scuderia told me when I took it in for service a few years back. The service writer said "We don't usually work on vintage bikes here"

wtf indeed.

 

[Cincinnatus]

I love this area of the world, I need to explore and learn it better. Great pics and write up, as always.

Now does this mean my 88 Hawk qualifies as vintage? I never thought I'd see the day

Next time you and the wife are at wild plum, there's a great swimming hole off of the trail leading out of the campground, half mile or so out, under a foot bridge. And lots and lots of water garter snakes which is neat.

wtf indeed.

1988 is vintage? How about 1978? The original Hawk.

 

[matty]

1988 is vintage? .

I don't actually consider the 88 vintage, I consider it to be old and slow, kinda like me

If I remember properly, John posted photos of this ride last year and that ride had some true vintage...unless I'm thinking of another thread

 

[Maddevill]

When I was young I used to go to Sierra City and Downieville so often that they made us "Honorary Locals". Used to do a lot of fly fishing up there. Spectacular view from the fire lookout on top of the Sierra Buttes

Mad