Carrizo Plain Rideout Hideout ...

Thanks to Eric B and ThumperX I got a heads up (I don't do Facebook) that there'd be camping in a private campground at the Carrizo Plain, that I'd never heard of ... the nice folks at Motobird Adventures and Law Tigers had arranged for music around the campfire and secured a group campground and maybe there'd be wildflowers, so Cary and myself were in ...

however, life intrudes:



we were all signed up to ride down on an FJ-09 and a KLR when a knee was twisted ... I was like all "oh well," but Cary was like, "we'll rent a car and go have fun anyway ..." good idea ... arty

We were going past Santa Margarita so we stopped by Larryland to visit Larry ... he took us on a tour of a friend's shop:



Bultaco 360 flat tracker ... what real men race ...



a B50 with an old Cal Poly Penguins sticker ...



Cary posing on the old Triumph chopper ... check out the no front suspension ...



Larry's 1975 Norton that he purchased brand new off the showroom floor in 1977 ... owned it ever since ... he's removed the starter and gee-gaws from the handlebars and was the one year the bike came with a rear disk, so I'm told ... he did the orange metal-flake himself in the back yard, and it looks bitchin' in the sun ...



sure I've posted this pic before, but it's an '86 Gamma being club-raced by Larry in 1988 at Summit Point WV ... so we post it again ...



and the man himself ...

ok, so much for that adventure in Larryland ... on to the Carrizo Plain!



love the Carrizo Plain, and was expecting to have missed the flowers, but Kerri D. from Motobird Adventures and Matt from Law Tigers timed it perfectly ...

there were wildflowers for miles ... looking east toward Hurricane Ridge ...



got to hang out with Liza from Re-Cycle Garage ... safety third!





Anna rode her GS down from San Jose ...



part of "the loop" we were riding near the Rideout Hideout private group campground ... due to the wildflowers, the Selby Camp and the KCL Camp were over-run ... I'd never seen so much traffic on the Carrizo Plain, but we had a huge area all to ourselves ... god bless Kerri and Matt!

Otis and Eric B. loaded up their DRZ and KLX for camping and rode down from San Francisco and San Jose ...





Liza brought both a Honda CRF 250 and a late model KLR, which she let me ride around the loop ...
have to say, I loved the CRF 250 ... real suspension (and low weight) compared to my
pre-gen KLR ...

the weather was perfect ...

Jalopyshoppe's famous City Bike-featured CRF250L Rally and his cool camping rig ... he also had a fun Buell set up with TKC80s, but I failed to get a pic ...



me and my friend Eric B planning our Baja 2020 assault ...



Kerri and Matt ordered us up an epic sunset, too ...

Cool stuff! Funny that I've met Larry a couple times. Once at a gas station in Atown before heading out to a trackday at Button Willow and again a couple months ago at the grocery store riding his Z900RS. The riding community really is tight knit!

ha, that's cool that you crossed paths ... Larry ran into Budman and Butch once having lunch in Santa Margarita ...

thanks for reading and posting!

Moto life is good, eh?

Butch said:

Moto life is good, eh?

Click to expand...

the goodest!



we had a huge pile of firewood, an awesome "optional" pot-luck, and the most epic live music ...
I was totally unprepared for how awesome Ron (playing his drumbox) and Evan (on guitar) were going to be ...
plus, they are both hard-core BMW GS riders ... arty



Ms. Jalopyshoppe sharing a joke with Kerri ...



some of the campfire crew ...

Nice this was after I rode back from CABDR at Carrizo Plains, cold and no one around but colorful mountains.

Nice trip!



I'm driving to LA next week and had been considering a detour through the plain. I haven't done my homework to see if there are any flowers left.

I'm still sick over the fact I didn't get to go on this trip. Last minute workload and pending taxes really spoil a lot of fun.

Really happy Eric B switched up plans and involved you and Cary.

Kerri of Motobird does it right.

HadesOmega said:

Nice this was after I rode back from CABDR at Carrizo Plains, cold and no one around but colorful mountains.

Click to expand...

awesome pic!

got lucky years ago and rode into a super-bloom down there with no one around ...
before Instagram, I guess ...

boney said:

Nice trip!

I'm driving to LA next week and had been considering a detour through the plain. I haven't done my homework to see if there are any flowers left.

Click to expand...

hope you detour and hope the flowers cooperate!

ThumperX said:

I'm still sick over the fact I didn't get to go on this trip. Last minute workload and pending taxes really spoil a lot of fun.

Really happy Eric B switched up plans and involved you and Cary.

Kerri of Motobird does it right.

Click to expand...

Kerri is fantastic ... we were blown away by the private campground and the music ...
so glad you and Eric B thought of us, and that we had enough sense (Cary!) to seize the day ...



fun group of people, ready for a last ride on Sunday morning ...

got to check out Karbon's fun BRP ... he posted a pic of his super-moto XR650R on BARF here.

always have to try to remind myself and remember how much fun BARF Rallies
and ADV rallies are, and make every effort to make the scene. arty

see you around
the campfire,
-- SFMCjohn

Great stuff John!
Ron’s drum box is called a Cajon - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajón
It was fascinating to watch him.
Those guys were fun to listen to.
I have a few pics to share if that’s ok.

Eric B said:

Great stuff John!
Ron’s drum box is called a Cajon - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajón
It was fascinating to watch him.
Those guys were fun to listen to.
I have a few pics to share if that’s ok.

Click to expand...

You bet, love pics!

fun to read about Ron's Cajon ...

We were just there the previous weekend! Though the private campground looks like fun, but we just did dispersed instead.

Thanks for sharing the journey in photo's John!
Looks like a cool event.
Eric had mentioned he was going to an event when he came into the shop last week.

The wife's knee surgery on Friday kinda demanded my attention last weekend (and for awhile now).

Hope to see ya in Cedarville in June.

Here's a few from the weekend -

I rode down from San Jose. 25, Los Gatos/Coalinga, Parkfield Grade, Chalome, Davis, Annette, Bitterwater roads. The scenery was green & lovely .

West entrance to Clear Creek


The dirt side of Parkfield Grade. You should all go ride this road now.

There are small roads all around the campsite for exploring.


Looking down on camp



Camp site

Near the camp site -




Looking out over the southern portion of Carrizo Plain.

The group, on saturday's ride.
Hats off to Fish, riding his Buell Uly, 2 up, on all the roads we did.


The road out to Soda Lake road.