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Death Valley Tour, April 14-18, 2012

Days 1 and 2 successful!

Five of us rode to Paso Robles, three to Death Valley, and two of us camped at Carrizo en route. Teaser pics below.

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Time to sleep now after a very long day.
 
Happy Hornet said:
:party

MORE!!!
Click to expand...

Ask and you shall receive :teeth

I was able to join the group for the first day's ride south to Paso - and what a great ride it was! A shout-out to Greg (Star_Man), who was all loaded up and ready to meet Rod but his Triumph Tiger would not start :wtf what a bummer...(insert clever remark about british bike reliability here).

Here's the group ready to depart SJ for the slab ride down to Holister, where the fun would begin. A motley crew of two vstroms, Triumph sprint, KLR, and Ed on his beautiful GL1800 (don't let the bike's size and reverse gear fool ya, Ed can make that bike dance!)
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Our route south from Hollister began with Cienega Road which connects to Airline Hwy/25. Beautiful twisty smooth road, with little traffic once we passed HH SVRA and all the trucks towing their dirt bikes. Some random pics of the beautiful views as we headed south.
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25 is indeed a fabulous road...so much so that I ended up riding it twice! Nice mix of straights, sweepers, and twistys, with beautiful views of the farmlands and hills...and a few places straight as an arrow for miles and no traffic, a nice safe place to explore triple-digit capabilities, if one was so inclined :twofinger
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At the junction of 25 & 198, we zig-zagged to Peach Tree Road, which turns into Indian Valley Road and dumps into San Miguel. Another great road, narrower and even less traveled, as we continued southward. Did not make it down the Parkfield grade this trip, but that's for next time - but Peachtree did not disappoint.

Arriving into Paso Robles for lunch at the downtown plaza. As we dismounted off came the layers of clothing; we had started the day in the low 50s and it was 70F and sunny in Paso :teeth
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Lot's of food choices just in the plaza alone; we went for the Good Time burgers and they were delicious...too bad we had more riding to do, the locally made Firestone beer was tempting.
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After lunch we said our goodbyes as Rod, Tim, and John headed towards Carrizo Plain, Ed headed south, and I headed back north on 101. Since I had the time, I decided to take Bitterwater Road off 101, back to 25 to retrace my steps and continue the fun.

Parting shot of the coastal range off Bitterwater Rd.
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Great day, great peeps, and awesome roads...and I only got to ride the first day :teeth


T
 
Titus58 said:
I was able to join the group for the first day's ride south to Paso - and what a great ride it was! A shout-out to Greg (Star_Man), who was all loaded up and ready to meet Rod but his Triumph Tiger would not start :wtf what a bummer...(insert clever remark about british bike reliability here).
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Thanks for the shout-out, Tim. Looks like you and the group had/are having a great ride.

Yes, I was all packed and ready to roll when my Tiger refused to start. I just about gave myself a heart attack trying to push start that fully loaded beast. But apparently, it just did NOT want to go on this trip. Maybe it was feeling a little self-conscious about looking like a pack mule with all my camping gear, saddlebags, soft luggage and bags lashed to it.

So, I pushed the 'ol girl back into the garage and spent the day at work. Of course, when I got home later that afternoon the Tiger mockingly started right up. What does that tell you??????
 
Star Man said:
So, I pushed the 'ol girl back into the garage and spent the day at work. Of course, when I got home later that afternoon the Tiger mockingly started right up. What does that tell you??????
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I forgot to ask when we were on the phone if you'd checked the kill switch. :laughing
 
rodr said:
I forgot to ask when we were on the phone if you'd checked the kill switch. :laughing
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LOL...Ha.....Remember I was weaned on Brit bikes. First thing to check is always the kill switch.

C'mon and post some more ride pix.
 
Star Man said:
Yes, I was all packed and ready to roll when my Tiger refused to start. I just about gave myself a heart attack trying to push start that fully loaded beast. Of course, when I got home later that afternoon the Tiger mockingly started right up. What does that tell you??????
Click to expand...

Maybe an angel was watching over you.:cool
 
Here's the Saturday crew taking a break somewhere en route.
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Tim and I each loaded up a bundle of firewood in Santa Margarita.
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A nice view from the camp site.
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Burning the wood. Just enough!
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Dinner.
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Also am uploading a couple of Day 1 videos... kinda slow from the hotel!

More to come.
 
Day 1 Videos

Here's some video from the ride on Peach Tree Road and Indian Valley Road.

http://youtu.be/_HMtkBW2r_4?hd=1

[youtube]_HMtkBW2r_4[/youtube]

And then the approach to and the 10 minutes on Selby Road, which goes from Soda Lake Road to our camp site Saturday afternoon.

http://youtu.be/PYxd-W4O7l0?hd=1

[youtube]PYxd-W4O7l0[/youtube]
 
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Great ride John, Tim & Rod....videos & pics too let's us see at least some of the roads, places, sceneries, & landscapes :thumbup. And also your bikes loaded up, tents set-up, food being cooked, camp fire, really nice.
Ride home safe & we're waiting to hear the full story from you all.
 
Weather seems to be good for all y'all. Very nice to post updates on the road.:thumbup See you soon.

Brianna
 
luckett said:
Was there anything blooming at carrizzo?
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Nope. If it matters, you can get current conditions by calling the Goodwin visitor center: 805-475-2131.
 
Day 2

So Tim and I packed up camp and headed out to meet John for breakfast in Maricopa. John had stayed in Taft.

This means we get to ride 20 or so miles of dirt on Soda Lake Road. For the most part that was fine, but a few spots were more challenging due to the recent rains. This video shows a sample.

[youtube]PJ4-Ree_gCY[/youtube]

Surprise! John met us just where the pavement starts, camera blazing. We rode together to the welcome sign for a photo op.

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Then breakfast at Tina's Diner in Maricopa. Highly recommended. Tina is a real character, and took this pic for us.

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The chosen route to DV takes us along Kern Canyon Road. The next video shows a bit of what that was like. For part of this we took the old Kern Canyon past the Hobo Campground and Miracle Hot Springs, it runs alongside the main road for a while.

[youtube]oEWwoT1qQAM[/youtube]

Here's where we stopped to inspect the campground.
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We take the back way into DV at John's suggestion, and he takes the lead to show us where Ballarat is.

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Then he surprises us by taking us along along Wildrose Canyon, which I think was a bit rougher than he expected. :laughing Here's a video from that.

[youtube]cwix7UAAlws[/youtube]

This makes it convenient to see the Charcoal Kilns.
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John makes a friend, Road Damage from Advrider.
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It's getting late now and time to head for the hotel in Beatty. However we ran into a little snafu on Emigrant Canyon Road.

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Seems a camper had caught on fire and completely burned. We got to wait a bit for the LEOs to let us by.

Long day! Tomorrow we head back, so I'll post more in a couple of days.
 
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