The Ride Day 6
I looked back at my onboard footage and it was 20 minutes from the incident to the Stop-N-Rob. We did gas up.
I stand corrected
The Ride Day 6
204 Miles
Map
A cruise through town led us across the Noyo River Bridge and eventually back into less heavily populated country, but not in the boonies. After crossing the Big River, and into Mendocino the density of people dropped, and nature took over. It was surprisingly warm for this area with temps reaching the low 90’s. Who picked this time frame anyway?
It was pretty and a few passes through the small towns provided some scenic and rustic California life images. I love that part of riding, seeing places that the typical tourist gives 2 shits about, but makes me wonder what life here would be like.
A stop at Stewarts Point Store Stewarts Point Store was a must! We made fun of the NO MOTORCYCLE PARKING sign of course.
We also snacked and hydrated. I got a call from the Drone company saying our permit to fly the Golden Gate Bridge had been approved by CalTrans Film Division and all you have to do is mail a check and provide them a routing number.

“I am on the road on a motorcycle with no check book and zero chance of doing this, can you do it?” CRICKETS.
That meant we had a 150’ limit and there would be no close up imagery. More later.
After a bit of banter, some laughs and the required cleaning of our shields we headed to the historical Russian compound Fort Ross and Museum for drone footage by our crew. I had never been to Fort Ross, but read all about it during film/ride prep. It was all I thought it would be cracked up to be (no time to hit the Museum though). Really cool, but it was not really cool…still in the high 80’s. Enchanter did not join us for the walk down to the Fort, rather choosing a chance to catch his breath on a picnic bench. The Director of Photography gave me crap for parking in the shade. “That screws up my shot!” …..Dude it was hot!!

So of course we rolled it again and parked in the sun.
Then we walked down to the Fort past the Museum. The old school build was interesting and quickly we got a Sven (Chill) moto model moment too (previous pics). Danny was a bit behind us with some restroom time for an upset tummy and of course I gave him no quarter as we had a schedule to keep do the show must go on! At least we did not have to implement the emergency bathroom hand signal.. so all good. We hit the Chappel and I rang the Bell calling all to join me for a quick chat in the building where the 1800’s residents prayed for food, safety and probably cooler weather.
I imagine the bell announced to the residents at the time that it was time for Church service or a call to arms. Two of the structures were armories.
I noted that after a minute I could totally hum the bells range. The writing on it was foreign and I had some fun with the camera after seeing a “Watch for Rattlesnakes” sign. I said this says "watch for rattle snakes, this one says watch out for ticks, this one say watch out for spiders… I may be an OG, but I still am a goof ball.
Inside was interesting with some sand filled tables on each side of a small alter and the round vault to the Lord above featured an old chandelier. I joked about the tables were for cooking Salmon as the Chief had noted that was the best way to cook it. Below the sand. That did not exactly compute, but I would have to believe him. There was a pleasant echo in the Chapple and J.P. came in to shoot Chill, SLO, Mako and I do some rider chat.
We mounted back up continued along the quiet coast to Bodega Bay where we planned to grab a bite at Giochio’s Kitchen. Nope..too much time at the Fort meant a gas station lunch again. I did up my game and get some peanuts.
After gassing up and hanging in the shade I told the boys KSU in 7 minutes and we hit the mark exactly on time. After a bit the road heads inland to the east for a bit and then back to the coast at Tomales Bay. Stinson and then Muir Beach led us to the endless slow turns and hills. Getting around cars was tough here and I was getting tired and it was hot. When we finally started to find more signs of humanity I was happy because I knew the Golden Gate Bridge awaited. Soon HWY 1 brought us back to rejoin Hwy 101. It was still hot, but cooled slightly. As we sat at the light to hit the one way tunnel to enter the Vista Point where Fort Baker / Battery Point was a red BMW pulled up next me. SFMCjohn!! A fist bump and smiling eyes were exchanged.
The plan was to have some of the
SFMC crew lead us across the bridge just as they did in 1937 when the bridge opened. No chance to recreate Hap Jones jumping the line to be the first person across the new span though. Damn… Hap was BAD!!

He recreated the ride during the 50th anniversary of the bridge as noted in the Wiki link above.
We met with Brian H. and few SFMC gents including a few that have been on BARF Rallies and SFMCjohn. We did some quick chat on film with the GG Bridge in the background and several of our riders did some interviews there.
After that I finally hooked up with our drone pilot after walking past him 5 times. He finally introduced himself and I said you have 20 minutes.. fly man fly!!! “We will have the SFMC leading us across the GG Bridge as they did for all vehicles when it opened in 1937 be ready to shoot at 3:55. Drone ride along footage was planned but the dude missed it!!!! G-damn. $$ wasted.
We did mount a camera raised up on the sprinter to capture the pack of riders and all riders had their GoPro’s going. The film crew also captured some ride along images. It should still be cool even without the drone shots, but I did so want that. The permit process and then the miss by the Pilot was the biggest frustration so far.
Once across the bridge we took a right and regrouped. Then Brian led us along the coast with an SFMC scooter dude providing group support and pretty much after Brian stopped we all blew every stop sign as a group to stay together. We rode through the Tom Lantos tunnel and continued to the Montara Reef where another drone shoot was going to catch us coming up the coast and to the parking lot. The pilot had a great view seeing the footage I just saw us and yelled SWEET!!!...and just as we came around a corner he flipped it back to the coast and missed our ride in
The story was he was looking for bicycles and I was like WTF I told the bossman we were on motos via email 5 times. People just don’t pay attention!!!
Then we rode on to the Motel and the SFMC dudes that stuck with us headed to the Old Princeton Landing to start the party while we unloaded, showered and made our way there.
When I got to the OPL I saw a dude with clown hair, a mask holding a BUDMAN 4:20 sign in honor of the JOHN 3:16 dude that was at every sporting event during the 2000’s.. I laughed my ass off. Thanks B!!!
We got a cocktail, met some family, some BARF friends and some Fred’s friends for a cool evening of hanging out with a bit of filming too. Oh how I wished the patio was lit… but they had a fire pit!! The food was good, the spot awesome and when we did a filmed rider chat and people clapped.. I was shocked and humbled. Thank you all and to
The Old Princeton Landing for your support.!
At closing time (11PM) we did circles in the sprinter in front of the OPL while debating which way to head back to the Motel.

Not real smart, but kind of BAD.

A few of us hit the grocery store for munchies and beer and the shit talking went on until 2am!! Huge day..some frustration on the drone stuff, but a fun day.
Huge thanks to the SFMC for their support.
The crew had wanted a day off so we all went home to check on life shit and then meet back up to continue a day later. At first I was against it, but realized the time for them would be good and checking on work was good and that would put us in San Diego on 9/11 and that kind of made our planned tribute to the Military make sense too.
Previous pics
HERE and a few more below.
Golden Gate and more OPL pics in the next post.