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Late-Season Carrizo Plain Run

stratslingr77

stratslingr77

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 30, 2006
Location
East Bay
Moto(s)
R1250 GSA
701 Enduro
I've had this past weekend blocked off on the calendar for a moto trip for a few months and hoped to get into the Mendo Forest but the weather Gods had other plans so I enlisted Bananachunks and Monte for a run down to Carrizo Plain with hopes of avoiding rain and slightly warmer temperatures.

We met up in San Juan Bautista on Friday morning and worked our way south on Hwy 25, Old Hernandez, Coalinga, and on to Parkfield for lunch.

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It's been a couple of years since I've been down this way...it was a nice refresher on these AWESOME roads!
 
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After lunch, we railed Cholame Road, Bitterwater, and Hwy 58 into Taft for fuel, firewood, and beer. Last time at Carrizo, we had found a really cool camp spot on a hilltop and I had saved the location so our plan was to head there for the night. We got in right at dusk.

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...and closed out a fantastic day over instant Ramen, a cigar, and a campfire
 
At 6:30 Saturday morning, I was awakened by the pitter-patter of rain on my tent. Shit. AccuWeather showed the rain passing in about an hour and we rode it out in our tents.

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Sure enough, AccuWeather was...accurate and the rain stopped.
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We got our act together and went riding around 10:30.
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After hooning around Carrizo for a few hours, we dropped into Taft for a late lunch.
 
It was mid-afternoon by the time we had wrapped up lunch and we didn't have a plan for the rest of the day. We had loosely discussed maybe heading towards Williams Hill with a goal of probing Nacimiento-Fergusson Road. Rumor has it it's open to local traffic and we wanted to see for ourselves.

But it was past 3pm by the time we got back to camp. It would've been around a 3 hour ride to Williams Hill, putting us in after dark. So we would have to rush to tear down camp, rush to get to Williams Hill, and rush to set up camp again in the dark. Or we could just stay here and enjoy the sunset. I had a Mountain House meal, a flask, and a cigar, so all good with me. Everyone agreed.

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The wind died down after dark and we solved the world's problems until around 9pm. All in all, another great day!
 
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Great fun! I'm guessing it was a little cold there at night?
 
Sunday morning turned into another backroad blast headed home. We rode north out of Carrizo on Soda Lake Road to Hwy 58, then La Panza into Paso, breakfast in San Miguel, then Indian Valley/Peachtree/Hwy 25 into Hollister before slabbing home. The riding was too spirited to stop for pictures today...and we wanted to get home before dark. Another fantastic moto weekend in the books!
 
We more or less tossed a coin as to whether we would go over Parkfield Grade and then on to Los Gatos-Coalinga Rd or head out west and over Carmel Valley Rd.

Carmel Valley won. Mostly because we didn't want to get in to Monterey at ten o'clock at night. Eight was late enough.
 
Tally Whacker said:
We more or less tossed a coin as to whether we would go over Parkfield Grade and then on to Los Gatos-Coalinga Rd or head out west and over Carmel Valley Rd.

Carmel Valley won. Mostly because we didn't want to get in to Monterey at ten o'clock at night. Eight was late enough.
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Sounds like a great ride!
 
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