Reiff/Rayhouse Road—Fiske Pond overnight

[ROL]

Great write up John, that was truly an adventure. Talked to Felix the day after and he was in good spirits with a little pain but ready to get back out there when he heals. My wife Laura who some of you know here as ROL was an angel and drove out to help and get Felix's bike home. Thank you Laura I love you.

I am glad it all ended okay, no major damage done. Great job to all you guys for handling a tough situation well. I love you too!

 

[wheel_muse]

Thanks for your post, John. More adventure than you bargained for, but it turned out ok. Sympathies to Mr Felix Hope you heal well and soon.

You made the best of things. Good work, people!

 

[flipSD]

Big thank you to Craig and Laura for getting me to the hospital and my bike home safe. John and bananachunks nice meeting you both lookin forward to getting back out there if the wife lets me lol. Glad you had some advil bananachunks

Turned out my hand was more than sprained. I fractured my metacarpal and scaphoid in my left hand and i'll need surgery. Quite the adventure on and off the bike!

Thanks all for the well wishes

 

[1962siia]

Bummer on needing surgery! Best wishes for full recovery and getting back out there!

 

[budman]

John. Keep living and sharing

Mr Felix heal well and best wishes with the new one!

 

[SFMCjohn]

Big thank you to Craig and Laura for getting me to the hospital and my bike home safe. John and bananachunks nice meeting you both lookin forward to getting back out there if the wife lets me lol. Glad you had some advil bananachunks

Turned out my hand was more than sprained. I fractured my metacarpal and scaphoid in my left hand and i'll need surgery. Quite the adventure on and off the bike!

Thanks all for the well wishes

Hey Felix!

really enjoyed meeting you, and was certainly inspired by your fortitud. none of us thought you had a sprain when we saw your hand! good luck with the surgery and with the new baby later in the year, and will look forward to seeing you again, soon!

Great write up John, that was truly an adventure. Talked to Felix the day after and he was in good spirits with a little pain but ready to get back out there when he heals. My wife Laura who some of you know here as ROL was an angel and drove out to help and get Felix's bike home. Thank you Laura I love you.

I am glad it all ended okay, no major damage done. Great job to all you guys for handling a tough situation well. I love you too!

Hi guys! Laura, thank you so much for being our roadside angel!

we would’ve been in way more of a situation without your kind help and without Craig’s calm and competent leadership once things went sideways!

pic of your Mr Craig, the man himself, and his mighty KTM, on the right, with Felix and his white boots and George in the middle. (we ran into BARFer GXXRDRVR at the Pope Cnyn Party bridge, who snapped us a group pic)

hope to cross paths with you soon, Laura, and thanks again ...

 

[SFMCjohn]

Great Pics and write up John. I hope Mr. Felix heals up quickly!

Bummer on needing surgery! Best wishes for full recovery and getting back out there!

Great writeup and associated pics/vids! Glad Mr Felix seems to be doing OK. As a new middle aged rider I have been looking for some dirt options around here and have made it out to the south entrance of knoxville a couple of times, but didnt spend long in the "park". I looked at rd 40 on the map a bit, so was happy to see these pics! But got to say it looks a bit much for me lol.

Thanks for your post, John. More adventure than you bargained for, but it turned out ok. Sympathies to Mr Felix Hope you heal well and soon.

You made the best of things. Good work, people!

John. Keep living and sharing

Mr Felix heal well and best wishes with the new one!

Hey guys, thanks for reading and posting!

yes, twinstar, we love RD40 because it’s so close to home, but it can be a handful, for me, for sure ...

 

[seldredg]

I noted the comment "we met up at the usual BARF Second Sunday Starbucks in Cordelia." So, this is a monthly ride? is it big bike friendly? I have a dual sport and a bigger ADV bike.

 

[boney]

Have been contemplating taking the Jeep up to Buck Island. The only question was the gate. Yolo County says they do not lock it, so I would presume the company that owns the mining claim is who locks it?

Seems like the road is a bit narrow here and there, but plenty of room for an old jeep.

Thanks for posting, and keeping the adventure riding forum alive.

 

[SFMCjohn]

I noted the comment "we met up at the usual BARF Second Sunday Starbucks in Cordelia." So, this is a monthly ride? is it big bike friendly? I have a dual sport and a bigger ADV bike.

hey sledredg, I owe you a PM for a cup of coffee, just haven’t been down your way recently.

we used to have a fairly active Second Sunday thread, I’m sure you’ve seen it:
ADV/DS ride Lake Berryessa/Knoxville OHV/Rayhouse Rd.

would say Reiff/Rayhouse/Buck Island is suitable for big bikes, it can just be steep and rutted. talking about dry weather, I wouldn’t take any bike back there if it’s muddy.

it’s kind of a long day ride for me, so I didn’t do the Second Sunday ride much, unless meeting them after riding up on Saturday and camping. I usually post up when I’m doing that ... come to think of it we had a less dramatic broken n00bie bone, last time, too ...

hope to see you soon!

 

[SFMCjohn]

Have been contemplating taking the Jeep up to Buck Island. The only question was the gate. Yolo County says they do not lock it, so I would presume the company that owns the mining claim is who locks it?

Seems like the road is a bit narrow here and there, but plenty of room for an old jeep.

Thanks for posting, and keeping the adventure riding forum alive.

hey boney!

loved seeing your Jeep/Hull Mtn ice and snow pics, recently, elsewhere. the gate is iffy in the winter, but sometimes you get lucky. certainly suitable for an old jeep I’d say ... think the gate is in Napa County? I forget, but either they or Yolo would lock the gate in winter so the road doesn’t get too torn up when it’s muddy, I suppose ... the mining activity has been too intermittent over the years for me to have a sense of how they might try to control access.

The road down to Buck Island maybe used to have spots you’d have to worry about scratching your rig, but since the fires it is all pretty wide, suitable for your Cadillac project, maybe ...

 

[matty]

was really a bit shocked to see how quickly the sort of wash out in the vid have returned.

Seems like the time to ride is now, before it washes away anymore, then again, is it ever going to rain again? I'm close to getting back on the bike, a little nervous, but close.

Great writeup and associated pics/vids! Glad Mr Felix seems to be doing OK. As a new middle aged rider I have been looking for some dirt options around here and have made it out to the south entrance of knoxville a couple of times, but didnt spend long in the "park". I looked at rd 40 on the map a bit, so was happy to see these pics! But got to say it looks a bit much for me lol.

Check out the vids that Bananachunks posted, you'll see it's not all challenging, but bits here and there are for sure. I'd say Knoxville OHV south to north, is easier. Do folks agree?

Turned out my hand was more than sprained. I fractured my metacarpal and scaphoid in my left hand and i'll need surgery. Quite the adventure on and off the bike!

Thanks all for the well wishes

Ouch, good luck with the surgery, when I broke my scaphoid, I was in a cast for 6 months, 3 of those in a full arm cast. Hopefully the surgery will give you a speedy recovery. And good luck with the dad duties and the baby doodies!

 

[Cabrito]

You really want to be up for adventure if you go out when it's wet. On this day we had cwanger2000 with us on his KLR and he had to pick it up quite a few times.



I think under good conditions it's fine for a big bike, but in the current condition it looks like you would want to be comfortable with some pretty varied terrain. Not sure I want to be out there right now on my 1090, but I'm soft..

 

[seldredg]

Hi John. Would be a long day ride for me too. Looking for a one night overnight type of ride just to get out and about on the dual sport.

 

[1962siia]

You really want to be up for adventure if you go out when it's wet. On this day we had cwanger2000 with us on his KLR and he had to pick it up quite a few times.



I think under good conditions it's fine for a big bike, but in the current condition it looks like you would want to be comfortable with some pretty varied terrain. Not sure I want to be out there right now on my 1090, but I'm soft..

I love this pic. That was a really fun day, and Craig was impressive in the mud on that klr!

 

[SFMCjohn]

I love this pic. That was a really fun day, and Craig was impressive in the mud on that klr!

Mr Craig told us the KLR mud story, and that the BARF Baja crew were some of his riding buddies ... pretty sure the KLR in the Cache Creek water crossing pic, above, is the same KLR from Cabrito and your mud ride.

 

[1962siia]

Yes it's one and the same. I also remember him railing it on the Sheetiron. I feel good if I can stay in the same zipcode as him while we're riding.

 

[SFMCjohn]

Hi John. Would be a long day ride for me too. Looking for a one night overnight type of ride just to get out and about on the dual sport.

yes, much longer to Reiff Rd from your part of the world ...

see if I can talk Mr bananachunks into a Williams Hill or Panoche BLM overnight sometime in the near future, and will be sure to give you a heads-up.

test hot link from MA, 01/31/2022

test MA photo link, 02/14/2022

 

[Cabrito]

I love this pic. That was a really fun day, and Craig was impressive in the mud on that klr!

Me too, it's a great shot of you, Aaron, and Tom. Aaron did pretty damn good on that big 690 too.

 

[N4teTheGreat]

Aside from the broken hand, looks like a lot of fun. I hadn't been thinking much about riding out that way given the closure and bridge being out as it doesn't seem like there is that much to ride in Knoxville proper (or maybe it's just that a lot of those spur trails are a bit beyond me). At any rate, great pics / writeup.