Colorado Cruiser: 2019 Pacific Coast Highway Day 2

2019 Pacific Coast Highway - Ridgecrest to Three Rivers

Today's plan was to meet at 9:00, gassed up and ready to leave. I woke up at 5:00. Only 4 hours to go, better get packed up.

I stayed in bed and played some solitair, checked facbook, instagram, a few news feeds, work email, work chat, church announcement, personal email, and anything else I could think of. Surely it's time to get finally. It was 5:30.

I went ahead and got up and ready for the day. I was almost done when a huge crash sounded outside. It sounded either like a construction scaffolding collapsing, or really loud thunder. It turned out to be thunder. There was an intense rain shower outside but it only lasted 10 minutes then blew away.

The thunder woke up my room mate Ross. Or I guess it re-woke him and he too decided to start his day.

Ross and I are both riding our bikes alone, so we decided to share the expense of a hotel room between us. At $130 or higher per night, that's quite a savings over 9 days.

When I left the room, I saw a group of men leaning against the railing and stairing out at the dawn. They looked like a group of road construction workers getting ready for their day. I asked whether they'd been up for the rain and one of them said "Yes". Then he said "Not enough rain to cool the temperatures, but enough to make they day humid". I decided to leave them with their misery and made no more small talk.

The hotel breakfast was a standard waffles, eggs, bacon, cereal, etc. I made a waffle with eggs and bacon. They eggs were horrible but the bacon and waffle were ok.

By the time I finished there were others from the group awake. John and Drew were, of course, out polishing their bikes. I went and dried mine off as well. There really hadn't been that much rain but it was enough to loosen all the road grime.

John and Angela decided to go to the restaurant across the street and get a good breakfast and invited me to go along. I'd eaten but went along for the good conversation. I did decide to get a single egg over easy to make up for the powdered eggs. I even managed to eat it without getting that one drip of yoke that I usually get down the front of my shirt. I was quite proud of myself.

A little more talking and around the bikes, more packing, more cleaning, more explaining the cool gadgets that everyone has found to make the ride more comfortable and it was finally time to go.

We had a group prayer then mounted up and started the ride.

The first 40 miles was just more valley riding. Flat terrain and straight roads. It was in the low 80s but you could feel the heat building. It was going to be another scorcher at the low altitudes.

Luckily we started climbing some foothills before too long and the temperatures stayed in the 80s. We rode about 70 miles then the cry went up over the CB radio for a bathroom stop. We found a nice gas station and pulled into some shade for a break.

A few of us gassed up and nearly everyone bought a cold drink and a snack. My dad used to say "The car run just as good on the gas at the top of the tank as it does from the bottom" which to us boys meant "Don't wait till the last minute to gas up" or more directly "Fill up the ##%%@ car after you borrow it". It's left me with the habit of looking for a gas station when I'm close to half a tank. So I gassed up even though I was only down 1/3 of a tank.

I also grabbed a gatorade (sugary salt water) and some nuts. We did more standing around the bikes, comparing fuel mileage, handlebar configuration and other world changing topics. These time of joking and mingling are close to half the fun of these rides.

Eventually someone coughs and walks toward a bike and it suddenly becomes a scramble to get gear back on and mounted up. It's about that time that I usually remember I was going to adjust the camera, or fix the strap on the helmet or some other bit of work that I can't do while riding and didn't do when I should have. I'm always scrambling to get ready to ride. This time I'd completely forgotten to go to the bathroom and realized that I needed to. I made a world class dash and was only about 30 seconds behind the last rider.

We only rode about a mile when we hit a construction zone that stopped us for 15 minutes. It wasn't that hot, but we were just sitting there in direct sun light. I hate sitting in the sun but there was nothing for it but to sit there. I drank allot of my 3 liter water bag just sitting there. Have I said "sitting there" enough?

Once we got started again, we circled around a big lake and the radio chatter was all about how full the lake looked compared to the last time the group had come this way. I guess California is finally getting some rain to help with the drought.

Once past the lake we really began to climb and the road got very twisty. That was fun. Most of the turns were gentle and you could ride them at good speed. Its fun to just lean left and right through the turns without hitting much brake.

It was cooling off, the roads were nice, it was getting greener, and I was with good people. It was a awesome.

We reached the top of the road without much fanfare and began our decent. Suddenly we popped out of the forest right on the edge of a tall bluff. There were still trees between the road and the edge, enough trees to make it hard to see just what was out there. I announced over the radio that I'd like to stop at a scenic overlook and get some pictures.

Drew and John tried to find something, but didn't find any pullouts. Finally we found a bit of a wide spot on the shoulder with a bigger gap and stopped. Both Drew and I flew our drones for a bit but there were still so many trees that I didn't get much video, just one dronie of me.

"What's a Dronie?" I hear you asking.

A Dronie is like a selfie but with a drone. You center the drone on yourself, then tell it to fly backward and up while keeping you centered. It's kind of a cool widening shot.

Click Here to see the Dronie

Once we started riding again it wasn't long until the temperature began to climb. The green began to disappear and big rolling hilss of grass rose up around us. If it wasn't so hot I would have loved this riding as much as the rest. The roads were still fun with big sweeping turns.

Again, the radio call went out for a bathroom break. But this time there wasn't any civilization around us. Eventually we reached a crossroads with a single bar on the side of the road. Most of us opted to keep going but 2 couples decided to stop.

We went about another 15 miles before we pulled into a little town with a nice gas station. We gassed up and decided to get something to eat. There was a sandwich/taco shop built into the gas station.

Mexican food from a gas station in nowhere California .... what could go wrong.

It was actually pretty good. I got a steak burrito.

We sat at their little tables and cooled off while we ate, and, of course, we solved all the world's problems.

I looked up our hotel on the GPS and saw that we were only 30 miles from the hotel, so I figured we were nearly done and I put my cameras away. Big Mistake, or maybe not.

When we left the gas station we turned away from where the GPS was directing me. In fact the GPS kept telling me over and over again to make a U turn or take this road or that road, but we kept riding almost directly away.

Finally after 20 miles we turned down a road that Google also instructed me to turn down. We climbed up a bit, but not enough to reduce the heat. And within a few miles the road deteriorated into nearly a dirt road. It was paved but in such bad condition that you couldn't tell.

The road twisted, turned, bucked, shook, and rattled the bike. And the GPS said we had 19 miles before we turned off.

It was a very interesting road and I didn't get a single picture of it.

There were allot of hairpins and the road in the hairpins seemed to be especially bad. Like the entire finished layer was gone with nothing but the rocks and a little asphalt left to hold them in place. I kept expecting the road to become gravel and my rear tire to begin spinning. But it never happened.

I slowed down enough that I lost site of all the bikes ahead of me. I tend to meander roads like that. I just ride at my comfort level and don't worry about everyone else. I had the CB radio and could hear them and when they asked about me, I re-assured them that I was fine.

The road lead up and over a fairly big hill, and eventually dropped us into another set of grass covered hills and valleys. The road straightened out a bit and the condition improved. There was only about 10 miles of bad raod.

We only passed 2 other vehicles on the whole 23 mile road. But there was a big house/mansion 5 miles from the end and I figure the cars were headed there.

We eventually emerged onto a bigger highway and twisted the throttle for the last 15 miles to the hotel. It took us over an hour and a half to go what the GPS had said would be a 30 minute ride, but it was an interesting route.

We checked into the hotel at 3:00. Everyone else decided that it was still early and wanted to ride up to see a big tree about an hour out of town.

I had had enough heat for the day, so I opted to stay at the hotel. I began the daily ritual of gathering photos, uploading and writing this blog. It takes about 2 hours to write this, and another hour to organize photos and videos. I'm barely touching videos unless they are simple trim and upload.

After a while I decided to get out for a short walk. I walked up the hill to a bank and got a roll of quarters so I can do laundry tomorrow. Then I spotted a grocery store and figured I'd get some fruit. When I got to the store, there was a sign proclaiming that it was BBQ day. I wondered what that meant until I spotted a big cart inside with freshly cooked chicken, beef, and pork. I decided that was going to be my dinner and bought a pound of baby back ribs, some nectarines and strawberries.

With my treasure in hand I walked back to the hotel.

Eating a rib every now and then and typing away, I've written this blog post. Ribs, strawberries, and diet Mtn Dew makes a really good meal I must say.

I took an hour break from blogging to go for a nice cool swim in the pool. The hot tub was only a warm tub but it did relax my muscles a bit. The pool was wonderful and really cooled me off.

After the pool I showered, attended the nightly planning session for the next day's ride, and teasing Drew. We all have good stories about things we've done, but because Drew often leads, he gets saddled with lots of great stories of missed turns, wrong turns, bad roads, and miss communications. But I'm sure grateful he and John have planned and led this ride.

Tomorrow's an 8 hour day in the saddle, so the plan is wheels up at 7:30.

Ride route from Ridgecrest to Three Rivers