Colorado Cruiser: 2019 Pacific Coast Highway

2019 Pacific Coast Highway - Ridgecrest to Angels Camp

Wow, where to start!!

This was BY FAR the most twisties I have ever ridden in a single day.

The scheduled departure time was 7:30, so I got up at 5:30 and began preparing. I had to pack clothes, put away all the chargers and electronics, load the bike, gas the bike, clean the bike, clean the windshield, clean the face shield on the helmet, load my hydration bag, and probably 10 more things I can't think of.

Todays breakfast was a duplicate of yesterdays, waffle, egg, bacon, yogurt. Todays eggs were allot better than yesterdays but still pretty bad.

We departed right on time.

The road began swerving just a few miles out of town and barely let up throughout the whole 280 mile ride. We started with a 30 mile climb up 4,000 feet into Sequoia National Park. There were many many hairpin turns. I love sweeping turns, but hairpins drive me nuts because I often misjudge the exit.

I can hear John's voice yelling "Turn your head, Don't look at the road, accelerate through the turn, and some other stuff that just turns into white noise". What my body says is "Remember that time you got half way through the turn and the road was full of debris from a rainstorm?" The bike washed out on me. I wasn't hurt and the bike was fine, but that feeling of the wheels loosing traction and sliding has continued to put my heart in my throat when I go through hairpins.

It takes me a day or two of consistent riding to get back into hairpins because I only ride hairpins a few times a year and I fall out of practice. That's one of the reasons I'll eventually switch to a 3 wheeler.

Anyway, back to the ride. After about 10 miles I lost sight of the last rider, but I continued to ride at my own steady pace, then speed up on the sweeping turns.

As I rounded a big turn I saw 3 of our bikes stopped in a scenic overlook. One of the bikes had overheated due to pulling a heavy trailer and following a slow car. They stopped to let the bike cool, so I waited with them.

After 10 minutes we started riding again, but I again, hung back and rode slower.

Half way up I passed an older lady walking down the side of the road, headed down the hill. Not far behind her was her car. It was in a f afpullout, but sticking half way out into the road. I slowed down and asked if she was OK. She waved at me and said "Fine".

It later turned out that she was the super slow car they had been following when the bike overheated. The other bikes had continued following her. She was weaving and seemed to be drunk Eventually she pulled off into the pullout, but her timing was wrong and she hit the side wall. Once she finally stopped, the car was half way out in the road. She just got out, made a rude gesture at the riders and started walking down the road.

Where she thought she was going, no one was sure. There was nothing nearby.

So we kept riding and finished the climb to the top. Once the hairpins stopped I was able to keep up.

The temperature had dropped down into the 70s on top and it felt great to ride through those massive trees. They weren't the biggest trees I've ever seen, but they were sure big. After another 8 miles we found the rest of our group stopped at a small park gas station.

We sat in the shade of a big tree and chatted about the ride so far. That's where I heard the story of old lady and the car crash

After more chatting and potty break, we continued the ride, but this time we were descending off the mountain, so the heat started to rise again. There weren't any more tight hairpins, but there was allot of tight turns, especially when we started following the edge of the mountain on the final descent. It was a fun ride other than the rising heat.

At the bottom we stopped again at a gas station. My odometer said we had only gone 60 miles and it had taken us 3 hours. That is some pretty slow riding and it was a combination of all the turns and all the stopping. We still had over 200 miles of riding.

Everyone agreed that we needed to pull more continuous riding and minimize the stops. So down the road we went as the temperatures continued to climb.

It didn't take long before we turned down another "Drew Bypass", meaning we bypassed the boarding, straight road and onto an interesting twisty road. Some of the roads were single lane with a large burm on the downhill side. To me it looked like an aquaduct but hauling water, and it really might have been intended to divert water from eroding the hillsides.

We wound around and over several big hills as we wound our way North toward Yosemite. And despite out best efforts, after an hour and 50 miles we needed another pit stop at a gas station. It was also getting close to lunch time so took a few detours looking for a town with gas and food but couldn't find anything.

Finally we spotted a gas station. The attendant told us about a good burger place "just 10 miles up the road, you can't miss it". Well we did. There was no sign and the only road that might have led to it was under construction and packed with cars so we skipped it and kept going.

We picked a BBQ place and followed the GPS, only to find it closed.

We eventually settled for a Dennys and packed into 3 booths. I thought it would be a cheap lunch, but wound up paying $24 for a cheese steak, onion rings, and drink. I guess it's California near a famous national park so you have to expect higher cost.

Back on the road, we had more twists and turns as we wound our way towards Yosemite. We hit another construction delay and had to sit for 20 minutes. I sat on my bike, hoping we would continue.

When I finally decided to take off my helmet and get off the bike I saw the traffic begin to move and had to rush to get back on and ready. Next time I'll just get off right away and stretch out the kinks.

It wasn't long until we were at the entry gate to Yosemite. The line wasn't too long this late in the afternoon, just 5 minutes. But we were nowhere near the Yosemite valley. The park entrance is 20 miles or so from the real attractions. We had to ride at 35mph the whole way to the valley. Except for the excitement when an impatient van decided to start passing no matter the double striped center line.

He passed me first on a blind left hand turn and when he saw a car coming, he nearly cut me off squeezing in between me and the bike ahead of me. I had to slam on the brakes to avoid him.

But that didn't disuade him, he kept passing any time there was even a little gap in the oncoming traffic, so everyone started pulling over to the shoulder to let him pass.

I think there was another car earlier in the day that did the same thing, but I'd only heard the radio traffic about him.

We had climbed quite a ways after lunch, so the air temperature was back to bearable, probably the mid 80s.

Yosemite was mostly a driving tour for us. We stopped once to get pictures, including a group picture at the Tunnel overlook. A nice young but somewhat confused girl used a few cameras while we all tried to look awake and less sweaty with El Capitan behind us.

We packed back up and headed into the valley, but not for long. We took the first turn across the river and headed right back out. We still had 80 miles to go to get to the next hotel.

The road out was another 20 miles of no passing but was even more packed than the road in. We exited the park and began the descent on a pretty nice road with big sweeping turns.

But once again, the need for a bathroom break asserted itself. We followed the GPS to a gas station but missed the turnoff so we kept going. Eventually we found a scenic overlook with the world's smelliest outhouse which we used despite the condition. When ya gotta go ... ya gotta go.

Leaving the rest stop it wasn't long until we came up behind a bus and had to slow way down. The bus never pulled over so we had to stay behind it the whole way to the foot of the mountain, but once the twisties stopped, the bus took off and soon left us and a few cars in the dust.

By this time the sun was getting pretty low and we were on a road that was generally headed West, so much of the time the sun was directly in our eyes. I especially hate when the sun is right in your eyes just as you are entering a heavily shaded piece of road. You can't see a think in that shadow and you just have to hope that now on has stopped just inside the shade.

Or the few times you're just coming up over a rise and BAM, full sunlight right in your eyes preventing you from seeing what s on the other side of the hill.

John and Drew were leading us along the route, but somehow they missed a turn, just as my GPS told me to bear right. I called out over the radio that they should have turned and they agreed, but by that time, the worst possible thing had happened. I was in the lead of the group.

After all the grief we'd given them for the last few days, they refused to take the lead back, so I had to continue at the front.

The sun kept sinking lower and blinding me so I could barely see the map on my phone, but I kept us on the route.

John said I was doing great and should lead tomorrow, until I reminded him how slow I typically ride if left to myself. He quickly fired me and agreed to lead tomorrow.

We were on highway 49 (as in the gold rush road) with only a few miles left, when the GPS told me to turn left. Both John and Drew agrees that we should turn. It was another fun road with cool twists and turns, but after just a few miles, we turned left right back onto highway 49.

We arrived in Angels Camp just before sunset. Our hotel was on the far side of town, but all 3 GPSes disagreed on just where it was. Despite that, we drove straight to it and began to check in.

It turned out that over lunch, John had received an email telling him that our reservations had been cancelled, so he'd been on the phone with the hotel throughout the afternoon, trying to get it straightened out. Due to a credit card snafu, we had both cancelled reservations, and double booked reservations. The desk clerk agreed to just ignore everything and book us rooms individually.

By this time it was 8:00 and I needed to get working on the blog. So Ross and I ran out for fast food (I got a McSalad) and I settled in writing. It's now 11:45 and even though I haven't read the post over for typos, grammer, and outright lies, I'm going to add pictues and post this so I can get some sleep before the 8:00 start in the morning.

It was a long, hard day, and my right shoulder aches, but it was also allot of fun with some great roads. More to come tomorrow.

PS, 2 national parks, so no drone footage. Drones are illegal in national parks.

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