Its been a long, long, long time between rides, too long in fact, so long I had forgotten how much I enjoy them.
I hope that when you hit my blog you don’t just look here at the main section, but also at the micro blog on the right side….. If you did / do, then you might have some clue as to what I am talking about in real time as I do my little micro blogs more frequently than these. But I digress…….
The family was in LA on Monday to drop Terry off as he is heading to church summer camp. Hes getting a lift up and back by a few member’s which we really appreciate as it saves us a plane ticket, and honestly, I think its more fun for him, and if nothing else, he sees some more of the country (lucky sod).
Anyway, point is, I had an evening on my own, so I took the hint and went for an after work ride.
And wow, what a ride it was!
We went up Palomar Mountain, I am getting rusty on corners, but that’s ok, I get around them safely and smoothly, I don’t need fast any more. I would rather enjoy the view and bike than scare myself or get some sort of rush. I must be getting old!
From Palomar we headed down the East Grade Road (ie, the ‘back’ of the mountain). I think I like it more than the usual way up. Its a lot prettier and while the road is not in as good as condition, I think its more interesting.
The view over Lake Henshaw never ceases to impress and please. Its just beautiful.
From there we headed to Warner Springs. Its a tiny little town with a golf course and gliding airport and not much else.
From here, there were some interesting roads that I wanted to check out.
The first lead to an Indian Reservation and a locked gate.
The next one I hit pay dirt on!!!!
Just to prove that I was really there, I proped the camera on a rock and took this photo…..
The road here was tar, it was very narrow (there are very, very few places to pass, if you met something coming the other way, one of you would have to do some serious reversing), and a little rough, but the view around each corner made it well worth while.
Sure enough, the ‘dream’ run ended. The road turned to sand and very much 4×4 only……..
Looking at the GPS I could tell I was well over 1/3 the way along. I could go back the long way, or press on for a short distance…… Yeah, no guess’s as to what this old bald guy did…….
What do you know, the old Goldwing goes pretty good off road…… I was taking it slow, you had to, it was wash out city and super soft sand. The temperature of the bike got above normal for the first time ever. I was sweating pretty solid as well. Its a heavy bike to keep up and some where on the road.
Sure enough, come one wash out, the sand zagged and the bike zigged. In the blink of an eye, I did some pretty fancy angle parking!
The bike kept running, but I needed a break so switched it off and let it cool while I got a few photos.
The funny thing is that right here, the road looks pretty good. Compared to what I had come over and what was ahead, I am kind of glad that this was my only ‘opps’.
Here is another photo of my parking job;
The other funny thing is that I just fitted a belly bash plate for it on Friday…. never thought I would ‘need’ it that soon!
Got it out ok and kept going. It was super slow going. The washouts kept coming and the sand was replaced with rocks.
Not a lot of fun, but well and truly worth the experience and the views are just astounding;
We hit tar again about 10 minutes latter.
All up I was in the sand and dirt for only about 6 miles. It was a tough 6 miles, I will not be taking the bike back through it.
I would love to go back and video a little of it, but probably wont get the chance…. there are just too many roads out there to explore with out going back over ones that are dodgy on the Goldwing.
I would love to take the car back and camp the night with Freddy at some stage, that would be really neat. There is a camp ground where the tar turns into sand, so we could take the Passat in pretty easily.
Once on the tar the Goldwing was very happy and was singing its sweet song.
The amazing thing about this photo is that NIVAMAN tweeted about it! Whats the chances of that??!!
Well, Ok, Matt did not tweet about the photo, but the moon. It was pretty cool to come home after such a fantastic ride and be connected with my cousin on the other side of the planet by the same moon that we both noticed.
Please be sure and check out the full range and better resolution photos of this ride in my Picassa web photo album.
Its well worth it! No, really, the ones of the view are just amazing, check them out in full screen, click the right arrow at the bottom to look through them. (Dad, start with the thumbnails to save your download).
Cant wait to get back out there. I must be far more diligent in making time for these rides. They are good for the mind, body and spirit.