Friday–Sunday, 5–7 Sep 2008
Marc writes
I woke a little bit before 6 AM Friday morning. The alarm hadn’t gone off yet but there was no point staying in bed so I disabled the alarm, got up, washed, dressed, and added my toiletries kit to the bag liner containing my clothes. Downstairs I loaded the cooler with ice and the food I’d planned for the camp-out. The bag-liner full of clothes went in my right saddle bag. The cooler was strapped to the luggage rack. The rest of the bike was packed Thursday evening.
I didn’t know who would be camping with me this year other than Tom as the only replies I’d received were in the negative. I rode to Burlingame, arriving about 6:45. Tom arrived about 8 minutes later. Without Gloria. No-one else. Only one camp-site will be needed this year.
We donned our sun glasses and headed down 101 toward breakfast at Hollister. There was no traffic to speak of heading south at 7 AM. We got in the car pool lane where it starts in Redwood City and stayed near the limit all the way to Hollister. We got to the Cozy Cup just in time to see Bob Burns get off of his bike and pull off his helmet. He wasn’t camping — something about needing to get a haircut — but rode to Hollister to join us for breakfast. That was nice.
After breakfast Tom and I said good-bye to Bob then headed down 25 to 198 and Coalinga. We got gas and took a short rest break before the boring, straight, hot section of 198 through Lemoore, Hanford, and Visalia. Our next stop wasn’t until Three Rivers where we refreshed our ice supply as well as buying some snacks. At that point we were about 12 miles from the camp-ground.
We got to the park before 2 PM. The ranger at the entrance station mumbled something about Buckeye Flat possibly being full as lots of people mentioned that’s where they were going. I headed up the General’s Highway as fast as I could get around traffic. If it came down to one site left I wanted to be first in line. No worries. There were around 6 sites open when we got there. We selected site 25: one of the same sites we used last year.
Out of Focus Happy Campers
Where’s the shade, Tom?
After setting up camp we grabbed my machete and foraged for downed and dead wood. Tom found a tree that was down and dead, but entangled in a live Holly bush. We eventually got to the tree and hacked off several good sized sections. It was a very hard wood (oak?) about 5” in diameter.
In addition to getting scratched up by the brush I got a good blister which managed to burst. We dragged the sections back to the campsite and I bandaged my poor thumb.
We were good and hot after that minor work out and had earned our beer. Tom poured some into plastic cups he’d brought and we sat back to enjoy. The flies had other ideas. Out came the insect repellent. Bad idea. At least getting the repellent on our hands was a bad idea. The repellent contains deet and the deet attacked the plastic in our cups full of beer. It felt like our fingers were sticking to the cups. No beer was lost, though.
We walked down to the river with beer in hand to splash some water over us and generally cool down. Very refreshing. It felt great. Then it was back to camp for more beer. The quantity of beer consumed was a bit more than planned, leading to a down-sizing of dinner plans. Tom brought some chicken and lots of cut of veggies with the intent of making stir-fry chicken. I was going to make some pasta, flavor it with some vegetarian lentil soup, and add some left-over fish sticks that I’d tossed in the cooler. Those were the plans. The actuality was I heated the fish stick in some olive oil in a frying pan and shared them with Tom. That, and the cheese and crackers we’d been munching on, was dinner.
Even a minimal dinner results in some dirty dishes. There is a sink in the middle of the camp ground, near the toilets. We walked over to the sink to wash dishes and then headed back to the camp. That’s where I decided to test my depth perception in the dark. It sucks. I stepped off a paved pathway (for the disabled) thinking it was about 6” to the road way below. It was closer to 24” resulting in some minor road rash to my right knee, elbow, and shoulder. I should have been wearing my riding gear with padding in just those spots. More bandaging after a wipe down with alcohol.
Saturday Morning
Saturday morning started with the sound of garbage collection and the beep, beep, beep of the back-up warning of the garbage truck. That was about 6 AM. Oh well. I got up, dressed, and walked over to the bathroom. I made it back without mishap, this time. I had coffee and eggs. Tom made French toast. Life is good.
After breakfast clean-up we prepared for a little ride I’d planned up Dry Creek Rd to Ca 245. I threw a shirt that had been hanging on the clothes line in my saddle bag “just in case” and also put my now-empty ice chest in the same bag. It was to hold the ice and replacement beer we’d buy before getting back to camp. Time to go.
I’d never ridden up Dry Creek. The ride was quite pleasant. The twisties at the top of 245 are also great, although Tom was mumbling something about having to replace the domed nuts on his foot pegs. We stopped at Grant’s Grove for a short while to plan the next part of the ride. The decision was to head to the snack bar at the Christian Camp at Hume Lake for lunch. Tom was concerned that we had kindling and logs, but nothing in between. This was important as he needed the in-between to cook his dinner. We decided to look out for downed wood in the national forest on the way to Hume Lake. We found just what we were looking just off the road with easy parking and strapped it to the rack on the back of Tom’s bike.
Wood foraging
After lunch we continued the loop back to the General’s Highway and down to Lodgepole for supplies; more beer and ice. When loading the beer and ice into the cooler in my right saddlebag we discovered that I’d been carrying a hitch-hiker. A bat climbed its way to the top of the bag and flew away. I’m guessing it was on the shirt I’d taken off of the clothes line and threw in the bottom of the bag. It survived the 80 some miles (and 3 1/2 hours) in the bag. I imagine it has no love for motorcycles, though.
Once back at camp we changed to shorts, grabbed a beer, then walked up to the river to cool down. Very refreshing. I’ll let the pictures tell the story.
Low water level
Cool waters
Tom and Beer
Ready…
Set…
Who needs pay showers?
Cool beer
Caution: Chef at work!
Chili pasta
Back in camp we enjoyed doing nothing until the sun started to set. Tom started the fire. He needed nice coals to bake his potato, heat up his fresh asparagus, and grill his rib-eye steak. I cooked up some pasta then added some chili to the mix. No one went hungry.
After dinner and clean up we threw one of the big sections of wood we’d worked so hard for the previous day onto the fire and enjoyed listening to music and staring at the fire until it was time to hit the sacks. We were both in our tents early. Apparently a bear went through camp later that evening. Tom was snoring. I woke enough to figure out what was going on then went back to sleep. It was a good day.
Sunday we broke camp quickly. We were on the road before 8:30, heading to the Main Street Cafe in Visalia. Breakfast was great. I highly recommend the Cheesy Potato Casserole as the potato dish if ordering eggs. The flavor makes it worth its 314,000 calories and 95 grams of fat. After breakfast we got gas then headed home in the heat. We took Los Gatos Creek Rd, bypassing Coalinga, in about 102 degree heat. It didn’t cool down until Pacines where the 91 degree temperature felt cool. After another gas and rest stop in Hollister we hit the freeway to get home. I was home about 2:45.
Good (but hot) weather. Good roads. Good food. Good beer. Great trip.
