6 April 2006
Marc writes:
It’s been raining. Often. And a lot. So when all the weather folks agree that there’s going to be a dry, very spring like day I jumped on the chance to schedule a mid-week ride. The goal of the ride was to do some farkle shopping at BMW Scruz and try to find the other end of the road where we turned around last ride.
Waiting for the Major
Highway 9 overlook
The Major met me at 9 AM. We headed south on Skyline (SR 35) until SR 9 where we turned southwest to SR 1 at Santa Cruz. This was unusual for me in that I usually wind up going north on those roads. There was one delay for road repairs outside of Boulder Creek. I expected more.
Beach Street
We met Darryl at the Beach Street Cafe in Watsonville a little later than planned. Sorry Darryl. During breakfast we discussed finding the other end of the private, dirt road that caused us to turn around last ride. No problem: Darryl knows exactly where it is.
But first some shopping. BMW Scruz is only a few miles away. I wanted to look at the Flow Jet windshield replacement. I looked. I also figured that $150 is too much for something that I’m not even sure that I’d like. After a brief walk through the Yamaha dealer across the driveway it was back on the bikes. Time to ride.
The road to Hecker pass is closed due to washed out roadway.
Darryl led us up the one lane Mt Madonna road to Summit where we turned
left and rode another 4 or 5 miles to the end of the county road. What
did we find?
An open gate
Darryl and WWWobble
No Trespassing
No Trhu Traffic
Major WWWobble knows that this image of an open gate is going to get lots of “I told you so” from the Captain. I was concentrating on the “Private Road” sign. Then I noticed the sigh on the other side of the road: NO TRHU TRAFFIC. TRHU traffic? What is that? Oh well, it turns out the Captain was right. Maybe he won’t read this.
Darryl took off to go to the post office and run errands. WWWobble and I took the road through Mt Madonna park to meet up with SR 152, beyond the closed section. Next stop: Uvas Reservoir.
Uvas Reservoir
A pretty GS at Uvas Reservoir
Blue Skies and a full reservoir
Major WWWobble
The last time we stopped at Uvas Reservoir the Captain was with us. We missed him. Well, we missed watching him chase his helmet as it rolled into the water. We chatted with another rider who pulled in to take some pictures. We saw quite a few people out on their bikes, probably playing hooky from work in the sunny and dry weather.
I wanted to be back around 3PM so we took a more-or-less direct
route to US 101 and headed north picking up SR 87 to I 280 and home.
All in all I put about 165 miles on the bike. More important they were
165 dry miles. That put me over the 9,000 mile mark on my GS.
I think the grin on the Major’s face says what kind of ride it was. He has to go home and pack for the 3-day ride he’s taking starting tomorrow. With luck he’ll miss the next batch of rain.