Mid-Week Rides: August Ride

13 August 2009

Chris writes:

Eight gathered for breakfast at Bobbi’s in Cupertino at 8 AM, Dick Zunkel, his brother Tom, John Kerby, his lady-friend Jan, Bill Grass, the Major WWWobble (Bob Burns), Don Thiel and yours truly, Chris Weld. Dick had a ‘plan’, but I had a plan too! Both ‘plans’ would meld together and a route formulated. Everybody had gas, or had already gotten gas so we were off into the Santa Cruz Mountains behind Cupertino. Dick led us this way, then that way and so on.

It was a turn onto MT Eden Road that presented the ‘problem’ of the day. It came up quickly and we were all on the binders, Dick did the turn but poor Tom was almost completely stopped at the curb and tipped-over. No problem you’d say, ‘cept for the 50-45% down slope on the other side of that curb. You don’t quickly stop an upturned motorcycle on that kind of slope. I jumped-off and ran to Tom’s aide, but again, you don’t stop running quickly on that slope, one covered with about six inches of old, dried leaves. Tom was pinned beneath the back end of his motor, a seemingly cast-iron Honda Magma. Ever tried lifting one of those when you don’t have footing?

Long story short, Tom was okay, a tired windshield aged considerably. Now, how do we get this motor back up and onto the roadway. Had there been fifty of us, there was no way it could be pushed, nobody could get a footing. Well thank God for friendly horsewomen in pick-ups, two stopped. One had about 30 feet of heavy nylon rope, strong enough to tow a tank and besides the rope, she was willing. She backed to the curb at 90 degrees and Don lashed the front forks while I crawled under the pick-up and tied off onto the frame. Now we needed hands to upright the motor and once upright against a taught rope, she pulled it up to the curb where we lifted the front wheel over, teetered on the frame and lifted the back over. The Major helped direct traffic.

The Major tried to give the woman $40. (a BARGAIN), but she refused. It took a few tries to get that Honda to fire-off, but it did, seemingly not much worse for wear. Dick decided then’n there that he’d escort Tom home to allow for some recuperation before their mutual artist’s drawing session this (that) evening. Dick would meet-up with us in Los Gatos within the hour.

Leadership fell upon the able shoulders of Major WWWobble who continued to take us this way and that. We didn’t have to wait for Dick more’n a few minutes in Los Gatos. It was now ‘ride time’, Hwy #17 to the Bear Creek off-ramp, Black Road to Gist, to Skyline, to Bear Creek to Summit and down Hutchinson Road(s), there’s an ‘upper’ and ‘lower’, the Lower Hutchinson is a private road but open to the public. That road connects to one of the Zyante’s and we took that into Felton for Hwy. #9. We rode Hwy.#9 through Ben Lomond for Afton Road and turned uphill (lot’o ‘uphil’l on Afton- in fact, no downhill sections at all!). The Major took the lead (I’m too old’n slow it seems, but he’ll get his Medicare Card in due time…. He gets to the top and there’s the CHP. The Bonnydoon Fire causes road restrictions but we were permitted to pass the barricades on the understanding we wouldn’t be turning further west. We rode up to Jamison Road and dropped down into Boulder Creek. Lunch time! But the group wants ‘sit-down’ and way at the other end of town is a brewpub and cafe. We dined okay.

We agreed we’d ride Hwy. #9 to Hwy.#35 where Dick would continue on over the hill on Hwy.#9, the rest of us turning north on Hwy. 35. Don was headed to Hwy.#92 near the Major’s place and I needed to visit the BMW dealer in Mountain View so I left them when I turned down Page Mill.

It was a great ride, though Tom Zunkel may choose to dispute that assessment.