May 2000 – A Three Day Ride
Pictures start here
Tom writes…
Our group departed the donut shop at the customary 7:05 despite the plan of 7:00…Though the group would end up small, we started with eight riders. Dave Gilbert, Jerry Grainger, Walter Hayman, Bernie and Marc Hyman, Carl Tyler, Rich Welsh, and I (Tom Martin) headed north with Carl leading us through 19th ave. With incredible luck as we in the front made every light. It was up to Petaluma for breakfast at Carrows. Bernie headed home from Petaluma for a nice day in Pacifica while the rest of us headed out west to Bodega Bay. Walter decided to cut the ride short and took the short cut of Hwy 116 at Jenner. The rest of us cruised up Hwy 1 to our first stop at Stewart’s Point. A break to fill the short range bikes and stretch the legs and we were off for Fort Bragg. Dave and Marc cut out at Albion and took Hwy 128 back to 101 and home as they had things to do…
After gas and lunch at the Homestyle Cafe, good tuna, back on the road north… We followed Hwy 1 north until it went away from the ocean and up through the twisties leaving us on Hwy 101 right at Leggett. Where?…Nowhere…Keep Riding…It’s only about an hour from Leggett to Fortuna, straight up Hwy 101, by now you’re glad.
The Super Eight Motel was chosen for its strategic location, directly adjacent to the not quite world famous Eel River Brewing Company. Crawling distance… We had a few beers there, met some interesting people there, Jerry got a phone number. We had some forgettable food, but did have an interesting time there.
Sunday morning was to be fabulous. The four of us headed East on Hwy 36. It follows the Van Duzen River through a bit of open valley and then ducks into the redwoods where the light is shut out and you feel like you are riding through a living tunnel. You come out of the trees and see you are now leaving the river and gaining altitude. We stopped for a photo op and rest break at the top of South Fork Mountain summit. This was the highest we would get, about 4000 feet. About a half an hour east of the summit, we reached the intersection of Hwy 36 and Hwy 3. At this point Carl split off from the group and took Hwy 36 on out to Hwy 5. This is a very fun stretch of road I will have to hit again sometime. For this time though, it was up Hwy 3 through the second largest town in Trinity County: Hayfork, population 950. Hayfork is set in the middle of a beautiful valley that may get serious consideration for my retirement home. But for now it was on to Weaverville, the county seat and largest City in Trinity County, population 3500. We had a decent lunch at the Nugget Restaurant and then rode up Hwy 3 to Trinity Lake for a 30-minute break. We noticed that there were a lot of Harleys out on Sunday and finally figured out that it was the HOG chapter from Redding out for a day ride.
We took Hwy 299 West from Weaverville back to Hwy 101, stopping in Willow Creek for a soda. It was there we were approached by a young man who had just led a group of locals on the same loop we had been. They were only about 20 minutes behind us all day.
It is a forty minute ride from Willow Creek back to Hwy 101, its all up and down with few tight corners but a lot of big sweepers. Not a bad stretch of road but the end is cold. As we approached Blue Lake we stopped to add some clothes for the fog we were seeing just ahead. I led the group through Eureka the back way and on to Ferndale for a quick look at the old town. Fortuna is a short 10 minute ride from Ferndale and we were back at the motel. We briefly cleaned up and went to Parlato’s for dinner. The nicest place in town, but then this is a town of less than 10,000 people.
Monday we started home with a tour of the Pacific Lumber Company redwood mill in Scotia. The tour took a little over an hour and was quite interesting. The de-barker is quite worth the tour itself. This device removes the bark from the logs with a water jet that produces 1600 psi using 1200 gallons per minute. Anyone for a shower? I don’t think so. Breakfast in Garberville at the Woodrose Cafe was a stop in hippyville then blasting on home down Hwy 101. Jerry and I stopped in San Francisco for a soda and called it a good ride.
Pictures from Carl
