Friday–Monday, 12–15 Apr 2024
Reports from Mike and Rob plus pictures from Chris, Harry, Jag, Mike, and Rob.
Mike writes:
As folks may or may not know, I was in Canada the week leading into the trip to view April 8’s solar eclipse in Sherbrooke, Quebec. I flew back to the Bay Area on Saturday night and was due to join the rest of the group down in Paso Robles on Sunday.
Luckily for me, the quick turnaround and getting up at 5:45 wasn’t too bad, since I was still operating on Eastern time, and awoke just before my alarm. I loaded up the Street Triple with my seldomly-used luggage setup and was on the road just after 7:00.
Traffic was light down to Hollister on 101 and 25, and while the roads were a bit wet, the skies were mostly cloudy. I topped up on gas in Hollister before stopping in at Flapjacks in Tres Pinos for breakfast. Unsurprisingly, I was the only rider at Flapjacks that morning, since most riders went down earlier in the weekend to either camp in Morro Bay or hotel in Paso Robles.
I enjoyed a pleasant breakfast burrito and coffee al fresco on the patio. I jumped on the bike once again and continued south on 25 as the beautiful rolling green hills went on and on and the road got nice and twisty as I approached the entrance gate to Pinnacles National Park.
I continued down to the end of 25 at the junction with 198 and continued onto Peach Tree Road. I had a great time retracing the route of my 2017 bicycle tour to Los Angeles, this time with the creeks down there running hard with all the rain from the weekend.
As I reached the top of the hill and the road changed to Indian Valley Road, the rain picked up from the drizzle it had been, so I stopped to don my rain gear and take in the nice view from the overlook. The rain didn’t last much longer, and it was back to being dry less than a quarter of the way down Indian Valley Road. All-in-all, I didn’t see another vehicle the entire time from Tres Pinos to San Miguel except for one lone rider that passed me on one more rest stop on a red Ducati Multistrada.
I made it to Paso Robles around 12:30, before most other riders arrived at the Melody Ranch motel. Seeing a motorcycle parked out front of a room with an open door and spying an older fella inside, I knocked on the door, but unexpectedly found myself speaking with a couple of bicycle tourists that were out to tour the nearby wineries. We traded a couple of stories of touring the area by bicycle and I let them be. I grabbed a coffee at the nearby Spearhead coffee shop and spied Carl as I made my way over.
As I finished up my coffee and made my way back, Jag, Harry, Rich and Chris had arrived and freshened up after their cold, wet two days of camping. We all met up on the pool deck, and shot the breeze while we enjoyed the sunnier skies and strong drinks as prepared by Jag.
For dinner, we walked over to Cool Hand Luke’s Steakhouse and had some giant meals. After dinner, everyone was pretty exhausted and we had a pretty early night.
In the morning, the weather was cool but clear, and Harry, Jag, Rob and I wanted a lighter breakfast and so grabbed coffee and scones at the coffee shop, while later Chris, Carl and Rich went for breakfast at Joe’s.
After they returned, we departed, taking 101 up to San Miguel and I noticed I forgot to button down my tailbag’s lid as it flipped open going down the freeway. I pulled over and buttoned that up. Then we retraced the route up Indian Valley Road to 198 where Chris, and Rich stopped for a break with Rob nowhere to be found. Harry zoomed on ahead up 25 and after a while to confirm everyone was okay, I tried my best to catch up to him.
Eventually he pulled off at the Coalinga Road turn off and when Jag and I arrived, Carl was chit-chatting with him. Maybe 10 minutes later, Rich and Rob pulled up, and let us know that Chris wouldn’t be coming. “Why?” we asked,
“Because he left his luggage behind.” Rob replied,
“On the road?” asked Jag,
“No, in the hotel.”
“Ha, in Paso Robles?”
“Yep.”
We all had a good chuckle at Chris’s expense, as I’m sure he enjoyed having to slab it back and forth to Paso Robles.
We continued up 25, with Rich, Jag, Harry and I stopping in at Flapjacks again for a nice lunch this time. After lunch, it was up 25 where some riders had a tough time navigating the new “turbo roundabout” north of Hollister, and nearly got into a crash when they didn’t yield on the way in. For all riders not familiar with roundabouts, yield BEFORE entering!
Disaster avoided, it was on to 101 and north to the Bay Area. Everyone else split off at 85, while I went back up 880 to Alameda. Traffic was rough, especially with a multi-car wreck in Fremont. Some careful lane splitting made quick work of it and I was home in Alameda by about 3:00.
It was a fun, trip, full of great riding. I wish I’d remembered to pack my retractable cable camera, since I would have taken many more pictures from all the riding. Hopefully I remember for the Hendy Woods trip.
Rob writes:
Friday
I met up with Harry Bahlman, and Chris Weld at the Page Mill exit parking area off of 280. It was about 50 degrees but dry! Jag Patel would meet us down the road in Tres Pinos. Rich Penrose joined in on the action in Saratoga and we took off for Tres Pinos for breakfast. All 5 of us toured on BMW’s
My niece Elizabeth Hyman Silva and her husband Jorge showed up as my guests just for the breakfast and rode his Harley. Always a good thing to get new blood into the group .
We took beautiful 25 south out of Tres Pinos. The road is open and there is virtually no traffic. 25 is very lush and green. Cows, horses, and sheep dot the landscape. Harry, Chris, and Jag departed to Morro Bay to camp while I stayed at the Melody Ranch Motel. Rich secured a great view hotel room overlooking Morro Bay. We were fortunate to get the entire day without rain. I rendezvoused with Rich for a beer then we went to the campground where Rich got into trouble. Ranger Rickette picked on Rich for staying to visit his buddies too long without paying for entry. Good grief. She proceeded to scold the others for parking 3 motorcycles in one campground. She needs to get a life!
Saturday
It rained all day. Put a cover on the bike and waited for my son Eric to arrive in his Honda quadricycle from Pasadena. Took him over to Boyds cigar lounge and hung out for over an hour. They have a large walk-in humidor, and a mancave with pool table and animal heads on the wall. See photos.
Russ Danielson and Carl Tyler arrived Saturday afternoon and they were wet. Ask Russ if he checked his oil prior to departure. Proper planning prevents piss poor performance.
We all went to dinner at Street Side Ale House and the food was very good. Try the blackened salmon sandwich. Yumm.
Across the street along the central park was the annual art gallery. That turned out to be a worthy event for us out of towners. Many paintings, photographs, jewelry, ceramics, wood carvings and other crafts.
Sunday
The original plan for today was for the group to ride 90 miles south to Solvang and go to the Vintage Motorcycle Museum. Sorry too wet and we did not ride. Russ had to secure some oil for his Guzzi. The weather cleared a bit after noon and we enjoyed the art show.
Gathered the group at the Motel and now Mike Geggie on his Triumph was also in attendance. We all went to a nice dinner at the Cool Hand Lukes Restaurant. This happened after we had an SMBC executive council meeting poolside with adult refreshments and appetizers. Jag, (Chief One Feather) treated some of us to outstanding Manhattans. We discussed the upcoming boot dinner in August and the consensus was to have it locally and encourage families to attend. We also talked about adding more overnight outings to the yearly calendar. Many proclaimed that the number 1 destination on our SMBC annual calendar is the NorCal camp trip to Hendy Woods. The Carson Valley overnight came in second place.
Mike, Jag and I stopped along the square for a fro yo and hung out while the others returned to the Melody.
Monday
Coffee for all and a leisurely morning while we waited a bit for the weather to warm up. It was in the low 40’s around 8AM. We departed at 9:30AM Of course, Russ was already on the road! This time with oil.
Harry lead us up 25 and we finally took a break at the 198/ 25 junction.
Chris opened his saddle bag and” OH Shit!” His right saddle bag was empty as he said, “I left my clothes and bag back in the motel.” Bye Bye Lieutenant Weld. He had to back track about 40 miles to retrieve it and we did not see him the rest of the day. He quickly remembered the SMBC mantra, When you ride with us, you ride alone!. The remaining riders went up to Flapjacks Restaurant in Tres Pinos. Carl headed home and Jag, Harry, Rich, Mike, and I had a lunch break. Road captain Harry took us at Raptor speed from Tres Pinos to San Jose where we started to split into different exits.
As you can imagine, the weekend boot award goes to both Russ and Lieutenant Weld. Honorable mention goes to Rich for not getting busted.
Total miles for me was just under 600 miles. A very enjoyable trip and I highly recommend a weekend in beautiful Paso Robles.
Pictures
