borderlands blast

[cranky]

...88 - Carson Pass is my favorite... IIRC, it's maintained over the winter
months... open... enjoy!!!! Waiting for the AVA rally for my get-out
and travel....

[Nails]

Sorry, but still not riding. Tomorrow either. Deanna has the weekend off, so we're checking out stuff together. Today was a hike in a coast live oak forest and shrublands, about a quarter miles from the coast. (Tons of California's most abundant shrub, poison oak. The dog got a bath before coming back in the house.) And then an early dinner with friends.

Tomorrow it'll be another morning hike and lunch with a friend.

I plan to ride on Monday.

[Nails]

I plan to ride somewhere tomorrow but spent today with Deanna hiking near Morro Bay. She has to work this week.

(This'll probably be boring to the folks who live on the coast. Well, probably to 'most everybody.)

[Nails]

[Nails]

[GrandpaDenny]

Awesome, Nails, thanks for the pics, and keep 'em coming!

[cranky]

.. bored and raised in Illinois.. NEVER get tired of coast pics!!! GBG Thanks!!!
You had a beautiful day!!!! .... another month of so, won't be true.. white stuff!! GBG

[Nails]

Interesting, to be riding in California while New Mexico is Fire World. My house there is under three emergency alerts again/still -- as it was when I left. Meanwhile, I'm California Dreamin'.

Gearing up to finally get on the bike again.

[cranky]

... Askin' the Best of ya my friend!!! Can't imagine having to start over....

[Nails]

It was cool this morning, so I didn't get moving until 9:30. Rode down the Pacific Coast Hwy from Arroyo Grande to where it rejoins US-101. It was only kinda fun, parts through industrial agriculture and parts a freeway itself. Some of it was fast sweepers through oak and scrub.

But I took a side road to Jalama State Beach. Honestly, getting there was more fun than being there.

Right after turning off the PCH, I came on big Coast Live Oaks.

The asphalt of this narrow road was battered. Rotten limestone was falling off some hills and then collecting in the sharper curves -- let's just say it could be breath-taking. (That's the ocean on the horizon.)

At places, the road tunneled through big oaks.

And here is the obligatory lavender bush and poppies -- California, of course. (Notice the poppy growing out of a crack in the asphalt.)

[Nails]

A couple passenger trains run along the coast. Here's the trestle, taken from the surf line. (Last year I tried to ride this train -- even had a ticket. But the train from New Mexico got to LA five hours late and I missed the connection. Sheesh.)

This was my first time in beach sand this trip. Lots of pickleweed.

I came back north on the inland side of US-101 via Foxen Canyon Road. This is open grassland with different oaks.

Also lots of pricy estates, vineyards, fancy horses, and a general Rolls Royce vibe. It's where we usually go wine tasting, but I wanted to ride it.

So plenty more curves on backroads ... but honestly not all that picturesque.

[cranky]

Thanks!! BIG ? .. Did ya have a Jalama burger at the restaurant shack???!!! GBG
Acutually had to wait on a train at that RR X going into the beach place...
They don't go fast on that track!!! Used to do a VROC rally at Solvang for
years, and I hit that place a couple times!! ... onward... enjoy!!

[Nails]

Did ya have a Jalama burger at the restaurant shack???!!!

Salmon burger -- novel to me. Salmons don't do so good in New Mexico -- presumably a problem surviving the branding.

Today, I'm looking at a backroads loop popular with the local bicycle bikers. But it features a saloon that's popular with the pirate kind of bikers. Maybe I'll get in.

It's looking like another crack-of-noon departure. This morning was in the 40s.

[cranky]

... if ya are coming up 1, grab 9 at Santa Cruz, nice slow curvy road
up to 35 north to 84. At that intersecioin is Alice's, yes... you can
get anything at Alice's!!!! GBG Then take 84 down the hill back to 1.

You'll get to see a tree and hill or 2.... GBG Alice's is a nice place
for lunch... might see a bike or 2...

[Nails]

After screwing around all morning on email and GoogleEarth, I finally had a plan. But I don't remember exactly what it was, and I didn't do it anyway. It was based around a frequent route used by the local bicycle club. I rode generally in the area between Creston, Santa Margarita, and La Panza, CA.

CA-229 reminds me a lot of the Dragon because:

• It's single lane. (Reportedly the last paved single-lane road in California -- but I'm skeptical.)

• The pavement kinda sucks.

• Curvy as all get out.

• It's 3d: the inside of the curves often dip pretty deep.

• It's a short bliss -- just 6 miles. (In both cases, the first thing I did after running it was turn around and do it again the other way.)

Then I headed SE on La Panza Road, which was 5th-gear sweepers through a Blue oak (I think)/grass woodland. Beautiful.

I went east on CA-58, turning back west on Poso Rd. This started out as single-lane rotten asphalt. But in less than a mile ...

I thought this was good news, but it turns out to be the dirt kind of a rough, not the rotten pavement kind.

[Nails]

This was a 1st/2nd gear affair pretty-much the whole way. The surface was firm, but I was concerned about blowing another fork seal or busting another front fender. (I haven't checked either, but got home just fine.)

I didn't stop to photo the rough bits, which mostly were big rills across the road but also some baby-head rocks. Riding required picking a line, generally right into the rut when it was going my way (and not too deep -- some were) otherwise finding the shallow place. I made the suspension suck it up a couple times.

There were good views from the road, mostly down.

The motor got hot enough to kick on the fan, especially going up to Poso Summit. But it wasn't any harder on the bike than going across US-50 in West Virginia.

I was glad to get back on rotten pavement, and especially looking forward to the Poso Saloon. But it was closed!

[Nails]

I don't really remember were I went after that -- just wandering through a target-rich environment.

The roads didn't just curve left and right, but also up and down. These two are companion photos.

And there was a bridge.

Oopsie.

[Nails]

I came across a lot of wonders to behold ... this being California and all. But I only stopped to photograph this one.

The guy had a bunch of kool metal junque -- I bet he was a horse shoer.

Unrelated: There were two kinds of oak woodland here, the kind with little Blue oaks (pictured earlier) and the kind with big Coast live oaks -- generally in wetter areas. These often formed tunnels that were nice and cool. This photo doesn't do justice, but use your imagination. The nicer tunnels didn't have convenient pullouts.

[cranky]

OUTSTANDING!!!! This is country that only deer hunters see!!!

[Nails]

Yesterday, I rode up the Pacific Coast Highway from about Morro Bay to Monterey. More splashy rocks, lots of dirty seals (at one rookery), and occasionally catching some shade at nice lookouts.

It would be an understatement to say it was a swell road.