Wednesday morning, the only dry place in the southern half of CA seemed to be toward Joshua Tree. This worked fine for me, since I wanted to get a good view of the Lunar Eclipse that night without the hindrance of city lights.
I took the most direct route, passing by huge wind farms. The weather looked bad all day. In fact, at one gas/snack stop, it started hailing!!
It was snowing in the mountains all around me. These clouds were really heavy on the mountains on the way to Joshua Tree:
Nevertheless, I had to go somewhere…… so I kept heading east toward Joshua Tree. I entered the park on the north side (Quail Springs Rd). Disclaimer: not all of my travels were by mc. Weather dictated a vehicle part of the time – such as here. Everything looks so surreal in Joshua Tree. I can’t quite say what exactly makes it look that way, but so many of the sites look almost like they are left over movie sets. It’s a very stark landscape, unlike anything I’ve seen before encompassing 800,000 acres. Here’s a satellite view of it.
The first thing you notice when entering Joshua Tree from the north is the odd geological structures – oddly scattered granite monoliths. It was threatening to storm during my time in the park so the sky was always an ominous grey/blue creating an even more surreal feeling in there. The weather was perfect for rainbows, however. I saw more rainbows in the few hours I was in the park then I have seen over the last ten years of my life!
This is a Joshua Tree.
Some more shots around the park.
This was a surprise. I turned into a parking area for the bathrooms and saw this coyote. He left quickly once we made eye contact.
I kept driving through the park, heading south/east to Pinto Basin Rd and then south for several miles. But I still could not find clear sky to view the eclipse, so I headed back the same way, thinking my chances of seeing my first lunar eclipse were “eclipsed†by the clouds. But, just as I exited the park, the clouds began to clear out of the eastern sky and I could see the eclipse had already begun. It was about 1/3 of the way through by the time I got my camera set up along Hwy. 62. Here’s a few of the shots in succession (downsized so I could add them all in here):
I spent the night in Yucca Valley. The next morning I was eating the continental breakfast (I’m always amused at what passes as a continental breakfast) and I overheard a local couple talking about a ‘park’ in the town that had life size statues of Jesus and his disciples and followers. What interested me was the way they spoke about him. It was just sort of odd. They spoke as if it were really he. They were miffed about the fact that Jesus’ arms had been broken by some kids and they were hoping that someone could make him new appendages soon. The irony was not lost on me. The other intriguing story was that the man’s mother-in-law ‘discovered’ the park while visiting them. She was awakened in the night by lights shining on the mountain side. She said it looked like sparks of light bursting on the hillside, so the next day she traveled out there and found the park. It was one of those kinds of stories that I found a bit comical, so I had to make a trek to find this site. No pictures. Sorry. It just didn’t strike me as ‘photographic’ material. And I only saw one hand missing – not even close to the type of vandalism they had described in the cramped office/continental breakfast space. Hhmmpffh!
I left Joshua Tree and Yucca Valley and headed back toward LA thinking the weather might clear along the coast and I could head up PCH to Big Sur. The rain had cleared out somewhat, but any travel further north than Carpinteria on Friday or Saturday along the coast would guarantee showers. So I decided to just go down to the harbor that afternoon and then try to go up north on Friday. I enjoy boats and marinas and everything about the sea, so I spent some time along the docks and even went out on a boat that afternoon. Watching the tugs bring in a big cargo ship was pretty interesting too
Friday I woke with the plan to head inland once I made it north to Carpinteria along the PCH. I had read Tobes report about that area and I was curious to follow some of those routes. Unfortunately again, rain led me in other directions. But – a great route nonetheless.
I took Hwy 1 (PCH) north from Santa Monica and then headed over toward Oxnard. Along Las Posas Rd, or maybe it was 101 I could actually smell the vegetables growing along the roads. The onions were of course the most pungent, but away from them, many aromas fill the air. I had experienced that before from my short two years in California, but had forgotten it until I started smelling the blooms from different orchards and the ripeness of different vegetables. I had to get a picture of the artichokes growing since they are a favorite of mine.
I picked up 101 again and kept heading north till I came to 150 east, just south of Carpinteria. 150 to Ojai and then 33 out of Ojai were favorites of mine. Here is a close up of that area. If you want to see the twists and switchbacks closer, here is a link to the google map where you can zoom in on it:
150 east to 33
And here are some pics from that route.
I have way too many photos to put on this site and it’s hard to decide which to choose. Every corner yielded another smile.
After passing Casitas Lake, I found this waterfall along side the road.
Ojai is a cute town. Kind of a resort town, I guess. I had the best ravioli I’ve ever eaten at a local place called Boccali’s just outside of town. I was told it is a regular stop for bikes during usual mc weather. AND – it’s home to Widder Enterprises – the guys who make heated gear. I was hoping to get to try on a vest, but they were not open on Friday.
Coming out of Ojai I took 33 north and the terrain changed quite a bit. It began to look more like the desert I remember from my days in Bakersfield. It was still nice roads though. There was evidence of recent fires – maybe within the last two years. The different colors in the desert terrain always catch my eye. I took 33 till it turned into flat land and then into the oil fields of Maricopa and then the dusty town of Taft where I spent the night.
Saturday promised to be sunny in the San Joaquin valley. I wanted to go see my house in Bakersfield, so I sort of planned a trip around that area. When I lived in Bakersfield, the days I could see the mountains were very rare; maybe 20% of the time. The smog, fog, dust kept them shrouded in mystery and imagination. But I was lucky this day. The rain and winds had driven out the pollutants and watered the ground so that everything I had remembered as brown was now a bright green. I have never seen the area look as beautiful as it did this day. I drove to Bakersfield and made a point to drive by my old house. Hmmmm, they changed the color and they took out the flower gardens I had out front. I planted those trees back in ’91 and they were less than 4’ tall then. It sure looked a lot smaller than I remembered it.
Done reminiscing, I traveled on. I took the airport road north till it became Bakersfield-Glennville Rd, then Granite Rd, Woody-Granite Rd, then back on Bakersfield-Glennville Rd to Glennville. When you first head out B-G road, you see a lot of oil pumps. Normally, everything is very brown, but this day – everything looked wonderful. The roads had great sweepers and little traffic.
The route:
Here’s a couple of shots.
After traveling those great mc roads, I decided someone needs to host a BASH in California soon!!! And when I got to Glennville, I saw a possible site for one. Probably, the California guys know better places, but this spot made me think about hosting one. I tried to get info on the place, but no one was around, and I didn’t have time to wait.
I chose this area for 3 reasons:
a) see my old home b) escape rain and c) check out a ‘ghost town’ in White River. But when I looked at the map, I saw a place called Balance Rock, which sounded like it would be a great sight, so I added it to my route. I turned left on Jack Ranch Rd at Glennville and headed to Balance Rock.
It’s a climb in elevation and there was still snow on the ground. I’m not sure what I was looking for, but I don’t think I found it, and the snow had me turning back. On my way out, I did see a not so big rock balanced on another, but certainly not anything deserving map space (or memory card space).
Coming back down Jack Ranch Rd, I turned right on M-109/Old Stage Rd. which runs west to Ducor. This was a great road with very, very little traffic. The ghost town in White River was suppose to be here, but it was as illusive as…… a ghost – so I never saw it either. I did have a couple of encounters with Red Tail Hawks, small white barking/chasing dogs, and a three legged squirrel though.
I don’t know what was wrong with this squirrel. He appears to have only 3 legs and would not move out of the road, even though I walked up so close to him. He has a sinister look in his eye though, and I was a bit afraid he would do one of those “Alien†moves and attach himself to my face, so I snapped the photo and got out of there
M-109 took me to the town of Fountain Springs. I was told that it is infamous as a rendezvous point for adulterous relationships – especially for those from Bakersfield. But it was the first stop that had a bathroom and water since Glennville, so I had to enter. I didn’t see any suspicious looking people in there, so perhaps it’s something from the past.
From there, I headed back to Bakersfield and onto 5 south to go over the “Grapevine†back to the Orange County area. I heard there would be some pretty good waves along the coast there on Sunday, and I wanted to be there for that. Getting close to the mountain pass called the grapevine, I could see a horrible dust/wind storm ahead. It was only mid afternoon, but visibility was very limited – especially when a tumbleweed came tumbling right at me!
I spent the night in Orange County again. Sunday morning I spent time burning discs and answering emails and a little bit of work from my real job. Then Sunday afternoon, I head out on a scenic route to Palos Verdes over a couple of cool bridges, on to lunch at a market in Malaga Cove, and then to Bluff Cove where I saw the unusual 20 foot waves!
The Market area in Malaga Cove where the fountain left me baffled.
After a late lunch I headed back down the coast through the ritzy area of Palos Verdes. I saw crowds gathering on the bluffs overlooking the ocean. They were watching the phenomenal waves which brought out the surfers. This is an odd occurrence for this area, so it was a pretty big deal for them to see – and me, even more so.
OOOOPPS
Monday, I waited for traffic to die down before heading toward the infamous Ortega Hwy (74) at San Juan Capistrano. I’ve heard of the Ortega as being a great mc road. And it is all that and more. But there is construction on it right now, so it shuts down to one lane almost right in the middle of it, it seemed. In heavy traffic, as I was coming back over it – you can sit for 30 minutes waiting for them to open the one lane for your side to pass. But it is beautiful and it is a great gateway into some wonderful riding down into San Diego County.
At the overlook – which overlooks Lake Elsinor;
And a continuation of the road into Elsinor.
There was not really any good spot for me to pull over on the Ortega to get pictures. But it is a typical mountain road with steep edges, rock walls, twists and switchbacks.
This is the route I took on Monday to Julian, CA – a little mountain resort town at about 4500’ elevation.
LA to Julian
After the Ortega Hwy, I was on roller coaster type roads through countryside populated with small farms and orchards. The terracing of the trees and flora was beautiful and with the poppies beginning to bloom, more color was added. Much of this area was residential and it made it difficult to find a place to stop to take pictures, but I managed a few ☺.
That road was a very steep downhill ride and took me to the bottom of Via Volcano Rd where I saw my first Avocado Orchard. There I pondered the difference between a grove or an orchard. And is it an Avocado grove, or an orchard? Anyway – the size of the trunks on the avocado trees was amazing to me.
There had been flooding in the area, but the roads were almost completely dry by Monday. I had to cross a few low crossings where water and algae were flowing, but I stayed upright.
This is along Sandia Rd. The orange thing on my tail pack is SPOT, the little personal satellite locating device I carry in case I run into trouble. It worked very well for me.
I was able to get by with just a tail pack by keeping a room back in the Orange County area. And since there was never more than 2 days of good weather in a row in any one area – I could pack all I needed within the tail pack.
Coming down Rice Canyon, I saw these funny looking cows. I’ve never seen long haired cows before, so I had to stop.
This one is scratching his back with his horns
I loved Couser Canyon road. It was so fun, I rode it three times! It’s pretty easy to scrape the side stand on that GS on a road like this!
And here is Santa Ysabel and Julian. Great roads all the way!!!
Along the route this day, I kept seeing orange groves laden down with fruit. I know I shouldn’t have……. But I did. I picked an orange and then later cut it open in my room to taste. Not ripe yet. And I was bored, so I had some fun with the peel.
Tuesday was suppose to be almost 80 degrees. And eventually, I think it got that hot somewhere – but NOT in Julian. I headed out that morning and did a few miles in low temperatures and with wind around 25 mph with gusts up to 38mph. After a few miles of that, and climbing elevation, I ended up going back to Julian to get something to eat and to warm up.
I think a lot of riders thought Tuesday would be a perfect day to ride. It was the only day I saw several riders. When I went back into Julian there were numerous bikes. I noticed a couple of BMW’s too. I parked next to an ST and went on into a little bakery and had a French Toast Cinnamon Roll. Incredible!!
Coming out, I saw the rider of the ST near his bike. Walking closer, he acted as if he knew me. And sure enough – he does……cyberly. He is a member of this forum. I was really happy to be able to meet another member from this forum and especially glad to meet someone who knew more routes than I had ridden so far! I was fortunate to meet Ed since this was my last day before flying ‘home’ on Wednesday. Ed showed me routes that were the best motorcycle roads I have ever ridden. I think we did about 300 miles of mountain roads in wind gusts, and then some highways and city streets in hot dry weather. It was a day of variations! This is the route Ed graciously showed me:
Julian to LA
My two favorite sections:
This part – 243 from Mountain Center to Banning was one, except it still had some snow and some sand on the roads. Elevation hit over 6000 feet here.
Mountain Center to Banning
And also a short and very quick sidestand scrapping descent from Julian along 78;
78 from Julian
Some scenes from along those roads.
First – here’s Ed, on his beautiful ’05 R1200ST. After leading me several miles, we finally hit a stretch of just easy sweepers and Ed let me take his ST up S2. I need one now.
My turn along some desert roads (S2). I think he would have let me ride it further, but I was timid about using his ST on those twisty mountain roads:
The winds were really gusting on top of 79 down to Pine Valley. A couple of times in a lean against the wind, it felt like the wind was blowing my tires out from under me. Once that happened, I was pretty careful about leaning against the wind. I would keep that light GS upright as much as possible in turns where the wind was gusting. This is where things were really blowing hard. I had to stop to layer on some more clothes.
We also found a couple of fun signs along these routes:
It was getting late, so I took less pictures, but this is Idyllwilde – a little ‘Alpine’ village along 243 into the mountains. There was snow lining 243 and a lot of sand laid down which we had to be particularly careful to avoid in the turns. I imagine 243 would be a hoot to ride when there are not so many hazards – like rain, snow, ice, and sand!
Scenes from 243:
After 243 ended, we were on city streets and highways working our way back to the Ortega Highway. We hit the Ortega about 5:30 and so we got stuck there for over 30 minutes. That meant my ride back to my room was partially in darkness. I would loved to have seen those canyon roads in daylight.
But here is the last picture I took on my trip – sitting on the Ortega Hwy (74) watching the sun’s rays falling on the distant slopes. I sat until dusk waiting my turn to go, and reflecting on the week.
California is far, far away. But there are a lot of good routes between here and there. I’m planning to go back. In fact, if someone out there does not plan a BASH for the rest of us to ride those great California roads soon – I’ll have to do so myself!
