Pat and Paul back from WCR; took the long way home. Hwy 36 notes.

[Pat Conlon]

Rolled into sunny Palm Desert this afternoon. A total of 3,978 miles on the odometer on 11 days of riding thru Calif, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and Arizona. Really a bitchen tour.

After some excellent fellowship and rides at the WCR, and in anticipation of next year's WCR, Paul and I decided to check out the famous Hwy 36. With Kim accompanying us, we picked up 36 by riding north from Willits ~120 miles on Hwy 101 to a small logging town called Fortuna where Kim treated us to breakfast (note to self: a Sausage McMuffin does not come with a egg, you have to order the "egg" McMuffin with sausage)
Paul and I followed Hwy 36 across the entire width of Calif. thru Red Bluff to Susanville where we picked up Hwy 395 south to Reno and on to Hwy 50 to cross Nevada.....

So, here are my thoughts on Hwy 36:

HOLY SHIT BURGERS, are you 2011 WCR guys in for a treat!!

LA Mike and I both love the Lake Sonoma portion of Scagg Springs Rd. IMHO it's one of the main attractions of the WCR being held in Petaluma or Willits. I can relate to Mike's reluctance about changing locations for 2011 where we can't ride Lake Sonoma.
Well Michael me laddie, no worries. Hwy 36 is like Lake Sonoma only ~80 miles long. On fully laden FJ's it's exhausting (in a good way) Sweepers, FJ's love sweepers.
The last 15 miles coming into Red Bluff is like a E ticket roller coaster. Dial up the preload 'cause you're gonna need it on this section. If you suffer from motion sickness, you need to take your medication for this ride, seriously. Paul and I met up with some local sport bike riders outside of Platina and they gave us some excellent advice for this portion of Hwy 36. They said:
"Watch the trees"
With so many dips and rises in this portion of the road, and sharp turns, if you are coming up to a rise and see trees in front of you, you can bet that the road has a sharp turn on the blind side of the rise. This advice saved my ass a couple of times.

If we meet in the Redding/Red Bluff area for 2011 I can see me doing this road many times (without bags)
Hwy 36 east of Red Bluff going to Susanville is more of a Gold Wing road, nice but no comparison to the western portion of 36.

Thanks folks for a great time at the WCR. Good to meet Steve and San Dimas Mike. Mike I hope your hearing has returned by now.....

Must sleep now.

[tqmx1]

Pat, It was fun see you next year.

Kim

[MyOwnFJ1200]

OHHHH BOY it sounds like so much fun. I cant wait till next year

[Klavdy]

HWY 36 now has the official Pat imprimatur.



And you aint seen Hayfork yet,,,

[Mark Olson]

Pat ,

sounds like a awesome run, great you made it in one piece.

the willits rally site is soooo last year. we done did it.

new roads are always a welcome site.

go polish your bikes and enjoy your vaca.

[Zari]

I hear you Mark, let's embrace that change and experience new sights.  Even if that be a large private home on good spacious potato gun land; ehh Marsh???  Klavdy's photo in front of Hwy 36 stating curve's next 140 miles might just seal the deal.  WTF are we doing Mark, these roads are practically in our backyard, we outa be ashamed of ourselves..
Ahh Good times, Happy Independence

[Marsh White]

Glad you had such a great time on HWY 36 Pat!  We will have it at our fingertips for next years WCR!  The road north out of Hayfork really kicks butt too.  Here are the details for the next WCR - I hope you are as excited as I am!

Here is the link to view the 2011 West Coast FJ Rally Information: http://www.fjrally.com/11WCR.html

[Klavdy]

You blokes that have not ridden Hwy 36 are in for a treat.
It's really beautiful scenery in the middle of nowhere with piss all traffic and bugger all cops.
Fluffy and I met a couple of geezers at Platina, one of them retired ten years ago and moved to a town on Hwy 36 just so he could spend his days riding it.
He'd logged over 350,000 miles on ten different bikes on Hwy 36, his current mount was a BMW 1300, one of those K bikes ( I think it's the K) you know, with the big fuck off engine and stuff.
Go over to PASHNIT, see how they rate it.

Hwy36 NorCal Motorcycle Ride with Pashnit

Then there's the roads to and from Hayfork and Hwy 299.
Yee-Haa!
Fluffy's done good too, getting us our own Ranch to cavort in.

[Marsh White]

That shocked me to see that Tim from Pashnit is kind of a shitty rider.  He missed the entry point and apex on nearly every corner.  Bad throttle control too.  Thanks Keith Code!  And to think that a couple of years ago I would have probably thought this riding was okay.

Beautiful road though - I miss it!

[racerman_27410]

.... how long has that guy been riding in Texas ?


KOokaloo!

[Travis398]

 

[carsick]

Pine cones at 1:07?

[1tinindian]

Pine cones at 1:07?

Looked like rocks to me.

Leon