Willits and more!!

[Capn Ron]

Hi all...

I'm still out on the road from a most excellent time at the 2014 WCR.  I've had an amazing time with the rides, the friendships, the new faces and my trusted steed...the FJ1200!  I thought I would try to recount this journey, mostly as a way to thank those that made it so special. 

So, the initial plan was for FJMonkey (Mark) and Skymasteres (Mike) to meet me at my house in Woodland Hills and head up to the rally.  Well, as the WCR was approaching, I got a PM from Derek and Donna Young asking if they could ride along with us up PCH through Big Sur.  We chose an easy meeting place in Cambria and the plan was on!  Two days later, I got a PM from Alan (Firehawk) and he wanted to meet up with all of us in San Francisco for the ride to Willits.  By Monday night, everything seemed to be in place, but Skymaster was working on his bike until the wee hours and decided to just meet the Monkey and I in Cambria.

Mark and I left the house at 8:00am and we were off!  Our total ride for the day was 371 miles and looked like this:



We got to the restaurant in Cambria at noon and Donna and Derek had just pulled in minutes earlier...perfect!  We had some great tri-tip sandwiches and burgers while waiting for Mike (Skymaster)...he sent me a text saying he ran into a snag and would be around two hours late.  I'm hoping he'll insert a video of what caused his delay!

(insert another awesome Skymaster video here)

While we waited, we took a quick ride up to a house known as NitWit Ridge in Cambria:



This is a house that is mostly pieced together with scraps and bits that the previous owner found...a unique house for sure!  There was a tour, but we wanted to do a little more riding!

We went up the coast a bit and headed up into the hills for some nice views.  At some point, the pavement ended...what would become a bit of a theme for this trip!

We went back to the restaurant and Mike was there ready to go.  We rode up the coast on my favorite section of PCH!  Just some amazing roads and views!  We stopped in Julia Pfiefer Burns State Park to check out the waterfall.  This is a favorite spot of tourists and photographers alike.  A shot of the amazing cove:



And the view looking north from there:



It was a nice break from riding and we got back on the road north.  The goal was to pick up Derek and Donna's truck at the KOA in Salinas and then call it a night.  The ride up was amazing with almost no traffic to speak of and the epic views you get from riding the coast.  Mike had arranged for us to stay at the Presidio in Monterey...this is an Army base right in the center of Monterey...It was very reasonable and probably the most secure room I have ever slept in!  We ordered in pizza and all sat around swapping stories and having some good laughs.  A perfect first day!

[CatTomb]

 

[Firehawk068]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH........................................This is gonna be good! 

[Capn Ron]

Day 2 - Presidio of Monterey, CA to Willits, CA (325 miles)

So, we all woke up in the Presidio and got the bikes loaded up for another day of riding...  Before I left the house, I chose to ride with a used front Avon Roadrider tire and it was giving me a speed wobble. It was coming in at around 40 MPH and was amplified by all the weight in the Givi Cases.  Not fun to ride with a death grip on the bars on all those twisty roads!  I mentioned this to everyone and said I would go off on my own in San Francisco to try and find a new front tire and catch up with everyone at some point.  Derek said he would ride with me and Donna would follow in her truck.  I was touched...  He said, "Yeah, we're not just going to fuck off and leave ya!"  Awesome!  That was the plan...Mike and Mark would go up the coast and meet up with Alan while we sorted out the front tire issue.

Our day's ride looked like this:



We rode our way through the streets of San Francisco to the Cycle Gear store where Derek had purchased tires last year.  Well, turns out, they no longer sell tires...  I spent about an hour there calling other motorcycle shops looking for a tire in stock.  The best option was to have a shop up near Willits order me the tire I wanted (Pirelli Sport Demon) and continue riding!  We stopped by this place north of the Golden Gate Bridge for some breakfast:



By the time we were finishing up breakfast, Mike, Mark and Alan pulled in and we were all heading up the coast towards Willits!

What a great ride...clicking off the miles along the coast.  I was leading and there were four FJ's and a Toyota Tacoma following...I would go over a crest in the road and look in the rear view mirror and one after another, FJ...FJ...FJ...FJ...truck would crest the same hill almost as if the whole thing was choreographed...It put a huge smile on my face to be riding with my friends!  

We rode up nearly to Fort Bragg and my nav showed a shortcut over to the 20 called "Little Lake Road"...It was relatively decent pavement for a while, but then turned to dirt...then gravel...then large gravel stone.  We all made the call to keep going and it was a fun little adventure through the woods.  I will most often choose the path less traveled and this certainly qualified!!!  Once we finally got to the 20, it felt like SILK!

We got to the Willits KOA well after dark...it was another great day of riding and we were all looking forward to the rally!

[Capn Ron]

Day 3, 4 and 5 Wliits WCR (around 600 miles of riding!!!)

So, for anyone who has been to an FJOwner's rally, you know that they are filled with some great riding, excellent campfire stories and are the makers of memories that will last a lifetime.  For those who have never been to a rally, here are just a few of the highlights of this year's WCR:

We rolled into the KOA in Willits pretty late on Wednesday night and the KOA folks were kind enough to leave the keys in our cabins.  Mike, Mark and I were sharing a cabin and after the long ride, we were all sleeping before the head hit the pillow!



They are a great setup for motorcyclists...three beds and just enough room to put all your gear.  Even though I haven't had roommates since college, Mike and Mark were most courteous!

Since we were in town a day early, a few of us went out for some breakfast on Thursday morning and took a ride to the coast down route 20.  We were rewarded with spectacular views of the coastline!



The bikes in attendance:



Those would belong to Alan (Firehawk), Me (Cap'n Ron), George (Movenon) and Mark (FJMonkey).  We had a great ride!!  At one point, Alan was leading and he hit the brakes hard and pulled off the road.  I wondered what the issue was...when I pulled up next to him, he said, "Did you see that sign back there for wine tasting???  Let's go!"  I think he knows me well and is the beginning of a looooong friendship!  

We tasted several wines right on the cliffs of the Pacific!



Definitely a trip highlight!

The next morning, my new tire was in...and being the most excellent friends they are, Derek and Donna went with me to the Suzuki/KTM shop in Ukiah.  The service there was great!  Very friendly folks, with the best price I had ever paid for a Sport Demon tire...and they even gave me a ride to a place for breakfast while I waited.  The new tire transformed the FJ!!!  Rock solid and no more speed wobble!!!  Perfect!  From there, the three of us headed over to the overlook at Lake Sonoma.  We waited around for a bit and we met up with a few more of the FJ crew!



This is a perfect place to get some pictures of the bikes!



We all rode back up the 101 a bit and took the 128 to the coast.  LAMike and Scott (Florida) made *very* quick work of passing some cars on the 128 and were gone!  The four of us (Derek, Donna, Pat and I) kept up a good pace and slowed down a few times to take in the scenery.  The forest on the northern half of the 128 is amazing!  We then rode up to Fort Bragg and took the 20 back to the KOA.  We stopped off to check out some old mining equipment and get a shot of the bikes:



Another perfect day!  The next day, Derek, Donna, Alan and I decided to ride north, but took a side road just west of the 101.  Around 7 miles before the end, it turned to dirt!  Did I mention a theme here?  The road was a bit squirrely, but manageable.  I stopped on a bridge and took shots of the others:

Alan:



The happy couple:



We rode to the coast over Branscomb Road...What a great ride that was!  We even stopped at the general store/post office/gas station in Branscomb:



We then went up the coast to Legget, without a SINGLE car on the road...wow!  We stopped near the 101 to take a quick break and were about to pull out when Alan got stung by a bee.  That delayed us just long enough for a whole slew of FJ riders to meet up with us!!  We all went over to the "Drive Thru Tree" and took some photos:



After that, The four of us went up the 162...it's an out and back affair that takes you along a river with nice wide sweepers and then into some nice twisties in the hills...We made it back to camp just in time to jump into the photo lineup!!



Damn...those are some good lookin' bikes!



When all was said and done, we traversed these roads...some of them more than once!  The 20 and Branscomb road were personal favorites.



The days were filled with great rides and the nights were filled with laughter, BBQ's at Alan's Bar and Grill...and stories around the campfire.  Sprinkled throughout all this were friendships and memories that will be hard to beat!

I was very sad to be packing up on Saturday night...my trip will continue, but I knew the rally was coming to an end...  At some point, Donna came up to me and asked what I was doing on Sunday.  She said, "My wacky husband wants to ride with you tomorrow north to Yreka...we know some good roads!"  It took me about a half a second to reply in the affirmative and the plan for Sunday was set!  

[Derek Young]

Very well written Ron. Ear to ear grins as we read! Great memories!

Derek

[FJscott]

Great post Ron. Already dreaming about the next rally

Scott

[Dazza57]

Gosh Ron, I thought your 1st yarn round the ol' states was a beauty, but I do believe this one has re-set the bar. Wonderfully written, great pics, makes me want to book for the next WCR and share it with all you guys.

Keep the stories coming!

Cheers, Dazza

[Mark Olson]

Great review Ron, most excellent 

I did regret not riding with you this year at the rally but the campfire and Alan's BBQ was quite the delight.

I will soon be posting info for the Renegade Rally and look forward to your attendance.

[Capn Ron]

Yep...Great rally this year!  Would have liked to put in some miles with you, but very much enjoyed hanging out with you at camp!  Alan's BBQ was the perfect setup and a much better option than restaurants!

Ohhh...were you referring to THIS campfire???



Damn, that thermite is some good stuff!     Thank you Mr Bean!!!!

[Firehawk068]

Looking forward to hearing about the rest of this journey 

[Capn Ron]

Day 6 - Willits to Yreka, CA (335 miles)

So, with the "riding to Yreka" plan in place, we set about looking for good roads.  Derek and Donna have these maps called "Destination Highways" that rate roads from California to Canada for motorcyclists.  So far, they've been great!  They pulled them out for our trip north and pointed out some options:



Hmmm...the 36 over to the 3 through Hayfork?  I had heard some great stories about the 36 so there it was...a plan!  Our day's ride would look like this:



We said our goodbyes at camp to all that were heading off in different directions.  A lot of well-wishing and thanks for the great times!  We got on our way and got some breakfast at Wheels just 20 miles north of Willits.  From there, we decided to tour through the "Avenue of Giants" along the 101.  It's a perfect road through the giant redwoods...just amazing!



Those trees are HUGE!!!



But the bikes were right at home there:





We hiked around a bit and took pictures just soaking in the experience...  The happy couple by a VERY large tree!!!



Me INSIDE a tree:



We pointed the bikes towards the road and headed out:



The riding was great!  Derek and I were on the FJ's and Donna followed in her Tacoma.  We'd roll on the throttle and were both grinning from ear to ear...taking in all the 36 had to offer.  Great road surface, every kind of sweeper and sharp twisties you can think of and we were loving it all!



We stopped at a place that served milkshakes out of an old trailer...Seemed sketchy, but they were excellent!  Donna whipped up some sandwiches for us all and we had a nice picnic!



The rest of the day was great...by the end of it all, we knocked out 335 miles of twisty roads, with great views and great friends.  I've always said, it's not what you do, it's who you do it with...and Derek and Donna made the trip to Yreka very special.   

We had dinner at a place in Yreka...found a nice slope to back the truck up to and load up Derek's bike.  We said our goodbyes and knew that we'd at ride together again at next year's rally...hopefully sooner!!  Thank you both for one of the best days I've had on the FJ!   

[Capn Ron]

Day 7 - Yreka, CA to Burns, OR (325 miles)

So, I set my sights on Burns, Oregon as my destination for the day...Why Burns?  For no other reason than it's about halfway to Boise!  Seriously, there's no other reason to go to Burns.  I checked the maps and found a lot of squiggly lines along route 66 to Klamath Falls where I decided to get my kicks.  My day's ride looked like this:



Traveling north along the I-5 wasn't all that exciting, but route 66 had a lot to offer!  A great tree-lined mountain road that gained in altitude to an area called Green Springs.  There was a little cafe there so I decided to pull off for some breakfast.  They had a BLT breakfast sandwich...A standard BLT with two fried eggs wedged in there.  It was pretty darned good!  The owner was stunned that I rode all the way from Los Angeles, but she obviously doesn't know the joy of riding an FJ!

After breakfast, I continued on the 66  enjoying the scenerey.  I just had to pull over at this little lake for a break:



I continued on towards Lakeview, OR.  I have stayed in this town before and knew there were lots of options for fuel and food.  There was even a supermarket where I could stock up in wine for the next few days!  Well, I pulled into a gas station to top off and since I had the first cell signal in several hours, I decided to check the weather radar.  Yikes!!!  This is what I saw for the ride north:



Rain cells were moving from west to east and I realized that if I got moving, I would ride right after some rain that had passed and then speed up to get in front the next one coming through.  Basically weaving my way through to stay dry.  I quickly paid for my fuel and took off north!!!

I managed to stay mostly dry, but got hit with some heavy rain for about ten minutes.  The bad thing about my new air-mesh jacket and pants is that you get soaked pretty quickly.  The great thing is that when it stops raining, you dry out in just a few minutes!   

Rolling into Burns after a full day of riding was a good thing.  Not a very exciting town, but they had a grocery store where I picked up some snacks and a few bottles of wine.  I got to the hotel and settled in.  My room had a balcony where the best view (seriously) was my FJ in the parking space below:



I got on Yelp to find reviews of places that would deliver food as it was raining again.  The reviews for a local pizza place read something like, "We were stuck in Burns, but this place had great food!"  And "In the cultural void that is Burns, OR, these guys manage to turn out some respectable eats."  Apparently, good food is possible in this odd little town!

I got a follow-on message from George (Movenon)...who lives in Meridian, ID near Boise...He was iterating his offer to put me up while I was in Boise visiting my sister.  Outstanding!  I told him I'd be happy to have FJ friendly accomodations and plotted my route for the following day.

Today was my first day touring on the FJ by myself since my trip around the U.S. and Canada.  There's a certain risk about being in unknown places without fellow riders to back you up if something goes wrong.  What this also does is forces one to rely on nothing but their own mechanical abilities...riding skills...and cunning to get through the inevitable issues.  It's pretty empowering and gives you the pride of self-reliance...No matter what comes up, it's up to YOU to solve it.  I'd rather be riding with friends for sure...but this is a good feeling too.

Tomorrow, I'm heading to Boise!

[TexasDave]

I went through Burns last fall. Nice town with nice people. Closes down after 5pm but then I'm not a partier anyway. They have one old time movie theater on main street that only has one showing a night. The manager recommended wearing your coat as it was so cold their heating could not keep up. The popcorn was good though. Stopped by a guy outside the auto parts store who admired the FJ. He said he had a FJR and a 95 goldwing. He offered to trade the goldwing straight up for the FJ. It was so cold I considered it for about 1 sec. He was to late I already got my kookaloo in northern Oregon.    Dave 

[Capn Ron]

I saw that movie theater on the way through town!  Nothing against Burns...the people I met there were very nice and immediately put me in that small town comfortable place.  If you're passing through, the town and people will make your stay most enjoyable.  It just doesn't seem like the kind of place that is on the top of most people's must-go-to list of vacation spots!