I hopped in on the Hair Lip Dog Motorcycle Club annual dual sport motorcycle ride last weekend. We covered over 120 miles, 100 of it on dirt roads. All of it was in Lake County California, and the 100 miles unpaved roads were in the Mendocino National Forest.
The rides is based out of the city of Clearlake. A nice place on the south end of Clear Lake, the largest natural lake in California and one of ESPN's picks as a top fishing lake in the world. It is a favorite place of mine as I like to spend time riding motorcycles and fishing. Lake County is about perfect for me.
After a breakfast meet up we headed out to get gas and then hop on High Valley Road behind Clearlake Oaks. This is paved at first and has some fun 90 degree turns followed by long straights. We wind along some beautiful countryside and past the impressive Brassfield winery.
After a few miles the pavement ends and you are on the dirt road. With a full tank of gas and the hard pack road with loose gravel you slide alot on the first few miles. The extra weight I ride with (ha ha) means not as much wheelspin exiting the corners on this low grip stuff, but I do have to spend a little more time slowing down into the loose stuff. It's pretty tricky especially when you are riding with a group that is all amped up and ready to go fast.
Other than low grip there is nothing too technical to ride there. High Valley Road does offer some awesome views. At first you notice the valley below, then after a few miles the lake comes into view.
Pretty quick you start to ride into the pine trees and the slightly lower temps feel great. That familiar California feeling of being on a dirt road in the pine trees is a good one no matter where I ride to find it. We are pretty spread out to keep from riding in the spring dust, and the traction is better now and after a few "catches" on the loose stuff I start to get the feel of riding a heavy Honda XR650L dirt bike off road.
I hooked up my Garmin GPSmap76CSx and thanks to Ride Captain Ron I had the GPS tracks for the day loaded up.
I do know this area fairly well but Ron knows it better and pre-runs it to get a good layout for the variety of skills and maybe as important fuel mileage for the different bikes on the ride. If I got off the main route for the day I could find my way to the various meet-up points, and if somebody wanted to bail out early I could help get them back to the highway. Ron also had printed out custom route maps and handed them out early in the day.
So we go from High Valley, along a ridge with great views, and then to Bartlett Springs road. There are 2 weird intersections there to make the transition. You have to turn left to get off High Valley Road, then right pretty quick to head east. I've blown it a few times in the past, but was more ready this time and Ron's brother Jason was waiting to point us the way at the second turn.
Now we were really in the trees. The dirt roads were about perfect. Lots of traction, lots of fun. We crawl around some tighter sections and are on the side of a mountain with a big drop below. Let's pay attention here! The trees fade away and we drop down some dirt switchbacks to the flats. These switchbacks will be on the way home for some of us, and they are really fun to ride going uphill at the end of a day.
The flat section is really fast. You can ride standing up and strike a "Dakar photo-op" pose. It also feels good to stretch out the legs a little and get some weight off the bum. There is a bridge and creek crossing at the bottom. The creek almost always has running water as it drains some pretty wet mountains that see snowfall and heavy rains all winter long.
In front of me is Mike on an older BMW GS1000. He's got close to 200,000 miles on it, and has ridden it on all kinds of roads and trails. He is fearless. He takes the right split to do the creek crossing, and I see he's hitting it pretty fast.
WOW water flies everywhere! I am about 100 feet behind him and decide to slow down a little. SPLASH I see the front fender holding back a wall of water and I stand up and make the crossing. I feel a little on my boots and ride it out. Then I see Mike sitting on his bike. It isn't running. He's trying to get it started, not much is happening. I think it is kind of funny, then I look over and see water coming out of the airbox/carb junction.
Uh-oh that's not good.
More in Part 2.
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