Pics from Chris, Dick, and Marc

This is the ride that’s been planned since February and has been delayed at least 3 times after one false start where ony two riders showed up and one left his rain gear in his other bike. Anyway, the delay seemed to be well worth while as an unseasable spate of summer weather hit the bay area, a welcome respite after 3 weeks of cold and/or wet weather. The calendar may say spring; the thermometer says summer.

Breakfast was at the Golden Egg Omelet House in Novato. Marc let late, thinking he’d get there just as the group was finishing breakfast. Instead, he got there just as the group had ordered. Oh well, time for plenty of coffee. And maybe some toast. The captain came well prepared, with plenty of cold water on ice in his colorful chest.

Can you tell that we’re in wine country? After breakfast we hopped on 101 to Healdsburg where we got gas, lost WWWobble, and took Dry Creek through the vineyards heading toward Lake Sonoma. WWWoble was waiting for us by the side of the road at the end of Dry Creek.

The captain proceeded to ignore the “No Outlet” sign, looking for the gate that marks the end of Rockpile road. About 12 miles later we found it.

We rode back to the Skaggs Spring Rd turn-off then immediately turned into the Lake Sonoma overlook for a picture and restroom break. As we were leaving some other bikes pulled into the parking lot. Seems we’re not the only mid-week riders this day.

I don’t think the captain is capable of passing up a chance to park his bike on a bridge. Last time we followed his lead, then hurried and moved the bikes when a garbage truck wanted to cross the one lane bridge to Annapolis. This time he parked alone.

The Captain led us from the bridge to Annapolis over Tin Barn and Kings Ridge road. No cars. Plenty of cattle. Average speed over this section of road was less than 25 MPH. When the group stopped on Kings Ridge Marc and Major WWWobble continued on into Cazadero where they waited for the rest of the riders.

Don’t know what kind of moth that is, but it’s got the number 1 on its wings and pretty thick legs. Maybe it’s a racing moth?

Major WWWobble led from Cazadero, taking 116 to the coast then headed south. The goal was o turn left on the Marshall Petaluma road so Chris and Dick could show off the old truck they found on their last ride.

That lasted until the Major almost took a wrong turn, then turned his bad turn into a rest stop. When we continued after the stop, the Captain took the lead, having programmed the desired location into his GPS. Note well: All the riders are mounted and ready to go while the Captain is still playing with his GPS. You don’t see that very often... he’s usually a half a block in front of us.

The caption found Marshall Petaluma road. On that road Marc noticed Simon in his mirror, then 20 second later no Simon. When Simon didn’t show up in 30 seconds he turned around to find Simon scouring the side of the road. Seems the latch to one of his side cases broke, letting the side case bounce down the road. It was found upside down in a drainage ditch. The case is still serviceable... if the broken latch can be repaired. The captain also came back to see that all was well, arriving as the wayward bag was being bungied to Simon’s luggage rack.

The above shots are of the truck and some other ancient implements of farming. After taking these images we headed to 101 for the ride home by way of Lucas Valley Road.

Marc says:
My total mileage for the ride was pretty close to 300 miles. I was gone for about 11 hours. That means I averaged zbout 27 MPH for the day. Yeah, part of the time we were stopped. However, my GPS says I was moving for just over 7 hours. That brings my average speed up to about 43 MPH. Just thought you’d like to know.