22 January 2008
Marc writes:
It started with an email message I sent out one beautiful January day with blue sky and temperatures in the 60s. Hey, I wrote, how about a MWR next week… maybe down the coast, over Nacimiento-Ferguson, and back up 25. The Tuesday following MLK day should be good and the extended forecast calls for rain Monday, but a dry Tuesday.
Ready to roll
Lies, all lies. The weather turned cold and wet and one-by-one those who were initially up for a ride found other things to do. By Monday morning the group was down to one and even I decided that a 350 mile loop alone in the current weather wasn’t the best thing to do.
I rode over to the coast and then headed south to Watsonville for breakfast. No rain. The temperatures were around 45F and the roads were dry until Santa Cruz where along with wet roads the temperature rose to around 50F.
After breakfast, coffee, and commentary
Darryl met me at the restaurant with his new toy
business productivity tool, an HP laptop. We enjoyed breakfast,
coffee, and commentary on various experiences at old jobs. It was a
nice way to spend the remainder of the morning.
The bikes were wet when we left, indicating at least one shower occurred while we were in the restaurant. Both of us planned to head home. I decided that it was warm enough to go up highway 9 to Skyline. I wanted to see if there was any snow.
GS at 40F
Yep. It started at about the 1500 foot level with maybe 3 inches or so at the 9 and 35 junction at 2500 feet. The temperature at the junction was close to 40, down 10 degrees from the 50ish enjoyed at the coast. Things were still dry, though.
The parking lot at the junction was full of folks who brought their kids to play in the snow. Snowmen dotted the sides of the road and many snowballs were thrown. I waved to the one other rider who was out on his motard.
Doesn’t take much to close a road
This way is open
Highway 9
The ride home turned wet (and cold) from Alice’s, north. My gear kept me warm and dry. This was also the hardest test of the Respro Foggy I recently added to my helmet. It works. It kept my visor fog free in the rain at 35F. That makes it worth the minor extra pain I have to go through when removing the helmet.