| The '99 2-Mountain Ride Report
by Mike Catfish Chaplin I awoke Sunday morning at 7am to the sound of rain in Concord. It wasn’t too heavy, but enough to probably scare several folks back under the covers. Being a card-carrying Geek(tm), I promptly dialed-in to my ISP, browsed my way over to the Weather Channel’s web page, & checked out the current Doppler radar image for the Bay Area. RATS, there wasn’t any more rain to the west of the Oakland hills! The 2-Mtn. Ride is suppose to be a Rukka Rally, as we use to call it. Arrived at Coco’s for breakfast about 15 minutes late and found a number of bikes in the parking lot. Nice crowd for a dreary day:
Most everyone knows Mark Anderson’s guest, Steve Demopoulos, and the others were guests of mine. Steve Hursh is one of the old Livermore Harley crowd from Earl’s past & has gone to Song Dog with the Northstars numerous times. He’s not on Harleys anymore; rode his older GS-80 today & has a K1200RS at home. Steve Peltier & Holly are friends from the WetLeather mailing list and were on his VFR750. He is a new diver and a great source for an abalone dinner. Tony Tugwell was a Northstar years ago for about 6-8 months just before Chuck Wood left & took most of the new members (who favored women in the club at that time) with him. Tony races AFM, rides enduros on his KDX200, and is a very competent rider on that old NightHawk "sleeper" he was riding. After a brief rider’s meeting, we watched Steve D. search the parking lot frantically for his moto key that was missing, and we finally left. Up the front side of Diablo, Matt decided he wanted to be the Designated Sacrificial Hooligan (DSH) and passed the ride leader on the way to the park entrance. It was here I realized that I had NOT remembered earlier to get that $5.00 entrance fee out of my wallet that was wrapped up in ziplock bags in my fanny pack. By the time I was ready to leave the entrance station, Matt & several others had proceeded ahead. I was loosing control FAST! But as luck would have it, the DSH was merely doing his sworn duty of playing decoy to distract 2 park rangers in less than a mile of each other as the main group passed by without incident. What a guy! Apparently, Brett must have been assisting the DSH enough to feel guilty, but not quite enough to pull over too, as I found him later hiding behind some bushes in one of the day-use areas with only his front wheel sticking out. As we climbed in altitude, it got colder & the fog more and MORE dense. So much so near the top, that visibility was the worst I’ve seen it up there and really held the speeds down. Snow was everywhere and the top parking lot at the summit was closed. We played in the larger day-use lot; riding through the snow banks, popin’ wheelies, and posing for pictures. Holly really wasn’t dressed warm enough for this weather, so Steve P. told me they were going to bail as we got back down to Walnut Creek. Smart move. The ride out to the Northgate entrance was wet, but fun; til we caught up to a ranger actually doing 25mph & wanting to escort us out of the park. As we headed out Marsh Creek Rd. from Clayton, we caught a big new Beemer sedan that wanted to play. He was accelerating up the 1st ridge & was drifting through the corners down the back side of the ridge. We were reeling him in when suddenly, Morgan Territory Rd. appear out of nowhere on the right. I saw it in time to make the curve but Steve D., who was apparently following me a little too closely & focused on the Beemer, didn’t. He moved from 2nd to tail gunner in a matter of seconds. Morgan-T Rd. was wonderful as always with its nice front-tire launching points & its slimy, paved-motocross nature. Stopping at Gino’s in Livermore for gas & a warm beverage, Steve H. said he was leaving the ride & stopping by Earl’s place in town on his way home <light bulb turning on over my head>. Leading the ride group to Earl’s place, I rode the XRL right up the steps of the front porch & knocked on the door with the front tire. When Megan answered the door, we asked "can Earl come out & play?" She giggled as Earl appeared and we visited a few minutes. As we left to continue the ride, the Professor decided to take the scenic route to Mines Rd. Out Mines Rd. to the Junction, we had a couple of small water crossings and some dirty corners, but nothing too exciting. We stopped to re-group & eat a little lunch. Mark bailed at this point claiming he had a SuperBowl party to go to & headed back towards Livermore. We sneered at him loudly! San Antonio Valley Rd. was wet like the previous roads all day, til we started gaining elevation up the back side of Mt. Hamilton. It was getting REALLY cold, and the road was covered with a wet-sandy slush. Then the slush became partially frozen as the cold, dense fog surrounded us again. I’m glad I was on the XRL with the knobbies! We stopped long enough at the observatory to re-group, but then they all shouted, "Can we leave now?" We did; it was COLD & the mist was freezing to my faceshield. Heading down to San Jose, we met numerous trucks & vans who were doing their best to only use half of their lane . . . and, of course, half of ours. Even after seeing us, some made NO attempt whatsoever to give us any of our lane back. In San Jose a large group bailed, but 3 hearty souls (Pat Lydon, Patrick Moriarty, & Tony Tugwell) continued with me to what was going to be the best roads of the day. After a gas stop, we climbed back into the hills on Sierra Rd. It was mostly dry, but the old narrow part up top had some pretty severe steps in the pavement where the ground had been moving around under it; great launching pads! Continued back down on Felter Rd. and turned right on Calaveras Rd. This is one of the nicest twisty roads in the east bay, which was dry & remarkably clean for this time of year. Here, I would have appreciated the SuperHawk. We got to Sunol with big grins on our faces & a little tired. We called it quits, said our good-byes, and headed home. Another Great Adventure! |
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| © 1999, Mike Chaplin catfish@silcon.com Last updated : February 03, 2001 |