Another Undiscovered Ride/Part II

I may be wearing out my welcome by going back for part 2 of the Undiscovered Ride. It was so much fun seeing new stuff in a completely new area that after leaving to continue my “thumb rehab tour” I returned to ride with Barry one more time. The excellent part was that Barry recruited Howard (Mayor of Ragdump) to be the ride leader for our second day of riding.

We started fairly early because “Mayor Howard” had mapped out a ride that stretched our day to well over 100 miles. This was like going on a guided tour because throughout the day the Mayor made stops and told us history of some of the areas and things we were seeing. Simply amazing how much information the Mayor has gathered in his 35 plus years of living and riding in No. Cal. The views were some of the best you could imagine without riding into a National Park.

The day started out with some dirt road that the Mayor used to access a single-track trail I never would have spotted. Let the fun begin! We rode for a while on trail that had my head on a swivel looking at the trail and the surrounding scenery. It rivaled any single-track I have been on anywhere with boulders, logs, descents and climbs, all the while dodging trees. What more could you ask for on a trail!  We immediately got warmed up enough that the Mayor stopped to take off his jacket before continuing on until we popped out on a road that headed for the high country. This road climbed until our next stop that had spectacular views of the canyons we had be riding through for a few hours. Picture time, so out came the cameras. It eventually passed by some High Lakes that were near the Pacific Crest Trail. We rode for what seemed like hours through back country and mountains with view after view never letting anyone get bored.

We had gone about 60 miles when Barry flags the Mayor and I down because he has a front flat tire. We find a stump to use as a stand and Barry sets out to fix his flat, the second one in two days.  So the Mayor and I take a seat in the shade to spectate as our friend demonstrates his mechanical prowess. The first problem is that Barry can’t find the hole in the tube due to the fact that his pump doesn’t work. Luckily I carry a pump and a tube. So Barry replaces the tube and we are back on the trail. The Mayor leads off until he stops at an intersection that has a sign that says we are 21 miles from the place he was headed! He looks around and says he doesn’t know how we ended up at this intersection. My odometer is now showing us at the 72 mile mark. I just laugh because Big Red (my Honda 450x) has a big tank and is good for about 125 miles or so.  Mister Flat tire boy has a stock tank on his bike and is probably down to his last ½ gallon or less since we are a bit off course.  So now we have to follow Barry to make sure he doesn’t run out of gas behind us. We cross our fingers and head on down the road.  Even then I had a great time because the views were great and I had plenty of gas! We cross over a fairly high pass that provided some really good scenery.  I don’t think Barry enjoyed the view because he was probably worrying too much about running out of gas.

We cruise to conserve fuel and make it to the store/gas stop the Mayor had planned. The Mayor had done his homework by calling the day before and checking to see that they had gas. Unfortunately he didn’t ask them if they would have gas today. Yup, they had run out of gas in their pumps. So now it is about 4pm, we have not eaten lunch and are at least 2 hours from home if we go the shortest way back and we have no gas. I find this a bit amusing and start to weigh my options. I have a siphon hose in my back pack and will swipe some gas from a lawnmower if I have to. Or we could just get a room and stay overnight. So we ask the girl behind the counter, the one with no gas, if there would be anyone with a 5 gallon jug we might be able to buy from. As she dials the phone up drives a pickup truck with an old timer driving. He is the person she was going to call. A nice old gentleman, that appears to be in his 70’s. We ask him and he says he does have some gas at home for his chain saw and won’t be using it for a couple of days. So he retrieves the can and we split it between the 3 bikes.

It is now almost 5 pm and we are about to get back on the road for home when the Mayor says he is hungry and we should stop for a cheeseburger. I can’t believe he wants to eat already, we have only been on the trail for 7 hours and I did give him a Slim Jim beef stick while flat tire boy was fixing his flat. We stop for a cheeseburger at the Bambi Inn before heading home. I like this place because right over the door they have a sign that says, “We don’t dial 911” with the silhouettes of a couple of rifles. Perfect, my kind of place.

Heading for home is fairly uneventful since it is now after 5 pm and we are taking the shortest route back. We come to an intersection and say good bye to Mayor Howard as he turns toward his place and we continue down the road toward Barry’s house. We still go through another cool canyon and over a bridge before we climb up to a fire lookout on our way home. We finally roll into Barry’s driveway around 7 pm. There is a message on the phone from the Mayor letting us know he made it home ok since he was riding alone.

All in all it was a great day. Fun riding, friends, scenery, getting a bit lost, sweating gas and ongoing entertainment the whole way. What more could you ask for on a guided tour? I think I will sign up for the next one as soon as I recover.

#33

“Life is a lesson, so take good notes”

Comments

[Howard Goodman (Mayor of Ragdump)]

What a neat story about are ride,I had a great time leading you guys around ,so nice to ride with a professional trail rider