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The day's route included some really wonderful roads - our final destination was Susanville. I didn't take a lot of pictures along the way since I knew Eric, Gary, and John had their cameras out and working so figured there'd be a lot of coverage! From Plymouth, we ventured along Fiddletown Rd., Shake Ridge, 88, and Mormon Emigrant Trail. From there, we headed down 50 to 49, 193, 49 into Auburn, and then Gary and John had some suggestions for a few alternate roads which we decided to take him up on... I can't remember all of them but they were AWEsome!! Pleasant Valley Rd., Indian Springs, some more of 49 (sections I hadn't been on before), Oregon Hill, a couple of others I'm blanking on, and then we were back on the published route which included LaPorte Rd. Steep, twisting, downhill with views that made it a challenge to keep your bike on the road!! We finally pulled into Quincy for gas. Chris had gone into Grass Valley to get a new rear tire. As we sat at the gas station, we saw a flash of red and he saw us and pulled into the gas station. As soon as he stopped the bike at the pump, a gaggle of kids appeared out of nowhere and ogled his sport bike... he was a mini-celebrity to them!! From there, CC, Donna and I decided to take the faster, more direct route into Susanville while the gents opted for the other route which we would get to experience the next morning. We arrive in Susanville about 7:30 just as they were starting to close up the chow line. We grabbed some grub, scarfed it down, and then quickly set up camp before it got too dark. Again, libations flowed and the laughter floated along the cool night air. The next morning, we decided to take some roads that weren't on the published route for the day. Since we hadn't been able to do FR172 the day before, we decided to start our day with that and my, oh my, what a way to start the day!! Honey Lake - beautiful morning view. Eric was our leader for the day and he did an awesome job!! Great roads and a great pace. We stopped in Quincy for breakfast at the Morning Thunder Cafe. If you ever find yourself there, check it out - food was great! After breakfast, we headed out 89 to Gold Lake Rd., another beauty of a road. Back to 49 and more twisties, dropped into Tahoe for a brief jaunt through the weekend traffic, and then over Mt. Rose/431. Tahoe was beautiful... weather all day was cool and perfect! We stopped at the Mt. Rose ski lift and found out that it is where they hold their MSF classes so the parking lot was marked with all the practice S-turns, etc. so everyone got out there and practiced their skills before continuing on. Time was growing short so we decided to jet toward our final destination, Yerlington, instead of doing another pass or two (we saved that for the next day!!). A bit of 395 and then 208 and we arrived at the fairgrounds. These particular fairgrounds were, well, um a little bit under expectations (okay, maybe that's an understatement). Not a lot of grass to set up tents so John, Chris, and Steve set up camp across the way... we called it Deviant Alley... but always the chipper and inventive crew, they made it their own home away from home. Several of us decided we didn't want to rough it quite that much so found a motel room in town - can't beat the price - only $30 for a group rate!! The next morning we arrived with coffee and donuts for the roughing it crowd for which they were very grateful. By the time we arrived at the fairgrounds at 7 a.m., it was nearly deserted... these ROL folks start their days early, I imagine so they have that much more time to ride!! We headed back out 208 and over Monitor Pass/89 and then up Ebbetts Pass/4. I hadn't ridden Ebbetts in quite some time so had forgotten how absolutely stunning it is - both road wise and views! Lots to keep your attention on the road - the lower section has some really tight hairpins, then you're lulled into a false sense of relaxed curves in the middle, and then the upper section which is a roller coaster of uphill, twisting, roads and a couple more hairpins thrown in for good measure. It was glorious!! We stopped for brunch at the Alpine Lodge right across from the lake - the view was beautiful. While we waited for food, a few of the others who had already eaten went down for the lake for a dip. The group broke up into different sub-groups with different roads on their individual menus. CC, Patrick/Stevie, and Kendally joined me as we continued along 4 and down into the Gold Country where it was blessedly comfortable temperatures, not the searing temps we experienced on the way home from Bridgeport. We stopped in Murphy's briefly to meet some of Kendall's friends... who weren't there... Then it was Murphy's Grade Rd (which if you want to bypass the mess through Angels Camp along 4, I would highly suggest as an alternate route!), back on 4, Pools Station (one of CC's favorites) where we encountered John and Steve zooming the other way. From there we headed along 12 to 26. At this point, we had two additional riders join us, Chris and Pamela. Chris came zooming up along side of me wagging his finger at me... I thought he was saying I was doing something wrong/bad... then he fell behind me again... then zoomed up next to me again and wagged his finger again... wtf am I doing wrong, I'm thinking? He finally pulled in front of me and pulled off on the side of the road... seemed Pamela was having a slight malfunction of her bike and needed some assistance... so much for communication while riding! We fixed the problem and everyone headed home along 4 and Vasco. Again, the temps were quite comfortable so it made for a much more pleasant journey home, even though we were headed back to reality... sigh... It was a wonderful adventure and was made only that much better by the people we got to share it with. See y'all next year!! Other pics/reports here: Peace,
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What a great adventure and so many people to share it with! We all congregated
in Plymouth on Friday, people leaving at various times before descending upon
the fairgrounds and setting up camp. We dined at InCaHoots, a great bbq place,
and Sue was our shuttle driver for the evening, transporting people back and
forth to the restaurant... We returned to camp and sat around a picnic table
enjoying the evening's libations and catching up with each other. Cris had a
froggy moment under the tree much to our amusement.