Dirty Tardin' In Central California

Last weekend Eric and I sampled a little bit of everything that Central California has to offer. We staged out of the Carrizo Plain and woke up to this...


It was completely silent until all the birds roosting in the +100-year-old trees woke up. Then it was absolutely deafening...


We hit some high-speed pavement to the south. Man, I love my SM610...


We headed west out of the mountains on a lovely dirt road called Qattal Canyon and headed up into Ballinger Canyon. I thought of Big Red (Melinda Moore) as we passed SongDog Ranch. Lo! What's this? OHV trails?










I really dig my SM610

We headed back north through the Plain and stopped at camp to top off the tanks before continuing north. We ran into a few riders in camp and stood around shooting the breeze for awhile. One of them was a vintage Husky guy and had built a vintage Husky for the show at Mid-Ohio with Gunnar Lindstrom's help! We sent them on their way with a few CafeHusky stickers. Just as we were ready to leave a BLM botanist came over to talk to us. He was there to document some rare wildflowers. "Oh boy...here we go again" I thought to myself. We could tell he was not happy to see "dirt bikes" on the Plain, even though we were both on street bikes with street tires. We had a very lively and interesting discussion about OHV use, grazing rights, oil and other natural resource extraction, the Sierra Club and various other subjects. We talked for about an hour, and we both came away with a better understanding of the "other side." He stopped on his way out and gave us his card and said he really enjoyed talking with us. We enjoyed it, too, even though it shot the better part of the day. We decided to park the bikes and get an early start on our evening...



More to come...

We were up and out of camp before sun-up...




HWY 58 west out of the Carrizo Plain was a total giggle-fest. My 610 makes me giggle alot, it seems :teeth See...I really do ride my bike on pavement sometimes...


And sometimes I ride it on dirt roads...




Ooh! Arrows! Let's follow `em!


Hmm...we seem to be in another OHV area...


Looks good to me!




Um...I like that rock over there...




Wilderness as far as the eye can see on the left side of the road...




It's supposed to rain today. I hope it holds off for a little while...








More to come...

We started heading downhill....


And the road sort of turned into a trail...


A kind of downhill wet trail...


Hmm...I wonder what's at the bottom?


Oh...so this is what "The StairSteps" is all about...


I wonder if they really mean it?


Let's go see...


Well, considering there was only the two of us, it was supposed to rain, we were on street tires and had no idea what was beyond (I mean, we could get down but we sure as hell weren't going back up it) we decided to take their word for it. We want to come back for sure on our dirtbikes with appropriate rubber and show those steps who's boss :laughing

Ok, so now we get to turn around and go back up...


Ok...






Whee!




Back down all the rocky sections we'd already come up...






Just a little more to come...

We made it back to the bottom without incident and decided to go check out the OHV staging areas for future use. You know, like for when we bring real dirt bikes out here...


Look! More pavement! Have I mentioned lately how much I really enjoy riding my SM610? Probably not. Well, I do!


The ride from Pozo to Santa Margarita was totally in the rain, but it was an exhilarating experience on those fantastically fun and deserted roads. I totally dig my MT60 front tire. We had to stop for some hot grub, though...


The ride from Santa Margarita to the Carrizo Plain on HWY 58 east was simply sublime. Seriously, words cannot express the sheer joy I experienced on this road. The rain only enhanced my pleasure. I might be half-deaf but my sense of smell more than makes up for it and the air was so sweet and fragrant! It was more of a sportbikey road, for sure, and the 610 was lacking a 7th gear
(I had just gotten a new chain and new gearing so that kept the top speeds down but made it more fun in the dirt) but other than that I can't think of anything that could have made it more wonderful. Well, maybe if it had been Saturday instead of Sunday...but other than that it was perfect!

We headed back down onto the Plain and made tracks for camp, racing the coming storm...






As usual, neither one of us wanted to get off the bikes because that would mean the trip was over. We took a side trip up to the top of a hill to survey the wonderfulness that surrounded us...




Until next time...

You couldn't have picked better terrain for that 610 to gobble up.That's true adventure riding right there. As usual you're ride report made me (and I suspect many others) jealous.

Thanks for all the kind words, everyone! We had a great time exploring out there, and as usual I had a great time snapping photos everywhere. It's funny, I always come home with 148 photos and Eric will have, like, 15 if I'm lucky

It's funny...tires make the whole experience, for sure. That stuff we rode would not have even been worthy of mention had we been on regular dirt tires...or regular dirtbikes, for that matter But it was interesting on +300lb bikes with streety tires. That 610 is such a riot to ride, though! I'm sure nobody is aware of it because I never ever mention it, but I reeeeallly love that bike I don't regret getting the SM model at all!

Why, thank you, Ma'am Let's do some dualsporting this summer!

WoodsChick

most excellent.

Ok! You're on!

Thanks, Kelly

Ouch! I pay $9.99 per bottle at CostCo, but it sells for $17 at the grocery store. It is really tasty, kind of robust for a Zin...kind of takes the enamel off my teeth

Thanks, mnb! The Plain is stunning when it's green. I've seen photos taken in the fall and summer and it looks like a hot dusty hell.

Your 310 would make mincemeat of most of those hills. I'd have no issue trying to ride up the steps as long as it wasn't too wet and I had my trusty trials tire.
Going down would be no issue. It's all about what you're used to

Sorry, dude!