Jon and Walt's excelent Cali trip

Over Thanksgiving I was making plans to visit Boise the first week or so of December and do some freshening work on Kevin's 167 and a little riding. I was talking to my buddy Jon and he wanted to know if he could come along and go riding. I immediately started thinking about riding somewhere even more fun(Moab) now that I had a partner in crime. Our spur of the moment trip was on and the weather looked good for that week. As we got closer and closer to leaving the weather in Utah and Nevada just kept deteriorating. I was ready to cancel completely when Jon said what about central Cali. So with just a couple of days to spare I started PM'ing a few CH faithful about riding with no notice. What a great crew as at great inconvience to them we had a number of rides lined up with virtually no advance notice. I hate arranging things like that as the last thing you want is to be an inconsiderate burden.

I want to extend huge thank you's to Woodschick and Mr. Woodschick(Eric), Doug(Celtic Dude), Dan(MotoXotica), and Joshua(JSleeper) for going out of your way to make our visit exceptional.

We started by driving all day Friday and most of Saturday to try to get to Stonyford in time to do some riding. Unfortunately for us we took "Google's" #1 route to Stonyford. Two extra hours of traversing the single roughest "paved" road ever we were only able to get in 20 miles as the sun set on Saturday evening.

Sunday we met Woodschick and Eric at the cafe for breakfast and planning. Rather bloated and happy we followed them on the "better" route to Stonyford. I still feel the pain of Woodschick having to lounge by the creek as we enjoyed a great day riding nearly alone on a Sunday at Stonyford. I have a short clip of our ride.



My snail like internet connection allows me to upload small segments like that in about ~5 hours. I don't have any pics other than some GoPro snapshots:

Eric wondering where he can take the Montana noobs without getting them hopelessly lost and injured.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/115y4XBhxIb7B-sdgMlkP9MTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

Some glare ice took care of the problem.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/AVkcYlrJ89PMMrE3mWAr9tMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

Confusion after the ice took its toll on two riders trying the other bikes.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/KsLzpOaW7Q5R4_dqGox9bdMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

Gotta love ice and no studs
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/iKQiT41uVxkXULg1hu5M_tMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

Damn this thing is a bit flighty on the bottom.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/wMShRj1vHm6PgLHIuNIT1tMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

We got back to the staging area in one piece after having a blast riding with Eric. I still wish Woodschick was healthy and could have ridden. What a trooper to come all the way out to Stonyford and have to watch us ride away. Next time you can join Eric leading the blind around.

More later...

Jealous.... My suspension should be back sometime next week.. Just in time for my mother in law aka " the Queen of Darkness" to show up for an extended Christmas stay. I am truly "living the dream"

Is woodschick still suffering from the hurt shoulder she took home from the Bend gathering? I never did read what the prognoses was.

Sounds like you had a good trip!

That looks like a lot of fun! Thanx for posting!

On Monday we went to Foresthills armed with a map that Woodschick gave us. We wanted to ride both #5 and #6 but by the time we got there and did some bike prep we only had time to ride all of #5. Here are a few clips from the ride:

This is from the upper #5 loop:



The following two clips are from the lower #5 that we rode in and out.





Really fun stuff. Thank you to Woodschick for turning us on to the fun. We planned on coming back on Friday and riding #6 which was even more fun. More on that later. After we were done we packed up and headed to Celtic Dudes house to try and sort out his 144. After pizza and beer we got to work and swapped out his power valves, prepped my carb for him and headed back to Williams for the night. More on our ride with Celtic Dude and Dan next.

I have been kicked off while uploading 3 times after about 3 hours each time. Loved all of Foresthill #5 and #6.

Nice Vids Walt. So you feel the marathon drive was well worth it?

Steve,

We rode 8 straight days and now we aren't riding at all. Yes it was well worth the long drive. Didn't want to come home but had no choice.

My brother and I had a blast on Thursday. I do not know how you guys rode 6 days straight! I have never seen two guys more driven to ride. Great fun.

JS

Hi JS,

We had a great time riding with you and your brother. I am still a couple of rides away from posting the video evidence.

On Tuesday we picked up Celtic Dude and drove to Georgetown to meet up with Dan. Dan had invited 3 other riders to our good fortune. Doug and Kerry were very familiar with Georgetown and took us on some very fun "secret" trails. Those vids are being withheld to protect the guilty. We had a great time riding with some really good people. Thank you Doug, Dan, Kevin, Kerry and Doug. We rode 60+ miles and other than getting a little lost trying to get back quickly to avoid gas outages it was a great day. Here are a few vids of the day:

A little clip of a fun water crossing:



A short clip following Dan:



Another clip of some fun track following Doug and Dan:



After the ride we got together for some pizza, beer, and lies. Great Fun.

Once again extreme thanks to Doug and Dan for lining up this great day.

looks like we had FUN!dan

Dan, what are you riding?

JS

Wednesday we returned to Stonford for our last ride. It was a great day just like everyday we were in Cali. I think we might have gotten as lucky as possible with nothing but sunny and 60 pretty much every day. I had one of those bad bio-rhythem days. My mind was just a tad disconnected from my body. Many stupid stop and flops and a spinning turtle move at a nothing creek crossing. All in all was still a great day and fun was definitely the rule(Jon got to chuckle all day at my misadventures).

Here is a clip that took 2 days and 3 tries to get uploaded. Internet connections out in the stix are definitely dicey.



Tomorrow I will post our trip to Hollister.

Walt, you should have posted videos of your crashes. That reminds me, we should start a "funny" crash thread (not a "hurt" crash thread).

JS

Jon has one of me doing the stupid circling turtle move that is just too embarrassing. How I didn't actually roll into the water I have no idea. I really had a bad day.

Very cool report and riding! Is that a 250 or 300 you are riding?

You can explore around a new area but having a map given by someone who knows the area can really save time and extend your overall miles riding per day ...

Ray_Ray,

That is my 165.

Looks like a fast bike ... How big were those uphill grades you were pulling ? Hard to tell from the vids...

How do the forks feel to you?

I'll go back and watch the vids again with 165 in mind ...