The next thing that I want to babble on about would be motorcycling this weekend.
When I registered for BLFC I knew that I was going to be riding my motorcycle to the convention. This wasn't even a question for me. I'd been looking for a good long weekend ride for quite some time. Shooting over the Sierras to Reno had been something I'd been thinking about doing any way. Nice when the stars align just right.
I won't go into the minutia of my preparation or route planning; it's enough to say that I spent a small bit of time making sure my bike was in good shape for the trip and knew that on the way out I wanted to avoid freeways as much as was practical. In the end I had a fairly light load out on my bike, enough clothes for the weekend and some gear I thought I'd need. (But turned out not to need.)
Geared up in one-piece leathers, Gortex lined touring boots, gloves and all the other safety kit I headed out from home on Thrusday morning with a GoPro fixed to the front of my bike snapping away a new frame every 5 seconds or so. (Yes, this is being compiled into a video I'll post later.)
My route really beyond avoiding freeways when possible my route also stipulated a fuel stop in Placerville, everything else was open game. My route took me over to Livermore via 84, then to 99 for a bit via 580/205 before I peeled off on Main Street in Stockton and started bombing through rural towns and farm roads going from Highway 26 to 88 to 124 to 49 to 50 to I395 into Reno.
I found myself grinning like an idiot on 49. That's an amazing stretch of road.
Going through South Lake Tahoe was about the only really tedious part of the trip and, I think, the part that I liked the least. Temperatures up at Tahoe were still pretty chilly, I was starting to get fairly uncomfortable even with the heated grips turned on. It was also fairly late in the ride and I was just feeling physically worn down by that point. I didn't want to get off the bike for a rest until I'd reached Carson City, though, so I pushed on. Once I was in Carson City I realized that I wasn't all that far from Reno so I just pushed on through the discomfort and soreness, getting a second wind for simply realizing I was so close to my destination.
At the casino I easily found parking, unloaded the bike and got checked in. Was kinda cool bumping into somebody also at checking in the for con who asked me he how the ride had gone. Pretty sweet.
Moto ride from San Jose to Reno, in time lapse. from SmackJackal on Vimeo.
I didn't quite realize just how wiped out I was from the ride. Not physically wiped out, I could have kept going. My brain was just flat out done at that point and around 9 in the evening I passed out in bed to recover.
Sunday morning I decided I wanted to spit early to avoid some incoming rain and get a little distance between myself and Reno. Needed some time to clear my head and sort through some thoughts from the weekend so I hit the bricks before any of my roommates for the con had woken up. Not really feeling the need to be on the bike for quite as long as the Thursday ride up I super-slabbed it most of the way: 395 -> 80 -> 5 -> 205/580 but decided to have a fun cruise through Niles Canyon at the tail end of the trip which was, remarkably, invigorating after spending four hour chewing up multi-lane freeways.
Next year I'll probably take 88 all the way out to 395 if it's open in time for BLFC.
No comments:
Post a Comment