Death Valley Daze IX

Steve rode down on his GS from Seattle, getting here on Wednesday. He reported that his trip was dry the whole way. We met at BMW of Santa Cruz, where he had scheduled his baby for new shoes, a 42k service, and a new alternator belt. However, he was delayed slightly when he had to detour to Portland BMW to put on a new belt, as the old one died nearby.

We picked the bike up Thursday morning and then were on our way. We took the small, fun roads and never got on US-101 or I-5 the entire way down to Bakersfield, where we spent the night. (CA-1 / CA-129 / Searle Rd. / CA-156 / Union Rd. / CA-25 / CA-198 / Peachtree Rd. / Indian Valley Rd. / River Rd. / Neal Springs Rd. / El Pomar Dr. / Cripple Creek Rd. / CA-41 / CA-229 / CA-58.) New for me was CA-229, what a blast that road is. One lane, new pavement, very tight twisties, and not a lot of traffic. Pretty, too.

The purpose of staying in Bakersfield, which is not usually held in high regard among tourists, was dinner at Benji's French Basque Restaurant. Conveniently located on CA-58, three blocks west of it's junction with CA-99, it's an oasis among the general sprawl of this central valley town. The food and service have been excellent both times we've been there, and the sweetbreads are in a fabulous sherry cream sauce. My roast lamb was excellent, too.

That evening, while Steve was perusing the map, I noticed a pretty nice looking road that seemed like it would be interesting to try. Breckenridge Rd. is accessible from the CA-184 exit from CA-58 by heading north about half a mile. It winds up the side of Breckenridge Mountain, and if the map is to be believed, ends at Caliente Bodfish Rd. south of Havilah. A fun road it is, too! No center line, most of the pavement is pretty good (though bumpy in spots), and cur-veee! However, at about 5400 feet we ran into ice across the road and had to retrace our steps. It was a 60 mile detour about which we had no regrets!

Once we made it back down the hill, we turned around and went up the Kern River Canyon on CA-178. This is also a fine piece of pavement, but carries significantly more traffic. Luckily, we didn't see much of it. Here's Steve having some fun:

Once down into Ridgecrest, we stopped for gas and food, the latter at a Mexican restaurant. While eating, Gary and J.J. Sibley came in. They had borrowed Rocky Mayer's bike from Ojai, after flying in from Dallas.

Once we arrived and got checked into our room at the Furnace Creek Ranch motel, we did what we came to do. Hang out. Later, the Sibbleys invited us to join them for dinner at the Furnace Creek Inn, which is a resort about half a mile up the road from the motel. We had a pleasant dinner, though the food ranged from mediocre to passable (considering the price), and didn't seem offend anyone with our too-casual dress. When we came out, it was dark, and the stars were eye-poppingly bright, so clear and dark was the sky just days after the new moon.

Saturday morning we awoke to quite a few beemers in the parking lot. It seemed a lot of people had gotten in later in the evening. And there was a sidecar rig that we had passed on Thursday afternoon along CA-58 in San Luis Obispo county.

Saturday we continued to hang out. We had breakfast at the cafe. We walked over to the campgrounds to see how the campers were making out, running into Kbasa each way. We took in the Borax Museum with Dave. (Check out the USGS benchmark in the photo below; notice how the above in elevation above sea is scratched out.) We smoked cigars.

Late in the afternoon we all gathered behind the Park Service welcome center for the traditional group photo, and then Kbasa, Mr. Data and others proceeded to give away an amazing amount of swag collected from various dealers. We went back to the cafe for dinner, but after dark, it was deemed to be too cold to go stand around the campground, so we turned in.

Sunday we got off reasonably early and ran into Kbasa and Troutski at the gas station, so we decided to ride out together. We breakfasted in Ridgecrest at a local eatery that was very busy despite the fact that we got there just a little after 9am. While we were there, a fellow on a modified GS joined us. Then it was back over Walker Pass on CA-178, with Kbasa in the lead:

Because of the traffic, Kbasa, Troutski, and I had gotten ahead of Steve and the GS guy. We crossed CA-99 and pulled into a Texaco to gas up and let the others catch up. We waited for about 15 minutes before we eventually made contact by cell phone with Steve. It turned out that on the way into Bakersfield, the guy on the GS lost a piece off his aftermarket Remus muffler and then began shedding the sound batting that had been inside it. The GS guy decided to just get on CA-99 and roar (literally) on home.

So, our reduced group continued together over to I-5 and parted company at CA-198, where Steve and I stopped to have lunch at the Harris Ranch steakhouse. Then we connected with Los Gatos Rd., which is a shorter but slower and bumpier road to CA-25, rather than taking CA-198.

From Harris Ranch it's just about exactly 100 miles to Tres Piños, which is the first possible gas stop. I had estimated (eg, guessed) that it was more like 70. When my reserve light had been on for 10 miles, I suddenly noticed that Steve wasn't following me anymore. Turns out that he only had about 96 miles worth of gas in his tank (his reserve light had been on for 40 miles!) Fortunately, a handy discarded beer can was laying beside the road. I washed it out a bit and then we disassembled the left side fuel injector on my bike. By turning the key on and off a few times, we filled the can twice, which got Steve to Tres Piños and gas. After that, it was smooth sailing back home.