Alright everyone, it's been two and a half years since we all got together for a few rounds of drinks and some great eats in Berkeley, and it's time to up the ante. Everyone in Northern California, it's time to sound off! I'm getting this ball rolling now so we can all start planning our time off well in advance. I propose a 3 day event that highlights some of Northern California's most beautiful roadways. Yes, this may mean taking a day or two of your accumulated vacation time, but just think of the Awesome countryside God blessed us with here in California. I think this excursion will be well worth the trip.
Ideally, I would like to have everyone meet up somewhere in the South Bay area, somewhere around San Jose for an early lunch. Then, spend the day riding the areas out and around down towards Santa Cruz, spend a lunch there, then head out again through Gilroy heading for the Son Luis Reservoir State Rec Area. I will be looking into whether or not there are any campgrounds in the park. We would spend the night there, then head out the next day towards Sonora or thereabouts. Our route would take us across the San Fernando valley, and up into the Sierra Nevada mountains, giving us incredible views all around. Depending on time, we could spend the night somewhere near Sonora, or head further north towards Placerville. The third day would see us through the Sacramento area, out through Woodland, out toward St. Helena for lunch, maybe at the American Culinary Institute. Then, continue up 29 to Calistoga, then cut back towards the ocean through Santa Rosa, to 12 through Sebastopol out to Bodega Bay, where we would finish our trek at dinner on the ocean.
Some of the riding will be nice and smooth, long drawn out roadways, while mixing it up with some twisty mountainous terrain. It will be a lot of miles but for the most part I think they will be fairly easy miles to roll onto your odometers. Many of these roads I have traveled myself, though not on a bike. I've been on all the roads in the Northbay while driving a tow truck, as well as the roads around San Jose, Gilroy, and Santa Cruz. It was all easy going for a 12,000 pound tow truck hauling vehicles, so I expect it'll be much better on our rides.
I would hope for a good turnout, but the length of this event might be too much for some to pull off, therefore, the course will have been accurately documented so people can meet up at different places along the way, if they can't make the entire journey. I personally, expect to have Rita rolling by then and will try to do the entire trip. I will be looking into designing a patch designed with this trip in mind, maybe a rough depiction of our route while in the middle it will say "Northern California SOHC4 Owners Club Meet, Greet, and Ride, 2009"
Now, I open the floor to all of you, for comments, suggestions, ideas, anything. Everyone is invited to participate, and welcome to join us for the adventure if you can make it out here. My idea is for sometime in late June. July is bad because of Independance day and there is another bike rally in Auburn a couple weeks later.
Let's see what all of you think.
