The entire week had been exceptionally hot and
there were brush fires all over the Southern California area, so I had been
concerned that we were in for one long day. But when I got up the temperatures
had dropped, none of the fires were in the areas that we would be riding, and
it looked like the weather was going to be with us. We arrived at the Starbucks
parking lot to find a nice group gathering with 45 people waiting. I was so
happy to see Larry Barton there and see that he was doing well. For those of
you who don’t know, Larry had a slight issue with a curve to the left and his
eyes to the right and his bike found a ditch. Larry was lucky to walk away with
no broken bones, just a lot of soreness. During our meeting he kindly stepped
up as the poster-child for keeping your eyes on the road! Thank you Larry!
Everyone gathered for the meeting. Discussion on
upcoming rides, next month’s ride to Mt Pinos (bring your own lunch), and of
course birthdays. The raffle was held and five great raffle prizes were won by
Patty, Paul… The 50/50 was again won by Richard “Taz” Green (unbelievable). Taz
was nice enough to donate a good portion of his winnings back to the chapter.
After the meeting we split up into three groups of 10 riders with myself,
Scott, and Terry leading.
Off we went up the 57 to the 210 to our first gas
stop in La Canada. Everyone gassed up and then parked under the No Parking
sign. Unfortunately it was a one stall restroom, so it took a little time to
get everyone in and out of the restroom, but soon enough we were on our way. We
made a left and then up through Angeles Crest highway and onto Angeles Forest
highway. A nice stretch of twisties to start off the morning. We made it out to
the 14 to the 58 and then up to Tehachapi.
Lunch was incredible and I can’t thank the guys
at Red Barn BBQ enough for the great deal they gave us. We arrived pretty much
all at the same time - 45 people and as we ordered we learned that they were
giving us a 10% discount along with an additional 3% if you paid cash! And if
that wasn’t enough they brought the food out so fast that they were following
people to their seat. As always the BBQ was great and if you ever have a
chance, get the mac and cheese – it’s really amazing. Most of the group found seating
out on the back patio where the breeze was blowing and the temp was just
perfect.
After our lunch we took off for the Tehachapi
Loop. We made our way up the mountain through some really nice twists and
turns. We parked along the roadside by the two markers and all jumped off and
waited for the train.Was one going to show?? We were thrilled when we saw a
train making its way into the loop. The engineer was nice enough to blow the
horn for us – we all cheered! The loop is a stretch of railroad track that is
allows the trains to ascend or descend a rather steep grade in a shorter
distance. On the loop the track passes over itself, lessening the grade. The
loop gains 77 feet in elevation as the track climbs at a steady 2% grade. A
train more than 4,000 feet (1,200 m) long will pass over itself going around
the loop. We all grouped together and got a great photo that you can see on our
Facebook page and on the front page of the chapter website. Once the train was
passed, we all jumped back on our bikes and went back into Tehachapi for gas.
Once we were all filled up we started back down
the 58 to the 14 and into Palmdale. Now here is the fun part (not really). We
turned onto Avenue D and were hit with incredibly bad winds. If that wasn’t
enough we hit a stretch of about 2 miles where dust was included in that wind.
One member, without sleeves on, commented that he just got a free dermabrasion.
Lol I had to remember to keep my mouth closed or I would be eating a lot of
dirt. Thank goodness we made a turn and we were out of the wind and the dust.
We started down Elizabeth Lake Road making our
way to Bouquet Canyon. On the pre-ride we had decided to bypass a turn on
Fransisquito and down Spunky Canyon road, but I had not updated my GPS. So
Group 1 got a little extra ride and it was worth it! We will have to include
this road when we ride Bouquet Canyon again in a couple of months. It’s a great
set of twisties with a view of the lake that is really spectacular.
We exited back onto Bouquet Canyon road, and were
back on track making it past the site of Larry’s little incident and down to
the last gas stop. We arrived certain that our little detour had put us way
behind the other groups. When we got to the Chevron it was empty so we were
certain they had left us. But lo and behold a few moments later both group 2
and 3 arrived and it turned out we had still beaten them there!
We jumped onto the 14 to the 210, the 2, the 134,
and back on the 210 to the 57 and back to El Torito. We arrived to see that the
Cinco de Quatro party was winding up and after a brief meeting on the Colorado
Trip we all got out of there and headed home. Great day – never got above 80
degrees and aside from the little bit of wind and sand was a great success.
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