Yosemite Spring Dual Sport Ride

We had never ridden with Family Off Road Adventures but have looked at a lot of their rides and they look fun. They are a family who put together rides throughout the state and invite large groups to join them to see some beautiful sites. This was one of them, Yosemite.

It started out at 8am that morning where we met up at Buck Meadows. Here we were able to meet a lot of the fellow riders, check in and get ready to head out for the day.

We took lots of breaks and there were lots of photo opportunities.

There was a steep downhill to get to this next photo. So steep that there were no areas to stop for a photo op. There may be some video to share at a later time. This is the bridge at the bottom of the steep downhill. The whole group stopped to take a rest and take a few photos.

This is where we had just come down from! Way up there at the top where the tip of my finger is.

At our lunch spot, called 1850! It was tasty and fun to get to know all the guys that were riding. I was the only chick (as usual).

The organizers told us of a side road to take where you may be able to get a view of half dome. We tried but it was very hazy. If you look super close, you may be able to see it (prob not).

Here is a glimpse of half dome

On our way to Yosemite!

Who’s this sexy bitch?

Welcome to Yosemite!

So many beautiful photos, it is hard to pick just a few

Can’t wait for them to host their Fall ride!

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Bear Valley Dual Sport Ride

On Meetup.com, many people will post rides and this was one of them that we embarked on. There were about 10 of us who headed out to enjoy the sites and see the spring flowers.

Of course our signature photo!

These ladies decided to have a picnic in the middle of the flower field.

Even the bulls had free rein and came for a visit.

It was a good day with some great scenery and it was nice to meet some new riders.

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Death Valley 2018

Continuing our annual tradition of dirt bike riding in Death Valley, we headed down in March 2018. Vast plains and open roads heading into the valley.

As we made our way into the campground, we arrived too early to get our hookup spot, so we parked in the overflow dry camping area. Here, we had to sit in the motorhome because there was a horrendous dust storm. As you can see in the video and photo, it was so bad that it came in through the closed windows.

After awhile and the wind taking a break, we were able to move into our hookup spot and unload the bikes.

We decided to take a ride to _______ with Gus and Steph leading the way in their Raptor. They were able to take some great photos and some shots for Klim. Photos courtesy of Gus Menendez.

We stopped at an old mine and did some site seeing.

Scott and Jason decided to take a ride up the mountain. Where’s Waldo in this photo?

The eye of the needle!

The next day we decided it was time to conquer Mingle again. But first we have to stop in Ballarat!

Look at that sexy bitch!

Always some challenges when you are out in the middle of nowhere!

Barker Ranch Cabin. This is where he hid out!

Mr and Mrs Wonderful

Just over Mengal Pass!

Geologist Cabin

Striped Butte looking out of the Geologist cabin

Spam! It’s what’s for dinner!

Aliens?

Warm Springs Can parking lot

Sharing a moment before heading into the soon to be sunset!


The Badwater Men’s Club

John and Scott taking it all in!

Couldn’t get any better than this!



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Disneyland 2017

Our best friend Ted has found an awesome girl whose name is Megan.  He has been fancying her for about 3 months now.  About 2 months ago, there was talk of a Disneyland trip.  Mind you, Scott has a bucket list and on this bucket list is a visit to Club 33 in Disneyland.  So about 2 months ago, the planning commenced for a Disneyland trip for the 4 of us.  Flights were booked, rooms were booked and Megan began her planning.  

Fast-forward to now…. Megan is a Disney FAN.  When I say fan, I mean FAN (she goes to Disneyland about once a month).  She knows the ins and outs of Disneyland and she will let you know it.  From the park hopper passes, to fast passes, to shuttle rides, she has it down pat.  We really didn’t have to do anything.  She is VIP 🙂 

We arrived on Saturday evening in the OC.  We went straight to the hotel.  Ted and Megan decided to stay in but Scott and I were hungry, so we ventured out.  Scott had been researching a restaurant called “The Ranch” and he wanted to try it.  I am sure glad we did.  Such great food.

The next day was going to be an early riser.  We needed to be on the bus no later than 7:40am (according to Megan).  She knew where we needed to be and what time we needed to be there.  We took the shuttle over the Disneyland where she had our tickets ready to be picked up.  We were in.  We had fast passes ready to go.  Our first ride was Space Mountain (fun roller coaster in the dark).  Our second ride was Star Tours (I was not a fan of this, made me want to throw up, but I held back).  She had us on the fast pass train all day.. pretty impressive how she never missed a beat.  We enjoyed playing around in the stores and really enjoyed the chocolate store.  Had to purchase some chocolate for later.

Some fun in the store..

The parade was a good highlight.

And more rides..

Some fun Christmas photos in front of the Christmas tree

This evening was a night to remember for Scott.  It was Club 33!  From him being able to ring the doorbell, and someone actually letting him in, to a welcome drink, hot towel, 6 course meal, I think this experience will be a lifetime memory of his.

Dinner was incredible. Dont mind all the food photos

We were able to watch Fantasmic from the balcony of Club 33.

We went on a few rides after dinner (with dresses on).  We took some photos in front of the beautiful castle.

The next day, we went to Disney California Adventure.  This was a fun park.  Again, Megan had us hooked up on the fast passes.  My favorite ride here was “Soarin”.  It was so surreal, they even have the smells during the ride.  Really cool.  Tower of Terror was pretty much terror for me.  I screamed the whole time.  We had a great day at DCA.

We were exhausted at this point.  Lots of on the go, go go go.  But what an amazing time we had.  Can’t wait to go back to Club 33 next year!

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SeaCliff State Beach Camping 2017

We book SeaCliff for a Thursday-Sunday, so we can get the most out of the distance it takes to get there.  It always begins where I will go home, get the motorhome and dogs and meet Scott somewhere, we will load his motorcycle and we will be on our way.  This didn’t seem to happen as smoothly this time as I would have hoped.  Thursday when I arrived home, I finished packing and loaded the dogs.  As I closed to door to pull out of the driveway, I didn’t hear the steps retract.  So I put turned off the engine, opened the door and fiddled with the stairs to get them to retract.  To my surprise, nothing I did would retract the steps.  I called Scott and he tried to walk me through a few scenarios, nothing worked.  He rode all the way home, he couldn’t figure out what was wrong.  By this time, it was later into the evening and we were exhausted.  We would not be heading to SeaCliff tonight unfortunately.

We woke up the next morning and called the mobile RV guy.  He came to the house and figured out the issue.  He had to order the part but we were able to manually retract the steps so we could head to SeaCliff.  

No matter where you are, you always have to have a tasty lunch

We made it that afternoon but now lost about day at the beach.  Bummer.  It was such a beautiful day when we finally made it to the beach.

Beach Sunsets are always beautiful here

We walked to the local coffee shop the next morning with the dogs

and for lunch, we decided to ride over to Aptos to have lunch.  We really enjoyed ourselves, with a view and a local singer.  

And they use cardboard straws!

We rode back to camp on the dirt bike…

and took a nice walk on the beach with the dogs.

Exhausted after a run on the beach

Just can’t get over the sunsets here

Saturday evening, we met up with some friends for a nice dinner in Aptos.

And we made the journey home..

Until next time SeaCliff!

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Cow Mountain Dual Sport Ride

We had been contemplating this ride and decided what is a greater way to get better at dual sport than to get out there and ride some crazy trails.  We started in Ukiah where we stayed at the Super 8.  We were able to drop our bikes at Factory Pipes so they were safe the night before the ride.

We were up pretty early to check in with the Cow Mountain crew.  This was a GPS ride so we were able to take off on our own.  

It began as a beautiful ride through some farmland, then we hit a dirt road that took us to the trailhead.  Scott took off first, then me.  I didn’t even get around the first huge turn before I put my bike up over the knoll into a bush.  Boy, I could tell this was already going to be a long day looking at this trail.  Scott helped me pull my bike out of the bush and he rode it up the hill.  From there, we went a long.  This trail really messed with my head (ALOT).  There was some large hills and some steep downhills. There were a few (a lot) falls here and there.  These few falls caused my throttle to stick on so I had a few issues where I couldn’t get the throttle to unlock.  We pounded it out a few times to get it unstuck.

This trail was slow going and I felt really bad for Scott as he is a much better rider than I am, and I was struggling.  There was a sweep that was behind us, so that made me even more anxious because I was holding him up also.  What could I do except keep on keepin’ on.  Lots of uphills/downhills to get through before coming to the road.  Once I was on the road, I was golden.  I have no issue with dirt roads, it is the single track cliffs that mess with my head.

This ride then took us around Clearlake on pavement, approx 40 miles.  When we finally got off onto a dirt road, Scott hollers to me that he has a flat tire.  He must have been riding the street for awhile with this flat :/ We pull over and begin to get out tools when 3 sweeps come up on us.  They were kind enough to help us get his tire changed.  

On the trail again.  We were going pretty good when all of a sudden, I came around a corner and hit a little ditch and gave it too much throttle and ended up over a cliff and down about 15 feet.  Don’t worry, nobody was hurt, not even the bike. But we had some good help getting it out.

The rest of the dirt ride was uneventful (no crashes) and actually was a lot of fun and challenging.  We made it to the lunch spot where they had burgers waiting for us.  We were able to hang out for a bit with all the riders.  At this point, it was later in the day and we decided to bail out and head to the hotel.  We were told later that we should have finished as it is a fun little dirt ride.  We were just so exhausted at this point, that we just wanted a shower and relaxation.  We booked The Lodge at Blue Lakes.. a quaint little lodge.  

What was nice about this group is that they have an overnight bag transport to the hotel you are staying at and they will come and pick them up and take them back to the start of the ride.

When we arrived back at the lodge, we noticed that Scott had another flat tire on his 500.  Not sure what happened but that is 2 flat tires in 1 day. So we knew that we somehow needed to get the bike back to Ukiah at some point.  We weren’t too worried and would figure it out the next day.

We had a really nice dinner at Blue Wing Saloon in Upper Lake.  Really quaint restaurant with an outdoor patio.  It was a really nice time and the food was awesome

Scott ended up getting a ride with the organizer back to Ukiah where he picked up the car and trailer and headed back to the lodge to pick up the bikes.  We headed home in some G Force winds.  This was the day all the fires started 🙁

We were told that the group is doing the Lost Coast next year which will be a great ride.

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Nevada County Woodriders 2017

This is our 4th or 5th year doing the Nevada County Woodriders Dual Sport ride.  Always a great time.  This year, there wasn’t as big of a turnout as years passed.  I believe it was due to the difficulty of the trails.  The trails were the same as the previous year.  Scott and Jason decided to join us on this ride.  Cesar was supposed to make it down from Eugene but work got in the way.  Bummer!  

We stayed at Diablo Campground again.  This campground is just down the road from the camp where we would join the rest of the riders.  We were up and at em early and made our way down.  It was really cold, REALLY cold.  

We began the trek up the road to the cutoff to the trail.  I was a little hesitant still because of my new bike but I did pretty well.  A few hiccups here and there but what’s the fun if you don’t drop the dirt bike at least once, or twice, or…. :). The good thing is that the bike is light enough that I can pick it up myself (for the most part).  A the “V,” I decided I would bail out and head back to the RV.  I am sure glad I did because Scott said the rest was pretty treacherous.  We had both bailed out last year at the “V” but Scott was ready to take on the rest of the trail.  So Scott, Scott and Jason headed on through.  Scott didn’t realize but he video’d about 1 hour of trail riding.  He got some great video of the treacherous trail.

Scott and I went and had lunch at the Woodriders camp and ended up scoring once again on a lot of swag.  We cleaned house last year from all the tickets that we bought.  We came back this year with quite a bit of stuff too.

We cooked a great spaghetti meal for all of us.

The next day, we decided to take it easy but we wanted to show Jason and Scott around so we took them to Sardine Lake and up to Mills Peak Lookout.

Mills Peak Lookout

Sardine Lake

Who has seen an actual payphone these days? And it actually works

It was a great time but I think the Woodriders will be at a new location next year due to the lack of interest.  Always look forward to these rides.

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Seattle Dirt Bike Training

We were scheduled to have a dirt bike training class on Saturday, so we decided to fly up to Seattle on Thursday evening so we could have all day Friday to explore.  Scott has always wanted to visit the San Juan Islands, so we got in the car and headed that way.  We arrived mid day to the harbor, purchased our ferry tickets and jumped on the ferry.  This was a new experience for me as I had never been on a ferry that carried cars across to the islands.  The ferry ride was really nice and we were able to see a lot of area on the ride.  

When we arrived at Friday Harbor, we were very hungry and decided, what better place to have lunch than here… Very tasty food with some AMAZING views.

From here, we tripped around the town and explored for a few hours (can’t forget the Goat Cheese Cheesecake that Scott had) before getting our ferry ride back.

It was an early morning for us.  We got some breakfast and headed over to our Dirt First dirt bike training.  This was one-on-one training.  It was just Scott and I with one instructor for the whole day.  It was some of the best off road training.  He was very in tune to both of our needs and we learned so much.

We got sooooo dirty but learned how to turn smoothly while sitting and standing, riding over logs, riding on side bills, and the best part was learning how to slide going 25 miles per hour and braking.  Really enjoyed the class and can’t wait to take Level 3 with him.

That evening, we thought we should treat ourselves to a scrumptious meal with a beautiful view.

The next day, we headed back towards Seattle.  We were driving past Everett, WA when Scott mentioned Boeing.  So we detoured back and decided to take a tour of Boeing.  What an incredible experience that was.  No cameras allowed in the manufacturing bays but we were able to take plenty of photos.  What a treat that was.  

From here, we tripped our way into Seattle where we had some lunch in a shipping container (great food) and we took a tour of the market.  

From here, we walked around downtown Seattle.  We eyed a Starbucks Reserve and couldn’t resist.  We had never heard of the Reserve so we had to take a peek.  I am sure glad we did because this was an experience to remember.  One of the two in the US, they made Scott a Dark Chocolate Mocha and they made me a Dark Chocolate Hot Chocolate.  WOW… I have to say, that was tasty.

From here, it was about that time to start heading towards the airport.  Throughout the weekend, I noticed one of our long time friends from one of our Indonesia vacations just happened to be in Seattle.  We hadn’t seen him in about 4 years, so we met him at his hotel for a few minutes.  It was great to see Anto.

This does conclude our Seattle adventures… Until next time Seattle…

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Clios Camping with Dad – Labor Day Weekend

We FINALLY got my dad to come camping with us over Labor Day weekend.  He came down from Cottonwood in his cab over camper, hauling his side-by-side.  We brought the dirt bikes in hopes that we would get out and take an adventure.

The first day was pretty chill.  Dad and Tracy wanted to go into town and do some site-seeing,  I went with them and Ted and Scott stayed behind at camp.  We indulged ourselves in some much needed soft serve at the Frostee

That evening, we introduced my dad and Tracy to our awesome camping neighbors, Bob and Pat.  They invited us over for happy hour.  We couldn’t resist and we always have a great time with them.

We also had a fabulous Moose burger (from Dad’s Alaska moose) dinner at Bob and Pat’s.  

The next day, we decided it would be nice to go for a dual sport ride while dad and Tracy took the side-by-side.  This was a great time and was able to get out and enjoy the scenery of Plumas National Forest.

Was able to do a little bit of shooting while out.

Hanging out back at the campground.

Took Dad and Tracy to the lookout.

I hope to have many more camping trips with my dad.  I loved spending time with him.

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Loon Lake Camping

We have never stayed at Look Lake until now.  We have driven to it a few times and always talked about staying here but never did.  Now is the time.  We arrived late in the evening, after dark and found our spot.  It was a tight fit but we made do.  We unloaded the bikes and with it being late, we decided to call it a night.  The next day, we decided to take a stroll with the dogs.  We thought it would be more comfortable down by the boat ramp so we decided to move the motorhome to the boat ramp.  This was much better and more space to spread out.  We were much more comfortable here and we were closer to the water.

We played a lot of cards and contemplated many times on taking a dirt bike ride.  

We were very lazy this trip and did not take a dual sport ride but we did ride to watch the beautiful sunset around the lake

We do like this place as it seems very secluded.  Even though there is a lot of people, it is spread out and you don’t notice them.  Also, there is no cell phone reception… so we played a lot of cards, hung out with the pooches and had a lot of good conversation.  Loved it.

Took a fun little trip up by the dam

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