Nor Cal - Biking
#1
08-07-2012, 11:37 PM
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Nor Cal - Biking
August 4th, 2012
Day one of the bike trip, Michael drove down from Elko to Reno, about 300 miles. William and Dave rode from Dave’s cabin to Reno about 160 miles. After meeting in Reno we found our first choice for lunch was closed on weekends.
It turns out that Dish Café and Catering is only open for lunch and only open on weekdays at that. We instead went to Luis’ Basque Corner. It happens to be exactly 1 mile from the first place, and was amazing. They start you out with a homemade soup, followed with Basque style beans and salad. The main courses are simply amazing. William had a sirloin which was cooked to perfect medium-rare. I had Basque chorizo with eggs. Simply amazing is the best way to describe it, we’ll probably go back at least once this trip as there were some lamb and pork dishes we haven’t gotten around to trying yet.
From Reno we took I80 down to Truckee, and from there to NorthStar where our accommodations were to be for the week. We are staying in a cabin which was loaned to us for the week by a buddy of my dad. Nice place. 3000 square feet. Each bedroom with its own bath. 3 of us, that makes 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, and that’s not including the master suite upstairs. Hardwood everywhere. Overall a very nice place. After getting situated at the cabin we decided we needed to head into Truckee and get the lay of the land.
Turns out there is no wal-mart in Truckee. No biggie, but the grocery store was a little harder to find than we initially thought. We figured just head to downtown Truckee and there will be something there right? There were lots of tourists, lots of small stores, but no grocery store. At the end of the main street there is a round-about and we took it and turned around, figuring that was the natural end of town. Little did we know that had we taken the round about through and straight it led right to the Grocery store. Well it took about 15 minutes of driving around, and eventually using our smart phones to find the grocery store.
Having purchased groceries and gotten some sodas to cool off we headed back to the cabin to resume planning the rest of the trip. We decided on dinner for that night, and an agenda for the next day. I’ll tell you about the agenda tomorrow. But dinner, well it was awesome. We went to Jax Diner, and it is amazing. I had the Kobe beef meatloaf, Will had the Dill Fish and Chips, and my dad had the Chicken Pot Pie. Again, another place we will be back to this week as we do not want to miss some of the other greats on the menu.
It rained on the way back from dinner, but we were so satisfied and sated from our amazing meal that it didn’t really bother us. Total mileage for the day: Mike: 385, Will and Dad: 243 each. Pretty good!
Day one of the bike trip, Michael drove down from Elko to Reno, about 300 miles. William and Dave rode from Dave’s cabin to Reno about 160 miles. After meeting in Reno we found our first choice for lunch was closed on weekends.
It turns out that Dish Café and Catering is only open for lunch and only open on weekdays at that. We instead went to Luis’ Basque Corner. It happens to be exactly 1 mile from the first place, and was amazing. They start you out with a homemade soup, followed with Basque style beans and salad. The main courses are simply amazing. William had a sirloin which was cooked to perfect medium-rare. I had Basque chorizo with eggs. Simply amazing is the best way to describe it, we’ll probably go back at least once this trip as there were some lamb and pork dishes we haven’t gotten around to trying yet.
From Reno we took I80 down to Truckee, and from there to NorthStar where our accommodations were to be for the week. We are staying in a cabin which was loaned to us for the week by a buddy of my dad. Nice place. 3000 square feet. Each bedroom with its own bath. 3 of us, that makes 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, and that’s not including the master suite upstairs. Hardwood everywhere. Overall a very nice place. After getting situated at the cabin we decided we needed to head into Truckee and get the lay of the land.
Turns out there is no wal-mart in Truckee. No biggie, but the grocery store was a little harder to find than we initially thought. We figured just head to downtown Truckee and there will be something there right? There were lots of tourists, lots of small stores, but no grocery store. At the end of the main street there is a round-about and we took it and turned around, figuring that was the natural end of town. Little did we know that had we taken the round about through and straight it led right to the Grocery store. Well it took about 15 minutes of driving around, and eventually using our smart phones to find the grocery store.
Having purchased groceries and gotten some sodas to cool off we headed back to the cabin to resume planning the rest of the trip. We decided on dinner for that night, and an agenda for the next day. I’ll tell you about the agenda tomorrow. But dinner, well it was awesome. We went to Jax Diner, and it is amazing. I had the Kobe beef meatloaf, Will had the Dill Fish and Chips, and my dad had the Chicken Pot Pie. Again, another place we will be back to this week as we do not want to miss some of the other greats on the menu.
It rained on the way back from dinner, but we were so satisfied and sated from our amazing meal that it didn’t really bother us. Total mileage for the day: Mike: 385, Will and Dad: 243 each. Pretty good!
#2
08-07-2012, 11:39 PM
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August 5th 2012
We left the cabin at 7:30 am this morning so that we could, hopefully, beat some of the traffic around Lake Tahoe. As it turns out you can’t beat Lake Traffic. Even though the speed limit is 55 mph in a lot of spots you find yourself going 35 no matter what. Temperatures were pretty cool in the morning, but this time of year it doesn’t take long to warm up. We took the 28 to the 89 following the west side of the lake down towards South Lake Tahoe. One of the great parts was going around the lake and seeing Emerald Bay. It truly is a spectacular part of Lake Tahoe.
Gas in South Lake Tahoe is a necessity, but it is truly expensive. Traffic clears up dramatically once we clear the Lake and head down towards Markleeville. There is a wonderful stretch of highway 89 between highway 50 and highway 88. It is as if it were built specifically for motorcycles. It has great sweeping curves, good banked turns, and road in excellent condition. The only negative is a speed limit of 55 mph. Down to Markleeville and a stop at their general store, this seems to be a jumping off point for motorcyclists as we saw lots of them in town. There is no cell phone service in Markleeville, but why would you want it? It seemed a good place to use the restroom, so we did so and got ready for the next leg of our trip. We decided to head down highway 89 to where it connects to highway 395 in Nevada. On that road there is a cut-off which goes over Leviathan Pass. This has been the best road so far on the trip. Again, it is as if it were specifically built for motorcycles. Great curves, great road, great elevation changes, and no traffic to speak of. Only real problem is other motorcyclists thinking they are the only ones on the road. I about got hit head on by another biker on his bagger passing on the outside on a blind corner around 3 cars. Unfortunately I was coming around the corner at the same time, and he was directly in my lane making the unsafe pass. Obviously things turned out well as I am still here, and hopefully the other biker learned not to pass on double yellow lines around a blind turn. It can’t turn out well every time.
Turning up 395 looked like a stretch of super-slab all the way to Carson City, but we happened to see a sigh that said “Mormon Station”. We decided it looked like a good turnoff and decided to pull over and check it out. It turns out it was the first “white” settlement in Nevada, founded by Brigham Young when that part of the state was still considered Utah territory. Great little town, and great little back-road to Carson City. I will not comment on lunch, needless to say it was fast food.
From Carson City to Virginia City was a short ride, good ride, but hot. In Virginia city we just walked around and checked things out in general. We are not big shoppers, so it was short lived. We wanted to go on the Virginia Rail ride, but they were not running a steam locomotive, and we wanted the full experience. We decided to pass and continued to check out the town. On leaving Virginia City we passed through town straight to Reno.
Our last stop of the day was Reno NV at Gold and Silver Inn. A restaurant which was featured on “Diners Drive-ins & Dives”, and which lives up to the show. There are several featured dishes, and between the three of us we were able to sample several of them. This is a great restaurant where they make everything fresh. Really nothing negative to say about the place other than if it were not on the TV show we probably would never have stopped there. From the exterior it looks run-down, and from the inside it looks like a diner straight out of the 60’s, but the food is “On point!” as Guy would say from his TV show. We had the bread pudding for desert, and per Will and my Dad it was legit!
Rounding out the day, headed straight back to Truckee and the cabin at Northstar. Total miles for the day 230!!!
We left the cabin at 7:30 am this morning so that we could, hopefully, beat some of the traffic around Lake Tahoe. As it turns out you can’t beat Lake Traffic. Even though the speed limit is 55 mph in a lot of spots you find yourself going 35 no matter what. Temperatures were pretty cool in the morning, but this time of year it doesn’t take long to warm up. We took the 28 to the 89 following the west side of the lake down towards South Lake Tahoe. One of the great parts was going around the lake and seeing Emerald Bay. It truly is a spectacular part of Lake Tahoe.
Gas in South Lake Tahoe is a necessity, but it is truly expensive. Traffic clears up dramatically once we clear the Lake and head down towards Markleeville. There is a wonderful stretch of highway 89 between highway 50 and highway 88. It is as if it were built specifically for motorcycles. It has great sweeping curves, good banked turns, and road in excellent condition. The only negative is a speed limit of 55 mph. Down to Markleeville and a stop at their general store, this seems to be a jumping off point for motorcyclists as we saw lots of them in town. There is no cell phone service in Markleeville, but why would you want it? It seemed a good place to use the restroom, so we did so and got ready for the next leg of our trip. We decided to head down highway 89 to where it connects to highway 395 in Nevada. On that road there is a cut-off which goes over Leviathan Pass. This has been the best road so far on the trip. Again, it is as if it were specifically built for motorcycles. Great curves, great road, great elevation changes, and no traffic to speak of. Only real problem is other motorcyclists thinking they are the only ones on the road. I about got hit head on by another biker on his bagger passing on the outside on a blind corner around 3 cars. Unfortunately I was coming around the corner at the same time, and he was directly in my lane making the unsafe pass. Obviously things turned out well as I am still here, and hopefully the other biker learned not to pass on double yellow lines around a blind turn. It can’t turn out well every time.
Turning up 395 looked like a stretch of super-slab all the way to Carson City, but we happened to see a sigh that said “Mormon Station”. We decided it looked like a good turnoff and decided to pull over and check it out. It turns out it was the first “white” settlement in Nevada, founded by Brigham Young when that part of the state was still considered Utah territory. Great little town, and great little back-road to Carson City. I will not comment on lunch, needless to say it was fast food.
From Carson City to Virginia City was a short ride, good ride, but hot. In Virginia city we just walked around and checked things out in general. We are not big shoppers, so it was short lived. We wanted to go on the Virginia Rail ride, but they were not running a steam locomotive, and we wanted the full experience. We decided to pass and continued to check out the town. On leaving Virginia City we passed through town straight to Reno.
Our last stop of the day was Reno NV at Gold and Silver Inn. A restaurant which was featured on “Diners Drive-ins & Dives”, and which lives up to the show. There are several featured dishes, and between the three of us we were able to sample several of them. This is a great restaurant where they make everything fresh. Really nothing negative to say about the place other than if it were not on the TV show we probably would never have stopped there. From the exterior it looks run-down, and from the inside it looks like a diner straight out of the 60’s, but the food is “On point!” as Guy would say from his TV show. We had the bread pudding for desert, and per Will and my Dad it was legit!
Rounding out the day, headed straight back to Truckee and the cabin at Northstar. Total miles for the day 230!!!
#3
08-07-2012, 11:41 PM
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August 6th
Started early this morning, that means leaving the house at 8a.m. with the intent to head to Portola CA. We gassed up first, been getting pretty good mileage this trip. The Dynas are getting 50 mpg, and my dad’s crossbones with a built 103 has been getting 40 mpg. We headed out of Truckee on highway 89 going north. It’s a great road that direction. Great curves, road is in good condition, and good speed limits, all in all a great motorcycle road. We did hit a little bit of road construction, but nothing too out of line.
Portola is a pretty cool place. They have a huge out-door rail way museum where you can actually climb on the trains. Pretty fun. We decided to go to Quince next, even though it is out of the way of our planned route. Quincy has a restaurant called “Morning Thunder Café” which not only has good fresh food, but super cute waitresses! Backtracking out of Quincy to Sierra City on highway 49 is no big pain because the road that connects Quincy to 49 is a great one! Worth doing twice! Resist going down the 70 to the 89 and connecting to the 49, instead turn right on S620 which is the Gold Lakes Highway and takes you through Sierra Buttes Pass which is 8,951 ft above sea level. This part of California is made for motorcycles, and Sierra Buttes Pass is no exception. High mountain lakes, wonderful views on all sides, and very, very windy roads.
We turned off towards 49 and highway 49 is a wonderful road. We stopped in Downieville for a quick soda. Very small town, but very nice. We couldn’t wait to get back on 49, since it is such a great road for biking, and headed straight to Nevada City. The speed limit isn’t very high on 49, but the ride is more than adequate for pushing your bike to its limits. Sharp turns, and lots of them, mixed with spurts of higher speeds. You need to be careful passing through here, especially when the passing lane is on an inside turn. Turns out they make the passing lanes on 35mph turns with decreasing radius’s that are about 100 yards long and allow you to pass 1 car at a time. My dad found this out when he passed a car, and scraped peg all the way through the turn, and then barely passed the car because the turn was so tight and short. My brother and I caught up later in a similar passing lane and situation, but seeing how tight it was for our dad, we swung wide and passed with ease, of course it helps that we are riding Dynas and they can actually take a tight turn…
The day ended with us blasting back to Truckee via highway 20, which is a great piece of road. Unfortunately it connects with I80 and the last 20 or so miles into Truckee are super-slab. Total mileage for the day 265 miles.
Started early this morning, that means leaving the house at 8a.m. with the intent to head to Portola CA. We gassed up first, been getting pretty good mileage this trip. The Dynas are getting 50 mpg, and my dad’s crossbones with a built 103 has been getting 40 mpg. We headed out of Truckee on highway 89 going north. It’s a great road that direction. Great curves, road is in good condition, and good speed limits, all in all a great motorcycle road. We did hit a little bit of road construction, but nothing too out of line.
Portola is a pretty cool place. They have a huge out-door rail way museum where you can actually climb on the trains. Pretty fun. We decided to go to Quince next, even though it is out of the way of our planned route. Quincy has a restaurant called “Morning Thunder Café” which not only has good fresh food, but super cute waitresses! Backtracking out of Quincy to Sierra City on highway 49 is no big pain because the road that connects Quincy to 49 is a great one! Worth doing twice! Resist going down the 70 to the 89 and connecting to the 49, instead turn right on S620 which is the Gold Lakes Highway and takes you through Sierra Buttes Pass which is 8,951 ft above sea level. This part of California is made for motorcycles, and Sierra Buttes Pass is no exception. High mountain lakes, wonderful views on all sides, and very, very windy roads.
We turned off towards 49 and highway 49 is a wonderful road. We stopped in Downieville for a quick soda. Very small town, but very nice. We couldn’t wait to get back on 49, since it is such a great road for biking, and headed straight to Nevada City. The speed limit isn’t very high on 49, but the ride is more than adequate for pushing your bike to its limits. Sharp turns, and lots of them, mixed with spurts of higher speeds. You need to be careful passing through here, especially when the passing lane is on an inside turn. Turns out they make the passing lanes on 35mph turns with decreasing radius’s that are about 100 yards long and allow you to pass 1 car at a time. My dad found this out when he passed a car, and scraped peg all the way through the turn, and then barely passed the car because the turn was so tight and short. My brother and I caught up later in a similar passing lane and situation, but seeing how tight it was for our dad, we swung wide and passed with ease, of course it helps that we are riding Dynas and they can actually take a tight turn…
The day ended with us blasting back to Truckee via highway 20, which is a great piece of road. Unfortunately it connects with I80 and the last 20 or so miles into Truckee are super-slab. Total mileage for the day 265 miles.
#6
08-08-2012, 08:28 AM
Seasoned HDF Member
Yeah, California is a dump, right? All those lib-ruhls and commies. Terrible place and ugly to boot... ;- )
#7
08-08-2012, 08:42 AM
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Whomever came from Elko could not have thought Louis basque corner was good if he ever ate in Elko at BilToki or the Star.
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#8
08-08-2012, 12:48 PM
Road Master
Other than those three, the US has a lot more going for it than Kalif.
#9
08-08-2012, 10:59 PM
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I wont argue the point. I'm not from Elko, just stay'd there the night before. I got a late start from Idaho and had to crash there before meeting up with my bro and my dad the next day.
#10
08-08-2012, 11:01 PM
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August 9, 2012
You would think that by leaving at 7:30 in the morning you could avoid some traffic, and some heat, but as it turns out we avoided neither. We decided to head down the East shore of Lake Tahoe from Truckee, down to Carson City via the NV 50 and then shoot straight down on 395 to Bodie CA.
For the most part it was an uneventful ride, except for the heat. Bodie was great and it is a highly recommended stop if you are down that way. One problem with Bodie is the last 3 miles of the road to the State Park is all loose dirt. This type of road for me increases the pucker factor about 5x. It’s doable, but there are definitely some squirrely parts. You learn very fast exactly what your suspension travel really is, and why those dirt bike guy’s stand up all the time. We rode up the dirt road to Bodie with out event. The ride bike resulted in me losing my shifter peg on the last mile of the dirt road. I don’t know where it went. I went to shift to 2nd and it was just gone.
We had planned on possibly going back to Tahoe via Markleeville again since 89 is such a great road, but instead headed to the dealer in Carson City. About 90 miles of windy roads with no shifter is no fun at all. Luckily Carson City Dealer had the exact shifter I needed to replace my old one. From there it was back to Tahoe via 50. Total mileage for the day 276.
We had dinner in Kings Landing. We will skip the details, but I would not recommend Panchitas…
You would think that by leaving at 7:30 in the morning you could avoid some traffic, and some heat, but as it turns out we avoided neither. We decided to head down the East shore of Lake Tahoe from Truckee, down to Carson City via the NV 50 and then shoot straight down on 395 to Bodie CA.
For the most part it was an uneventful ride, except for the heat. Bodie was great and it is a highly recommended stop if you are down that way. One problem with Bodie is the last 3 miles of the road to the State Park is all loose dirt. This type of road for me increases the pucker factor about 5x. It’s doable, but there are definitely some squirrely parts. You learn very fast exactly what your suspension travel really is, and why those dirt bike guy’s stand up all the time. We rode up the dirt road to Bodie with out event. The ride bike resulted in me losing my shifter peg on the last mile of the dirt road. I don’t know where it went. I went to shift to 2nd and it was just gone.
We had planned on possibly going back to Tahoe via Markleeville again since 89 is such a great road, but instead headed to the dealer in Carson City. About 90 miles of windy roads with no shifter is no fun at all. Luckily Carson City Dealer had the exact shifter I needed to replace my old one. From there it was back to Tahoe via 50. Total mileage for the day 276.
We had dinner in Kings Landing. We will skip the details, but I would not recommend Panchitas…