Ukiah via Lake County's Wine Country

Part 1. How to Ride Like an Idiot and Smile While Doing It

OK, so maybe my age is beginning to show. I used to be a pretty good rider, picking good lines, applying power, flying through the curves, stopping on a dime. Now I am lucky if I get 2 out of 3 basic good riding elements out of each curve. So be it. To me, at this stage, riding really is better than--- errr, I can’t remember her name. At least now I think it's better. And while riding is so good, I still try to take advantage of every opportunity to ride. So it was a natural that I combined a heavy chore with a ride.

Dan (badsifu of the Pashnit forum) and I arranged to meet on a Saturday in June for a morning ride from Lower Lake (Clearlake CA area, Hwy 29 and 53) to Hopland, just south of Ukiah. I posted it as a potential group ride when I realized I could make the chore of moving my brother out of Ukiah into a treat. Hey, I could ride over there from the Central Valley area with a Pashnit Forum member or two! Several forum members posted their regrets on the short notice I gave, but one game rider responded.

Dan lives in Middletown, CA near Lower Lake in Lake County. He agreed to accompany me to Hopland in Mendocino County for breakfast, a nice short ride for him. Conditions weren't the greatest to ride this day, but I had a mission--the ride was for pleasure, but not the destination, if you catch the drift (who WANTS to move a piano?).

Saturday AM. 5:00 comes early! I'm due in Lower Lake at 7:15 to meet Dan. I'm thinking I'll make a bullet ride out of it by going up Interslab-5 from Sacramento to Hwy 20 in Williams, then lefty to Clearlake. But when I reach Woodland I'm making good time in the early AM non-traffic and think better of staying on I-5. I exit to take Hwy 16 through the Capay Valley instead.



At this point the massive black cloud front to the west is telling me: "It's March, not June, and we are going to wet you down!" I stop at Rd. 102 and bleed some hard cash for liquid gold and put on my rainsuit.

Hwy 16 and Capay Valley turns out to be a good choice. Capay is the home of Cache Creek, the main water supply to Yolo County. It runs out of a fairly gnarly canyon and plays out into magnificent open farm country and orchards. It eventually drains past Woodland into the Sacramento River Basin. It's home to the Rumsey Indian Band community who have built quite a modern and interesting development in Guinda from gaming proceeds.

Leaving the town of Esparto and its vineyards, the road begins a mild climb into orchard and cattle-ranching country with rolling curves and gentle whoops. Small dots of farming/ranching towns whiz by: Capay, Cadenaso, Brooks, Tancred, Guinda, etc. Rumsey is there, too, but Guinda is the Cache Creek Capital, with a couple of spots to pull over and a nice old general store. Capay Valley is popular to rafters and kayakers. Out of Guinda and Rumsey the climb into the canyon part of this run is characterized by fairly broad curves and predictable lines. The pavement is reasonably good and the grade and curves are friendly to all sorts of two-wheeled contraptions, including occasional bicyclists.

The good thing about riding really early in the AM is that the Hwy 16 drivers are NOT Cache Creek Casino gamers or kayaking microbus pilots. For some reason these folk never exceed 35mph for fear of breaking a mythical time continuum-speed barrier and turning themselves into molten cow curdle or something. This mindset can impede one's riding pleasure, so get out there early. While not absolutely tops as a road destination, Hwy 16 is certainly worthwhile as a diversion or shortcut. It's mildly entertaining as you dodge vultures and crows (or they dodge you). More about birds later. Early riding is also a good idea in mid-summer because the canyon often reaches more than 110 degrees in the afternoon. Rafters have told me that, in summers past, their hiking thermometers registered 120. Bring water. Don't get a flat.

I finish the canyon a mile or so later near the junction of Hwy 16 and Hwy 20. I turn left and notice Bear Creek/Wilbur Hot Springs Rd. continuing up the creek valley to the right (north) and note that it looks like a real winner for dual-sport riding. Wilbur Hot Springs is active, with a small resort and spa, and it is stuck out in the middle of NOWHERE, CA. Worth a trip one of these times.

Hwy 20 from this point assumes its own distinct personality. It has some gentle whoops in it together with broad curves as it breaks away from Cache Creek into different drainages. As it dives through a couple of small arroyos and valleys, the road snakes and climbs and rolls down, while, at the same time, offering passing lanes. These are decent passing areas but offer real challenges to the rider in heavy summer traffic (i.e., boat trailers and winnebagos, sometimes both in one package). When empty, the available passing lanes make for great fun. Good time can be made on this stretch, but be wary of John Law. In this part of the woods he tends to lurk in a construction zone. (More on this species of LEO in Part II, below.) At 6:45am this fine day no "black-n-whites" seem interested in my wheezer BMW. I am mildly insulted.

Nearing Clearlake, there is the Lake County Red Lava Quarry. They excavate and package this red rock for gardens. The poorer quality rock is used as highway and driveway ballast, or underlay. You see it sometimes in desert home landscaping. It was really popular for a while in retirement communities. This stuff is the reddest brightest rock ever, looking almost fire-engine red and very faked, even there in the quarry. But it's real. Red dust prevails everywhere.



A short while later I turn left on Hwy 53 and, in minutes, find myself in Lower Lake at a Shell station. 7:15am. Considering the gas stop back in Woodland and the change into my gorilla rainsuit, I’ve made good time.

There is a dark, 1988 Kawasaki 600 Ninja with a rider sitting next to it. I greet Dan. I see he's looking at my wacky set-up, a tired looking ‘94 R100RT sporting bright bungee cords that hold my sidebags shut. Duct tape holds various plastic bits together. A National Rifle Association sticker sports the back end along with an AirHeads Forever sticker (does this refer to the rider or the bike?). I’m wearing a grey-red-black full gorilla-suit and grinning from ear to ear, looking as if I have just arrived on Bostrom's personal Ducati racer. Dan, who is in a wool cap and "normal looking" rain gear, says nothing. He keeps a straight, almost serene, face.

“Mmmm,” he must be thinking, “Young Master sees a Squid-Grasshopper, Second-Time Teenager.” Clueless about this mystery guy, I look into the calm, strangely mature gaze of a 29-something-year-old and think, "This silent-type guy is serious business."

I look over his bike while getting off mine (don't we all, like dogs sniffing each other?). Nice canyon blaster, I think. But I notice Dan's got kind of a slick rear tire. For the moment I say nothing. It is still legal. Barely.

Sometimes web handles are fun to try and figure out. There was no indication by Dan's nickname as to what he was up to. Perhaps an anime cartoon name? Maybe badsifu got his forum nickname from his toddler trying to warn him not to eat greasy fish and chips--(“Dad, bad sea food”).

He politely says Hi. After some small talk and downing some truly very bad coffee we begin the ride. Thanks to the battery acid coffee turning my stomach and my body just noticing its sleep deprivation I’m not real sure about all this. Just calm down and get some rest by cruising, OK? Don't push it, all right? Dan leads the way over to our target road.