boot camp concludes

Felt tired and sore on Saturday and therefore took the day off from motorcycle boot camp. Shame on me, since that meant I ended Sunday's ride just shy of 800 miles rather than the 1K I'd intended. Oh well.

Anyway, yesterday's ride had a plan and a map; however, in the end I simply followed where the roads and turns led. First, Hwy 82 took me to Hwy 85. Then, a wrong turn led me onto US 101 rather than to Hwy 17 as I'd intended.

So, I got off 101 at Gilroy and took Hecker Pass Hwy across the mountains into Watsonville, along Freedom Blvd to reach Hwy 1. This took me through Santa Cruz and then up around the peninsular coast. The waves were slammin', and the surfers were out in droves.

Left the highway, then, for Pescadero Creek Rd, another nice twisty motorcycle road up into the mountains. Found Alpine Rd and decided to take it. This was a very narrow and occasionally single lane road that had me running well under 30 mph most of the way.

At one point, a much braver and obviously more experienced rider on a Hypermotard zoomed up behind me, so I pulled aside to let him pass and watched in amazement as he zipped up those scary narrow turns faster than I thought they could be taken.

Still having fun and undeterred from riding that road within my comfort level, I continued puttering up it until I reached Skyline. I considered taking it toward Sky Londa to finally check out Alice's Restaurant and get some food.

The waning daylight and my desire to not drive the mountains on a weekend after dark made me turn the other way, however, and head for Big Basin Way down into Saratoga. Skyline is an amazing ride, beautiful, curvy, and easily taken fast most of the way.

In the coming weeks, I expect to be riding that stretch of road quite a bit, since the start of Big Basin Way in Saratoga is just a few miles from work. I'm thinking that a quick sandwich and a loop through the mountains sounds like a perfect lunch.