I showed up at the Devil Mtn shop at 7 AM and was kind of surprised that the lot was completely empty. I expected to see at least a couple of die-hard riders there, but guess not. While waiting around I heard a couple of Harleys go by on Hwy 4 and wondered if they were part of our group and had decided not to stop thinking no one else would be there. If so I may see them in Jamestown.OK, so now it's a quarter past 7 and nobody else around but the maintenance folks with their leaf blowers. Maybe the others are still checking weather and will be here by 7:30. Nope, no such luck. At 7:25 it was still me, myself, and I. At least we all fit on one bike :?) So I put all my gear back on and readied myself for the ride. Yeah, you know the drill. All that cold weather gear, then the leather, and finally topped by an additional layer of rain gear. Hey, I was ready for anything.
I pulled out of the parking lot just before 7:30, making my way through Antioch, down Deer Valley Rd, then Balfour to Hwy 4. It was a bit chilly (around 45 deg), but I could see the sun beginning to rise along the eastern horizon and no rain in sight. The ride across the delta was pleasant with the exception of the bumpy levee road and the sun in my eyes. When I got to Stockton I jumped onto I-5, took the Hwy 4 bypass to Hwy 99 south, then exited onto Mariposa Rd. The roads were dry in most places with an occasional puddle or bit of surface moisture except in the wheel tracks. The sun was still doing its thing and it created a glare as it reflected off what moisture there was on the road making me strain to see the road ahead. I continued down Mariposa to Escalon, turned east on 120 and rode that through Oakdale and the rest of the way into Jamestown. As I departed Oakdale I rode under a high layer of clouds causing the temperature to drop 5 to 10 degrees. About 20 miles out of Jamestown the wind began to pick up and the clouds got lower and darker. I arrived in Jamestown just before 9:30 and refueled before stopping at the dealer. I didn't see any other motorcycles the entire trip, and then while refueling an ultra pulled into the station behind me. Not a drop of rain the entire trip, and actually had sunshine for all but the last 30 miles.
The parking lot at Jamestown was empty when I pulled in and I had to do a double-take to verify that they were actually open. I parked and finally got enough of my gear off so that I could walk inside and register for the ride. I was actually feeling kind of stupid with all that gear and no rain. I must have looked like that kid in the movie A Christmas Story, so bundled up that I couldn't put my arms down by my sides. Anyway, as I was registering they told me I was the second to register (the guy on the ultra turned out to be third). Might not be much of a turn out for this ride. Usually the parking lot is full by the time we get there. I used the restroom and then had a couple of cups of coffee and a donut. I knew that I wasn't going to go on their ride, but I was thinking about having breakfast before heading back. I decided to check the weather first, and glad I did. They were forecasting heavy rain in the next couple of hours so I decided to forgo breakfast and depart for points west. Yep, gotta put all that gear back on ...
I returned via the same route and the weather wasn't bad, though there was no sunshine for this leg. I saw a small group of around six bikes heading toward Jamestown as I left, but only one or two more singles after that. As I rode along Hwy 4 I noticed a couple of sprinkles on my face shield in the area of Tracy Blvd but not much more than that. Finally, as I rode into Brentwood it began to rain. It was relatively light but it was enough to be a pain. Now I wasn't feeling so bad about putting all this gear on. The farther west I rode, the worse the rain. By the time I pulled into my garage it was raining steadily. I had ridden 220 miles and only encountered rain for the last 5 of those. As I was taking off all my gear it began to rain fairly heavy. Made it just in time.
See you all Tuesday ...
