And yet another fantastic riding day.
It was nice this morning as we began assembling in the Devil Mountain parking lot. The group was a little sparse at first and we were thinking that we would have a small group with it being Easter and all. But the others began to trickle in around 9:30 and before you know it we had 18 bikes ready to ride the delta roads.
We departed the parking lot on Leland and turned right onto Harbor St. This was followed by another right onto California Ave after we crossed over Hwy 4 and then turned left onto Loveridge Rd. We turned right onto the Pittsburg Antioch Hwy, which turns into 10th St, and with a little zig-zag onto Wilbur we rode through town merging onto Hwy 160 just before the toll plaza for the Antioch bridge. After paying the toll we crossed the bridge and turned right onto Sherman Island Levee Rd and followed that along the San Joaquin River back to Hwy 160 at Brannan Island. We rode past Brannan Island State Recreational Area and turned onto Brannan Island Rd. This road is actually closed about a half mile in, so we crossed over Sevenmile Slough onto Twitchell Island Rd and followed that past the closed section of road to Jackson Slough Rd, where we crossed back over the slough and rejoined Brannan Island Rd. This continues around the bend of the San Joaquin River and turns north along the west bank of the Mokelumne River taking us to Hwy 12. We turned west on Hwy 12 and then
veered right almost immediately onto Terminous Rd, which took us into Isleton and to our scheduled stop.
After using the facilities and chatting for a few minutes we were ready to continue. We headed north on Hwy 160 to Tyler Island Bridge Rd and followed that up to Racetrack Rd, where we turned left. We made a brief stop on Racetrack Rd at JR's memorial site to pay our respects before continuing on to Walnut Grove.
We crossed over the bridge here and rejoined Hwy 160 heading south to Hwy 220, where we turned right. Hwy 220 took us over to Steamboat Slough and the first of two ferries. We had a few bikes wave off here as they had to get back for family commitments. That left us with 14 bikes, which were easily stacked onto the waiting ferry. After getting across the slough we followed Ryer Rd around the north end of the island to Hwy 84 and the second ferry. As we road down 84 we passed a boat that was flying the Jolly Roger. Arrrgh! And then as we approached the ferry landing we were joined by another motorcycle group with 10 or 12 bikes from Sacramento. We were all able to get on the ferry and across the slough to River Rd. which we followed to the Chevron station in Rio Vista, the destination for our ride. Some refueled and then we discussed where we
would eat lunch. The majority vote was for Foster's so the group went there. Some of us opted out of Foster's and went elsewhere in search of nourishment. We ate at Shelby's there on the main drag in Rio Vista. The food is OK and the service was good.
As we were gearing up after lunch, Steve & Vicki Guderian pulled into the parking lot in their cage. They were on the way to visit family when they saw us and stopped to say hello. A pleasant surprise.
Then it was back down Hwy 160 to Antioch. Another fine day spent with friends ...
