Okay if you have bean… following things here you know the Bean has gone to the mountains, the sea, back roads, and lakes. So far, so good, however, does this mean Bean is a fair-weather rider???? NO WAY, no freaking way.
Donner Lake here I come….
Sitting around thinking about better days I get bored so what’s a bean to do? ROAD TRIP…. just one problem it is dark, cold, and kind of stormy out. No problem, my wonderful bro said I could borrow his old bunny suit. For those of you that don’t know, what I call a bunny suit is really just an insulated one-piece jumpsuit. This one is a Firstgear Thermo 1- piece suit. For the money, this is a really nice option for cold wet weather riding. You can find them for around $250 dollars (USD) online and this one has seen a tough life because of the miles my bro puts in. However, it really has held up with only minor leaks….. I’ll get to that in a minute.
My original thoughts were to head up to Donner Lake, which is about two and half hours from my starting point on a good day. I want to see just how far into the snowline I could get and it is really pretty there.
I have been planning a trip up there in the summer to go up to the old Southern Pacific Railroad snow shed tunnels. I have a friend that went up and found some really nice rides in that area and wanted to see for myself. This trip I didn’t quite make it but don’t worry I’ll have lots to say when I do make it up there….
Starting out, it was gloomy and grey out, although it was not raining like it had over the course of the last week or so. I was wearing my leather riding jacket, gloves, of course, flannel-lined pants, and a heavy Henley-type shirt. Oh and sneakers, yes I am the well-dressed, well-prepared rider that all should emulate, NOT.
I strapped down the bunny suit to my big daddy trunk with the plan of putting it on when I started to get cold. You can see it in the picture below, it is the black pillow-looking thing. I didn’t set out in it because it is bulky and difficult to move around in if you are not used to wearing one. Having said that, I did find that once I had it on and was back riding, it wasn’t so bad to ride in and I quickly got used to it.
The thing about wearing the suit is that it was really warm and did a great job of keeping the wind off. My jacket considering it is a very nice leather jacket and unlined does offer great protection from the cold and wind at least until it hits anywhere below 60 degrees (15 Celsius) for sustained periods of time. Below those temps, I start getting chilled. At about 48 degrees, (8c), I decided to suit up and pulled off on a great little trail that I may have to explore later.
I have not hit the snowline yet and have been on the road for a while now, however, the temp keeps dropping and the sky is getting darker. It seems that within 20 minutes more of driving I start seeing solid patches of snow and then more and more. It is also starting to rain. At first, I notice that the road is wet in places, then it starts this light misting kind of hit and miss rain. Since the bunny suit is waterproof, or mostly waterproof in this case, I’m okay with it. That hit and miss is kind of fun because on the miss sections, the clouds have parted and it is beautiful and sunny.
However, on the road ahead I can see that the clouds are much more serious and so I am thinking I should start considering a plan B. As I didn’t bring my motorcycle chains and the hit and miss is becoming more hit than miss plan B is looking like a good idea.
The Gap, Emigrant Gap
Remember that I said my original plan was to head up to Donner lake and see just how far into the snow line I could get. Nope didn’t make it that far, close but no cigar. I got to the Emigrant Gap turn off and what turned out to be my last blast of sunshine before the clouds completely closed in. You can see in the opening picture that there are shadows and about four to six inches of snow on the off-ramp.
I have never been to Emigrant Gap before, drove past it many a time just never had any reason to go explore. So now is my chance, Donner Lake can wait till summer.
I pulled off on the road that leads down or over to the Gap and looked around a bit for a good trail or place to explore. Turns out the best place to start was the road down to the Gap. Time to turn on the GoPro and head on down the road and into the snow.
A couple of things to note watching this video. First, it seems sunny, nope just a break in the clouds. Second, as I am riding down the road it goes from halfway dry and decent to not so much. Three, you can’t see the faces of those people in the trucks, however, they looked a bit like this 😳 and then 😱 and 🤯 and that about sums it up.
At this point, nobody can say Bean is a garage queen and Gogo is a fair-weather rider.
The ride out (it’s snowing like crazy, I should get going)
As the road went from reasonable, to just nuts slippery, the weather went from cold and a couple of snowflakes here and there, to lots of big fat flakes coming down fast and hard. Okay, snowflakes don’t come down hard but you get the idea. It was starting to snow pretty hard. I do say though, the snow didn’t stick to my face shield, well, at first anyhow. I think because I had been riding through the wet mist and rain earlier things were wet and when it started snowing harder it started to stick and make seeing difficult.
My main concern, other than seeing, is how slippery things are. Riding down to this point has been interesting. The pavement in places is a tire track wide and in others wet and snowy. The thing that was scary is that I never knew when I was going to hit the black ice. It can hide in plain sight, under a patch of snow, in a shadow, or on the road looking like regular pavement.
In the video, you see a point where I turn to consider taking that snow-covered trail. No way, hose A…. as soon as my tires were barely off the road it became a slip and slide with virtually no traction. After spinning around, as in spinning the tire a lot whilst I pushed the Bean around I stopped for a moment to look around and chill….
Because of the fact it was snowing at a pretty good clip things got real quiet. The air was crisp as a new ten-dollar bill and the quiet was only interrupted by the soft thump of snowballs falling out of the trees. It was on its own level of awesome being there. However, it seemed that the snowfall was picking up speed and I didn’t want to get stuck there.
This is where I have turned and now starting my way back up the road. In this short clip, you can see how the snow was starting to fall.
Up and Out to the Main Road
Playing slip and slide was fun and all and as a bonus, I didn’t fall but now we are back up to the point where it all began, the freeway. The snowfall had been heavy at times but now was pretty light so I thought I had it made for the ride back.
On the main road/freeway traffic and snow removal equipment meant that the road was clean and clear. That is until I started dropping in altitude. Funny thing, lower altitude, warmer temp, and snowfall turns into RAIN. Dagnab it, as my dad would say.
Okay remember in the beginning I was talking about the bunny suit and what I was wearing. Welllll, long story short, the suit kept me nice and toasty warm in the snow but now it is pouring rain. And I mean buckets. My strategy at that point was to get in the wind shadow of the big trucks and duck some of the blasts. The only problem with that plan is that it is more than a bit dicey being snuggled up to a semi in a driving rainstorm.
Oh, and another thing, in my infinite wisdom I was riding in sneakers which although comfortable was less than waterproof, MUCH less. So now my feet are both cold and soaking wet. Now, let’s add insult to injury or in my case stupidity, the bunny suit leaks….
I have nothing but good things to say about this suit, it is warm, reasonably comfortable, and for the most part dry. However, this suit has had a hard life on those happy trails bro has been riding and has some damage. Yep getting a solid case of wet butt, damp shoulder, and drippy legs. My thoughts at this point are simply, only an hour and a half to go and home base, hot shower, warm clothes, and a good cupper to straighten up the mood.
~Epilogue: Next time….
So this is a good summary of my snow trip;
- What a blast
- Don’t wear sneakers
- Patch the holes in your bunny suit
- Enjoy yourself