7/17/2021
After my first real ride on the Bean I decided that now it’s time for my first outing into the woods, an overnighter just because…
In a previous post, I noted my innate ability to not think things out and be hugely underprepared. Remember shorts, tee, freezing my buns off…(see My first real ride). Well, this time I was sure I have thought of everything.
Packed
I have carefully set out my monster duffel and rechecked the gear that I have in it. Sleeping bag, check, hammock, check, spare clothing, toilet paper, etc. check, check and check. Water, extra water, long pants, and a long sleeve shirt, yup, got it. Of course, I forgot that the morning might be cold and a light jacket or sweater would have been nice, still no worries, just wait a bit and it will warm up where I am going.
Monster Duffel to go please
Okay so the monster duffel is sufficiently packed and I’m ready to go. A couple of weeks before my brother and his friend went on a ride that took them high into the California mountains near Lake Tahoe. On this trip, my brother had one of his brand new gee-whiz gizmos, a self-piloted AI drone made by Skydio. I gotta tell you this thing was awesome and produced some truly amazing videos which I will talk about in another post, someday….
Ready to rock
When I watched his video exploits I was still waiting for the Bean, however, I decided this looked too good to pass up. And that is where I was heading. At least that is what I thought.
I was told when I asked how to find the trailhead for this adventure, just go to Silver Lake and take a right. Well not exactly, the directions were much more involved, my brother’s friend is a surveyor for the government and has access to everything involving GPS technology.
So sure as shootin I didn’t even come close to finding where the trailhead started and even though it was a lovely ride to Silver Lake and then Kirkwood ski resort, I completely missed the mark.
Is that Altitiude or Attitude…
So there I am very much enjoying my ride at altitude, the Bean is behaving wonderfully and life is good. However, I need to find a place to camp or ride home in defeat. No worries I still have plenty of daylight, gas in the tank, water, I’m good.
Kirkwood is up further than Silver Lake so I circled back down because I kept seeing all these side roads beckoning me with a come hither look and so I finally gave in about 10 minutes down from the lake and took a side road. This road led me back into the woods and had numerous fire roads stemming off the main stretch.
No Fire on the Fire Road
Now we are talking beans…dirt roads, fire trails, off the main going who knows where. After passing four or five candidates I grab one by the rocks and head on down. The first part is a fairly easy grade that is not well-trod but looked to be a logging access road. It was about one lane wide, dirt, not too rutted, and pretty tame. I got down it about a mile but found a locked gate. I could have just gone around this being on a motorcycle, however, I spotted a dirt path just up from the gate and decided to see what was there.
This pathway was more like two parallel paths that a four-wheel-drive could go and stopped at a pretty little turnaround. It looked like nobody had been here for a long time so I got off the Bean and did a quick walkabout to see if this was THE place.
Little piece of heaven
On further investigation, I found what could have been a game path or an old log drag path that was pretty rough but took me way back into the woods. I liked it so off I went. I had to jump some small logs, cross some rotted trees but came back to a spot that was buried deep and very peaceful with two stout trees for my hammock.
What a beautiful place to set up, nobody around for miles, quiet, no bears, no fire, just perfect… That is until about 7 pm that evening. Yup, my perfect place was discovered, well not quite, remember I went way back into the woods, a good thing. I am laying quietly ducking out from mosquitoes under the cover of my net and off in the distance I hear the noise.
What, you have to be kidding
At first, it was just a series of bumps and thumps. Then a dog barking, then some clunking then quiet, for a bit anyway. The noises were far enough away that I couldn’t make out what was going on. I couldn’t see anybody so I thought maybe it was somebody turning around on that logging road. It was when I heard voices that I knew somebody was probably camping down the way.
I was pretty much okay with that because I was way up in the woods and unless you hiked in and were really looking, the Bean and I were hard to see behind the trees. However, about 8:30 pm when the new age country-rock music started finding its way into my space, that I was beginning to rue the place I was hidden.
It was too hard to pack up, too late to leave, and I was too tired to bother. So there I was mumbling to myself and thinking maybe I should have gone deeper into the woods. Oh well, like Doris Day once said “Que Sara sera” what will be will be.
~ Epilogue:
So around 10:30 pm, the music died out, a good thing I could barely hear it and I got to sleep. Fitfully, but got to sleep, and the next morning when I packed up and went flying out of there. The look on those guys’ faces when Bean and I went zooming by was worth it all. They had no idea I was back there no less on a BMW….LOL