Ducati Monster Forum

Sooo.. The wife and I have pretty much moved to our new Digs in Klamath Falls and in a couple of weeks I plan to ride from the North Coast up there to K.F. on the monster of course, taking the road less traveled. I know its probably a bit far for all of you to leave from the Bay, but if anyone wants to come all or part way, I won't knock your bike down and ride off or anything.  [cheeky]

Anyway here is the basic route. Some of this will be on roads that I either haven't been on in many years or have never been on. I think this will be a two day with lots of stops and pictures. _{(Also Cross post in N.W.)}

http://tinyurl.com/yyodcvd (http://tinyurl.com/yyodcvd)

Have fun!

Yeah that will be a great ride... consider traffic though.  Gonna make it in one day?  Be sure to get lots of sleep and eat your Wheaties.

Have fun Dave and hope to ride with ya sometime.  [moto]

~JD

There should be no traffic to speak of, but a two day ride sounds more like it.

This is the general direction of my next big, long ride, too.  I hear the Trinity "Alps" make for some good riding, but honestly am not quite sure which road is the best.  You're headed right though the pass.  I'm assuming you'll get some good pavement.  Have you checked into that?  ...and I second the 2-day call.  That's a long drive in a car on the freeway.  Made it several times while going to school up in Eugene.  I wouldn't want to tack on twisties onto that without an overnight break. 

I will let the pavement be what it is and then give a first hand report. Most of the route I have a pretty good idea, but some of this will be "come what may" Some of the roads going into The Medford area I have no idea. I was on SR66 a couple of weeks ago in the car and some parts of it was lousy with lava rock.

Looks like fun.  [thumbsup]  I'll be taking a trip up to about point "F" on your map in June.  Belle, you can check out the Pashnit forums (http://www.pashnit.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=4) for more info on some of the roads up there.

Great, just what we need, another Californian movin' up here.  [roll]











 ;D
j/k

Have a great ride. [moto]

I want sales tax and big government up here now, Just like CA.

J/K

Does it help if I'm a Washington native?

BTW my Wife is a S.F. native so maybe that cancels out the Washington thing.  ;D

Truth be told I have lived in all three west coast states at one time or another, and consider Home to be from Seattle to San Jose, so whatever, I'm here now.


What are you heading up to Happy Camp for? Just to go?

Ive toured the Trinities, most of Nor Cal, much of Oregon and parked my Multistrata in Klamath Falls...after breaking my ankle in a slow mo crash in the Alvord desert (eastern Oregon). Nice territory! Have a great ride! [moto]

I'll be back up there this summer.

And we want rainy weather and meth labs on every block down here ;D

Are you gonna get a new bike or just a new set of boots? I heard what happened sort of. Hope your OK.

96 rocks.
Arcata area would be a good stop and is do-able in a day if you're up for it.  That looks really fun.

Arcata is only about a 3 hour ride from F.B. Its a good place to take a break that's for sure.

Happy camp will be a petrol stop on the way to lunch in Yreka.  The trip is about the numbers 1, 96, and 36.   [moto]

Bump
I'm going to do an update a little later. Finally

Cool, dependent upon which weekend you end up deciding on, I might be able to tag along for a good portion of the northbound journey.

For the past year or so the old Monster has sort of been languishing in the garage. I don't know why, maybe I've been busy, it just seemed like there was no purpose in taking the motorcycle anywhere. the last couple of rides I went on were big loops through the woods, and i would would be out there riding along thinking, there is not real reason to do all this, no..mission, no task that is being accomplished. So I stopped going on rides. Occasionally I would go into town or something but lots of times it wasn't practical to take the bike so I wouldn't. The monster started to collect dust and i never got around to fixing the dent in the tank, dong that carb sync, or lowering the gauges.

In the mean time we started to move to Klamath Falls. Its been a slow process getting set up here and getting rid of lots of stuff. One day I was looking on craigslist and saw how a guy wanted to trade his 68 flatbed Chevy for a motorcycle. I contacted him and told him how the bike was still in a garage down in Fort Bragg but that I would be going down there in a week and in another week or so coming back with the monster and we could trade. The two weeks ended up turning into three weeks due to a couple of reasons, but finally the day came to head to Oregon with the bike. Late afternoon actually.

(http://i38.tinypic.com/2q1hybl.jpg)

After doing a small land survey that morning and fixing a small leak in the cooling system of the car we came in, I was ready to go at around 5 O Clock in the afternoon. There was still plenty of time to ride for a couple of hours and find a place to camp for the night. Just before I left I gave the old bike a soapy bath. The gauges were clean again, the tank shined once more, and i could see my reflection again in the stainless mufflers. It was looking good and I thought this guy is going to get a real nice deal even if he was throwing in a one week stay at a luxury time share in Cabo. So I set off on the road, heading north on Hwy 1 hoping I could cut a few miles off the trip before dark.

My first stop was at Westport just a few miles up the road to get some gas. I'm real surprised that whoever inspects the pumps hasn't condemned the one and only pump they have at the store. The thing is rusting to pieces and the display is pretty much unreadable on the side that faces the sunset. It's all yellowed and cracked and at this time of the day with the sun shinning on it, well forget it. The other side, also yellowed and cracked, but still readable, only displays the gallons. The price calculation stopped working long ago, so you have to step into the store and tell them how many gallons you just pumped. The lady calculates it on the old I mac which serves as the stores point of sale machine for everything having to do with the store. As she charges me $12.00 and change, I think to myself that its a fine afternoon to sit here on the old Redwood deck and tip back a beer while watching the sun get closer to the ocean, but I don't have time for that today. I have to put some miles on.

It's a little on the cool side as it usually is near the coast but in a few miles I know that the road will start to turn inland, and things will warm up a little. By the time I hit 101 the temps are nice and pleasant but not so warm that I want to stop at the swimming hole. I do stop eventually because I need to get off and walk around every so often. The first place I do so is at a bridge along the Avenue of the giants just north of Miranda. The Eel river is way down below, and there appears to be two girls down there topless.
It's nice weather to be topless I suppose and also nice weather to ride along through the giant redwoods for mile after mile. I guess they don't call it "Behind the Redwood curtain" for nothing. The old highway seems to make a tunnel through the trees, and sometimes it's so dark its hard to see.

Map day 1 (http://tinyurl.com/33djqwq)

I would love to ride the avenue of the giants the whole way, but I told the guy I would meet him around noon tomorrow, so after about 20 miles or so I get back on the freeway and into the sunlight. Even the freeway is beautiful from here you can see a little more of the picture. The mountains with the thick trees on them make me wonder what it must have been like 150 years ago when there were no roads through here. Just the forest and some trails. It would take forever to get anywhere. And all of the trees would be massive not just the ones on the old highway, but all of them. None of this 2nd and 3rd growth stuff. As I think these thoughts the sky starts to get overcast and I know that I'm getting close to Eureka and the coast again.

After 20 miles or so I am passing the Ferndale exit and the sky has gotten so cloudy it's starting to drizzle, and I'm freezing. It's also getting dark. Darker than it would otherwise be, and I figure that I'm going to have a hard time finding that camping spot in the dark. I had hoped to get a little farther today but Instead I just pulled in to the nearest cheap Motel I could find. The room was clean and there was a bed. The bonus was that this place had water that was hotter than I could stand, so I adjusted the temperature down to "as hot as I could stand" and took a nice long shower before heading out to dinner at the Aztec grill.

I can't believe they make such good prawn tacos at a Chevron gas station, but they do and I am satisfied. As I look out the window at the monster I keep thinking how good it looks. The shape of the tank, the size of thing, its just kind of sexy. Some jerks on Harleys ride into the motel parking lot just then reving the engines and making all kinds of un classy noise. Those things cant hold a candle to the monster. This thing is a classic. Even the new monsters while almost certainly being a better motorcycle in almost every way, just don't have it. Do I really want to trade this thing? I'm not so sure anymore.


(Time to go to bed for now, morning will come soon enough)


Soon enough comes at 4:30 in the morning when I hear the sound of an ambulance penetrating my dream. I remember thinking that I hope it goes past before they let the siren refresh one more time. The siren doesn't refresh, which is good because i didn't want to hear another fresh blast of siren that early in the morning. The driver lets it wind down but at the same time it keeps coming closer and closer until I'm fully awake and then i hear the sound of air brakes and a diesel engine. Behind the motel blackout curtains there are flashing lights, and as I open the curtain an eye full of intense red strobe lights are flashing out there in the parking lot. It turns out to be a fire truck rather than an ambulance. Often time the fire crews are first responders. I don't see them getting out the fire equipment and there is no sign of fire so it's probably medical. Maybe it has to do with those jerks on the Harleys. one of those blowhards might have had a heart attack or perhaps the fought amongst themselves and somebody got hurt. Maybe it it has nothing to do with them. Who knows but I'm up now. The bike is out there all covered with mist so I decide to ride up to Arcata and get some breakfast at this diner I ate at once.

(http://i38.tinypic.com/hwz4md.jpg)

I dress up warm and head out at 6:00. The mist is really bad and I can't ride in this stuff all morning, so it looks like I'm going to head inland on Hwy 299 after breakfast rather than going up the coast to crescent city. After riding for about 20 miles and reaching the summit of the mountain, the fog and drizzle just vanished and ahead of me there was not a cloud in the sky. This turned out to be a good choice. For the next several hours there was virtually no traffic. I had that feel of the open road with just me and my thoughts, the bike and the road for about 150 miles. Once I turned off at willow creek it was road that I had seldom or never been on. I had no map so after happy camp there was only the vaguest idea of where I was headed.

(http://i37.tinypic.com/29ymwhs.jpg)

Somewhere along this portion of my trip I had decided not to trade the bike. The guy was gonna be mad I was sure. he waited three weeks and today is the day. So what am I gonna do? Call him? Not show up? No I decided that I would meet with him in person and give him some of the riding gear I had strapped to the bike and offer him a weekend at a time share that I have. If he had drove down with the truck to get the bike, it would have been a done deal but now? How could I trade now? I can't even explain it, but I was definitely keeping the monster.


(More later)

Map day 2 (http://tinyurl.com/26o6on5)

 [popcorn]

dude

that is a fantastic color  Monster

Looks worth so much more to a rider who appreciates it, than whatever cash it can bring

but

I realize times can be hard, situations change - hope there's a happy ending

whatever the outcome - the Monster must be ridden

When I got to Happy camp I figured there would be a junction heading off to the North. I spotted a sign indicating that Indian Creek road was just the road I was looking for. After the ride, when I got in front of a map it was plain that I had missed my desired road, at least on paper. The road I was looking for was many miles to the west and appears to turn into a forest highway for several miles. Probably more of a road for a dual sport bike. As it turns out the Indian Creek Rd. was a very nice road. It climbed in elevation until the alpine variety of trees, flowers and shrubs dominated the landscape. At some point  the road crosses into Oregon, but there is no sign indicating where the border is. There was a suspicious change in pavement at one point, as though one road maintenance  crew says to the other, this is as far as we go.  There is no agricultural checkpoint either so if you want to smuggle in that truckload of pineapples from out of state this is the road to do it on.

Indian creek meets with U.S. 199 just south of Cave Junction. One of these days I need to stop and see the caves again but it won't be today. It seems like time goes by pretty fast from Cave Junction to Grants pass and when I get to a light on the way into the city center, one of the locals on a ZX6  starts asking me all kinds of questions like, Where am I coming from, did I go over such & such a road, where are you going next, and so on. He then indicated that the road from Happy camp to U.S. 199 was indeed an awesome road, maybe even the most awesome around. I know that its not as good as some other roads I can think of, but it's not bad, and I would be willing to take it again.

At Grants pass I tried to head south on a river road that closely parallels I-5 but the temperature around mid day was starting to get uncomfortably hot and the speed limit was low, so I slabbed it down the freeway the rest of the way to central point where I had to meet the guy with the truck.  Breaking out the GPS with the low battery that I brought expressly for the purpose of finding his house I started to pull out of the gas station, but not before stopping to talk to the guy on the monster who was getting gas.

I didn't ask his name but he moved up from San Jose some time ago. He's not on the board too much though. After telling him about my mission to trade the bike to the guy with the truck and how I wasn't going to do it now he said good choice. This further bolstered my position especially since my wife had pretty much been against it all along. Armed with the extra confidence I proceeded on to the guys house.  When he came out, ready to make the deal, I informed him that there wasn't going to be a deal, but that I brought him some riding gear, and I was sorry to be one of those craigslist jerks that wasted his time. He was upset, but didn't punch me out. They guy wanted to though I could see it on his face. He said I should have called...I'm sure that if I had called, then I should have had the decency to let him know in person....He didn't want my gear, He didn't want a weekend at a time share that I had, He just wanted me to go away, which I did, without further delay.

Back on the freeway for a few exits, I stopped at Hansen's BMW triumph Ducati (http://www.hansensmc.com/) shop to check it out and take a little break while sucking up some or their air conditioning.  After Joking with the owner about taking the 1198s out for a while, he said I could take it out for as long as I want, If I give him about $20,000. seeing how I didn't have that much cash on hand, I bought a can of chain wax instead making a mental not that shop time is $85 hour. I might want them to sync the carbs and make this thing run better for me later on.

I walked back outside into the now stifling heat, and rode off as soon as I could but not before spraying on some of the chainwax I had just bought. This set of sprockets and chain has lasted 15,000 miles so far. I know it has to do with keeping the chain lubed and probably the fact that the monster only puts out about 65 hp. Finally I was on the last leg. This part involves just a little more freeway down to Ashland, where route 66 meets I-5. No not THE route 66 but Oregon state highway route 66. This one heads up the mountains to the east and things start cooling off fairly quickly. The road has good views but the pavement is a little sketchy. Some of the lava rock from last winter was still in the road as well but if a guy doesn't go all out trying to drag a knee and stuff the road is fine.  Somewhere near the top there is a little pull off called well springs where state tax dollars built some stone basins to catch the spring water. I found the water to be excellent for drinking and splashing on the back my neck. I kind of wanted to put my feet in there but it looked too difficult to bother with.

(http://i35.tinypic.com/33242lw.jpg 3)

I filled up my water bottle there, the one that says do not refill and talked with a guy about a water purification process called SODIS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_water_disinfection) and how remarkably simple it was. He and his wife were busy filling up about 15 jugs of water from the spring as we talked. The SODIS method seemed to me to be a good reuse of plastic bottles, and it gave me something to think about while I did the last leg Home. About 15 miles from home I glanced down for a moment, and glanced back up just in time to see some cows crossing the road right in front of me. Because i hit the brakes hard, I didn't hit the cows, and so i could enjoy myself for the rest of the ride home. Joy was glad to see me and the bike come home, and my dogs were just glad to see me. I'm not sure where I will go next but it might be over to Prospect one afternoon. They used to have good Pizza over there...well see.

Awesome story, thanks for sharing.

You made the right choice  [thumbsup]

nice  [thumbsup]

makes me wanna cry...I am never getting rid of my monster.  :'(

Makes me wanna cry too-if I had known I could've gotten a flatbed instead of a measly few K by waiting, I would've hung onto it.