Skaggs Ride Report - my 1st time up there

[Desmostro]

Oh dear GOD!    [moto]          [moto]        [moto]        [moto]          


Imagine heaven, if you got to bring your bike.  Skaggs.
All the nice rides around here have something sweet about them, some special spot that no other can boast.
Judging them is like watching girls at the beach. So many different nice things about each one.
Skaggs is like that one that everyone won't stop staring at even when it gets really inappropriate.

We were very inappropriate with Skaggs today. Or rather, just the way it was meant to be. Curves start gently, predictably. The warm sun, the puffy white clouds, still air, the magically clean smooth tarmac on camber hot and heaving. The lake, the vineyards, the impossibly perfect rhythm of the hills that stretch beyond the horizon.  Patches of brilliant green vineyards exaggerate the forms of the hills like bikinis. lift & encapsulate.

It was a mostly italian group. We met a little restaurant on PAC Heights owned by a friend- 8AM Cappuccinos made to order by the kind owner who was miraculously, only 30mins late arriving. He had a circa1973 yamaha and sneakers, but he made a seriously good cafe'. Somehow that sort of thing didn't matter today. Yapping on the sidewalk with a small row of impressive Ducati drew attention from a passerby in jeans and a T who begged to join us.

No one knew him but, someone said ya "ok," maybe not believing he would return. Just as we started up, he returned.
It was Jake, the stunt pilot from the 2 UP ride!     The yellow 1098 is now a  1098S. Sa-weet. 

We hit it. Got there 68 miles later without incident.

A few bikes were lined up at the entrance messing with their gear saluting each other. You could almost hear the sound of a symphony warming up. Obviously this was going to be a different experience all together. We sorted out who was going to lead etc. on the recon flight quickly and went.

I really didn't know what to expect. It just kept getting better and better.
I kept looking for gravel or some crazy f-ed up engineering, but it didn't exist.

Rounding a blind corner to find a snaking canyon with a series of obscenely fast chicanes 5, 6 in a row laid out like some kind of porn, and it just kept happening. One goes gently up the next gently down.
320 degree turns at the top end of second gear. It was like that dream in high school where you went to the frat party and DID get the prom queen.

Next more Up & Down but serious elevation changes in & out of the canyons. 1000 feet up, a quick ridge ride and then down again.
Views kept presenting themselves like a little tease in places were you could either look or live.
The glistening lake, the curly texture of vines in the crotch of hills.

It all comes to an end at a bridge over a gorge where riders of every make gather their breath and friends and muse over the last few miles. Then you go and do it again and again.

[desmoquattro]

Your tag cloud is killing me...

[x136]

[snip]

Sooo... It's good, then? 

This is right off of 128. I'll have to take a quick side-trip out to the coast next time I'm on that road.

[Magneto]

Desmostro, I'm so glad you posted this. That ride really was epic. Definitely my favorite stretch of road, other than the runway! (yup, its Jake).

I'm still blown away at how PERFECT that ride was. No traffic. Completely clean, dry, even pavement. Awesome temperature and weather. Just legendary. You know you've found the right conditions when the only thing slowing you down is your own skill. But that road actually makes you feel like a better rider. It makes you want to give complete strangers a high-five.

Later on, I went to the airport, strapped in and bored some holes in the sky. 200 MPH, +6,-3G's. Snap rolls, hammerheads, lomcevaks, and a few spins for S's&G's. Still...and I can't believe I'm saying this: the Skaggs ride was better.

Add that to the company, which was great too. A bunch of hellraising Italians. I'm definitely in for the next ride!

[Desmostro]

Desmostro, I'm so glad you posted this. That ride really was epic. Definitely my favorite stretch of road, other than the runway! (yup, its Jake).

...

Later on, I went to the airport, strapped in and bored some holes in the sky. 200 MPH, +6,-3G's. Snap rolls, hammerheads, lomcevaks, and a few spins for S's&G's. Still...and I can't believe I'm saying this: the Skaggs ride was better.

Add that to the company, which was great too. A bunch of hellraising Italians. I'm definitely in for the next ride!

Definitely!

Sooo... It's good, then? 

This is right off of 128. I'll have to take a quick side-trip out to the coast next time I'm on that road.

I understand it turns into a goat trail after the bridge. Someone said it was a ride for a dirt bike after a while.  - I didn't see the coast side of it though.

[hypurone]

Definitely!
I understand it turns into a goat trail after the bridge. Someone said it was a ride for a dirt bike after a while.  - I didn't see the coast side of it though.

Yeah but unless you are on a bike that is wound so tight (for the track or something) you can't take it anywhere, it's doable and at a prety clip in spots. It has its own place in my heart. Plus, once at the coast, the ride down is stunning. Both the road/conditions and the scenery. Traffic can be a pita but there's ways around that.

Def not a winter ride tho! Unless you have a SM or DS or a cruiser and just putt...

[Michael Moore]

Yep, the bridge to the coast goes past Gualala and is a total goat-trail. Fun, but a different type of ride entirely.

I take it there weren't too many of the boys in blue out when you were there?  They used to be pretty laissez faire, but then started cracking down in a big way. Sounds like they may have realized it's better to let folks have their fun on a seldom-traveled road rather than go blasting down Hwy 1.

[sfarchie]

I didn't find that goal trail fun by any stretch of the imagination. Once again, my cadaver ligament was cursing me.

[duckwrench13]

Damn. All I did was 3000 ft of climbing, over a 20 mile circuit of rocks, roots, switchbacks, and singletrack at the Tamarancho XC race, in Fairfax, today.  There was much pedaling involved.

I miss Skaggs. I need to get up there again.

[desmoquattro]

I miss Skaggs. I need to get up there again.

Your bike still non-op'ed? You need to get anywhere again.

[Desmostro]

lots of  on the way up, lots on the way back, none there.

[mostrobelle]

I think it's criminal that they essentially put a freeway up in the mountains and then pollute it with  .  It's like some sort of Divine torture for motorcyclists.   

[Desmostro]

Theory: They do that because someone messes up or there's an accident. Then  goes away until the next time someone messes up or has an accident.

It keeps things a little less populated.

Last year it was 35. Too many SQUIDS were finding their end. Then showed up until things calmed down.

[x136]

I saw a thread on advrider or somewhere that said essentially the same thing. Residents were tired of the multicolored aliens blaring up and down the road all the time, and the authorities were tired of scraping people off the road. I guess a single-bike wreck up there will earn you an instant wreckless driving citation now. 

[Desmostro]

More happy thoughts





 [moto]