Yosemite - October 13/14, 2007
Northstars Ride
The annual Northstars ride started out in
ordinary fashion but was quickly deemed, by Lisa, "the Craig Hightower
practical joke ride". He was up there somewhere laughing and having
some fun with us. Nothing too bad happened, besides one crash on
Sunday, fortunately Diter was fine, but many other odd and funny things did
make the trip an interesting journey. A number of us made it for
breakfast on Saturday morning at Doug's Place in Castro Valley and tanked up
on their hearty breakfast that could feed pulenty! Myself, Diter,
Catfish, Gino, Kari, Ben, Lisa, and Jim "rolled" on out about 9:30am and was
met by Allan just pulling in. Oh well, better late than never, hope
you weren't hungry :-) ...
We meandered out 580 to 205 to 120 to Manteca
and then stopped for a potty break. As we rolled out after the break,
someone noticed that Allan had a flat tire. The group separated a bit
as others realized there was an issue. This was Craig's practical joke
#1. Fortunately someone had a tire plug kit and pump and we were all
soon off again. Catfish had mentioned he was going to deviate from the
route and try a few different roads. Ooooh ooooh, I wanna go too.
Catfish is the master at navigation so when he wants to deviate, we listen.
He lead us all on some fun whoopdee doooos and twisties through Copperopolis
and back down to Highway 108. Woo-hoo. This put us close to our
pre-scheduled lunch stop in Jamestown. After our BIG breakfast we weren't
exactly starving, but we had to stay true to the motto of the club - ride to
eat ;-) ... Damn that sherbet float was tasty.
My turn to navigate again with my shiny new
GPS. Ah, yeah, about. I could say this was Craig's practical
joke #2 and I am sure he would be snickering, but I am afraid it was just a
learning curve with the mapping software. I had us so screwed up at
one point that I was leading everyone up a mountainside in the complete
opposite direction. In hindsight it was hilarious, but at the time I
was disgusted and embarrassed. I don't like being lost in the first
place, let alone leading seven other riders into oblivion. Lovely.
I think the horse at the dead end cul-de-sac we ended up in was equally
amused with our situation. Sheesh. Well, Catfish to the rescue
again. He took over leading the ride again and got us outta there and
back on track. He was such a sport when I was groveling and feeling
foolish....he simply looked at me with a patient smile and said "see, this
is why it is a good idea to pre-ride your route". I think I heard "you
are so fired as route leader" from a few others at the back of the
pack....all in good fun and jest though.
Vroom vroom off we went but not before Jim
noticed his front tire very low on air. Off we go in search of a gas
station. Found one but no air. What gas station doesn't have
air. Good Lord what is this world coming too. Not to worry, I
have my handy-dandy pump kit so we hooked it all up and get Jim some air and
back in business. Craig practical joke #3 and at this point we are all
starting to giggle about it and have some fun with the joke, asking what
next. We finally make our way to our turn off on Tuolumne Rd and onto
Cottonwood Rd. All sheer riding bliss and 30 miles of twisty heaven.
But the GPS would rear its head again and veer Ben off on his own adventure.
Ben also has the same GPS and I shared the route with him so he had the same
one loaded on his. He decided to actually pay attention to it at some
point and went off of Cottonwood Rd to a "shortcut". Long story short,
it truly was a shortcut and he wound up beating us to the lodge. Go
figure. We were all a bit worried initially because we didn't know
where he had gone, but it worked out fine. Craig practical joke #4?
All made it safe and sound to the Evergreen
Lodge. I stayed here last year and it really is a beautiful place
amongst the redwoods and away from the crowds. The best part was that
we were supposed to be camping this year in the group camping area where
they already have tents and everything all set up for you. However,
the weather had turned cold and guests had been complaining so they moved us
into cabins instead and only charged us the camping rates. Now that is
service!
Lisa and I were bunking together and got
settled into our cabin. Lisa had come up with a wonderful idea of
putting Craig's ashes in small containers and handing them out to folks.
This would allow everyone in the group to have a little part of Craig and to
be able to spread his ashes and say their goodbye's in a private way.
Lisa had brought the containers with her and we set up in the cabin to put
his ashes in the containers so we could hand them out at dinner.
Initially this was very difficult for Lisa and I to do, we became very
emotional of course. Once the tears dried we started to laugh and talk
about the day and how many funny little things had happened. It was
time to create the containers with ashes, so Lisa pulled out the containers.
They were "Hello Kitty" containers, not exactly what I had expected or
envisioned. This just threw us both into fits of hysteria. We
have cried so many tears and we needed to laugh, to celebrate, not grieve.
Craig was one of the biggest practical jokers and this was just so perfect
that the containers and plastic bag holder for the containers were Hello
Kitty. We managed to pull it all together, get everything done and
packaged and ready to hand out to the group. At this point we were in
serious need of adult beverages and headed to the bar/tavern to meet the
others. We had a quiet moment and eventually a few laughs about the
Hello Kitty packaging and then moved on with celebrating a great day, a
great ride, great friends, and many more rides. Dinner at the lodge
was fantastic with a few other Northstars and significant others joining us
(Laura/Scott, Doug/Jae, Gino's wife Laura and son Nicholas) - they had
driven up.
The next morning we were clutches out of the
lodge by 10:15 and off to Yosemite Valley and the Ahwahnee Hotel for their
famous brunch...mmmmm! A quiet romp through the park with no tickets
this year. After brunch most everyone disbanded, as many had to head
home but some of us were hanging out another night. Kari, Ben, and I
enjoyed a bit of hiking and then lounging on the lawn at the Ahwahnee.
Lisa, Jim, Diter, and Catfish headed back home. On the way home near
Mariposa Diter had a mis-hap in a decreasing radius turn and took a spill.
Damn that stinks! Fortunately his gear did it's job and he was fine,
only ripping his Aerostich suit and boot. The Ducati didn't fare so
well though and it had to be towed. He transferred his luggage to Lisa
and Jim and rode home on the back of Catfish's bike. Last I heard he
was heading back out with a truck to go get it. Now that was not a
Craig practical joke, that was just bum luck!
Sunday night I had dinner with the last
people standing back at the lodge - Gino/Laura/Nicholas and Doug/Jae.
We had a nice time hanging out and chatting and then it was early bedtime
for me. Gino was riding back on Monday morning as well so we paired up
and headed out. But first up was a ride to the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.
Kari and Ben had recommended it and it certainly is a must see. There
are some neat hiking trails too, but we'll get to that next year. We
didn't have time this time. We had a nice ride home and found a few
fun roads off of 120 - Smith Station Rd, Greeley Hill Rd, and Highway 132.
We stopped for lunch in Waterford...wherever ;-) ... Yes, I was bravely
relying on the GPS again and doing ok. I secretly consulted the
regular map the night before...shhhhh...
All in all a wonderful trip and great group
of folks to hang with.
Click on the photo for a larger view.
|
|
|
|
And this is how it began...a sticker I gave Lisa, which she immediately stuck to the tail of her bike
|
|
|
|
Ben, Kari, Catfish suit up from our breakfast spot at Doug's Place in Castro Valley
|
|
|
|
Jim and Lisa (still admiring her sticker)
|
|
|
|
Catfish waving for the crowd
|
|
|
|
Lisa getting suited up and ready to head out
|
|
|
|
|
|
Near Manteca, some of the group waiting on Allan Paul to fix his flat tire back in town. Slight delay but on the road again in no time "flat"
|
|
|
|
Lisa at the stop in Manteca. "Hey, who stole my batteries"
|
|
|
|
Lisa, Kari, Ben's bike at our lunch stop in Jamestown.
|
|
|
|
Kari, Ben, and Diter in the background....mmmm, I am starved, I haven't eaten in 2 hours
|
|
|
|
Diter, Lisa, Jim at the junction of Cherry Oil Rd. Just try and wipe the grins off their faces. Too much fun on the twisties
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lisa at the juntion of Mather Rd
|
|
|
|
Lisa, Diter, Kari, Gino at the juntion of Mater Rd
|
|
|
|
The grounds at the Evergreen Lodge
|
|
|
|
The grounds at the Evergreen Lodge
|
|
|
|
The grounds at the Evergreen Lodge
|
|
|
|
|
|
Group camping area at Evergreen Lodge
|
|
|
|
Evergreen Lodge
|
|
|
|
Evergreen Lodge dining/tavern
|
|
|
|
Lisa in front heading down to Yosemite Valley on Highway 120. Guess we were both shooting pictures...or Keith Code is teaching new lean angles :-)
|
|
|
|
Lisa in front heading down to Yosemite Valley on Highway 120
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lisa in front heading down to Yosemite Valley on Highway 120. Of course following the posted 25mph sign on the right
|
|
|
|
Lisa, Scott, Laura, Jim, Diter at the Ahwahnee having their fabulous brunch on Sunday
|
|
|
|
Ahwahnee Hotel dining room ceiling
|
|
|
|
Catfish and Lisa plotting and scheming new routes
|
|
|
|
Josh and Elise...hey where'd everyone go
|
|
|
|
|
|
Shot from the back lawn of the Ahwahnee...beautiful
|
|
|
|
Shot from the back lawn of the Ahwahnee
|
|
|
|
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
|
|
|
|
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
|
|
|
|
Gino cruising by at the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
|
|
|
|
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
|
|
|
|
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
|
|
|
|
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
|
|
|
|
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
|
|
|
|
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir - can you say vertigo...YES!
|
|
|
|
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
|
|
|
|
Me at Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
|
|
|
