Saturday, April 12, 2008

2008 Apr 12 Knoxville-Berryessa Road

2008 April 12 - Knoxville-Berryessa Road to Clear Lake to Esparto

{Click on images to view Full Size}

Riding along Hwy 12 between Rio Vista and Fairfield.

I arrived at Moskowite Corners at 10:20 AM. And this lot was empty. The General Store had a sign up that they Closed for Remodeling in mid January and would reopen in February. Well they are still not open.

But the old gas station across the street is now a Golf Cart Repair Shop and mini mart. It has a couple of Port-A-Potties.

photo by KC

Not all of the bikes are part of the Ride. There were a lot of bikes arriving between 10:30 to 10:45 AM.

Jess had brought along three Duc riders. None of the four made the full Ride. They had to be at a Black Tie affair in Sacramento by 5:00 PM.
Today is the first really warm day we have had this year. By the time we leave at 11:00 AM I am riding in my Summer mesh jacket.

Here is the entire Ride Route:


Here we are on Knoxville-Berryessa Road before it loses its centerline.

A little later we lose the centerline, but it is almost a two lane road.
Most of the water crossings were dry, but there were four that had some water and two had significant water. Here is one that had a significant amount of water.

It is now a real one lane road.

Our first rest break where Knoxville-Berryessa Road ends and Morgan Territory Road begins. This wide spot in the road is the entrance to the abandoned Homestake Gold Mine.
photo by KC

We have a centerline again as this is Morgan Territory Road on the way to Lower Lake.

We leave the hills and are just outside the little town of Lower Lake.

Our gas stop some 55 miles from The Corners.

We had not planned a lunch break but rather a snack break at the gas stop which has a really big convenience store. But no one at the gas stop had a time problem. So we asked a local where to eat in the vicinity. We were told that the only decent place was the Main Street Bar and Grill in Clear Lake. The directions given were to head north along our planned route on Hwy 53 and turn left at the SECOND signal. When I pulled into the turn lane at the second signal. It simply did not look correct. So we pulled back on Hwy 53 to the third light and made our way along Lakeshore Boulevard to lunch.

I have never had such great service. We pulled through the main parking lot passed the front of the restaurant. We then pulled into their secondary parking lot. And before we could take off our gear a waitress from the restaurant was out in the parking lot. She said they have a table set up for the 14 of us. And even propped open the rear exit door so we had a shortcut into the place. AND we were given separate checks without having to ask. The food arrived in a reasonable time considering we had 14 orders. And the food was very good at a realistic price.


The obligatory food shots.

A California Club

A bacon cheese and Ortega chili burger

A French Dip

A mushroom, onion burger with homemade potato salad

Brian "stole" my camera to take this photo. Note that I left one French Fry uneaten :-).

After lunch we were given bad directions and the wrong street name to get back to Hwy 53. It is considerably shorter to loop the 3 miles rather than back track the way we came in. But using some dead reckoning we managed to get back to the highway a little quicker than by back tracking.

We "T" into Hwy 20 and head east to Hwy 16 and the Cache Creek Canyon.

Here is a shot of us riding on Hwy 16 in Cache Creek Canyon.

Hwy 16 leaves the Canyon and becomes a country road in the middle of the Capay Valley.
There is farm equipment using the road. Note the Cache Creek Indian Reservation a bit up the road.

Here is a shot of the Indian Reservation. The tribe owns the Cache Creek Indian Casino which is a huge money maker: Cache Creek Casino web site


Our end of Ride. The Burger Barn in Esparto. The temperature is nearing 90° for the first time this year. This drink stop was definitely needed.
photo by KC

photo by KC

Those of us left split off after our end of ride break and some drinks. I ride with Pdub, Tom P, Brian A and his Friend over to Woodland and then the Old River Road into West Sac. I then ride alone over South River Road and the other River Roads to Clarksburg where I have to stop. The bugs are out in force and I had to clean off my face shield.

I had left home at 8:30 AM and pull into my driveway at 5 minutes to seven.

Here are most of the Riders, their bikes and home towns.

Don I.................... F650...........Stockton
Ron H...................Valk.............Gold River
Rob L...................Road King.....Sac
Jack F..................Suzuki..........Sac
Paul L..................Ninja.............Sac
Doug F............... F650 ...........Oakland
Brain A...........Speed Master.....Sac
Krist S............pillion..................Sac
Nina B.................Duc...............Sac
Tom P.................FJR...............Orangevale
Pdub.................Bonne Am........West Sac
David S..............Sportster.........Sac
Jesse H.............Sprint ST..........Sac
Phil T................Nomad..............Citrus Heights
Chris .............. R1200C............Mill Valley
Kris .................pillion...............Mill Valley
KC M.................Mean Streak....Sunnyvale
Lynn M...............pillion..............Sunnyvale

end