Given I just returned from the "F-A-R Journey" with the new FJR, I thought this ride would provide a great opportunity for me to test it in two conditions: serious twisties and with a passenger.    The twisty part will be thanks to Palomar Mountain and the passenger part, thanks to Kobi... yes, the same Kobi of the 41 Mile Ride Report fame.  (For those who read the aforementioned report, there's no need for me to explain why Kobi didn't pilot her own motorcycle).

Previous commitments did not allow us to depart with the group early this morning (Friday 09Mar07) so Kobi and I left this afternoon and did so wearing summer mesh gear.  Yes, freakin' full summer gear... and it's the ninth day of March!!    As we rolled onto I-10 westbound for the 250+ mile haul to Palm Springs and as the cooling bandana dripped around my neck, my brain tried to process the fact I was riding in nearly 90 degrees when just 2 weeks ago I was riding in 16 degrees wearing heated gear!  The forecast for this weekend calls for mid-90's on Sunday for our return ride on I-8 which is not good news for me since riding in high temps is my least favorite; it's draining and typically occurs where the scenery is bland and the roads makes few, if any, turns.  Yuck.  There is a reason some of us are Snowbirds ya know!

Thought I'd include a few pics for those virtual riders so they could get a better sense of what riding in this region is like.  This is the view of I-10 from a bridge overpass looking back towards 'Zona (east):

...and another view looking towards Cali (west):

Several exits along the I-10 stretch look just like this and go nowhere:

When I ride in monotonous open spaces my "I wonder" thoughts tend to be more internally based rather than externally inspired, such as "I wonder where that bird is flying", or "I wonder what kind of tree that is", or "I wonder what is upsetting that driver on the cell phone that he's shaking his fist."  Open spaces and higher speeds seem to facilitate thoughts about the meaning of life and living a meaningful life for me.  This afternoon's jaunt on I-10 to Palm Springs was no different.

We quickly welcomed the California state line which, having traveled across every US state many times, I must say is a bit unusual (much like the state itself, huh?).  First, it has the "California Agriculture Station":

The orange cones might lead you to believe something is temporary, right?  Well, it's been that way for years.  Secondly, with such a grand structure you might think grand seriousness takes place there, right?  In an attempt to provide an official answer here I put "California Agriculture Station" (the large words on the sign) into Google Advanced Search and was rewarded with a grand total of 17 results of which ZERO applied.  So, I have no choice but to give you my answer of what takes place at this grand station: Absolutely nothing!  Seriously, 95% of the time I pass through the gates the signs say "No Inspection Today" and the other 5% has a semi-comatose person waving traffic through.  The Golden State has these stations placed at highway and interstate entrances at the state line (so AZ, NV, OR) and my understanding is the purpose is to prevent unwitting importation of fruits and plants.  Diseases and parasites from either could threaten crops so the state decided inspecting vehicles and questioning drivers about the possession of fruits or plants.  No idea when the inspections actually occur though.  You can see to the far right of the top photo that commercial trucks have their own lane.

Just on the other side of the grand inspection-less station is where Kobi said I should get a pic of the "Welcome to California" sign for this report:

... so, I responded by taking one of her by the I-10 sign for this report:

In all of my travels I can't say that I have seen such a sign like this one that was also at the CA state line (actually it's just beyond the blue Welcome sign in the pic above):

Whenever I cross back into CA (my other home state) I always have the same thought: LET THE LANE-SPLITTING BEGIN!!  Yippee!  Yeah, I love it and don't know why other states can't figure out the benefits for allowing such!

Just outside of Palm Springs we stopped at a Chevron gas station, which is also where I ate a banana that I brought from Phoenix and deposited said banana skin in a trash container by pump #4.  Since I was not asked about my banana earlier while passing through the official California Agriculture Station, I can only offer an apology in advance if my banana skin carried a disease that wipes out an entire crop of something in California this year.

Before re-entering I-10, I stopped for a pic of the sunset.  I prefer to stop whatever I'm doing at every sunset and take a few minutes to just be:

Made it into Palm Springs and the hotel, where I promptly jumped in the unheated pool to cool off!  My first outdoor swim of 2007!  Found the rest of the gang at the hotel and was surprised to see a few friends I haven't seen in a while.  I'm looking forward to visiting with them over the weekend, riding Palomar Mountain, and I'm sure plenty of pie stops! Stay tuned for more….

AGirl

  Since my friends are not LD riders (meaning stops are frequent and lengthy), we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast before starting our day.  Here's a few of the gang mingling with some of the other hotel guests before our departure:

My first sign that today was going to be an interesting day was on the breakfast menu: 

Even at breakfast I started to hear the rumble of the "pie" chant.  These guys love pie and I think a few of them are making this track to Palomar Mountain just so they can eat the legendary pie at the café at the top of Palomar.  Never mind that Palomar is probably one of the top motorcycle roads in SoCal (that'd be Southern California for those confused) and is as coveted by local racers as much as TN/NC's Deal's Gap is by their track wannabes.

With our final destination today being San Diego by way of Palomar Mountain (and pie), we left Palm Springs this morning after refueling ourselves and our bikes, and did so in 84 degrees on Hwy 74, also called the "Pines to Palms Highway" (so named since it connects the palm trees of the Palm springs area with the pines of the higher country):

Hwy 74 is a fast sweeper special and provides great views to boot for those times when you'd like to pull over and regroup your group. Here's the group:

...and here's a few shots of Hwy 74, which has an elevation gain of about 4,000 feet in 12 miles:

Palm Springs is to the north of Hwy 74 and to the southeast in the far distance is the Salton Sea:

  Interestingly, as we were making our way out of Palm Springs and about a half mile before starting the climb up 74, we were passed by several cruisers who apparently were oblivious to the fact that several of us were on sportbikes and would likely be breathing down their throats as soon as we were out of the residential speed limit section.  This happened again later on with interesting results.

My passenger (Kobi) was not fond being in the, shall we say, "spirited group" of our riding contingent and during the above stop she decided that the passenger seat on a Gold Wing listening to her favorite XM radio channel (BPM-81) was preferred to the scraping sounds of hard parts on my FJR.  So, I lost my passenger to Martin and his Wing.  Ouch! Here they are arriving to the next stop:

Since members of the group ride at different paces, it means that stops were frequent to regroup.  I think I stopped more times today than I did all last month.  Here we are at stop number #3 after a whopping 25 miles:

Webmaster Note:  I see nothing whatsoever wrong with 3 stops in 25 miles!  Eight miles non-stop *IS* what I consider to be "Long Distance!"

Yes, that's my FJR in the front.  Somehow at the last stop I was elected to lead.  I heard: "because you have a GPS and we'll get lost" to "Our odds are good since you've never had a speeding ticket" to "Ladies first!"  Nonetheless, after our third break, we turned off Hwy 74 for Hwy 371 towards Aguanga, CA and the junction of Hwy 79 (by the way, all these are all two lane state highways).  If you geographically challenged then simply copy these GPS coordinates: N33 34.171, W116 35.486 and paste them in Google Maps: HERE

  While departing our third stop another cruiser decided he wanted to jump in front of me at the intersection, so rather than race him I let him lead.  The road quickly turned to a series of blind sweepers, and since I was not fond of continued use of my brakes in such conditions, once the road opened I passed him.  Almost immediately after passing him my radar said a LEO (Law Enforcement Officer) was eminently ahead and I quickly slowed to, um, ensure a prudent speed.  I didn't know this until the guys told me at the next (#4) stop but apparently Mr. Cruiser flailed his arms, and a certain finger at me, after I slowed down after passing him... until a half-mile later when we passed a State Trooper (CHP) running radar, at which point Cruiser Drama Boy proceeded to give me enthusiastic thumbs up and blow kisses.  My friends seemed entertained by all this. 

From Hwy 371 we danced through whoop-dee-doos and don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it towns until the junction with Hwy 79.  Since I could see the entire group behind I decided to keep rolling, heading south on Hwy 79, which runs along the edges of the Cleveland National Forest.  We actually rode this entire 25 mile stretch without stopping but, alas, at the junction of Hwy 76 it was stop #5:

While stopped Kobi decided she would rejoin me and the FJR... but that only lasted 15 miles until we arrived at the bottom of Palomar and the start of the super twisties:

  I think it was the 3 sportbike riders donning full racing leathers and worn knee pucks that passed us while we were stopped (#6) that explained why I heard "I think I'll just ride up on the Gold Wing... or maybe just walk."  So, running solo once again I headed up the grade.  This passenger on-off routine didn't exactly jive well with my tire pressures and suspension settings, but I had a blast anyway!  I decided to follow my friend Jesse on his RC51 since he's a very good rider and it would allow me to follow his line given my 2007 FJR1300 is a recent addition and, despite 5,000 miles in less than 5 weeks, I have little experience with the bike in switchback conditions.  The 7 or so miles up was just delightful and sans traffic of any kind.  Thanks to my Webmaster's crafty skills you can view an **AWESOME** view of this road!!  Check this out:

If you ride a motorcycle and that doesn’t make you drool then perhaps it's time you think about four wheels instead of two!  The exact GPS coordinates of the start of Palomar's infamous South Grade road: N33 17.643 W116 53.977

I was shocked to only see 10-15 bikes at any time while at the summit given it was a Saturday and the weather was perfect.  It's not uncommon to see 50+ bikes in the parking lot of the general store and "Mother's Kitchen", the location of the infamous pie (which the group inhaled):

During this 6th stop and first pie break of the day, I watched the racers come and go, making laps up and down the mountain.  Track leathers and track tires dominated the population since many riders tow their racing steed from San Diego, which is about 65 miles away. Here are a few of them:

The particular's on this R6's exhaust escapes me but I will say that it was surprisingly quiet: 

One of the guys I met (I only saw 1 woman rider) was a weekend regular and a just-turned-21 Marine from nearby Camp Pendelton.  Interestingly, I learned no motorcycles are allowed on base that have "absolutely ANY modifications" from their stock form.  His bike had quite a few modifications, including this trick set-up:

  Dang!  Who needs rear view mirrors when you can just watch a video screen?!    Wonder why I haven't see this in the LD riding community since LD riders are known for having every mod/farkle/addition available, useful or not: 

Maybe this rider is trying to distract people from noticing he doesn't have a license plate "clearly visible, mounted not less than 12 inches or more than 60 inches from the ground" (CA Code) by attracting attention to his helmet:

We finally left Palomar, heading down the East Grade.  Martin on his Wing had to get back to Phoenix so Kobi was back on the FJR.  I think the pie calmed her as I didn't lose complete circulation while she held on during our downward decent.  We headed for the town of Julian about 30 miles away so we could do what this group does best: Stop (#7) and eat more pie!!  The pie eaters happened to park on the right side of the street…

... and the non-pie eaters on the left:

While walking the streets of Julian I found my favorite store: CANDY!! 

Julian seems to be a pit-stop for the non-racing motorcycle community as I saw only cruisers, including this, um, ah, thing: 

No rider or owner around for me to talk to but there is a sticker denoting the website in the second pic above if perhaps you are interested in obtaining such a cage for your motorcycle.

A shot of the main street in Julian:

While returning from my walk I passed the Pie Eaters: 

Left Julian and enjoyed a wonderful twisty ride through Cuyamaca State Park until Hwy 79 sadly hit I-8 and we continued on to our evening destination of San Diego.  The FJR and RC51 enjoyed a spirited jaunt together to the hotel while the others probably stopped for more pie along the way.

Days like today are hard to beat.  I think this best sums up the day for me (taken beside the pie case at Palomar, no less):

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AGirl

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