A good day for riding in the Napa Valley

I had a good little ride today and feel like reporting on it. I set out for a short ride up to the bridge at the top of Lake Berryessa here in Napa County.

It has been raining as of late, so the oil has leeched out of the roads and washed away. By all accounts road conditions should have been exemplary, but it was also a little cold and humid out. There is lots of nice canyon riding, but the canyons also mean LOTS of curves in all day shade and that created some nasty transitions from dry/wet/dry. I wasn't riding fast, just enjoying the day. Even so, I felt the rear get a little loose on a couple drives out of corners and the whole bike do a sideways boogie near the turn around point. I thought to myself "it's a bad day to be a squid" as conditions were PERFECT to create a nasty high side. Thankfully, myself and every rider I came across seemed to understand and we all had a great day of riding here in wine country. Even riding "slow", I managed to work a little more rubber off the edges of the tires in the few spots that were fully exposed to sun.

I don't have fancy boy gadgets like a GoPro video camera, so all I have to share with you monkeys is a few bad pics.

The top end of the lake looks like this.






Then looking back toward the valley and over the bridge (along with the shitter) looks like this.




On your way back, you should stop at the Turtle Rock Bar. You could put your own greeting card (dollar bills) on the ceiling and walls


or ...... enjoy a damned fine egg roll. Hot mustard and tasty cold beverage optional.



All in all, a great day for a short ride. Keep the rubber side down folks.

Jose

 

Up where I am it's snowmobile weather! You're very fortunate to live in the warmth of Cali.

 

Just came across this and had to point out that your Turtle Rock Bar has a sister shop down here in Arizona. Near the end of the pavement in Tortilla Flats there's a restaurant/tourist trap called Superstition Saloon. It's a regular stop for most of us that travel the twisties down to the end and back.


And here you can see the bar with the monies all over the wall. I tell you, there are bills from not only all around the country - but from around the world! Each one has a handwritten message from the donating party before being permanently put up on the wall.



That's all, just wanted to share :wink:

 

Right on Lazy. Maybe we'll add your greeting card when you come through my neck of the woods.

Jose

 

I used to ride that road frequently while I was still going to UC Davis till last summer. I miss it now. Its much longer to get to the twisty stuff from Modesto. I plan to hit 128 and 121 sometime next month.

 

Those are some nice places/roads. Glad you had a blast.

 

Egg roll guy. Miss that place, been a long time. Used to like the road from the bridge away from the lake back down into the valley there. Great road too.

 

Yupper Rick. Take the back way around Conn Dam and maybe the twisty way up to Clear Lake. Beautiful roads we have around here.

My sympathies to our snow and storm bound brethren, but it's upper 70's and sunny today. I think I need to go for another spin tomorrow.

Jose