Could it get even better? It can. And does.
If Valentino Rossi had a driveway, this would be it. One of the most unusual motorcycle roads in the state. Single lane, short, twisty, super-fast, invigorating, simply amazing. Ride it, turn around, and ride it back the other way. And we did just that.
How did you find this road? Funny you should ask.
Several decades ago, I worked for a company that sent me across the state, on business. It was my first real job after college, I had health insurance and an expense report. My employer at the time had a contractual relationship with 911 Call Centers across the state, to which my job was to travel to a great majority of them and train the employees on equipment my employer had supplied to them. I could fly. Or drive. Or, I could ride my Kawasaki ZX-11D. I chose the latter. The goal at the time was not to hop on the freeway and zip across the state, but rather to leave a day early and seek out the twistiest route A to B. And it was on company time. No wife, no kids, no mortgage. I was being paid to ride, and I could expense my mileage.
On this particular trip, I had to ride from NorCal to SoCal, the length of the state on the ocean side. It made sense to figure out a route through the Coast Range, as I was being sent to Ventura. Now kids, this was before GPS, Google Maps & Satellite maps didn’t exist yet, there were only antique paper maps, and a bit of guess work. The most detailed planning tools were AAA Sectional Maps and a coil bound book called a Thomas Guide you could buy at a book store.
Those were my only planning tools I could obtain at that time. This road connects to that, this connects over here, and that one looks twisty. That was the extent & depth of planning back in The Olden Days. I had no idea where I was going, no idea what was in store, no idea what the journey would be like, and no idea what the terrain would entail. All things we can look up in seconds in present day.
I only knew I have to be here at this address at 9 AM on a Thursday. No one cared how I got there. And that job led to more discoveries and more joyous solo road miles than one could imagine while we worked on that project with the 911 Call Centers for many months. I discovered many fun roads during those numerous trips to remote corners of the state. Destinations ranged from Indio along the Mexican border to Susanville & Eureka along the Oregon border, all four corners of the state. I have to tell someone about this road. It became a mantra. And those journeys around the state ‘for work’ set the framework to share those travels on something brand new (imagine that!) called the internet, and subsequently, for a motorcycle tour business known as Pashnit, to further share those wandering travels from back in The Olden Days, in person. No one plans these things, rather they all happen in a series of unplanned steps.
https://www.pashnit.com/ca-hwy-229
