After a shockingly good nights sleep, we woke up to the sounds of the campground and got started tearing down camp. As it was our first time tearing down and re-packing the bikes, there was some adjustments made but overall our luggage planning was pretty much on point. We did book a site with water and power but with our portable power banks and motorcycles, we didn’t really find the outlets that useful. This was fine by me as I was holding some anxiety about the following campsites not having power.
After a quick breakfast, we hopped on the bikes… and Taylor’s bike would not start. This was not a situation we had prepared for, and neither of us had brought a jump box or cables, (which are now on my packing list). A friendly camp neighbor had a jump pack and we were able to get the KTM started. Soon we were on the road. Well. Not quite. We had to stop for a quick photo op at the Pinnacles Sign!
Ok, back on the road. Well, actually, we had to see what they’ve got in the park store and boy am I glad we did as I found this awesome reprint of a new deal era window sticker by Ranger Doug. That went straight onto my pannier. The Ranger Doug site is well worth checking out, they’ve done a fantastic job of resurrecting important American history and giving people like me the chance to enjoy the beautiful art that was created for many national parks.
Heading out of Pinnacles and down into the central valley we found ourselves back on the 1.5 lane roads through the back country. It almost became a game to call out when we saw some semblance of a center line. This area was truly a diamond in the rough, there are not many rides I’ve been on where I so thoroughly enjoyed every mile. A couple of “water crossings” granted us some serious ADV cred on this section as we continued our descent into the floor of the central valley.
Eventually, we emerged, passing over top of I5, but our tires never touched the highway! Right off the road here, we stopped for lunch at a pit stop called Harris Ranch. The Shell station here serves fresh BBQ and every time I’m passing through, I stop for a Santa Maria Tri Tip sandwich. If you’re ever making the trek between SoCal and NorCal, a stop at Harris Ranch should be on your radar. There is a large EV charging area, a nice hotel, a gas station and even a paved runway! (FAA ID: 3O8)
After enjoying our lunch and chatting with a gentleman riding a Honda Africa Twin, we departed Harris Ranch, picking our way through the grid of central valley county roads and two lane highways. This was by far the most boring portion of our trip. During the seemingly eternal ride down pin straight roads, Taylor mentioned wanting to stop somewhere and get a jump pack, the friendly camper at Pinnacles had mentioned getting his jump pack at Costo, so we diverted over to the outskirts of Fresno where he picked up a nice jump pack. This would prove to be a wise choice. Continuing north, we came across some absolutely brutal gridlock traffic on 41 heading towards Yosemite. After a moment, we remembered we were on motorcycles and took full advantage of California’s wonderfully motorcycle friendly laws to split the traffic and find our way to the next turn off of the main roads.
After finding our turn off 41 and back onto seemingly familiar roads, we quickly came across a slightly foreboding sign “road not passable during wet season.” Well. It’s late March, there is still snow in much of the Sierras, but we trucked on, since we’re on adventure bikes. Immediately after this I almost hit a deer going around 40MPH, this would have quickly ended the trip and probably my riding career for at least a few months. Luckily I was quick on the brakes. Unluckily neither of us were recording. Soon the road went from “unmaintained” to “technically a road” as we picked our way around murky puddles, mud pits and downed trees. At one point Taylor asked me to stop for some reason and, like an idiot, I stopped on an off-camber section. I immediately dropped my bike as my boot did not bite into the slick earth as well as I might have hoped.
Due to the gravel and unfortunate angle of the road, it took both of us to get the bike back upright. As we re-entered the paved roads, we only had a few miles to go to our camp site for the night at Lupine campground on Bass Lake.
We arrived with plenty of time and sunlight to spare, quickly setting up camp (we actually got pretty good at this) and realizing we had no firewood. It was at this point we met the camp host, Bill. Bill is a kind, older guy who gave us the lay of the land. He had firewood for sale but I had no cash (cash was on the packing list; I just forgot). When I asked if he had venmo he had no idea what I was talking about. In retrospect, there is something to be said about living life away from technology. That’s really a big part of a trip like this, enjoying the national parks and natural beauty of California without so much distraction from the day-to-day. I decided to check my Garmin for local stores, as there was no cell service. It listed the “Pines Market” as only a mile away. So I punched it in, threw my helmet back on, and embarked on a quest for some firewood. What I didn’t realize is that Garmin lists straight-line distance, not driving distance, in the search results. So the market was 1 mile away, but straight across the lake. It was a short, 20-minute ride around the perimeter of the lake, where I picked up a bundle of “kiln-dried” firewood. I strapped it to the top of one of my panniers and returned to camp. For the life of us, we could not get this wood to light off. After making dinner, we went through an entire pack of fire starters, but it just would not catch. Eventually, we doused the “campfire” and went to bed. Another successful day in the books.