CA GTS gathering: Packet Sent: reserved Phil Benson Dave Biasotti & Sandy X X Kelly Cash Greg Christopher Dan & Lanny Danenberg X X Bryan Harris X Lou Kallery X Don & Beth McClellan X X Roger Van Santen X "Probablys" "Daytrippers": Fabrizio d'Angelo - Friday X Hotel info: 6/19 Anchorage Inn, Clear Lake 707-263-5417 Barbara Will get discount for GTS group Smoking preferences? 6/20 Surf Motel, Ft. Bragg 707-964-5361 Karen Will hold reservations until June 1. Has a 6-person room for $125. Okay, folks- The tallies are in, and the popular votes are: Ride #4 was most preferable- Longest, most coast/redwoods/twisties. Days on ride desired: 3 Miles per day: varied wildly- from 200 to 400. Most were around 350. Lodging type: Cheap, clean, modest. With quaint being a plus. With this in mind, ride 4 as I'd laid it out wouldn't work- Too long, when doing 300-350 miles a day, for only 3 days. Besides, it wouldn't have given us much time to sight-see some really good areas, and I want to show off some really nice things in California. Even the "locals" should have a good time! So, I've come up with ride "3.5"- Mileage of 775 miles, we'll do it in three days. Should be leisurely enough to not beat ourselves (and passengers!) to death, we'll have time to see cool things, and still see some of the finest riding available. (really! :-) Itinerary is as follows: Day 1: Leave my house, head east over Mount Hamilton, and up Mines road through Livermore. (and this is the direction it should be done, more fun this way!) About 10 miles of freeway getting to Napa. Ride through Napa, Calistoga, doing a little wine-tasting. And I mean TASTING, no impairing yourselves on the ride! No doubt we'll all buy some wine. I'd recommend carrying only what we'll drink at the end of the days. All wineries will happily ship wine to your house so you don't have to tie up saddlebag space. After the "Vino" part of what Phil calls "Tour de Vino", we head north through Calistoga (yes, THAT Calistoga) to Clear Lake where we'll stay the night. Total miles Day 1: 217 Day 2: Head north through the Mendocino National Forest, some beautiful scenery here. Past Covelo, Round Valley Indian Reservation, Zenia, through Garberville. North on the famed "Avenue of the Giants". One of the most amazing Redwood forests you're likely to see. This place is gorgeous! At the end of the Avenue, we head west to the coast. Freeway, you ask? Bite your tongue! Mattole Road. If you have a mapping program, look it up. It looks SERIOUSLY twisty. Past Honeydew, south to the coast, south on little roads until we pick up the Pacific Coast Highway. We'll follow that a little way, and stop for the night around Fort Bragg. Total miles day 2: 308 Day 3: With all the cool roads, sights and attractions we've been through, can anything be left? Of course! We'll tour down the California Coast. Beautiful indeed, but won't that get us a little hungry for some more twisties? Sure! Would I let you down? Not a chance! We break away from the coast for a little jaunt through the Rhododendron Reserve, past Goat Rock, Cazadero, Sheridan, Monte Rio, Occidental (which is a really pretty place), Bodega (with maybe a little 6-mile side trip to Bodega Bay if we want), Tomales, back to the coast. More relaxing coastline, past Point Reyes, Stinson Beach, Marin, Sausalito, over the Golden Gate Bridge. (okay, the last few miles of that are freeway, but it can't be helped) We'll loop around to Fort Point to get a GREAT photo shot of the bridge. Down through the Presidio, west to the Cliff House (avoiding the City, it's a big, bustling mass which can be a pain leading a group through. Unless there's a revolt and you want to go there anyway ;-) South along the water, a little stretch of Skyline Drive (it's not the GREAT part yet), back to 1 through Pacifica, Montara, Moss Beach, Half Moon Bay. From there, it's back to trees. We head up 92 which is highway, but still fun. And not for long- We'll hit Skyline Drive (the fun part), head south to the legendary Alice's Restaurant. While it's NOT the one Arlo Guthrie sings about, it IS a local bike Mecca. It's usually jumping weekend afternoons, and we'll no doubt see lots of cool bikes. And maybe some silly antics- I've seen lots of wheelies, stoppies, etc. South on Skyline to Hwy 9, west on some good twisties through Saratoga, then a few miles back to my house. Total miles Day 3: 250 Now, I may amend this as I ride it. I'd like to add some distance to it, but may not as I tend to forget that not everyone is as insane as I am about covering miles. Besides, leaving extra time allows us to sleep in a little, see things I hadn't planned, etc. Now, dates: I think everyone liked the idea of late June. Fine. I'm thinking of starting it thursday or friday morning. I think Thursday would be fine, as it'd give people a day jump on getting home, recuperated for work the next week. But friday would work too. We could leave 6/18 or 6/19, or the next week 6/25 or 6/26. Thoughts? I can accomodate people at my house the nights both before and after the ride. Bryan said he can handle a little of the overflow, should there be a LOT of folks at my place. (I have a futon which will sleep two, I can relinquish my queen bed for a couple, I have loads of floor space, two sleeping bags, two air mattresses. If the crowd is large enough, perhaps there are other locals which might provide some space? Tentative attendees are: Me Phil Benson Dave Biasotti Doug McCleod Don & Beth McClellan Terry Baker Greg Christopher Bryan & Mo Harris Possibly Garrett & Diana Welch If you're not on the above list, and you should be, let me know! (and if you ARE on the list, and can't make some or all of it, let me know that too) I'll ride the route as soon as I can to check that the roads I chose are fun, scenic, safe. I'm really looking forward to this, I hope you all are too! -K ========================================================================= Mr. Kelly Cash / Systems Engineer, ISV Region Desk: 650-614-6568 Sun Microsystems Computer Company FAX: 650-614-6590 MS MPK05-101 Email: kelly.cash@corp.sun.com 1080 Marsh Road Alpha Pager: 2649241@skymail.com Menlo Park, CA 94025 Sun Internal Web Site: http://kondor.corp ========================================================================= Subject: Northern California "Wine, Wood, & Water" tour dates Okay, folks- The dates are: Friday, June 19th - Sunday, June 21st. If there's a huge uproar about us riding on Father's Day, I can move it to the 18th-20th. This date choice accomodates almost all those who responded with a date preference. Nobody desired a thursday start, but it still seemed like a good idea as it'd minimize traffic, might make it easier to get lodging, and give a day to recuperate or ride home. But this works too. I was playing with my mapping program (which has lodging info) last night, and found two places which should suit us pretty well. They look reasonably quaint, have decent views (of lake, etc), and HOT TUBS! Just the thing after a day of riding, eh? The prices look reasonable, and almost sounds too good to be true. Which makes me think that they're either not all they are cracked up to be, or will fill up quickly if they haven't done so already. So, I'll call them and see what they can handle, and whether or not we can get a group rate. I'd really like a good estimate of the attendees if I can, so I'll have a better idea of how many rooms we'll need. Please send me a message, or call me and confirm your attendance! Currently I have: Terry Baker Phil Benson with two other friends Dave Biasotti (is Sandy going too?) Kelly Cash Bryan & Mo Harris Doug McCleod Don & Beth McClellan "Maybes": Greg Christopher Jay Koblenz Steve Litscher Garrett & Diana Welch What about other "close to being locals?" Lou Kallery, Richard Lanouette, Fabrizio DeAngelo, Rob Enderle? Thomas Duncan, YOU can make it, right? I see LOTS of GTS owners in California, particularly in the Bay Area. Maybe if you can't make the ride, you can stop by for a send off and group photo? My aim is to get a picture of as many GTSs lined up as possible! -K ========================================================================= Mr. Kelly Cash / Systems Engineer, ISV Region Desk: 650-614-6568 Sun Microsystems Computer Company FAX: 650-614-6590 MS MPK05-101 Email: kelly.cash@corp.sun.com 1080 Marsh Road Alpha Pager: 2649241@skymail.com Menlo Park, CA 94025 Sun Internal Web Site: http://kondor.corp ========================================================================= Tentative plans for the June '98 Northern California GTS Gathering: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I have a futon (which sleeps two comfortably) and two sleeping bags. There's room for more, and I have extra sheets and blankets. My garage should house seven bikes in addition to mine (though it'll be tight!) I'm hoping to impose upon the hospitality of other local GTS people to put some up if I can't accommodate all who show up. Bryan Harris can put up a couple, and he's close enough to my place. The timeframe at which we're looking is late June. I have five different routes laid out for the group ride. They're all different lengths, and travel to different places. They're listed below, I'd like to hear people's preferences as to how much time on the road they'd like, and what's most important in the ride: Twisties, coastal scenery, redwoods, etc. When I hear what kind of ride people want, I'll then ride the route and plan out lodging for the group. There are some attractions that are worthwhile to see along some the rides. These of course will eat up some time- And I'm not sure how long people would want to spend wine-tasting, etc. Attractions that are on the rides are: Wine-tasting, Cannery Row, Monterey Aquarium, Clint Eastwood's restaurant, Short hikes through the Redwoods, Lots of photo opportunities along the coast, checking out all the bikes at the 'rolling museum' at Alice's Restaurant (a local biker mecca), tour of the Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton, touristy stuff in San Francisco, the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, Hearst Castle in San Simeon, and so on. Anyone interested in descending en masse onto Corbin's factory? Ride 1: 350 miles, 9 hours ride time. Skyline past Alice's Restaurant, over the Golden Gate, scenic back roads through Guerneville, Santa Rosa, Calistoga, and down through the Wine Country. Then down through the East Bay, back roads past Livermore, and serious twisties over Mt. Hamilton back to Sunnyvale. Ride 2: 734 miles, 19 hours ride time. Pretty much the same as Ride 1, but goes further north up to Garberville, then down through more forests to Napa. Ride 3: 586 miles, 15 hours ride time. Skyline past Alice's Restaurant, over the Golden Gate, to the Pacific Coast Highway, up the coast to Point Arena, east over back roads to Clear Lake, south through the Wine Country, over Mt. Hamilton to home. Ride 4: 1117 miles, 29 hours ride time. Covers Skyline, the North Coast, Avenue of the Giants (gorgeous redwoods), back roads through lots of forest, Stops in Eureka, Arcata, plenty of twisties through the forest, following rivers, around Clear Lake, then down through the Napa Wine Country. Ride 5: 563 miles, 15 hours ride time. A few minutes of freeway to Woodside, up to Alice's Restaurant, then SOUTH down Skyline and Hwy 9 to Santa Cruz. Down the coast through Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur, San Simeon, then up twisty back roads back to Monterey. East through Salinas to Hollister, scenic Pacheco Pass to Los Banos, twisties across Mt. Hamilton to Sunnyvale. Something to consider: The coast highway is pretty solid Winnedildos (uh, that's RVs) on the weekends in the summer, and it's mostly "no passing" zones. Okay, questions: Who's in? _______ Preferred (June) dates? ____________________ Which ride sounds most appealing? ____ How many DAYS do you want to spend on the ride? 1, 2, or 3? _____ What's more desirable: Redwoods/Scenery, Wine Country, Coast line? _______________ Hotel: Fancy or inexpensive? Historic/Quaint, or utilitarian? How full should the day's schedules be? Want to be on the road at the crack of dawn, and go non-stop? Or make it a leisurely trek, sleeping in and stopping frequently? Any other ideas, thoughts? Places you're dying to see?