16th May
A late start, I’m out of the door by 1045, and it’s hot. I ride along Route 180, which runs east from Fresno towards Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. The landscape is flat and the Sierras are almost lost in the heat haze on the horizon…
Where the land has been irrigated, there are huge fruit orchards – they are, like, rilly green…
The road gradually climbs into the hills and, as the altitude increases, the temperature drops, which is very welcome…
It’s a great road, roughly surfaced, but twists like a snake as it hugs the contours of the hillside…
…and the views are impressive, despite the heavy heat haze in the valley…
Wise words.
Eventually I reach Kings Canyon and stop for lunch – where the local branch of the BMW Owners Club have also stopped…
…you can tell it’s the BMW Owners Club, rather than the GS Club, because not one of them comes to talk to me
I did like this 900 though…
…after a burger and a Sprite, I ride down towards the Giant Forest. The scenery is beautiful, the temperature perfect and there’s not a breath of wind.
But, as I’ve noticed almost everywhere on this trip, some people just can’t seem to take their litter home, no matter how pretty the surroundings are…
Soon, the road turns into a very narrow & twisty series of switchbacks…
…signs discourage RVs and any vehicle over 22ft in length – I still meet a rented RV trying to get up the road
Eventually I reach the valley floor, and some, erm, unique advertising…
Tomorrow lunchtime, I’m meeting Ricardo Kuhn from ADVRider in Berkeley, so I get on the 99 and make tracks north and west, before stopping at Turlock for the night. After a farce of room changing, I eventually get to connect to the Internet 2 hours after checking in
…
A late start, I’m out of the door by 1045, and it’s hot. I ride along Route 180, which runs east from Fresno towards Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. The landscape is flat and the Sierras are almost lost in the heat haze on the horizon…
Where the land has been irrigated, there are huge fruit orchards – they are, like, rilly green…
The road gradually climbs into the hills and, as the altitude increases, the temperature drops, which is very welcome…
It’s a great road, roughly surfaced, but twists like a snake as it hugs the contours of the hillside…
…and the views are impressive, despite the heavy heat haze in the valley…
Wise words.
Eventually I reach Kings Canyon and stop for lunch – where the local branch of the BMW Owners Club have also stopped…
…you can tell it’s the BMW Owners Club, rather than the GS Club, because not one of them comes to talk to me
I did like this 900 though…
…after a burger and a Sprite, I ride down towards the Giant Forest. The scenery is beautiful, the temperature perfect and there’s not a breath of wind.
But, as I’ve noticed almost everywhere on this trip, some people just can’t seem to take their litter home, no matter how pretty the surroundings are…
Soon, the road turns into a very narrow & twisty series of switchbacks…
…signs discourage RVs and any vehicle over 22ft in length – I still meet a rented RV trying to get up the road
Eventually I reach the valley floor, and some, erm, unique advertising…
Tomorrow lunchtime, I’m meeting Ricardo Kuhn from ADVRider in Berkeley, so I get on the 99 and make tracks north and west, before stopping at Turlock for the night. After a farce of room changing, I eventually get to connect to the Internet 2 hours after checking in
…
