Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

I was supposed to be leading a ride for the Wind Dancers today. I showed up at the duly appointed time of 09:00, waited the duly appointed half hour (actually, about 40 minutes) and then left at the unduly appointed moment when I realized that nobody else was going to show up. My only company the entire time was a small brown bird which hopped around my feet sharing my scone crumbs.

Yeah, I was a little miffed. The sky was blue, it was a glorious day–in fact, as I type, my windows are wide open for the first time this year. If I’d known nobody was coming, I could have planned my day differently.

It takes a fair bit to plan a ride. Map time, ride test times to become familiar with the route and how long it takes, and all the rest. I already wrote about the pre-ride where we got sidetracked by the trains. So now I guess I can write about the pre-ride where I did the entire route, a couple of days after that, with Don.

We started at the Starbucks near 880 and Mission, since that was where the ride was meant to begin. The first stretch was a moderately fast, straight shot along Mission, which quickly heads out of Fremont towards the hills. Next came Niles Canyon Road, a lovely swooping stretch of road where our club’s newbies get a feel for roads that have curves. That whole area is historic, what with the old railway and the flour mill and its original waterways that flank the road. We managed to pick up a cop in Fremont, though, so the entire way we traveled at, shall we say, a moderate pace.

This time we skipped our stop at the railway station, and headed out towards Calaveras Road. Now, this is one of the few roads I remember riding on Arnie, way back in the beginning when I got him, and which has stuck in my mind. I remember my friend Michael commenting that it was no beginners’ road, and he’s right, but the bit I really remembered wasn’t Calaveras at all.

At first it’s fast two-lane highway that cuts alongside plant nurseries and farmland. Then it narrows abruptly and you’re in a tunnel of trees with all the warning signs of a fun bike road: road narrows, last truck turnaround 500 feet (or is it yards?) and last but not least, wiggles for the next ten miles. On our left was a bank of earth and below us the land dropped away sharply. The road fitted its description perfectly with blind turns, a single lane, bits of rock kibble on the ground from the earth bank and many, many curves. After a while you come out on top to more open land and there is a glorious view: Calaveras Reservoir, which is not I think currently open to the public. (The nearby Sunol-Ohlone Regional Wilderness does have a trail with what look like spectacular views.)

The vast reservoir is dammed by a 210′ high dam (as dams are wont to do)–it was once the highest earth dam in the world. The views are gorgeous as you come out above the tree line and it stretches out through the valley ahead of you. I know that there must be some reason to flood specific valleys with water, but underneath this dam is an earthquake fault, just like the reservoir alongside 280 which covers the San Andreas fault. And I have always thought this penchant for dumping vast quantities of water on top of shaky land is very odd.

      

At this point the road really starts to intensify, adding switchbacks to the mix. Some of them even have a mild gradient which for a switchback-hater is quite challenging (though having done this road twice now I guess I am a bit more switchback-inclined, and my u-turns have miraculously improved of late). In other words, there’s less time to gawk and not many safe places to pull over, though I guess safe is relative–the side of the road would probably do, given that I only saw two or three other vehicles each separate trip. The land on top is quite open and used for cattle grazing. Don’t forget to wave at the cattle.

I think the part that I enjoyed the best, especially towards the end, was the fact that you can see where the road goes, doubling back on itself. It’s almost surreal.

On the first ride, due to time restraints, I cut things short and took the long swoop down to Milpitas and stinky Silicon Valley. On the second ride, I did the intended route, which was to turn off on Felter and negotiate a pleasant, if somewhat steep, set of turns and curves through rural land. Then the real fun began as we turned onto Sierra. At this stage I realized that the road I’d been remembering as Calaveras yea all these long years had not been Calaveras at all, but Sierra. It is a single lane highway with some of the most specactular views of the South Bay I have ever seen. Highly reminiscent of Scottish moorland, it is so lonely that every time you pass someone, they wave at you because there’s hardly anybody else up there. Again, this is a road where the intensity increases as you go along and you’re torn between gawking open-mouthed at how high you are and concentrating on the narrow, at times muck-encrusted, twisting route. If you’ve never done it before it’s worth the trip just to get the impact of those views.

And then there’s The Hill. At the end of the road you plunge down a truly insane hill, with a token switchback or two to take out the sting. This is a hill which is used on bicycle races, only those loonies ride up it. “Sierra Road is a 3.7-mile, 1830-foot climb, with an average gradient of 10%.” (Reading around, bits of it are 15% or maybe even more.)

What’s even more fun is that there is nothing to stop you going over the edge if you lose control, and at one point when I braked for a switchback I could feel my rear tire starting to slide. This is not a hill where you can afford to get out of first gear. Going at 10 mph is not lame here.

And then we were down at the bottom, navigating dull city roads and traffic after this trip into fairyland–a different world entirely from where we’d just been.

And so this takes us to today. I chose today because it was the date of an E Clampus Vitus dedication that I wanted to attend. I came home from the non-ride, then returned via freeway and expressway to meet up with my friend Jack and say hello. The marker was put up in 2000 but they forgot to write “E Clampus Vitus” on the plaque. So today it was dedicated, seven years later. It was a simpler ceremony than usual; one man read the text, another explained how it had come to be (apparently it was placed on the approximate location of a bar) and a third poured beer all over it, in traditional manner. Then beer, soda and hot dogs were served, but I was feeling sleepy and decided to go home. It was short, sweet and simple.

“Satisfactory,” indeed.

      

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