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

Feb 6, 2007

Stevens Creek

Filed in Blog

The other day Don and I took Stevens Canyon Road. It occurred to me as we passed a reservoir that I’d never done this in the daylight before. There was this great body of water and an “earthwork” style dam–I’m quite sure it’s made of something more solid, but that’s what it reminded me of. We pulled off to take a look and I kicked myself for not bringing my camera along.

The last time we came along here the coyotes were singing in the night.

View duly appreciated, we moved on. The road felt much hairier by day than it is by night. I had no idea the twists were so twisty; in the dark, you just take it as it comes. I think I used up all my canyon carving mojo on Calaveras Road, so I struggled a bit–I wasn’t confident in my turns and angles and paths through the curves, and your mental attitude is 99% of the battle with riding. Luckily, there wasn’t much traffic behind me and we picked up some slow traffic in front so it made it easier to not look lame. Even so, it was a lot more two-dimensional than I remembered, with some huge 180-plus degree turns and steep ups and downs. And nowhere, really, to take a break.

I have this feeling that it’s time for me to take more of these challenging roads and improve my cornering skills.

Anyway, we worked round to Pierce Road and then back to Silicon Valley; after that…ice cream. Mmm.