Day 16/17: Clear Lake

Woke up and got the bike out of the lake:



(We rent the place out; It’s a good staging area for Clear Lake area rides… http://www.vrbo.com/167767)



Some great bumper stickers!!!







We had a BBQ at my brother’s house, so I took my niece, Amy, for a ride over there.

We saw these guys:



Good fun was had by all!


Brother Steve:


Brother Jim:


The five Siblings… (Steve, Jim in the back. Barb, me, and Nan in the front)


A piece of my artwork:



Day 17:

Didn’t do much but lounge around. I took a ride up into the hills behind our cabin. I was looking for “big red rocky”. I was going to conquer that hill on my 650! When I was riding my mini-bike that hill would kick my ass every time I went up it!

Land ownership, I couldn’t get to the trails unless I wanted to cut some fences. Oh well, fond memories though.







Went home and enjoyed another sunset:



Tomorrow Steve and I head to Minden, NV.

Day 18. Clear Lake, Ca – Minden, NV.

Woke up to a nice sunrise and then got a picture that I’ve been wanting for a few years now:


Rode over to Steve’s house for breky and then we headed up Bartlett Springs Rd to Indian Valley Reservoir and Leesville:


The Reservoir was dry.

Leesville Rd:

An interesting thing:

Then we went up Hwy 20 to Dog Bar Rd - Yankee Jacks Rd – Forest Hill Rd – Soda Springs Rd until we got to the train tunnels above Donner Lake:


Stopped here to get a look at the skinny dippers…






We drove out the side of one of the tunnels to get a good look at Donner Lake:


I had been here last year with the GCDSR club, but not my doing. Works though!

Had we waited about 5 more minutes I would have gotten a train going under my bike!


From last years trip up here I’d heard that you could make it down to the lake by following the tracks… We spent a few extra hours up here looking to do just that!


Notice the sign says “Lost Trail”. Yep, we were lost. Even spent some time on the Pacific Crest Trail! We finally got out of there on what was probably the best water crossing of the whole trip. No pics though.

We headed around the east side of Tahoe for the ride home, I got my last sunset of my trip on the mainland:

The next day I washed the bikes, fooled around at my brothers’ factory and rode his prototype electric MC, and then got a ride to the Reno Airport from my brother for my ride home to Hawaii.



In November (13 –23) I’ll fly back, pick up my bike, and head down to Death Valley before I ship my bike home from San Diego.

Great report JP!!!

Wow.

I felt then and still feel I was the luckiest 60 year old guy on the planet to be able to share those incredible experiences and sites with his little brother and cool tug boat Captain from Hawaii.
I'll make a picture book of this for the next time the fam gets together.

Those bikes are just amazing. Thank God for BMW.

Excellent trip, report and photos. Looks like you had a really great time through some amazing scenery. Thanks for sharing it with the rest of us.

Steve

I would highly recommend this. I went across the country in 2005 and did a similar write up here. . . it ended up being 10 pages and hundreds of posts long before the trip was over. When the board reformated my entire report was lost. Luckily, my father made a binder with the trip report on it so atleast I have a hard copy. I still wish I could reference the soft copy to show to friends and family.