Day 1 - Sunnyvale, CA to Kernville, CA

It took an hour or so to get out of the Bay area and start to enjoy the ride. We got some gas in Hollister and started riding on highway 25. This is a very beautiful ride. Walt and I took it about a year and half ago when the temperature was much colder. We say a bank thermometer as we were leaving town today. It was 77 degrees at 9:30. That was a very comfortable temperature. Vineyards are covering more and more of the this area. We saw a Napa-esque style house up on a hill overlooking vinyards covering the valley. Every time I see houses like that and wineries I'm reminded that there must be a LOT of money in the wine business.

The end of this segment put us into Coalinga and the heat began. Probably about 90 degrees. We can complain though. This is just a warmup for things to come as we head towards Las Vegas tomorrow. It did give us a little opportunity to test some cooling ideas. We filled up our empty water bottles and tried to drench our jackets. Walt tried the pour and rub approach first, I worked with the injected appraoch in which your press the open bottle top against your jacket and squeeze. Both approaches work. It makes things comfortable for 15 to 20 minutes. Then the water dries up.

As we came out of the hills just before Coalinga we could see the central valley all green with the farms and across the valley the snow capped Sierra Nevadas. We were anxious to push across the valley to get into the mountains. (Did you know that there is a Naval Air Station in the middle of the Central Valley?)

Once we crossed the valley we started into the Sequoia National Forest. Mountain forest is so nice when the smell of the pines hits you. The ride gave us plenty of time to practice our turns. We had about 70 miles of twisties. Mostly tight turns going up to the pass at about 8000 feet. (No snow here but we saw a couple small packs on some of the mountains.)

We got into Kernville about 5pm, settled into our room, put the bikes to bed for the night, and strolled over to a diner for dinner. Our waitress was very nice and took our joking with her very well. Could be an early bedtime tonight and an early start tomorrow. We'll let out bodies decide on when we get up but an early start will help us avoid some serious heat.