switchback

switchback
Originally uploaded by rod lewis

August 6, 2008
To San Francisco/Novato, CA
51656
247 miles (4,598)

Some lands just can’t be tamed. Earthquakes, wildfires, and rockslides. Ironically, while I was waiting for my tires to be mounted and balanced before I left, I passed the unexpected hours “riding” a motorcycling simulator at the Honda shop. I chose the mountain route, of course, and I’d swear that they used the very route I took today.

I left Mariposa via 49 North. I was warned by the Convenience Store Clerk, “oh, you don’t want to take THAT route, it just winds, and climbs, and falls, and turns…”
Some people just don’t get it!
Besides the tail of the dragon, this was the best bike road I’ve ever been on, complete with switchbacks that actually pass beneath themselves. At one point, I actually thought I was on one of those figure-eight, electric race tracks I had as a kid. More than fifty miles of biker bliss.



I also noticed today, that Californians back, in the day, had a warm spot in their hearts for the number twenty-nine. There is a very cool place 50 miles south of Amboy called Twentynine Palms, and everything east of the Sierras seems to be 29 miles apart. Mariposa to Sonora – 29 miles, Sonora to Oakdale, 29 miles.