Wednesday, June 22, 2011

The Days of the Knights (Day 5)

Today we set out from South Lake Tahoe with the objective of riding some of the great mountain backroads that surround this beautiful place. Armed with maps and gps units we set out to follow the twisty roads we knew were there.

But things never go as planned. After a few nice runs we stopped at the Cozy Cabin Cage in West Point for a coffee break. We then deliberated and set out for the town of Arnold.

This is where technology failed us. Apparently roads look better on a gps than in real life. Or to put it another way, dirt and gravel don't show up on a gps like they should. So as we travelled along the pavement suddenly ended and we were facing the prospect of several miles of gravel -- something no motorcyclist likes to deal with.

As if that weren't bad enough, the short gravel stretch turned into a long gravel stretch, which in turn descended into a long dirt stretch, complete with grader and copious amounts of dust. In all we probably travelled an hour in the dirt and gravel and another hour trying to find out way out. We finally emerged in an unknown place and still had to ask directions for Arnold.

To make a long story short we did arrive finally, and enjoyed a fine milkshake to quell the 36 degree temperatures and wash down the dust we had eaten. We headed out from Arnold and arrived a little while later in Sonora. Wrestling touring bikes on dirt and gravel is tiring work!

Perhaps the moral of this story is don't always trust technology. It can be and often is wrong.

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