13 June 2009
What a great turn out we had for this year's Redwood Run/Avenue Of The Giants Ride. We had approx. 20 members show up even at the early hour that we had scheduled to meet & depart. So thanks to all who showed. As mentioned we did in fact meet early that way we could get back earlier than we usually do. The route was to be a simple one, jump out on to Hwy 101 north & keep going until we got there. We skipped Hopland this year as our first stop & opted for fuel & a break in Ukiah. It sure was cool seeing a large pack of bike all the way up. I don't know about other members but I was a bit concerned that we would get most of the way there & be forced to turn back due to rain. Well so far so good we got to Ukiah with any issues & with no rain.
We took about a ten minute break & then continued on our ride finally reaching Richardson's Grove, where we hung out there for about an hour, checking out bikes & vendors, in fact a few more than last year, which is always good. Once we had the shopping & looking around out of the way It was time to head to Garberville for a bite to eat. We arrived in Garberville where there were also a lot of activities going on, live music vendors etc. We got parked & headed inside for a great lunch & boy were we hungry. What a great bunch of waitresses they took very good care of us. Once the grub was over with it was time to get the group moving again, we made sure that everyone had fuel then it was on to the Avenue Of the Giants. It took only about 15 minutes to get to the start of the avenue which for your info is about 29 miles long & absolutely beautiful what a perfect ride day. We made our way down the avenue in one large group & I could tell that everyone was having a great time, I did notice a few riders doing the whoopde doos, and if you were there then you know what I mean.
We got about half way down the avenue, and pulled in to a really neat park like setting called Woman's Grove, there was almost nobody else in that area other than just a very few, it was like we had the whole place to our selves. How sweet is that right on the river, we must have stayed here for about 45 Min's to an hour then it was time to continue down the avenue a little ways further, until we reached the end for us that is, we got back on to the hwy just past a place called Phillipsville. Once we got back on the hwy it was getting late & time to start making tracks towards home. I got the feeling that most didn't really want to leave, maybe next year we can plan an overnighter up there, I think that would be a blast don't you? Anyways we had a spectacular time on this run & even if it ended up being 300 miles or so it was all worth it. We headed for home on a straight shot down hwy 101. The weather was great & the company even better, thanks again to all the members that showed I hope you enjoyed the ride as much as I did.