Please join me on a nice ride that I did in and around the San Francisco Bay Area.

This morning, I started from Livermore, heading to the south on Calaveras Road, towards San Jose. As you can see, it is still kind of chilly and the fog slowly gives way to the sun.

Calaveras Road is very windy and you really need to make sure to watch out for gravel, little rocks, etc. At the end of Calaveras Road, a left-turn brings you onto Felter Road, which is one of the most beautiful roads if you want to see San Jose from the "air". The following picture is taken with San Jose in the background, still in the fog.

It takes a little time to get through San Jose, especially if you don't use the freeways. But to get to McKean Road, just south of San Jose, and west of 101, you need to spend a couple of minutes in the asphalt jungle.

McKean road will turn into Uvas Road and go by Uvas Reservoir, a place where you will find a couple of fishermen trying to catch their dinner.

From Gilroy I drifted south-east towards Hollister, renown for the birth of "The Wild One" and also for the yearly Hollister Independence Rally . Also THE Corbin custom saddle company is also located there. Too bad that the Corbin-saddle for my ZR-7S did not fit on my bike because of my motorcycle alarm system (which is by the way ingenious and probably more important than the Corbin seat).

From Hollister towards the south, Highway 25 will get you in the middle of nowhere! You can pretty much drive for 75 miles without passing by a town with more than 10 inhabitants.

This road is not as windy as the other bay area backroads, but it is not always as straight as seen in this picture. First you can "let it go" for 5 miles, and then there is some very nice twists, followed by some more straights.

As everybody knows, California is the "Golden State", but in spring time things are very different! As you can see, everything turns into a huge meadow during the winter::

Here is how it works: Coming along 198 west, right when you pass under 101, make a left turn. The road will make you cross 101 two more times, but eventually you are going south-west on Lockwood San Lucas Road (see image on left). This road is really tiny-winy! When you think you are at the end of this road, don't turn right (this will get you to some dust-road), but instead turn left and then right again to continue on Lockwood-Jolon Road.

Now you are almost there. Make a right turn on Jolon Road (you are now going west) until you see the gates of Fort Hunter Ligget on the left side.

Drive up to the guard and tell him that you want to pass the fort, and request a "passing permit". You will have to show your ID! The guard will tell you how to drive through this military training base.

Driving across this fort is really fun, because you see all those torture-like obstacle race tracks for poor soldiers. You really need to follow the speed limit inside the fort, or they might recruit you for 10 years, sell your motorcycle and insult your family and parents. But let's not complain about the speed limit right now, because it is a good thing that they let you pass this area, anyway.

At the end of the road, right after you exit the fort, the road is again very very small and windy, just like Calaveras road at the beginning. But very beautiful, too!

Check out all this amazingly green moss that is growing on the rock:

The end of this road was very amazing in two ways:

1. You think you are at the end of the world. Land just ends and before you lies, in some sort of infinite void, the Pacific ocean. At this specific day, there was a very even fog/cloud layer just above the water.
2. The temperature dropped about 27 F (15 C).

Proof of fact 1:

Proof of fact 2:

The road winds down and down and down until you finally reach Highway 1, which is by the way EXTREMELY gorgeous in this area!

The ride was not over yet, but I stopped taking pictures. The reason: If it is really foggy outside, it gets dark, your fingers get kind of numb and all you think about is a steaming-hot bath-tub, you just don't think of taking more pictures. That's why this nice flower-shot concludes this picture series.

So with the bathtub in my mind, I kept going on Highway 1 towards Santa Cruz and finally along 17 back into San Jose. From there I just took the freeway and went home via 880, 680 and 580, back into Livermore where I started. 410 miles, my behind a little sore, but my mind full of excitement!

If anybody is interested in additional images, and also the high-resolution version of the images seen above, you are welcome to check them out by clicking HERE.

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