Post burn, post flood ride to Fillmore

[Thruxton71]

This weekend the BSA club has a ride out of Morro Bay and Carmel which I have not missed for a long long time, but I had to pass this time. Sometimes prudence and economic factors intrude on our Walter Mitty fantasy world of riding old British motorcycles around on back roads, thinking we are fast.
Our usual Sunday ride was on however, and we headed out over Dennison Grade to Santa Paula on 150. The scorched hillsides and vegetation are sprouting lush green patches, sometimes looking like a giant Chia pets. Most of the route today was involved in the fires, so we were confronted with the wonderful contrast of bright green and black, interspersed with sections of citrus and avocado orchards, thriving despite minor losses to the fires.
South Mountain road rolls along towards Fillmore, were we swung down Sespe to Bardsdale, which shuttles over to 23 towards Fillmore. Right on Guiberson, all the way to Torrey Road, which dumps you out in Piru. Turning left on 126 routed us back to Fillmore and a bowl of Fish Soup at Vallarta Restaurant (hand made corn tortillas, Halibut and veggy soup). Back on the bike (a 1970 T100R, giving the Velocettes a rest today), over to South Mountain and back to Santa Paula and traffic on 150 to Ojai. Did I saw traffic? I never saw it. At the base of Dennison I had time to take off my gloves and helmet and sit on the stone wall at Boccali's Pizza before the other's filtered in. A good run down Dennison is worth some tricky passes.

[xbacksideslider]

Nice write up Tim. Yes, Dennison is sweet. South Mountain's deep stone lined drainage ditches scare me. The green hills of spring in SoCal are always so lush, just inviting a romantic picnic.

[jhwalker]

Adam and we drove to Ryan's Dalton hot shot fire camp today and were amazed at how SoCal heals itself with a little moisture. It is beautiful just driving the freeways.. I'm sure the back roads are outstanding.

[Thruxton71]

Every time we ride out, either over 33 (like last weekend, to ambush the BSA ride out of Frazier park, which we failed to do), or back over 150, it is a lesson in landscape recovery. We didn't get a lot of rain, but what we did get the vegetation took full advantage of, so if it were not for the charred remains of what were once trees, and the outlines of foundations where houses once stood, you wouldn't guess how devastating the burn was. The good news is that one has a much better view of the road, and there are less places for enforcement to hide, not that we ever do anything illegal. As for South Mountain road, if Backslider rode at my pace, you wouldn't worry about drainage ditches!

[xbacksideslider]

Yes, after two burns in two years, Little Tujunga is gorgeous right now; I actually stopped to admire it a week ago.

[Thruxton71]

And when you say 'stopped', does that mean you slowed down to the speed limit??

[03_SONIC_BLUR]

The real damage during the Thomas Fire was in Ventura. I was evacuated the first night, living up here on the hill. I've updated my last wishes based on that experience

I have become aware that 3 of the last 5 times I've gotten a letter from the Neptune Society, something bad has happened. The day of the Thomas Fire, I got one. We watched the fire burn less than 1/4 miles from my house. I was not amused. I'll come back and do a Thomas Fire thread

Anywho, I got another card from the Neptune ghouls, and the next day, Montecito was wiped out in a mudslide

I got a card in march, no disaster. Slackers

April, I get a card from the Grim Reapers. The next day, a 5.3M quake off the coast shook the house pretty damn hard. No damage....

May, they slept through it. Which brought me to updating my last wishes

I asked my daughter and son in law to have me cremated, and to mix my ashes in several containers of Tannerite. My friends who like to shoot are invited to blow me up in order to scatter my ashes

After all of the shooting and blowing shit up I've done, it's how I want to end it all

[jhwalker]

makes sense