Coast_Writeup_Page

After a brief rest, we rode out of Ojai and continued up on the 33. At this time of day, there were hardly any vehicles on this road. It was smooth going from turn to turn as we climbed up to higher elevation. We passed through two tunnels. One tunnel had a left hand kink at its exit with a wet spot right at the kink! Things like that are to be expected when sport-touring on unknown roads so we kept our speeds reasonable. Not once did I get anywhere near scraping my foot pegs. Besides, the scenery was really pretty and going too fast would do nothing but let us miss the beautiful mountain views. Somewhere along the way, we got stuck behind a Harley rider and his female passenger. They were going pretty slow and didn�t put any effort to moving over and letting us pass. Last thing I wanted to do was make enemies on a road with no exits except the direction in which we were riding to so I kept my distance until I had a clear shot to pass without having to cut the HD off. When that came about, I gassed the Busa and went right around the slow poke HD. Matt and Marty were probably both relieved to get around the HD too!

Highway 33 is just a wonderful motorcycling road. No tricky, dangerous turns. Just constant radius 25 to 30 mph turns with good visibility. The road was also fairly smooth all the way through as it climbed up and over the Ventura County portion of the Los Padres National Forest. Unfortunately, our heaven wasn�t going to last too long. Near the top of the road, we got stuck behind a Tractor Trailer, who in turn was stuck behind 2 cars, who were also stuck behind a slow moving mobile home. Why is it that mobile homes always get in the way? The mobile home refused to pull over and just continued on put-putting up the mountain, oblivious to what�s behind it. In addition, dust from the tractor trailer was getting kicked towards me and it was beginning to become unbearable chugging along in first and second gear! I wasn�t going to attempt to pass all these vehicles with Marty and Matt back there so I decided to just pull over and let the stupid convoy get the hell down the mountain. When I found the first piece of real estate that could safely accommodate our bikes, I went for it.

We stood around the side of the road for about 30 minutes. The Harley that we passed a ways back passed us, chugging along at a snail�s pace. A big truck went by us too and the driver gave us the finger. What was his problem? I guess he thought we were a bunch of idiots sitting by the side of the road, forcing him to swerve around us. We were parked inside the white line so there was plenty of room between us and the roadway! Some people just wake up in the morning and decide to take an angry pill or something.

After Matt finished his story about a Vietnam Veteran he knew, as well as his cigarette, we mounted up and rode up to the top of the 33�s summit in Pine Mountain. All the slow pokes have gone down the mountain and dispersed. But before we were to get all the way down, Cal Trans decided to keep us up the mountain for a few more minutes. We were flagged by a road worker to stop for a few minutes while a bulldozer cleaned up the road up ahead. The Cal Trans worker stood there and admired(or despised) our bikes. Then he walked up to us and started telling us horror stories of mangled and dead motorcyclists that rode through Highway 33 on weekends. He proceeded to describe a guy who really screwed up his thigh due to a crash the prior weekend. Whatever dude. Why do na�ve people always choose to tell us motorcyclists how dangerous riding is? WE KNOW! This Cal Trans worker just went on and on, though I could barely hear his sentences since I had my hearing protection and my helmet on tight, same with Matt & Marty. We all just nodded our heads and sighed as if we really cared about what this idiot was blabbering about. Deep down inside, all we wanted to do was ride down the freakin� mountain and not have to watch this public servant flap his trap!

After about 10 minutes, our fatalistic friend finally let us through. Not a moment too soon! The downhill portion of the 33 was a bit dirty. With almost every corner having some of the fine dirt sprinkled on the asphalt, which kept us on our toes. Once we got down to the bottom of the 33, we passed by a Ranger Station to our right and the road led us out onto a valley. On our left and right were rows of farmland as far as the eye could see. In the background were Cuyama Peak, Fox Mountain, and various other unnamed mountains and hills. But everywhere within this valley was farmland. Here, the 33 stays mainly flat for 15 miles. We cruised gingerly through this section around 80 mph as we passed a few barns, hay stacks, and a Western looking Liquor Store. We also passed a road that lead to Song Dog Ranch�a popular biker campsite. The 33 ended in San Luis Obispo county, at a T-junction, which was highway 166. We took a left towards the town of Cuyama. This portion of the 166 was also quite flat and straight as it cut along Cuyama Valley. But it wasn�t bad because there were barely any other vehicles around. The ones we ran into were easily dispatched with a quick pass. No waiting necessary. We had been riding about 60 miles now and we had to stop for a break.After we passed by �old� Cuyama, with nothing more than a town grocery store of some sort, we went on to �new� Cuyama, which had full fledged hotel, grocery stores, and a big gas station. We stopped by the Mobile gas station here selling gas at exorbitant prices. The station was charging something like $2.85 per gallon of Premium. Price gougers! The station also had a minimart where we picked up some snacks and well deserved cold drinks.