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| The less than scenic oil fields of Taft. How dare they drill oil in California! Taft is a little known town, out of sight from the environmentalists. This area must have been a big dinosaur grassland millions of years ago because there�s lots of oil underneath it. |
| The road started out with long sweeping turns and long straightaways surrounded by brown and featureless hills punctuated by one or two farmsteads. We slowly climbed up until we reached a big hill and the road suddenly turned into a series of beautifully constructed hairpins. Sometimes it was possible to see 2 or 3 turns down the road and each turn was banked the right way. I must have touched down the Bandit�s pegs a couple of times as I couldn�t contain my enthusiasm. Every once in a while a few green Oak trees appeared in view but it was mostly brown hills. The shrubs and low lying grass stayed brown due to the parched climate here. The Central Valleys of California is known for its high temperatures in the summer and little rainfall. |
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| The penultimate road less traveled. Highway 58 has it all for motorcyclists: Straights; sweepers; hairpins; and scenery all in 70 miles of riding. Woohoo! |
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| The hairpin turns soon ended and the road lead us down into the Carizzo Plains National Monument. There really was no �monument� per se but was simply a large area preserved for time and for us motorcyclists to explore. The Carizzo Plains was mainly flat and Highway 58 stayed straight through most of it. We stopped by an abandoned shack were we hydrated ourselves and took pictures of a large nest with 3 weeping chicks in it. We believed this nest belonged to a California Condor due to their apparent size. Each chick was about the size of a housecat. We continued on Highway 58 and arrived at a section that looked like a rollercoaster ride. The road began rising and falling with the rolling hills. Taken at speed, the rise and fall of the road made for a thrilling ride. We were moving at about 90 mph and at one point I thought my Bandit came off the ground when I crested a rise! Woohoo! My stomach felt like it was in my throat! Fortunately, I didn�t puke �cause I was having such a ball! |
| After the Carizzo Plains, Highway 58 took us behind Los Padres National Forest again where the terrain changed from flat plains to brown hills with Oak and Pine trees. The straightaways were replaced with 35 mph turns as we went up and down with small but quick changes in elevation. It was still quite beautiful and it reminded me so much of why I love riding California. I swear that I was in the TV show �Little House on the Prairie�. We passed by a few farms, even a small airfield (unpaved), eventually stopping around the small community of Santa Margarita for a map check. Okay. I was a bit lost and I needed to find my bearings. We parked under the shade of a big Oak tree, directly in front of someone�s small bungalow with a sign on the tree that said, �No Parking�. Apologies to the owner of that home but we were hot, thirsty, and hungry and the shadow of that Oak Tree sure looked cool. |
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