The Breakfast Club: Kings Canyon Campout

Pictures start here

Thurs–Sun, 22–25 Sep 2022

Ran Bush’s Sequoia Trip Report

I live in Richmond, and it is never fun to start a southbound trip by lane-splitting for miles in AM commute traffic. The last few trips when I’ve ridden with Chris, I’ve gone over to his place in Pacifica the night before. There is also a great Chinese food restaurant on Callan Blvd that Chris discovered. We are always the only Caucasians in the place.

Last Thursday we left Chris’s house about 7:15AM to get to Tres Pinos and meet other SMBC riders. I was riding a 1994 BMW R100RT that I bought last year. I haven’t been happy with the poor gas mileage, so I have been working on the bike to try to improve the MPG. I was curious to see what MPG I would get on a long trip.

As Marco mentioned in his report, I was following Chris on the transition ramp from Hwy 85 onto Hwy 101. In the bright morning sun, it looked like Chris had ridden through a water puddle on the road. But then I saw dozens of small shiny objects rolling along behind him. When we got to Hollister for fuel, we realized his whiskey bottle had fallen out of his cargo net. Ooops!

Since we had stopped at a Safeway gas station, it was convenient to go into the store to buy another bottle. I was happy to see that the RT had made 49MPG from Pacifica. But the liquor stop made us a little late to Flapjacks.

The ride to Fresno was uneventful, although Panoche Road has now surpassed Mattole Road for the new title of “Pothole Road”. Chris has a theory about the San Benito County paving budget is $0.53 for the current fiscal year. Little Panoche Road was a lot better.

Marco described the daily rides, and I’ll provide a little detail of mine. On Friday AM, Chris, Les Katz and I lazed about in camp and then rode to Hume Lake Christian Camp for lunch. We stopped at Hume Lake on the way for a photo op, and Chris managed to drop his RT in a sandy area of the parking lot. As Les and I went over to help Chris, I managed to drop ONE of the expensive custom earplugs that I had bought at the 49er Rally this year. It was in the handy-dandy pouch with the vendor’s name on it, it should’ve been really easy to find. After we picked up Chris’s bike, all three of us walked the parking lot several times to try to locate the bright blue earplug, with no success.

We arrived at Hume Lake Christian Camp to find that all of the food options were closed at 12:30. The snack bar was closed until 3PM, the cafeteria was no longer serving, even though we saw that they had a LOT of food left in the buffet table, and the General Store was closed until 1PM.

We decided to wait for the General Store to open, and I rode back to Hume lake for one more attempt to find my earplug. No luck. I rode back to the Christian Camp, and we all enjoyed a tasty ready-made cold sandwich from the deli case. Chris microwaved his, which didn’t help.

An uneventful ride back to camp, and then a great evening around the campfire, and an enjoyable presentation from the Park Ranger on wildfires. Hot topic, so to speak.

As Marco reported, Chris loaned his bike to Fred for the tire purchase trip to Fresno BMW, so some of us decided to hang around camp until Fred came back. I took the fuel tank off my bike to try to diagnose a clunking sound that I had been hearing; I assumed it was something loose under the tank. But it turned out that the noise was coming from inside the tank; the Previous Owner had tried to remove the fuel tank flapper but let it fall into the tank. As I sloshed the fuel around I could hear it clink clink against the sides of the tank. I didn’t realize that I was setting up a big problem for my ride home on Sunday.

The good news is that when I removed the R side saddle bag to get the seat open, my $$$ earplug fell out! I must’ve dropped it into the saddle bag/frame area when I went to help Chris pick up his bike. Amazing that the earplug stayed on the bike on the ride back from Hume Lake.

Chris and I rode out of camp on Sunday AM and I immediately noticed my bike running poorly. I made it to the Gas Station/Ice Cream stand at the bottom of the canyon and stopped to get fresh gas. It was nice to get a picture of the oldest gravity-fed gas pumps in CA, but it was not nice paying $8.50 per gallon.

My bike made it to Grant’s Grove, but it was not running well. It was stumbling and sputtering, and I had to ride in third gear to keep up the RPM’s and maintain speed. Chris and I decided to bypass the limited food options at Grant’s Grove, and I pulled the float bowls and saw tiny pieces of red tank liner in both bowls. We drained some fuel through each carb (sorry, Park Service!) and then rode on to see if the problem would clear itself up.

When Hwy 180 started dropping downhill, the bike kept up with traffic, but it still wasn’t running right. As we approached Fresno I could barely make 55MPH. We stopped at a gas station/fast food place and drank milkshakes and cold water to combat the heat. I found a shady spot in the parking lot and took all the jets out of both carbs. They all looked clean, blew through them, fingers crossed.

I put the carbs back on and started the bike and the left carb was leaking fuel badly. I messed around with the float and couldn’t get it to stop leaking. Chris had the MOA Anonymous Book with him, and we made a couple of calls. The third guy we called answered, said he was close by, had a trailer, and we could come over and work on my bike at his place. I told him no need for the trailer, I’ll ride it over. I got a plastic bag for my left boot, but when I when I tried to ride the bike, it didn’t make it across the street. We called our MOA Savior back, and he said he’d bring the trailer.

Fast forward; by this time it is 3PM on Sunday. Chris suggested that we leave my bike with our MOA Savior Lee, Chris and I will ride two-up to Pacifica, get Chris’s truck and trailer, spend the night and go back to Fresno on Monday to get my bike. After some “discussion”, I convinced Chris that we should get a motel room, watch the 49ers game, have dinner, get a good night’s sleep, and rent a box van on Monday AM.

So our MOA Savior Lee took us to a nearby La Quinta, and he came back Monday AM to help us find a box van. But when we tried to get the RT into the box van in Lee’s driveway, we didn’t get enough momentum, and the bike and I fell off about three feet up the ramp. Ooops! I fell into a hedge next to the driveway, sustained some damage to the RT fairing, a broken mirror, and a damaged ego and a few scratches on my right arm.

We messed around with ways to push the RT into the van, and finally decided to use a winch to pull it into the van. We secured the bike with four tiedown straps, and then went for lunch. Chris insisted that he buy Lee’s lunch, and we let him. After lunch I drove the van up Hwy 99 and Chris rode ahead of me. We stopped in Merced for a break and then went our separate ways.

On Tuesday AM in Richmond a couple of my Airhead buddies helped me unload the RT at my shop, and I will figure out the carbs and the broken fairing later.

Great trip, good companionship, happy outcome, at least nobody got hurt (except for my ego). And I’ve got both my earplugs!