The Life of a Silicon Valley Rockstar

After almost a year and a half at Motorola leading their Terayon IT group I decided I needed a vacation to clear my head. I was feeling pretty burned out and some great roads and time alone seemed just the ticket! In hindsight it really was great and just what I needed to jump back into the rat race. Here’s a summary of the trip…

Leave: morning of April 16th from San Jose, CA
Return: Sat April 19th
Goals: ?? head north on route 1, find cool stuff, ride fun roads. Maybe
go “home” through grass valley to visit family
Bike: Triumph Speed 4
Distance/tank: 120-130 miles

I wrapped up my ride route today and head out tomorrow. I also picked up a set of Helimot Buffalo 365 gloves to substitute for my Racers on this trip.

Here’s the final route.

Day 1: San Jose to Fort Bragg
Planning to stop for the night in Fort Bragg, enjoy some beer at the North Coast brewery and stay in a local hotel. I’d really like to enjoy the ave of the giants in full sunlight so I don’t think I’m going to head to fortuna… but who knows?

Day 2: Fort Bragg to Yreka through Happy Camp
This day should be a LOT of fun! Avenue of the Giants in the morning, swing a right just north of Eureka and east on 299. Then jump on 96 to Happy Camp. If it’s early I’ll jump on Scott Bar to hwy 3, but more than likely stay on 96 to 263 into Yreka for the night.

Day 3: Yreka to Grass Valley (the scenic route)
Down 3 to Trinity lake in the morning. Rejoin 299 into Whiskeytown for lunch (what’s there?) 5S at Redding to catch 36E right past Lassen (darned snow!). From there I’ll catch 89 all the way around to Gold Lake to catch up with 49 past downieville into Grass Valley where there’ll be a big BBQ waiting courtesy of the folks.

Day 4: Grass Valley to Home through the Delta
Hmm, doesn’t look like there are many interesting ways to get back to Sac. I’m guessing I’ll be pretty worn out by Day 4 anyway. In Sac I’ll pick up 84/160 along the river into Isleton. Then it’s into Brentwood with a possible stop at Bethel Island to visit some friends. Vasco road to 680 home.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the ride. 300 miles a day of roads like this!

Pure MotoRoad heaven!!

Another memorable shot

I looked everywhere but I couldn’t find any whiskey!

If you’re interested, I did a full write up of the trip over at the Pashnit.com forum, 1, 3, 36, 49, 96, 101, 254, 299 and a whole lot of other great roads over 4 days.