Ever been caught in the snow?

Wow, what’s happening on the east coast of the United States is rough…a couple of feet of snow and lots of cold.  I’m going to guess there aren’t too many people riding their motorcycles in New England today.  I just talked to my mother (who still makes her home back there) and she said it is looking a bit better, but it’s still cold.  No thanks, but I’ll stick to southern California.

A ride up to Crater Lake on the Three Flags Rally...bitter cold, but vivid memories!

We actually had some snow here in So Cal yesterday, and lots of hail. It’s the second time in 30 years I’ve seen snow at my house. We get lots of snow in the mountains, but we’re down around 1500 feet and it’s very unusual to see it at my place.   Sue and the girls were excited to see it.   I guess I was, too!

Up in the mountains, though…well, that’s another story.  There’s snow in the mountains all the time.   The big news around here is about the manhunt up around Big Bear, where there’s lots of snow.   There’s still an active search going on in Big Bear (and apparently in many other places).  I hope they catch that guy soon.  Wherever you are in the U.S., I’m going to bet you’ve heard about it.  If they made a movie about what’s been happening around here in the last few days, I’d dismiss it as improbable, yet here it is actually happening.  Rambo meets real life, I guess…except Rambo wasn’t a homicidal maniac.  Like I said, I hope they catch that guy soon.

I’ll bet just about everyone reading this has a story about being caught in the snow on a motorcycle.  You saw the photo above showing my good Marty and the bikes up at Crater Lake in Oregon when we did the Three Flags Rally a few years ago.   That was one cold ride.   I’ve had some extreme cases in my time involving all kinds of weather.  The funny thing is that those are the rides that stick in your mind forever.

When I was a teenager living on the east coast I had a CB750 Honda that I dearly loved.  I took a girlfriend on a ride to New Hope over in Pennsylvania and we were caught in the rain on the way home.  (Actually, not to send like Sheldon Cooper, she wasn’t really my girlfriend…she was my friend and she was a girl, but she wasn’t my girlfriend).  It was in the middle of the summer and we didn’t have rain gear (who did in those days?).   Between being soaked and the wind chill it sure was cold. I bumped into that girl a few years ago and she remembered that ride as well as I did.  I think the weather is what made it stick in our minds.

Yours truly in November 1971...I'm pretty sure my Mom was still buying my clothes for me back then!

Another time my good buddy John and I were caught in an El Nino downpour in Baja.  We didn’t have raingear on that ride either.  I actually caught a touch of hypothermia on that one…I didn’t stop shivering until about 4:00 a.m. the next morning.   I remember that ride like it happened yesterday, and it was 20 years ago!

After a day of El Nino riding and a night of hypothermia, Baja had lots of mud for us!

The worst weather I ever rode in, though, was not the rain or the cold (or even the snow).  When we rode our California Scooters down to Cabo San Lucas, we went there during Baja’s hottest time of the year.   After several days of riding fully suited up in tropical weather, I was feeling pretty beat up.  The ride and the company were great, but man oh man, the weather was oppressive.  It finally cooled off just south of Guerrero Negro on the way home, and it sure was a welcome change.

Baja in September with the Sea of Cortez behind us...hot, humid, and fun!

So that’s it for now, folks.  If it gets a little bit warmer tomorrow I’ll fire up the old Baja Blaster and see if I can grab a few photos to share here on the blog.   Ride safe and stay warm…especially all of our fans on the East Coast!