Tehachapi
Mountain
Run
June 11-13, 2004
By Craig Dillmann
Saturday morning started with a few
brave souls headed out from Tehachapi. Ralph Krough, Joe Perry, Frank Colver,
Jim Falk, Erhard Hirchfelder and his wife Judy, Dr.
Phil and his visiting old high school pal Zev, and my riding partner Irma. We
left the Golden Hills hotel at 9 AM
and headed up to the Tehachapi loop there we re-grouped and headed up the
twisty road to Lake Isabella.
I missed seeing the cowboy museum
this year. There are still nine hundred forty five branding irons we still
didn’t get to see last year! We gassed up in Lake
Isabella and headed up to
Kernville. What a ride, as the weather was picture perfect and the Kern
River was running at it’s best. After cresting the river for miles
we made a sharp right and headed through walker pass. It was unbelievable how
much of this area burnt all started by a low live lady cooking hot dogs. This
area is quite pristine and i was surprised that there are no cabins no
structures pure nature.
The lunch stop was at grumpy bears
retreat in Kennedy meadows. Talk about the middle of nowhere. Close your eyes
and you’d might as well be in Hooterville. The food was good staffed by the Clampetts.
The waitress pointed out to me a hole in the well worn bar, “that’s that god darn
hole the former partner got liquored up a while back and tried to kill his
partner pointing to the current owner in the kitchen with a Marlboro
hanging out of his mouth.” I think the
guy had 5 teeth and got one of them when he joined the elks. After lunch we
headed down a huge grade into the desert. Like Erhard says its
like looking out of an airplane window, truly spectacular.
After a brief stop at a brewery,
only to observe the facility, of course, we headed down to Mojave and back up
to Tehachapi. The trip was over 200 miles and we didn’t get back until 630 PM.
A great time was had by all. We covered all types of roads possible from the 10,000
foot level to the Mojave Desert. This is one of the best
rides the club has going. The folks who didn’t attend have no idea what you’re
missing. Thanks to Erhard and Judy for a great weekend..