Here's a few pictures and a short story from a ride I put together for my friends to the Kennedy Meadows/Kernville area of Southern California...

The crew heeds as Mother Nature calls in Mojave

John and his supercharged Shovelhead (read on to find out why anybody would want such a beast)

John and Tom check for missing blower parts while Marie relaxes

The view from my rear window...

...and out the side window

The crew takes over the unsuspecting Grumpy Bears Retreat in Kennedy Meadows

Mother Nature calls again at the 9200 ft. summit of Sherman Pass

Your fearless road captains Tom and Marie

It was a great ride! 11 bikes and 15 people (you do the math) showed up at the Carrows Restaurant in Palmdale at 8AM. It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky. The wind was conspicuously absent and the temperature was a crisp 54° and rising. It was one of the last few weekends before the roads we were going to take would close for the winter. Everything went as planned except...

After a quick breakfast, as we eagerly headed out to our bikes to begin our 300+ mile journey... John, one of the more seasoned riders, in true biker fashion, discovered he had locked his bike but had left the key at home! Don't laugh, my bike wasn't locked because I had locked my padlock on my belt loop and like John, had left the key at home. In the confusion that ensued, John assured us that he and Mary would be OK and insisted we go on without them so we did, reluctantly.

Amazingly, John and Mary found a locksmith to come out and cut off the lock in time for them to ride 90 some miles and catch up with us while we were stopped for gas just before the Kennedy Meadows turnoff on the 395! Were we really riding that slow? I'm guessing John's supercharged (100+ HP) Shovelhead (and Mary's ability to hold on) had something to do with making up for lost time...

Fortunately, it was the only glitch we experienced all day.

• Check out the SoCal Netscum 4th Annual Kennedy Meadows Run for more pictures and a ride report from our latest trip!