How many times have you ridden the Ortega Highway without seeing more than one other motorcyclist the entire way?

On Saturday I ended up taking my Wing over the Ortegas to Wing Stuff to have the front suspension looked at. I could induce the bottoming out of the front shock with very aggressive front braking. I'm running the Traxxion setup with an aggressive spring, so I definitely should not be bottoming out.

As predicted all week, it was raining pretty good that morning. No problem I thought, this would give me a chance to test out my new Frog Trogs.

I've ridden the Ortega Highway in the rain before, but the conditions were not as bad as this time. After carefully riding through all the washes on Grand, I made a left onto Highway 74.

Just after the first bend to the left, there was a muddy flow of water about 4 feet wide going across the road from right to left. The hill was obviously washing into the street, but I could not tell if there was a layer of mud below the deep brown water flow below it. It was too late to worry about it so I just coasted through it being extra careful not to accelerate or decelerate. I passed through just fine.

Up around the next bend was another flow. It wasn't quite as big, but it was just as muddy. Then after two more curves, another one. This one was clear.

As I continued up the east slope, I'm starting to think how strange it is that I haven't seen one vehicle coming in the opposite direction, nor was there anyone behind me. Usually I'm traveling faster, but at these speeds, surely there would be cars catching up to me.

About one quarter mile before the big hairpin on that slope that sends you in the direction of the Lookout, I see another motorcycle rider coming down. We both waved, but there was a lot more respect with this one than any others I've given. After that I relaxed a bit because he had already traveled the road I am about to. But what if he just turned around?

The next vehicle I saw coming down was an orange Cal Trans truck with a scoop on the front for clearing the rocks in the road. I wasn't sure to be happy he was clearing, or to pucker up, because he was clearing.

As I got closer to the top of that side, the nasty water flows went away. Normally I'd be traveling at a pretty good clip as I descend to the ranger station, but I was only going about 40 this time when I saw the CHP in the ranger station parking lot waiting for a speeder.

The mud I had already seen had me a bit spooked, so I took the opportunity to pull in and ask about the road conditions. He rolled down the passenger side window when I pulled up next to him in the parking lot, and I asked "Is there any mud or anything in the road going that way?" (pointing west) He replied, "Not that I know of." My nerves settled a bit and I continued on.

When riding in the rain, I try to read the road conditions which makes me look much closer than usual. I'm riding slower so it's not a problem. I look through the face shield of my helmet, but adjust my bike's windshield to the lowest position so I can easily see over it. Two shields dotted up with water are pretty difficult to read the surface of the road through.

I began riding onto the newly reconstructed part of the Ortega. It was pretty neat to see all those drainage channels at work. There were very shallow flows of clear water, about 2 feet wide, flowing across the road in pretty even distances. I confidently road through those while acknowledging what a great job those engineers did there.

Eventually I started to become conscious of my riding reactions to a couple distinct types of 'Wet Surface' I was encountering. As I started thinking about that, a couple more came to light. All in all, I counted 5 types on this trip, but I'm sure there's more that riders more experienced than myself in rain riding could describe.

I will attempt to describe each one here and will list them in order of how careful I feel I have to be from lowest to highest.

1. Wet Textured Asphalt: This is the nicest wet asphault to ride in. It's as if you hosed off the street and turned the hose off. You can still see the texture of the surface. Even on this surface, I know it is slick and will not bank on having a whole lot of traction, but I can ride at a moderate pace without worrying too much.

2. Wet Textured Asphalt with Reflections: This is the same as Wet Textured Asphalt (#1), but you may be seeing the reflection of the sky, or something bright on the surface. This tends to make the surface look like a Sheeted Asphault (#3), except the texture isn't revealed till it is very close to you.

3. Sheeted Asphalt: Now imagine opening up a fire hose on your street, or watching a heavy downpour. A heavy downpour isn't really needed, but sheeted asphalt is when the cracks of the asphalt are filled up creating a very shallow layer of water on top. Know that you have plenty of tread on your tires if you are going to ride in this at speed.

4. Clear Wash: This would be anything from a street gutter, to a big flood channel that a road runs through. The water is clear and you can tell about how deep it is. My speed will vary greatly based on how wide and deep the wash is.

5. Mucky Wash: The same as a Clear Wash except the bottom MAY be slick. It may be slick because you know there is mud, sand, algae, etc... at the bottom of the wash, or, you may not know because you can not see through the water. I usually pucker up and coast through this type of wash trying not to change the center of gravity or accelerate/decelerate at all.

These are all just observations from my ride. I'm sure there's others and I hope you post them, or how you approach the types of wet conditions I've mentioned here.

The Frog Trogs ended up working out great in the rain. It was about $55- for a hooded over-jacket and over-pants. The material is very thin and the hood will fit under your helmet to keep any rain going down your back. The pants have boot zippers on the bottom of each leg for easy access. They come with a stuff sack to keep them in and take up a small portion of your saddle bag. I stayed dry the whole trip.

The other gear that kept me dry were my Alpine Stars waterproof fullsize boots and winter Harley gloves.