Fort Bragg Run

The Fort Bragg run is somewhat of a tradition for the SAMOA club. This year there were actually 2 runs. The first (unofficial?) run left Friday, November 10th, 2000. The second run, led by Tony Rivas, left Saturday, November 11th, 2000. I went on the Saturday run.

Tony arrived at the start just before the start time and got everyone organized and checked in. He had a poker run planned and everyone had to pick their first card. After we had our cards and routes, we headed off in a easterly direction, sometimes following the river, with Winters as our first planned stop. Tony did try to lead us off course when he missed a turn, but quickly realized the error with only a minute or two of lost time. At Winters we met up with a couple of folks who lived in the area and didn't want to make the trek to Sacramento and back. We also got our second card.

From there, we drove around Lake Berryessa and had a rest stop in Cobb Valley where we received another card. On our way to the next stop, we came around a corner to find Tony on the side of the road. He was so far ahead of the group that he had decided to stop and take pictures of the cars as they went by. A while later he caught up and almost took the lead before we pulled into Fetzer Winery for lunch and our fourth card.

After lunch there was a choice of routes. The easy one took Hwy 101 to Hwy 20 to Hwy 1 then on into Fort Bragg. The more difficult one (which we took) left Hwy 101 at Ukiah and took Ore Springs Rd. to Hwy 1. The route listed Ore Springs Rd as "40 miles long, 10% Grades and very twisty". It neglected to mention that it was also very rough in spots. We arrived in Fort Bragg around 2:30 PM. Plenty of time to check-in, see the town, and have dinner.

Later in the evening, there was a get together at one of the "cottages" at the hotel. Here we got to draw our last card for poker. Tony let the Friday group buy into the game if they wanted. While Tony sorted out the poker hands, most of the group played games like ASAP, Blurt, and Outburst.

This was my first Fort Bragg run and I had heard rumors of it being a fast run. It wasn't. The speeds were sometimes brisk but never excessive. For the most part, Tony did a good job of keeping everyone together. (Tony, FYI - "RH off freeway. RH on Main Street" wasn't quite descriptive enough [grin]). I'm already looking forward to next year's!