Grant Park provides a great view of downtown Ventura and the Gold Coast. (Photos by the author.)

Throughout its 50-year history, Rider?s editorial offices have been based in the vicinity of Ventura County, California, which is northwest of Los Angeles and nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the mountains of Los Padres National Forest ? an ideal location that provides us with year-round riding and world-class motorcycle roads.

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One of my favorite local rides is a 150-mile loop that starts in downtown Ventura at San Buenaventura City Hall, a stately 112-year-old building that looks straight down California Street to the famous ?C Street? surf break. The first stop is at Grant Park, which is situated in the hillsides above city hall and provides sweeping views of the city, the coast, and, on a clear day, Channel Islands National Park.
The ride continues east along the coastal mountain foothills to Santa Paula, an agricultural town in the Santa Clara Valley. Overlooking the runway at Santa Paula Airport is Flight 126 Cafe, a nobody-is-a-stranger diner that serves hearty portions for breakfast and lunch.

?The Warning? statue in Santa Paula memorializes two heroic police officers.

Riding north on 10th Street (State Route 150), on the right is ?The Warning,? a bronze statue that memorializes two police officers who rode through the city?s streets in the middle of the night on March 13, 1928, alerting...