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Thu Jun 24/04
Mike
A 4:30 a.m. wakeup call in Vancouver put me in San Francisco at about
10:00 a.m., facing the prospect of an unconscionably expensive cab ride to
Hayward to retrieve my motorcycle which I parked at a warehouse in Hayward
belonging to my friend, Joel Ritch.
I arrived
there, shot the breeze between his phone calls, rearranged my luggage and
hit the road. Brian (who had
flown down two days earlier) reached me on the cell to report that he was
in Sonoma. He suggested we
meet in Jenner on Hwy 1 to tape DH
Jenner - Hwy 1/128 Jct (Mendocino) (Hwy 1).
I had been
up and down Hwy 1 a number of times, but had only ridden it in bits and
pieces. Some straight
stretches between Sea Ranch and Mendocino, not to mention the traffic
south of Mendocino had me considering ending the DH at Gualala.
Faced with this day’s beautiful ride, however, there was little
doubt that the section north of Point Arena had to be included.
There are
great sections where the road dives through a lush hollow just inland from
the coast and then into a botanical garden south of the cliff-side town of
Elk. This is followed by a series of marvelous curves that climb
up to town. The ocean scenery
north of Elk, not to mention the usual great pavement that you find on
this northern end of Hwy 1 are fantastic. In all, riders would do well to
continue up Hwy 1 and not just cut back over to Boonville at Manchester
via TE
Mountain View Rd.
Another
benefit of riding north on Hwy 1 is that we got to spend the night in Elk,
one of our favorite coastline towns, soaking in the cliff-side hot tub and
thinking how great a place this would be to hang for two months in the off
season.
Fri Jun 25/04
Mike
This day began with my backtracking to Point Arena to fill up and then
riding back north to re-tape the Manchester to Mendocino segment of Hwy 1.
We then continued beyond Mendocino to town of Fort Bragg where,
after stopping for a late breakfast we embarked upon the incredible
motorcycle journey that is DH
Cleone (Fort Bragg) - Leggett.
Gentle
curves sweep up the coastline along a series of beaches before this road
heads into the trees, winding up and over the edge of Cottoneva Ridge. The pavement on the climb was not so great, though we later
ran into a paving crew in the process of remedying the situation.
Of course, that meant part of the ride was spent following a pilot
car on oily tar and gravel - not exactly the optimal riding
experience. Once we cleared
the crew, however, the fruits of their labors made for one of the best
sections of motorcycle road in Northern California.
With excellent, well-engineered pavement winding tightly to the
trees this DH is reminiscent of DH
Boulder Creek – Saratoga (Hwy 9), except longer, more remote and with less
traffic. We pulled into
Leggett with our tires smoking.
TE Highway 271 south of Leggett was a further
pleasant surprise. This
section what was obviously the old Hwy 101 still sports pavement in great
condition, tons of perfect S-curves and not a soul on it.
We didn’t bother to ride through the Drive-Through tree just
south of town -
after all these miles of great riding, the gravel access road didn’t
seem worth it.
Back on the
101, we nipped south on a surprisingly good section of that highway, one
which snakes up to the Rattlesnake Summit and then down into Laytonville.
En route we passed the site of the annual Kate Wolf Memorial Music
Festival featuring Joan Baez. As
I write this, Canada is in the midst of a national election.
The name of the leader of the New Democratic Party - our left wing contingent - is Jack Layton. We’d
just seen Layton’s bobble-head on the national televised debate.
Passing a concert featuring Joan Baez along a highway that
apparently was maintained by the local Green Party and heading into a
place called Laytonville, we weren’t surprised to see so few Bush/Cheney
bumper stickers.
From
Laytonville, we ventured westward on TE Branscombe Rd.
Like so many of these roads between Hwy 1 and Hwy 101, this TE
starts off beautifully at the Hwy 101 end but deteriorates about halfway
into a poorly engineered one-lane wonder as it approaches Hwy 1. It certainly is passable and as I parked out on the coast
waiting for Brian to catch up, I saw a number of vehicles turning off Hwy
1 to take it. Maybe the
locals will bring enough pressure to bear upon the county to complete this
link.
Back to and
through Fort Bragg to the junction with Hwy 20, we turned east to shoot
back via DH
Fort Bragg – Willits (Hwy
20) to Hwy 101 and the congested little town of Willits. Hwy 20 was busy and, it seemed, would always be busy, relying
on pullouts to give the double-long semis an opportunity to pull over to
permit passing. And it’s
too bad, because this road is another of those tight and twisty but
perfectly paved whippers through the trees that makes you care less about
the lack of sweeping vistas. Sometimes,
there is so much road to be focused on, scenery matters little.
This was one of those roads. Though
when you are stuck behind a semi going 16 mph, it would be nice to have
something else to do besides wait for the next pullout.
We spent the
night in Willits at an overpriced motel but had a meal well worth the
money at a local organic restaurant called the Purple something.
Brian had wild salmon tempura.
I stuck with the more traditional Cajun pan-fried snapper.
In all, a cool place and if I can remember the name, it will
probably be recommended in our book.
Sat Jun 26/04
Mike
Ah, Saturdays on the road. A
good day to ride some of the more remote roads.
Fortunately, one was on the agenda.
Just north of Willits up Hwy 101, a right turn puts you on DH
Hwy 162/101 Jct – Covelo (Hwy
162). This excellent road
runs through the wide canyon of the Eel River for several miles, climbing
along and over a ridge before dropping into the flatland of the Round
Valley. It starts out sweepy
and gets progressively tighter as you move toward Covelo.
The utter lack of traffic and generally fine engineering and
pavement make this road a real find.
Especially where the road gets tight and twisty beyond the turnoff
to Dos Rios. The last 3 miles
of straight across the farmland to Covelo didn’t affect the experience a
bit.
Beyond
Covelo, we followed the pavement on Hwy 162 as it turned into FH 7,
ultimately ending at the site of the Black Butte Store.
This is one of those great places that offer everything from light
restaurant fare to beer to gas to camping and even a couple of
cabins you can rent. Brian tried to convince the owner she could expect to see a
lot more motorcycles coming through in the next few years.
I think she’ll believe it when she sees it.
Backtracking
to Hwy 101, it was disappointing to see a speed tax collectors’
convention parked about ten miles in from Hwy 101.
Fortunately, the CHP, the local sheriff and some other STC of
unknown origin all seemed to be too busy bragging to each other about how
many tickets they’d given out that day to focus a radar gun on us.
Back north
up Hwy 101, we had a chance to ride on another of that highway’s
twistier sections, the piece just north of Leggett that runs through
Smithe Redwoods State Park. If
you are lucky enough to hit this section without traffic, it would be a
high-end motorcycle road, albeit a short one.
Unfortunately, you’re far more likely to spend your time in the
corners stuck behind a semi.
We veered
off Hwy 101 onto the old Hwy 271 for its brief little stretch south of
Cook’s Valley. Though
well-paved and somewhat scenic, the road is short, doesn’t have too many
curves and, it was determined, it’s not worth the bother.
Far better to keep blasting on Hwy 101 to get to the next DH.
One thing worthy of note on this little side road, however, is the
local swimming hole.
Hwy 101 is
an eclectic road. Sometimes it’s freeway yet at other times it turns
into a lazy, old fashioned two-lane highway that you could be riding back
in the 50’s. That would
describe the section north of Cook’s Valley when it passes through
Richardson Grove State Park and its kitschy roadside novelty shops before
turning back into freeway a few miles later.
We tried to
book a room at the historic Benbow Inn before continuing our travels north
but unfortunately, they were all booked up for a wedding.
This being Saturday, we decided, based upon hard-earned experience
that we had better book a room before continuing out to the coast on TE
Shelter Cove Rd.
We checked into a motel in Garberville, shed ourselves of the hard
luggage and shot out to the coast.
The first
six miles of this road is excellent, sporting great pavement and
engineering and pretty good scenery all the way out to the logging town of
Briceland. Unfortunately,
beyond that it transforms into a bumpy, often steep and narrow plunge down
to the coast. Unlike many of
these roads off Hwy 101 to the coast, this one at least remained two full
lanes all the way. While
Brian didn’t care for this road as much as I did, we had to agree that
the little settlement of Shelter Cove at the far end definitely makes this
worth the trip. Wild ocean crashing in against the cliffs.
A gorgeous vista of the shoreline as it sweeps southward to form
Shelter Cove. There was more
than one restaurant, a bar and a motel.
Too bad all our stuff was back in Garberville.
If only we’d had our book.
Back to
Garberville, we had to content ourselves with dinner at the Benbow Inn and
a nice bottle of Beaulieu Cabernet. As
always, Brian interviewed our waitress.
He finds a certain fascination in the fact that people are rarely
from the place we find them. (Either
that or he’s just trying to get lucky.)
Unlike Vancouver, where people are either born there or come from
Toronto, Americans seem to move around an awful lot.
This woman was from somewhere in Southern California, had moved to
a place called Tonasket in Washington State (see DHWA34 and 62), then to
Seattle and then to - Benbow? It’s all very odd.
Sun Jun 27/04
Mike
Sunday began with what was probably the best breakfast of the trip at some
organic cafe in Garberville. Then
it was north to ride DH
Avenue of the Giants.
This is an easy, fun road that I would end up riding several times
that day, liking it more each time. Judging
from the bikes that I saw on the road, it is obviously a favorite of the
two-up touring set. However,
I saw my share of BMW dual sports as well as the occasional sport bike.
This genteel road did not prepare me for our next adventure – DH
Lost Coast Road
(Mattole Rd from the Avenue of the Giants to Ferndale)
The Lost
Coast Rd is a road that we had flown over and were looking forward to with
anticipation. So it was quite
a surprise to find the first 5 miles of the road from the southern access
to be extremely bumpy, narrow one lane pavement through of forest of
gigantic redwoods. This was not the Avenue of the Giants. It was the Back Alley of the Giants. The effect of the trees, however, was made far more dramatic
by the narrowness of the road. You
were truly in them. After 5
miles, the forest ends and the road widens.
The pavement is okay at first, but then slowly starts to
deteriorate as the road climbs and descends steeply to the storedot of
Honeydew. Though the scenery
is by no means amazing, the remoteness certainly is.
The next
town we reached was the town of Petrolia which, as its name suggests, was
the center of an oil boom in 1865. But
beyond Petrolia is when this DH really starts pumping, suddenly dropping
to the windy, remote coast that gives this road its poetic name.
While the road straightens a bit right along the coast, it really
doesn’t matter. The sight
of the windblown dunes and lonely cliffs brings to mind the Shetland
Islands or some other lonely atoll in the North Sea. Utterly fantastic.
The stay on
the coast is all too short as the road then begins to climb, very steeply,
up Cape Ridge, down into a small valley and then up and over Bear River
Ridge. These climbs and
descents are steep and often poorly engineered, with some 10-mph (15-kmh)
corners. The pavement is
bumpy as well. However, the
sight of the coastline between False Cape and Cape Mendocino is more than
worth the trip.
This DH has
a terrific ending as well. You
pull into the old Victorian town of Ferndale.
Beautifully restored, this town is a perfect place to stop for a
beer and reflect on the ride.
Initially,
we had planned to head back down this DH.
But this is a road you do maybe once a year, not twice in one day. Feeling rather beaten up, we rode gentle TE
Grizzly Bluff Rd across
the farmland and along the mountain’s edge to Rio Dell. This was followed by a southward reprise ride on the soothing
DH Avenue
of the Giants.
Any thoughts
of checking into the Benbow Inn now that the honeymooners had been
successfully sent off were dashed when I happened to glance at Brian’s
rear tire at the south end of Avenue of the Giants.
The skunk stripe of white cord down the middle of his back rubber
did not bode well (oops, Modesto Honda had mistakenly ordered him in a set
of Michelin Pilot Sports rather than the Pilot Tours for his last tire
change). This necessitated a
call to AAA and flatbed down to Ukiah, which we knew, from my previously
being in need of maintenance, was the only motorcycle shop in this part of
the state that was open on a Monday (and hey, Norcal bikeshops, what’s
with that in the summer?).
Before
schlepping the 100 miles south to Ukiah, I reversed course to check out a
couple of potential TEs off of Avenue of the Giants.
Promising leads but they deteriorated into one-lane goat trails.
I ended the day by blasting south on the now-quiet Hwy 101,
enjoying the late Sunday lack of traffic, particularly on the great
section north of Leggett.
I beat Brian
to Ukiah, checked into the conveniently Holiday Inn Express (right next to
the motorcycle shop) and sussed out dinner possibilities.
As Brian didn’t get in till quite late, we ended up taking our
chances at Jensen’s Truck Stop. Definitely
not recommended.
Mon Jun 28/04
Mike
Good old Motorsports of Ukiah. Not
only did they have two tires of the right size, they slid us in right at
9:00 a.m. and we were back on the road by 10:45.
Given Brian’s tendency to sleep in, this was about the time we
would have gotten going anyway.
Back up Hwy
101 all the way to Garberville, we completed our 200-mile detour, then
headed east on the Alderpoint Rd. We
had had great hopes for this road and thought that it may well be a
Destination Highway. Unfortunately,
despite a promising start, the road deteriorated into pavement that was
just too poor to make this road even a low-end TE.
Great remoteness, plenty curvy and there are some good scenic
moments, but that crappy pavement makes it tough.
And apparently we can’t hold out too much hope that it will
improve any time soon. To
quote the ranger we ran into on DH
Lost Coast Rd,
Humboldt County “doesn’t have a pot to piss in”.
Indeed.
One positive
thing about riding on rough pavement is when you turn onto the good stuff,
as we did when we hit DH
Carlotta (Fortuna) - Hwy 36/3 Jct (Hwy 36) at Bridgeville, it feels even
sweeter than it normally would. We
had originally planned to take in the DH Van Duzen Rd – Mad River Rd loop
before
carrying on to Redding (the closest place we could find that had an
internet cafe where we could watch the Canadian election coverage).
With time being of the essence, we decided instead that we would
make the long trip back to pick up this DH tomorrow and continued on Hwy
36 to its junction with Hwy 3. More will be said about this road later in this diary but
suffice to say this section of highway, particularly beyond the Mad River
Rd junction, may be the finest in the state.
As to whether the entire road will rate as Northern California’s
DH1 remains to be seen. But
this section stands on par with anything I have ever ridden anywhere.
Another
excellent DH is DH
Hwy 3/36 Jct - Douglas City
(Hwy 3). We weren’t sure
about this road looking at a map because of the straights that appear in
the middle, but there really was no cause for concern.
The perfectly paved descent into the Hayfork Valley followed by the
great up and down to and from the Hayfork Summit at the northern end blew
away our expectations. As did
the fine scenery and feeling of remoteness you get at the northern end as
you overlook the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
Gassing up
in Douglas City, we were looking pretty good on time as we prepared to
venture east on DH
Douglas City – Shasta (Redding) (Hwy 299) back to Redding. Coming down off the Buckhorn Summit, however, we met a bit of
a surprise coming through the best and twistiest section of this road.
The deep S-turns were complicated by the thunder and hailstorm that
chose that moment to bring forth its wrath.
Brian stopped. I stopped long enough to put on my Gortex liner and then
powered through the storm, which dissipated once I came off the mountain.
I then shot in to Redding, found the internet cafe, and sat down to
watch the Canadian election results trickle in.
Brian
trickled in about 40 minutes later and then went off to check into a
cinderblock motel close by. We
then wiled away the evening critiquing the commentators, politicians and
anyone else who happened to cross the screen before, well satisfied with
our sense of superiority, we grabbed a late night bite and went to sleep
it off.
Tue Jun 29/04
Mike
The previous afternoon storm resulted in both of our camera lenses showing
condensation. We were
fortunate enough to find a camera repair shop in the town of Shasta Lake
where we grabbed breakfast at a cafe offering “Breakfast and Thai
Food” and waited for the camera shop proprietor to show up.
Once he did make it in, he was quick and efficient and got us on
our way. I checked out the
northernmost piece of TE Swasey Rd before following Brian west on DH
Shasta (Redding) - Douglas City (Hwy 299), back down DH Douglas City – Hwy 3/36 Jct (Hwy 3) and then west on part of DH
Hwy 36/3 Jct – Carlotta (Fortuna) (Hwy 36). If
you have to backtrack, these three aren’t bad roads on which to do it.
I caught up
to Brian at the burger stand in Mad River (which constitutes the entirety
of Mad River) and then ventured out with him to do DH Van Duzen Rd – Mad River Rd.
This is certainly not a road that everyone will do.
But if the two DHs on Hwy 36 are not enough, this road provides a
healthy diversion. We started
down the western arm, where the road flows with the Van Duzen River.
It took a little while to get out of the town of Van Duzen which,
though it has no services, spreads out for a ways along the road. Then remoteness descends and the road winds gently through
the forest along the river. Fortunately,
Brian was waiting at the bottom of the loop or also would have blown the
junction and ended up riding through on the road that later gravels out on
the way to Zenia.
I
backtracked the half mile it took me to stop and then headed across the
Hettenshaw Valley to Mad River Ridge.
On the climb over the ridge, the road narrows to one lane.
But the bumpy pavement soon turns smooth on the descent down toward
Ruth Lake. And when it reaches the bottom of the valley the pavement
widens to create the best section of the road.
A span of blacktop sweeps down the side of Ruth Lake to the Ruth
Guard Station, just one mile north of the Ruth Store.
Brian had gone down to the store.
I headed back north only to find the road blocked by construction.
I was fortunate the wait was only half an hour - earlier in the day it had been 2
hours. The good news is that
they the crew is repaving the entire nine or so miles of this road between
Hwy 36 and the dam. It’s
going to be sweet next year.
The day’s primary mission
accomplished, we split up to accomplish our secondary mission.
I was going to head north on TE
FSR 1 and possibly take the gravel
connection down to the town of Hyampom, then do TE
Hyampom Rd to Hayfork with a view to meeting Brian in Weaverville.
He was going to check out a couple of possibilities including TE Wildwood Rd just east of Hwy 3.
When I left
Hwy 36, seeing the signs for Hyampom, I assumed this would be well signed
all the way. Instead, I ended
up riding 20 miles (32 km) up this one lane road, only to realize that I
must have gone too far and then backtracked.
Having neglected to fill up at my last opportunity, gas was
becoming an issue. So was light since it was getting late and the prospect of
riding down a gravel road that I wasn’t completely sure was the right
one without sufficient gas in my tank got the red flags rising in my
brain. Unsure as to which was
the road that went through to Hyampom, I felt I had no choice but to
backtrack, head back down Mad River Rd to pick up gas 10 miles (16 km)
down, reverse course back to Hwy 36, ride to Hayfork and then ride in and
out the 25 miles (40 km) to Hyampom, (which, of course, includes about 5
miles [8 km] of one lane road). The
bottom line is I pulled into Weaverville about 10:30 pm, grateful that
Brian had thought to save me half his pizza.
Of course,
no sooner had I followed him to our motel, gotten in, heated up the pizza
in the microwave, popped my beer and was enjoying my late night dinner (to
the point you can enjoy reheated Round Table Pizza), when a knock came on
the door and a woman in her pajamas from next door was complaining about
the noise. Didn’t know I
chewed that loud.
It turned
out she was a water conversation official of sorts who was waking up early
the next day. But it turned
out she was also a motorcyclist. So
Brian marketed her with one of our WA pamphlets which seemed to placate
her.
Wed Jun 30/04
Mike
Morning in Weaverville. After
yesterday’s late night antics, this was no day to be hitting the road
early and hard. Instead, we roused and took a leisurely stroll down to a
nearby cafe, ordered the obligatory omelet, and returned to pack up in the
already intolerably hot sun.
Despite having overextended myself the previous day,
I was looking forward to today’s ride.
I had been eyeing DH Weaverville - Callahan (Hwy 3) ever since we had started this
project. While this long road
didn’t quite live up to my high expectations, it was still pretty darn
good, particularly at the beginning where the excellent pavement winds
through the forest at the foot of the Trinity Alps.
This is my kind of scenery, where forested slopes sweep up to rocky
peaks. And when the road
moves along the shore of Trinity Lake, it’s simply excellent.
North of Coffee Creek, the road’s last settlement
before Callahan, just above the lake’s northern tip, the DH straightens
severely for several miles. I
found that the scenery picked up some of the slack for the lack of
twistiness since the surroundings continued to impress through the wide
Trinity River Valley. But
then the road through another curve at us -
many of them actually -
as the wide shouldered straights and gentle sweepers suddenly gave way to
a narrow and twisty climb up to the Scott Mtn Summit. Reaching the summit, you would expect more of the same on the
long descent down into the Scott Valley.
Instead, the high quality engineering returned north of the summit
for the long, easy, sweeper filled descent.
At first, we
considered that this DH might go all the way to Yreka.
But a few miles past Callahan down Hwy 3 through the farm-filled
Scott Valley changed those plans. I
carried on to rate the road all the way to Yreka, just for the record.
But apart from a few deep sweepers near the forest mountain summit
just east of Fort Jones, there’s little reason to ride this section of
Hwy 3.
Doubling back, I grabbed a sandwich to go at the
Veterans Deli in Fort Jones, then ventured south on TE Eastside Rd to
meet Brian back in Callahan. No, Brian had not been whiling away this entire time at the
only bar in Callahan. He’d
taken his own run out to the I-5 along TE Gazelle-Callahan Rd.
TE Eastside Rd is
one of those TEs you would always take if you were going this way.
Hwy 3 has slightly better pavement but not much else.
And, indeed, except for the very south-end where Eastside Rd gets a
little narrow, there is nothing at all wrong with the engineering. It’s a quiet road that has its share of turns since it
runs, as its name suggests, along the hills of the eastern edge of the
valley. It’s also far more
scenic with a quiet rural flavor that contrasts sharply with the light
commercial zoning along Hwy 3.
Back in Callahan, I shared my sandwich with Brian
and we sat munching on the bar’s porch discussing real estate prices
with a local. The cost of
property in Middle-of-Nowhere, CA never ceases to blow us away.
Of course that goes for real estate prices just about anywhere.
But California is in a class of its own.
No wonder everyone’s moving to Nevada.
Well, it was time.
Time to finally ride the last unexplored DH in Northern California,
DH Callahan – Cecilville. We
had eyed this road from the air the previous year and had a sense that it
would be a highly rated DH and particularly attractive due to the lack of
traffic you get when a road goes from a one one-bar town to another.
Beyond Cecilville, there’s nothing but a long, narrow goat trial
to connect you through to Hwy 96. More
on that later.
As with any DH where there are high expectations,
there was a bit of letdown at first as the pavement was not quite as good
as expected. This was
especially true near the summit. Another
detraction on this particular day was the fact that it began to rain at
one point. Sufficiently
spooked from the experience of two days before, I pulled out the
motorcycle cover, huddled underneath it and prepared for the worst. Brian rode by wondering what I was doing.
For once he was right -
the rain stopped as quickly as it started.
Where I really love this road is after you came down
off the summit and wind around the treed bank of the Salmon River.
You know when the S-curves are so perfectly timed and spaced and
contoured that you just fall into a rhythm.
It helped that on this section of the road, the pavement was nearly
flawless. The slight downhill
tilt didn’t factor in at all.
I pulled into Cecilville ahead of Brian since he had
to stop to change tapes. The only bar in town was closed which gave some cause for
concern until I started peering around.
I was ultimately advised by the fellow looking after the place that
they often close Wednesdays but he was kind enough to open for me. I had a beer, watched some blackjack tournament on satellite
TV and waited for Brian’s arrival.
The thunder was rolling when Brian pulled in and I
had already decided I was going to stay and wait out the inevitable
thundershower. I thought this
particularly prudent since the one lane road ahead was going to be no
picnic. Brian thought he saw
some blue sky ahead and wanted to soldier on.
I wished him well and went back to the blackjack. It couldn’t have been 5 minutes later he returned with a
report of rain a few minutes up the road.
A few minutes later it came, heavily enough to put out the
satellite signal. I was happy
about my call.
As we sat in the bar, the locals started to roll in.
It turns out that this entire route from Callahan to Cecilville is
going to be repaved over the next two years -
west of the summit this coming year and east of the summit the year after.
Why spend millions on this twisty road from nowhere to nowhere?
Something about a federal program, obviously with a lot of money.
Imagine that. When
it’s done, there will be no keeping the bikes away.
The 40-mile (60-km) run out to Somes Bar was pretty
much as expected – a precarious one-lane affair with the one lane
falling away in places where it hovers high over the river.
We had heard that at times large trucks (UPS?) can come whipping
around the blind corners forcing you off to the side.
I’m not sure what happens when there is no side.
Fortunately, it was truckless and an unexpected
bonus was the last 7 miles (11 km) of the road paved and engineered to
state highway standards. Say hello to TE Salmon River Rd.
Once at Somes Bar, we ran a few miles north on Hwy
96 to check out the Marble Mountain Ranch before shooting south to Willow
Creek on the southern part of DH Happy Camp – Willow Creek (Hwy
96). It had been long day by
the time we arrived at Willow Creek and therefore broke the standing rule,
the one that says “Never stay in Willow Creek”.
The Willow Creek Motel proved a bizarre place owned
by a gentleman who, local rumor has it, has 17 children by a number of
wives (gee, we thought Utah was the polygamy state) who all reside
together there. Actually,
purchasing a motel seems quite sensible in the circumstances.
But it didn’t really seem as though the place was set up to
receive guests. Perhaps they
have plans for the future but as of this writing, it is not well kept.
Example: in the
morning, I went to check out the pool and hot tub and found them filled
with algae-green water. Assuming
they’d not been maintained over the winter, I asked the pleasant
proprietress on checking out when the pool opened. Meaning
when in the season they would be opening it.
She told me that it was open all the time and to go ahead and take
a swim if I wished. Ugh.
Thu
Jul 1/04
Mike
Dominion Day in Canada (our National Holiday
July 4), in case anybody cares. Our
plans to take a couple days of rest and relaxation were supplanted by my
unfortunate suggestion that we do a re-rate on the two Hwy 36 DHs, given
how early in the season we had done them last year. This venture included the prospect of coming down DH
Willow Creek – Blue Lake (Arcata) Hwy 299 from the toasty climes of
Willow Creek to the marine-fog covered coast.
As we coasted
down the traffic-filled sweepers, the VFR’s temperature gauge dropped
steadily. The fog and cool
temperatures persisted all the way south on Hwy 101 and inland to
Carlotta, the little town where the DH begins.
To exacerbate matters, I tried to put an extra couple pounds of air
in my tires at the station in Hydesville, only to find that the pump
wasn’t working properly. Down to about 24 lbs as a result of my abortive efforts, I
had no choice to backtrack to the last station, several miles back in
Fortuna. Mental note: when you’re adding air, it’s a good idea to have a backup
station nearby.
By the time we finished rating DH Carlotta
(Fortuna) – Hwy 36/3 Jct and DH Hwy 36/3 Jct – Red Bluff,
it was getting close to 6:00 pm, just in time to grab some beer, find a
motel with a nice pool and catch a few rays. I found a great one, with nice furniture, a garden and a pool
area blocked from the street by the motel office. Who needs the Hyatt?
Fri
Jul 2/04
Mike
Personally, I could have stayed at the Red Bluff Hyatt another night.
Forgive me, but after eight days of solid biking, I just wanted to
lie around a pool and do nothing for a day.
But a small town on the I-5 is not Brian’s idea of a holiday
destination so we moved on. Heading
south, we aimed in the general direction of our home base in Turlock.
We took
advantage of the extra time by riding a number of TEs that Brian had done
earlier in the year but that I’d not ridden yet starting off Hwy 162,
west of Oroville: TE Forbestown Rd, TE Frenchtown Rd, TE
Marysville Rd to DH Sattley – Nevada City (Hwy 49), TE Oak
Tree Rd-Tyler Foot Rd, TE Pleasant Valley Rd (to Hwy 20, east of Grass
Valley), TE Indian Springs Rd-McCourtney Rd-Lime Kiln Rd-Duggens
Rd-Wolf Rd (to Higgins Corner on Hwy 49), TE Combie Rd-Magnolia
Rd-Dog Bar Rd to TE Grass Valley – Colfax (Hwy 174) to
TE Placer Hills Rd (paralleling I80) to Auburn, and then finishing up
with TE Old Auburn-Foresthill Rd and pieces of DH Auburn –
Placerville (Hwy 49) and DH Cool – Placerville (Hwy 193) to
name but a few.
We ended up spending the night in Georgetown’s
American River Inn. It’s
one of our favorites, and not just because we got to ride halfway down DH
Cool – Placerville to get to it.
Later that evening, Brian mentioned to me that,
after riding all the way from Oroville to Georgetown on either DHs or TEs
like we did (ie as if we had a copy of DH NorCal), he now, for the
first time, completely understands why people like our books so much.
After all, because we are off to another jurisdiction after finishing one,
we never get to use our books the way other riders do. Yeah, we know you
feel for us....
Sat
Jul 3/04
Mike
Last day on the road. We had
to be back in Turlock that night to put the bikes away and catch a plane
the next day. A bunch of
Brian’s family were in Turlock for the Fourth, so he got away early and
made fast tracks to spend some time with them.
This left me with another basket of TEs to pick through on the way
down. What happened to our
time off?
This was one hot day.
A
hose-down-your-T-shirt-under-the-Kevlar-who-cares-if-it’s-airflow kind
of day. I started by checking
out TE ALT Big Cut Rd, an offshoot of TE
Cedar Ravine Rd–Pleasant Valley Rd–Newtown Rd. Then I had to head back
down DH Pollock Pines – Plymouth to Hwy 49 and south to
investigate the new pavement rumored to be on part of the quiet, Hwy 49
bypass, TE Pool Station Rd. Rumor
confirmed, I then rode the busier, westernmost half of TE Copperopolis
– Angels Camp (Hwy 4) and then south on the rapidly developing TE
O’Byrnes Rd. The Tulloch Reservoir is pretty and there’s some nice
curves around it, but it sure does attract the crowds.
From
here it was a jog west to the fields of TE La Grange Rd and then
home via TE Lake Rd, a quieter, not quite as well paved, but just
as curvy alternative to the western half of DH Waterford –
Coulterville. From there
it was a quick hop to Turlock.
Sun Jul 4/04
Mike
The last day of any trip is always a hassle.
Washing and storing bikes, packing up and the drive-fly-drive
routine that is the trip home. With a busy life back in Canada, I know my good biking for
the season is over. From here
on, if I’m lucky, it’s short day trips out of Vancouver where 40% of
the time is spent getting away from the city and another 40% getting back
in again. It’s especially
tough to go back to after all those long lightly trafficked, let-er-rip
days we’ve had here in Northern California, especially in the far north.
It will be nice to relive them as we write the rest of the book.
Speaking
of which, I’d better finish up and get to it since that’s it as far as
the riding goes. We did a total of 34,000 mi (55,000 km) of research
riding in NorCal. Each place we do seems to require more riding. (For comparison
purposes, we did 28,000 mi (46,000km) for DHWA and 25,000 mi
(40,000 km) for DHBC.) And
all just for you...
Journey
on.
. 
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