Day Two
Day two began in wonderfully bright sunshine. We rolled out after breakfast heading toward Arnold and points north. Frank provided some entertainment for the few folks in downtown Arnold when he failed to mount his bike and fell down in the middle of the street. Only his dignity suffered any injury. To reward his biking abilities we found a very nice coffee shop in Arnold and sat on chairs looking east luxuriating in the pleasant sunshine. Geno pointed out we seemed to be riding in the middle of a donut, a donut hole so to speak. Sun was on us while all around us were clouds from the last weather front leaving and the next one coming in. We rode in this “donut hole” all the way to Orland being pushed by a tailwind, which bumped up in intensity by noon. We ended up doing a complete tour of Orland, counter-clockwise, looking for a motel to stay in as rain was forecast for the night. Part of the tour of Orland was into the stiff headwind. Orland is not a very big town. Turns out, there is only one motel in Orland. During the evening we watched the weather forecasts trying to get an idea of what was in store for us the next few days. We knew once we left Red Bluff there would be no motel respites and we really would have to use all the camping gear we had been lugging, rain or no rain.
Day Three
We awoke to rain the next morning. It was to last until mid-day. Rain gear was the haut ere for the day. We left Orland in a steady drizzle. About ten miles north I experienced flat number three on the rear tire. As the others caught up I had my gear off the bike and was ready to change tubes. Frank and then Bob rolled on being a bit slower than Geno and I. Geno assisted with the placement of my wheel then took off. Hurriedly I replaced my gear and took off. We stopped for a break at a truck stop in Corning. Leaving Corning we neglected to pay attention to the road signs and as a result did not notice 99W made a right turn to the East at the truck stop. Bob and I were riding together and his GPS unit alerted him to the fact we were off course. We corrected by turning east on a road his GPS unit indicated would intersect 99W. Geno and Frank kept going straight for a whild but eventually made the necessary correction. Bob and I slogged together in the rain. When Bob came around to pull for a while I struggled to keep up and eventually fell back. I thought I must be very tired and was adjusting to the daily grind. Traffic became denser as we approached Red Bluff and I seemed to be going slower and slower. Geno called me but I couldn’t come to a stop and pull out my phone before it went to voice mail. I called him back but he couldn’t answer either. We had decided not to stay in the KOA campground, rather we would find a motel somewhere in Red Bluff but we didn’t know which one or even where it might be located. I caught up to Bob and we elected to pull into a nearby Starbucks. We eventually heard from Geno who had connected with Frank who was at a motel. We settled in at the motel, watching weather reports. As a result, over dinner, we opted for a layover day in Red Bluff to wait out the rain.
Day Four
Our layover day was an exploration of Red Bluff: a stop at the local Bike shop and lunch at a nice restaurant across from the county court house. After lunch Bob and I decided to return to the motel while Geno and Frank did more exploration. During the rest period back at the motel I did some tube patching and lubing of the chain. I discovered, to my chagrin, the reason I had felt so much slower the day before was I hadn’t aligned the rear tire in the dropouts after my latest flat repair and the rim was rubbing against the brake pad the whole time. Too big a hurry to be down the road and out of the rain put me in the rain longer than desired.
Day Five
Our layover day paid off big for us as we were greeted with sunny skies and a favorable forecast. Our tour now started in earnest heading west into the California Coast Range. Pine trees on the lower slopes and fir trees on the higher, wetter slopes of our climbs replaced eucalyptus trees as the dominant roadside tree. The first climb was a middle chain ring climb and all of us exclaimed at the summit regroup and rest stop how easy it had been. Subsequent climbs for the rest of the trip made us forget all about this first climb.
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| Looking Southwest from our first summit |
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| Geno Arrives at First Summit |
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| Bob Arrives |
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| And Here's Frank |
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| Rest stop after descent. Looking upstream |
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| Looking down stream |
The store was open at Wild Horse Ranch. We hadn’t eaten except for whatever snack we carried with us since Red Bluff. I consumed two microwave hamburgers plus a large bottle of Gatorade. It was considerably warmer this day and ice cream bars were our dessert. Leaving Wild Horse Ranch I couldn’t help but notice the huge, to my eyes, trailer and RV cities encamped on both sides of Highway 36. It was the Friday before Memorial Day and the vacationers were out in droves to repopulate Wild Horse Ranch. Traffic had not been indicative of this temporary city.
Platina was our next stop and was preceded by a long, exposed, three-mile, granny gear climb.
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| Climb to Platina. The grey strip to the right of Geno, in red, is our road. |
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| Wild flowers by the roadside around the corner from previous picture and a quarter mile from the summit |
At Platina we were within five miles as the crow flies of our first campsite. While at Platina a local engaged us in conversation asking what our plans were. We told him we planned to camp at Basin Gulch and eat breakfast at the Wildwood Café the next morning. He said the café had irregular hours during inclement weather but would stop by and tell the owner we would be there the next morning to make sure the store and café would be open for us. The week before it had snowed at Wildwood.
Basin Gulch was a primitive camp where we bathed in an ice-cold stream and used a pit toilet. Dinner was dehydrated chili-mac, a first for me, while the others made do with what they bought at Platina or had brought along. Bob had been discarding a meal per day during our ride to Red Bluff to lighten his load but now had to put together a dinner with what he had left. He didn’t starve. This night provided me with my first experience on my recently purchased NeoLite air mattress. Thus began many experiments determining what might be the appropriate air pressure for a comfortable night’s sleep.
Day Six
Our next destination was Ruth Lake. To get there we had to climb two miles to Wildwood for breakfast, yes they were open and it was well worth it, then endure three more climbs at least two or more miles in length. None were middle chain ring climbs. According to my bike computer we reached our highest summit for our trip at 4147 feet marked by an erector set power pole line. We stopped and hiked out to a knob to see the view and take pictures of the snow-capped peaks to the east and north. Mount Shasta stood out and then the Trinity Alps and maybe way off in the north distance Mt. Ashland.
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| Peaks due west of nob |
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| Mt. Shasta to the NE of us and dead center in picture. Mts seen above are obscured by tree on right. |
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| Trinity Alps. Could that be Mt. Ashland on the far left? |
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| Geno taking a picture of us. |
After snapping the above pictures I realized my iPhone battery was seriously depleted. Bob and I attached his solar power battery charger to the top of my gear on the rear rack ostensibly to charge up my iPhone, but inconsistent sun due to the many trees on both sides of the highway made it a futile pursuit. Lunch was in a park in Forest Glen. Immediately out of Forest Glen we started the longest climb of the day up to South Fork Summit at 4077 feet. A screaming descent to the turn off toward Ruth Lake was the next portion of our ride. Geno and I waited at the turn-off 15-20 minutes for Bob and Frank. I can’t recall what had delayed them so long as it was all down hill to the turnoff. Then we rode another ten miles to get to Ruth Lake. Geno and Bob negotiated a camping site amongst the small cabins, RVs, homes and trailers behind the store and restaurant. It was a jumpin’ place at the bar and the store, which were all one building. Memorial Day celebration was in full swing. We were able to do some laundry and take hot showers, which compensated somewhat for the crude, gravelly, campsite. We ate dinner and breakfast there, also. Ironically I may have had my best sleep of the trip, so far, once the Sunday night Memorial Day revelries quieted down in the RV park.
Day Seven
Memorial Day began quiet enough as we left Ruth Lake. It was overcast but otherwise quite comfortable. I was feeling quite optimistic about our next leg to Grizzly Creek State Park. Shortly after turning back on to Highway 36 we rode into a light but steady drizzle. Traffic picked up, the shoulder became narrower and we then had to face probably our steepest climb of the whole tour where the road had collapsed creating a 20 per cent grade but mercifully only 50 yards in length. I didn’t have to contend with any following traffic as I slowed to three miles per hour but worried about Frank and Bob who were behind me. Not long after this steep little climb I came upon a sign advising trucks of a nine per cent descent. I put my rain jacket on for warmth and proceeded on and downward. It was an easy descent but after completing it another sign advising trucks of a 10 per cent descent appeared. This descent was a real 10 per cent with five and ten mile corners. I was on the brakes constantly to control my speed. I used a truck pull out to let traffic come on by and as I was pulling out felt the tell tale signs of another flat (number five!). Just ahead and across the road was a very wide pull out on a very sharp corner. I pushed the bike across the road and began unpacking the rear wheel. Geno caught up with me and soon Frank and Bob joined us. We were entertained on this corner by the squeal of brakes, the scraping of motorcycles and the smell of burned brakes as the traffic passed by. A mile or two down the road flat number six brought me to a stop. I attribute the last two flats to using undersized tubes, 25 mm, in a 28 mm tire stretched too thin and easily pinched when subjected to the rear wheel load. While frustratingly unloading my bike again a car pulled off going the opposite direction. It was a gentlemen cyclist from Red Bluff scouting Highway 36 for some friends contemplating a tour on the highway. He was concerned about the lack of shoulder in the Redwoods ahead of me plus the traffic density. Later when ruminating about the encounter it occurred to me Highway 36 would probably be a lot more comfortable to ride if one chose to do so on a non-holiday week day. I found a larger tube amongst my extras, filled it with air and continued on. The rest of the gang was waiting at a roadside store. A couple microwaveable burgers and a sandwich energized me for the last 5 miles to Grizzly Creek State Park. We opted to pay for a campground rather than stay in the biker/hiker area at a cheaper rate. It was overcast but stayed dry through the night. Things hung up to air dry got a little drier overnight. Our day was topped off when we shared a campfire next door with two people from San Francisco who were car camping over the long weekend. She was a young Romanian native and he was a retired Social Security employee.
Day Eight
The next day’s morning was overcast but no wetness. This was our first full day riding amongst the Redwoods. There is no shoulder on the road but traffic was much, much, lighter. Our first stop was in Carlotta at a modern day general store; a combination Ace hardware store, gas station and full service grocery store.
While resting I witnessed a curious thing. A friendly dreadlocks sprouting young man had his four-wheel drive pickup loaded with a pallet of soil sacks and numerous grow lamp apparatus. One topic of conversation during our rest stops as we approached this area of Northern California had been about the ‘green triangle.’ There before my eyes just might be one of the many entrepreneurs growing pot way out in the hinterlands.
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