First glimpse of Mt. Shasta way over there in California!!!
Here I am, in the car since quarter to ten this morning, a wee bit tired but also kind of excited to be back in California soon. The upper Lake Klamath is appearing on my right, it's a beautiful day, hot yet a cool mountain-breeze that keeps this landscape from overheating. US-97 skirts the town of Klamath Falls and after that it's pristine view of the land up here. Mountains, valleys, fields, forests, roads, and train-tracks.
Upper Klamath Lake, Inspection Station, closer to Mt. Shasta, a guy driving on the railed road...
California the Golden State!
More of this fertile land, and as soon as you water it, it grows...
Mount Shasta, 14'162 ft, and it's little Sister the Shastina Cone, 12'330 ft...
Right at the town of Weed, US-97 is the ending and drops me right onto I-5. It's five o'clock and I'm tired and I'm hungry, ready for a Burger with Fries since days now what is going on. I know this diner chain along this interstate, lets see if I see a sign of a diner near me.
An hour later I'm sitting at the counter of the Black Bear Diner here in the town of Shasta...
Back on the interstate, plowing through miles. Beautiful Mount Shasta is now behind me and I get the first vistas of Lake Shasta now. Last year I came back the same route and the whole way when I was driving back from Sisters, OR the air was thick with smog form wildfires everywhere. Also the mountain was almost stripped of its snow and ice-cap, the lake I've never seen so empty, it was alarming how the world looked like. Today it is all different, even the lake has much more water, still lots to go but it is hard to recover a reservoir once it has been that empty and last winter did not produce enough water to fill it. The recreational activety on the lake though scares me a bit. There was one mount that protruded out of the lake and is connected to the shore by this hump. The whole place was filled with pick-up trucks and cars, almost all the way to the water. Jet-skies, motor-boats, and house-boats are filling the water-surface. I sometimes stop at a spot I know to jump in for a cool-off, but this does not wanna make me even go near this lake.
I-5 is crossing Lake Shasta, then goes all the way down into the Central Valley, the Fruit-basket of the US...
The temperatures are hot here in the valley, the lady at the gas-staton told me that it was supposed to be 108, but some guy told here that his thermometer on the porch showed 115 that is HOT!!! It's getting to be night, a rare moment during my trip that I drive at night, I usually wanna see what I'm driving through, this I have seen many times and I do wane gat back home and sleep in my bed tonight. At quarter past nine I'm driving on I-505 that gets me to I-80 and closes my loop when I left on April 2nd. The windshield gets hammered by bugs, I'm on the road now for 12 hours 628 miles since I left Goldenhell or what ever the name of the town was way up in Washington. The last 50 miles is "Welcome back to the Bay Area". On Interstate 80 the drivers are like Indy race-car drivers, changing lanes, going 80 plus miles an hours and trying to be faster than the other guy, it's good that my exit is coming up. I park in my drive way at ten thirty... it's time for another Trout Slayer while unpacking and getting familiarized with my own home again. I wish I had somebody here to share the beer and stories, but Stuard who is still renting a room in my house is out for the weekend, my neighbor Eva, is out partying and Scooby my cat is just happy to have me back and wants some food now. The best part is to fall asleep in my own bed once again...
Thank you Honda for the pleasant 10'724 miles you've driven me without a single problem other than keeping an eye on the oil-level of the 21 year old engine. It's a miracle-car!!!
Sunday, June 28th A beautiful day in the Bay Area!!!
I set the alarm for 7 I have to get my bike ready for a ride into the mountains of Marin. Tom picks me up at 8, we meet John in El Cerrito, drive over the Richmond Bridge and are at Dennis's house right before 9. A gorgeous morning, cool air, blue sky not a cloud or flake of fog to be seen. Off we go, ride up the Tennessee Valley pass the parking-lot and then climb the first major hill. John and Dennis are not cut out to go that high and they take another turn to get down to Muir Beach to climb the next hill almost to Pantoll Station. Tom and I take a gnarly single-track down to Hwy-1, then up to get to the top of the Diaz Trail, now here is a disappointment, they are redoing the trail and it is closed during construction, well we're a bunch of construction workers lets go and have a look...
A beautiful day to bike, climb one mountain after another...
Then we end-up, after a lot of struggling through these "new and improved" trails it's not gonna be the same anymore, scratch that trail of our "fun-to-ride" list, at Muir Beach, form here its a couple of miles on pavement and then the next climb, that's where John and Dennis were on earlier, we hope, other wise these guys be waiting for us forever. This climb is long and lots of sun is beating on us. Right at the top is this section where we ride through these thick redwood-forest. Ahhh cool air and knowing we're almost to the top. A 2.2 mile long tough hill to conquer. Here is where the Coastal Trail is bringing us back down to Hwy-1, the reward of a 2.7 mile long downhill. On hwy-1 it's paved again to get back to Muir Beach, here the Pelican Inn is waiting for us with John and Dennis laying on the front-lawn with a beer in hand. It's time for Tom and I to do the same.
Even though I should eat and drink a lot of water... isn't a good Hefeweizen all in one???
It sure feels good this cold one, but soon I'll be paying for it, climbing out of the Green Gulch!!!
I felt so drunk, could not keep a straight line in this narrow single-track trail bringing us over the top...
To get us back into the Tennessee Valley where the truck is waiting to get us back home!!!
That was a though 4 hour ride, we're all starving and tired. The 3 of us hop back into Tom's truck. Dennis stays back, he is home already, by the time we're on Hwy-101 he might be already flat on the sofa.
We drop John off at his car in El Cerrito and then head to Berkeley to have B.B.Q.ed Ribs or some like that. Everett & Jones is the place for that. I get myself some B.B.Q.ed Chicken sandwich while Tom inhales the Ribs, all is much better now.
Before Tom can drop me off back home we have to go by a lighting store where he has to return and order a few fixtures for his house.
At 3'o'clock I'm unloading bike and gear and say good bye to Tom... and totally forgot to take that picture!!!
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