Distance traveled: 385.8
Cumulative distance: 4,268.5
Maximum speed: 125 kph
Moving average: 69 kph
Temperature range: 15.6 - 31.0
Someone who shall remain nameless but who's name rhymes with "man" said to me today "never a dull moment with you!".
I said goodbye to the sweet little cabin that was my home for the last two nights. And, i was able to get the bike loaded and out without incident. One challenging moment was descending the fairly steep driveway with extra gravel filling in the dip where the driveway meets the road. That was bad enough but the driveway approaches the road in such a way that it is very difficult to see traffic coming down the hill, let alone stopping in the gravel and looking uphill to see what's coming. It was a challenging set of variables.
Oh, GPS settings. I had the Garmin set to "shortest distance". Last night I spent about an hour planning my route home; so far, it has been pretty easy because all i had to do for the first part of the trip was to keep the water on my right. For the next part, all I had to do was point the bike in the direction of the target destination and only one road would lead there. (For the most part.) For this last segment of the trip, I'll need to know mid-points, intersections and highway numbers to keep off the slab.
So, as I am departing Nevada City, I'm expecting to be retracing my steps from Thursday for a while. I'm looking forward to this because I already know where I want to stop for a latte: Gord Downieville. I rode through it the other day and I regretted not stopping for a few pictures and a closer look. But it didn't take long before the terrain was looking unfamiliar. Then the road was getting increasingly twisty as i went further away from urbanization. I'm talking REALLY twisty. And then it is getting steeper downhill. I was heading into the Yuba River valley. And then it is gravel. At first i thought it doesn't look too bad, i could handle a few kilometers of this. The Garmin was set to avoid gravel so maybe this was temporarily gravel or just a short distance. Bumpy, washboard, steep and scary, the further I went. I was picking my way down the road in first gear attempting to avoid the bigger washboard but I did bottom out the centre stand a couple of times.
After what seemed like an eternity, I came to a fairly steep section and there were a number of vehicles
 |
| The bridge over the Yuba River and no-go zone. |
 |
| The road as it approaches the bridge. |
 |
| My first view of the bridge. |
parked at the side of the road and I saw that I had come to the river. I assumed it was people fishing or swimming or something like that. It is Saturday morning after all and doubtless locals know these spots for this stuff. It actually was looking very enticing.
At the bottom, there is a bridge across the river. I like bridges like this one. Bridges with wooden decks have always appealed to me, unless it is raining. There are also several people around, all carrying white buckets. It turns out that they are volunteers picking up litter in the river valley. In fact, i had seen a number of young people in Nevada
 |
| These guys saved me, or laughed at my expense. |
City carrying the same buckets and walking along a river there as well.As it happens, two fellows approached me and after greeting me said, "you're not going that way". It was more of a statement than a question. They said that if I thought where i had just come was gnarly, I hadn't seen anything yet. They told me this was not the bike for that route and suggested I go back and go around. They acknowledged that it was the shortest route but said it gets way worse going forward. Then another guy approached me and said "you don't want to run into a meth lab out there and there are a few. And they might think you look like a cop with the camera on your helmet." Well, there is the problem after all: I neglected to tick off "meth labs" on the Avoidances control on the Garmin. So back I went.
 |
| Yuba River. |
It went faster going back than coming down. By the time i reached the highway, exactly one hour had passed.
I did get to Downieville and since so much time had elapsed, rather than stop for a latte, I stopped and
had a latte AND lunch. It is a very picturesque town. Population 252. It seems that it is a hub for mountain biking and the restaurant where I had lunch was
connected to the local mountain biking store. There was a steady stream of people coming in and renting mountain bikes for the day. In fact, it was a hub for motorcycles today as there are dozens in town stopped at the various restaurants and bars. It is a busy day being a Saturday and perfect riding weather.
Riding north, I rode through a serious fire burn. I had read online the night before that the biggest fire in California's modern day history had burned through the area in 2021 and had burned all the way up to and past Lassen Volcanic National Park, my dubious destination for tonight.
Dubious because when I had checked last night, all preservable campsites were booked. I thought it must just be a matter of being a Saturday night and good weather at the end of the season. Anyways, there is a first come-first serve campground in the park, though I was arriving a little late for that.
I rolled up to the gate about 4:00 pm and good luck already favoured me! Park admission is free today to celebrate "National Parks Day". So i I saved $30 for the privilege of being rejected a camp spot. THAT must be why the park is so busy. It turns out that the first come campground is a two hour trip into the park. That was just too big a risk. There were other campgrounds outside the park but if i was going to visit the vulcanization, I would have to come back the next day. They told me where the next state forest campgrounds were located or I could "disbursement camp" as it was a state forest surrounding the national park. That means just camping wherever. I didn't.
Once I was rolling, I just kept going, riding another hour where I stopped at Red Bluff Recreation Area, one of the campgrounds suggested to me at Lassen. It is 12 degrees warmer here than Lassen.
 |
| I may have traded the bike today, for a G.I. Joe and a Malibu Barbie play set. |
