72 mi / time / mph avg. / 4500 ft. climbing (estimated)
Staying at Oak Bottom CG, Whiskeytown Lake NRA

My alarm woke me in the dark at 6am, after 9 hours of sleep. I finished the loaf of raisin bread followed by a banana and apple juice for breakfast in the tent, and was packed and on the road as soon as it was light enough.

Eight mostly-downhill miles later, with half a water bottle as my only remaining liquid after a waterless camp, another National Forest campground appeared. Darn it, this is where I should have stayed: I could have easily made it there, it looked like a nicer campground, and most importantly, it had water. But for some reason it wasn’t on my list. Further recommending itself, while filling my water bottles, I had a pleasant chat with Britt, who had just rolled out of her sleeping bag. She’s a rafting guide in the Sierras, and was here with friends where the only people they had to guide would be themselves. The Trinity River that I’d been following for the last 30 miles had seemed surprisingly fast-flowing and full of whitewater so late in the season, and now I learned why: they were opening the dams upstream for the fish runs. That’s exactly why this rafting crew was here, to catch this last whitewater wave of the summer. She also mentioned the fruit coming into season on my route tomorrow, which sounded like useful advice!

Today was another day of two big climbs, but also with a lot of relatively flat riding along rivers. The first climb, to Oregon Pass (yay!), some 1700 feet, was a dreaded “exponential climb”; it got continually steeper the farther along you went, cruelly reaching its steepest point at the very top. For the final stretch I was in my lowest gear and pushing hard, which means it was around 9% or more. This time I followed a logging truck down, which not only gave me full use of the road, I also had to get on the brakes pretty hard to stay back from him, and must have hit at least 40 mph.

After the descent was the town of Weaverville, a much prettier strip than yesterday’s Willow Creek and less-filled with vagrants. I spent a long lunch at the wonderful Mamma Llama, a cafe/coffee shop/performance space/music store. Had to settle for bottled beer, but beer was had nonetheless (Sierra Nevada Torpedo, even though I’m not quite there yet), along with my spicy bagel sandwich. When I made a stop for groceries at the end of town, that’s where I found all the vagrants lying about. At least something seems to keep them out of the nicer part of town here! A not-totally-unkempt hitchhiker recognized me from the day before, after I jokingly told him to hop aboard when I grinded past him and his dog on the side of the road at 5mph on the way out of Willow Creek. Maybe he should have taken me up on the offer, since I beat him out of Weaverville!

Roaring monstrous logging trucks had been barelling by me the last two days on a road with an intermittent shoulder, though only one felt it necessary to lay on his horn when going around me. CA 299 is well-marked with bicycle “Share the Road” signs, and is far from the worst road I’ve been on, but I might not recommend it to first-timers. In Weaverville I finally saw where all those logs were going: onto an incomprehensibly enormous pile of logs at a lumber plant where giant sprinklers were wetting down one end (to keep it from spontaneously combusting in the blazing sun?) That was good news because from now on the empty trucks would be going my way, and they’re a lot more maneuverable.

I had another scary moment earlier in the day, when all of a sudden I heard a clattering on the hillside above me as I rode along at 18 mph. Surprisingly I was able to see the two grapefruit-sized rocks tumbling towards me, but in the second I had to guess, it was impossible to tell whether to speed up or slow down. One bounced past in front, while I heard the other ricochet off my rear wheel. Luckily no damage was done to the bike or me!

The second climb of 1800 feet, taking me to a new high of 3213 and the top of this mountain range, came in steps of varying grades, so was much easier. A woman in a pickup working for some fire agency, stopped at the top and offered me some Gatorade (have I mentioned the predicted high today was 100 degrees?) On the way up a few dozen pieces of fire equipment went past me, labeled from parts all over the state, presumably going to help out at a fire a bit north of my route. There was smoke near Weaverville, but I learned for the moment my route ahead should be clear.

The following descent was the best so far, filled with a myriad of beautifully arced curves, perfectly banked to lay into, and with great visibility. Unfortunately I had to stop for construction halfway down, and get carried in the pilot truck for the 2 mile stretch. I’ve been through half a dozen one-way construction zones so far and had been allowed to ride through all of them, so it was ironic that I was stopped at the one where I could have easily kept up with the line of cars.

A few more miles and I made it to Whiskeytown Lake, a dammed river, at about 4:30, over 9 hours after I started. My string of $8-or-less campsites is finally over, as this one is $20. It’s nearly desert here, so after a week of fearing the forbidding cold waters of the Pacific, I completely flipped and made a beeline for the lake and a swim. Oh god that was awesome. The free (cold) showers, soap dispensers, hot dry air, and many tree/bush branches made it an ideal spot for hobo laundry, so I took care of some of that too. Finally got to cook my macaroni, ate another half loaf of raisin bread, and am now munching on a Mamma Lamma blueberry scone as a bedtime snack.

Food list:
Half a loaf of raisin bread (670 calories)
Banana
Apple juice
Chocolate milk
Blueberry muffin
Last oatmeal cookie from Mom
3 large handfuls of peanut M&Ms
Spicy bagel sandwich
Tortilla chips
Beer
Banana
Raspberry Danish
650 calories of pasta
Another half loaf of raisin bread
Blueberry scone

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2012 at 9:54 am and is filed under 2012 Bike Tour, bike. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.