Category Archives: roadtrip

roadtrip, travel, USA

Into Oregon!

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Somehow, we ended up spending twenty-five consecutive nights in California.  That was rather unintentional – but I suppose California is just so much more populated than the previous states we’d been through & so in some cases there is more to see & do.  Our day today was rather uneventful, after a late start after watching the Wimbledon final & me finishing another Poirot (I finally picked one early – Peril at End House) we hit the road north.  Driving up the coast there were the usual alternating periods of brilliant warm sunshine & really dense fog as the road was either almost in the Pacific or just back a little in the hills.  We saw some curiously named places today – we went to Samoa (didn’t know you could drive there, did you?), Trinidad (or there), Crescent City (I suppose it’s better than Spanner City or Wrench City) & in Oregon – Wonder.

Just north of Crescent City the road left the coast & headed through many more acres of forest towards Grant Pass & the Oregon border. I was still loving the beauty of the large NorCal virgin forests & most of the road followed & crossed the Middle Fork, Smith River (the most boring place name of the day). A much smaller & less wild river than we’ve seem for some time, with its deep green colour & small falls it was stunning under a clear sky. (Speaking of rivers, it turns out that the day we went to Yosemite was the second highest day for water flow all season [a week after the highest]. We definitely lucked out there!) We had a very pleasant lunch by a calm part of the river.

It was quite a thrill to be going to a state that I’d never been to before for the first time since our one hour in New Mexico at the end of May. Over the border there was the obligatory “let’s put as many signs up as possible to explain our unique road rules” fever. Strangely, the double yellow lines seem to be a foot apart. It was as I expected – more trees! But they were subtlety different – not quite as tall & some plantation ones too. So far I’m loving Oregon – there’s no sales tax(!); the middle grade of gas is better (higher octane) than the premium gas in all the other states we’ve visited; the window brushes at the gas station actually have proper length handles (not twelve inches); you don’t have to prepay gas; & they have to pump your gas for you. Can you tell we filled up tonight? Plus, the riding here is also supposed to be brilliant.

Tomorrow we head for Crater Lake National Park – deepest lake in the country – & then to Bend to see some July 4 fireworks.

bikes, GPS, MTB, roadtrip, travel, USA

Paradise Royale

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Initial investigations led me to believe this ride was near Arcata, just north of Eureka.  It turned out it was a long way south – almost two hours’ drive (back past the Avenue of the Giants & then some really twisty roads striking towards the coast). But as Eureka was very cloudy & generally bleh, there wasn’t much to be lost by taking a day trip south.

The trail, near the Lost Coast (quite isolated for Californian coastline) is about five years old & it took me a couple of hours to ride the 18km. You can see the effort that went in to constructing it – it’s beautifully built for mountain-biking (pleasing to see the bikers have right of way for a change). The trail was in great condition, I’m not sure it would need a lot of maintenance as it’s so well built – but I imagine the fallen leaves (covered most of the trail) are trouble when they are wet. Also interestingly, at a couple of the stream crossings you are instructed to use the stepping stones as walking on the gravel bed disturbs the young endangered salmon.

Back to the ride itself – starting from the new trailhead it was pretty level for a while before passing the bottom of a recently constructed terrain park (looks fun, but I didn’t want to keep Valerie waiting longer). There’s a nice 150m vertical descent before the first stream crossing. From there it’s an almost uninterrupted (there is a brief respite two-thirds of the way up) 400m vertical gain. This is mostly pretty good, but stubbornly trying to stay in the middle ring all the way up wasn’t a great idea. Eventually I got to one bit that was too much for my legs, so I had to succumb to the granny ring for a few minutes. Most of this is all in thick forest & with all the switchbacks it was never too warm. As the trail levels briefly there are some small grass clearings, but never enough for a view.

The trail maxed out at about 760m above sea level before starting an excellent downhill. Most of the whole loop is pretty wide & this was no exception – wide & fast. There were plenty of little trail features that you could get nice air off & they all had really nice landings. Eventually there were a couple of places where you could finally see out to the Pacific – this wasn’t one of the most photogenic of my USA rides. The downhill continued nicely before slowly levelling out to 460m & the final stream crossing & climb back to the car. A really good ride all up, but you definitely earn that fun downhill – a bit of pity it’s so far out of the way (there is a campsite near the top of the terrain park).

After I’d cooled down, eaten & packed up we continued out to the coast to look at Shelter Cove. There were a lot of kitted-out hikers in the parking lot – turns out it’s one end of the Lost Coast walk (three days mostly along the coast). I got excited when I saw the black beach from a distance – but it wasn’t ironsand, just grey pebbles. Swimming was actively discouraged due to the surf – some really nasty looking waves that just dump instantly a couple of metres from the edge. That & the rogue waves that occasionally further up the beach & sweep bystanders away.

national park, roadtrip, travel, USA, vehicles

Redwoods

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Leaving Sacramento on another fine day, we headed north on the Five through many miles of cropping land – even saw quite a bit of rice, which was surprising. Getting off the interstate & driving west we were quickly up in the hills & going past Clearlake. There was still quite a bit more time at the wheel before getting to the Redwood Highway. I must have been getting tired as I drove straight in to a really big tree. It was just as well that we came out the other side relatively unscathed.

As we approached this tree that you could drive through, a bit of a queue was forming as some complete muppet was trying to get a big Dodge Ram (that’s a very large pickup) through the hole. He was pretty stuck & holding everyone up. Somehow, I think with quite a bit of panel compression, he eventually got out the other side & everyone else could stop laughing & drive through. Most amazingly, that tree with the big tunnel through it is still growing strongly – incredible trees.

Further north we dived off the 101 & took the much more scenic Avenue of the Giants (the old 101). There were plenty of opportunities to stop & wander around various groves of the Californian Redwoods – well, those groves that remain after extensive logging in the late 1800s & early 1900s. Having grown up near & spent so much time hiking & biking around the Redwood Grove in Rotorua, NZ, this was really special to see the originals in their natural environment so close to the coast. (The Rotorua ones were planted during the Great Depression, along with many other species, to see what grew well in the area. That grove is still doing well & a very pleasant place to stroll or ride – some of the best trailpark riding in NZ is close by.) Able to grow well over 100m tall & for a couple or three thousand years – these are definitely the tallest living things on earth. To see so many of them was just fantastic. As I mentioned before, they can still continue to grow well despite scarring, holes & hollows in the base of the trunk. It was a little weird standing in the center of the base of a still living hundred metre tall tree.

Needless to say we spend a lot of time wandering around with crooked necks & jaws dropped. It was so nice & cool down on the ground & quite dark too. With light poking through the canopy & my snapshot-only photo ability, it’s rather difficult to get the proper impression of just how tall these trees are. But here’s a few token pictures to satisfy those who can’t abide all my words (not that such people are still reading).

A fallen giant – as the wood decomposes so slowly, dead trees can stick around for hundreds of years providing shelter for all sorts of plants & animals.

For some reason I’d decided on three nights in Eureka – which is not really all that big of a town. It had clouded over nicely by the time we arrived & the wind had picked up making it hardly attractive. Still we have a room & the historic downtown which I discovered this afternoon is quite nice (although with a strange lack of red, white & blue for the upcoming holiday weekend). Today we had a pretty lazy day, driving north to Redwood National & State Parks. I was feeling rather lethargic (I think excusable after two months on the road), so didn’t go for a ride (it would have mostly ended up being on the road). We walked through a few more groves (the Lady Bird Johnson Grove was particularly good) & marvelled at the magnificent trees a bit more.

(Because these trees are so old & so weathered being near the coast, their bark is grey-brown. If you want to see red Redwoods – go to Rotorua.

Taken for the meadow – not any Redwoods

family, history, roadtrip, travel, USA, vehicles

Sacramento

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Our first morning in Sacramento dawned a lot drier than it had been when we drove in to town the afternoon before. As it was Valerie’s birthday, we had a day off from driving & biking – instead we walked a short distance along the river to Old Sacramento. There’s still quite a few of the old buildings left around this part of the riverside & it was a pleasant walk around them & by the vessels docked. What was billed as North America’s best railroad museum was also in the vicinity so we popped in there to have a look.

The museum did a really good job of covering how the expansion of the railroad helped the nation to mature. There were also, of course, many big shiny old locomotives & carriages. Most of the wood-burning steam locos were quite small (4-4-0), but beautifully presented.

In this case, not so beautifully photographed

The biggest steam loco was one of the last built for Southern Pacific (in the 1940s). A cab-forward design (the locos were getting so big all the steam & so on was getting to be a problem in tunnels on cab-rear designs) it was a hulking great big thing with sixteen drive wheels (4-8-8-4). Unfortunately, it was only in service for twelve years as it was superceded by diesel. Another highlight was finally getting to go on a Pullman car – this one a sleeper.

Strolling for fifteen minutes or so after lunch in to downtown Sacramento, we reached the Capitol. With extensive gardens around it, the building itself is also impressive. We wandered around a bit looking at various displays before getting our now weary legs back to the motel.

Valerie’s birthday dinner was on the Delta King – a old paddlewheel boat moored in Old Sacramento that we’d seen earlier in the day.

I’m convinced that whoever was building that pyramid across the river got bored & gave up


It was by far the fanciest meal we’d had in a long time – it was great to have a break from over-enthusiastic & overbearing waitresses. As we were walking around the deck at the end of the meal we saw Tower Bridge lift its deck for a launch & as we got back on dry land I saw my first skunk (thankfully from a distance). But that sighting didn’t sour my impressions of Sacramento – the small part of what we saw (all downtown) was really nice, & we had two great meals to boot.