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At 10 AM on Friday, Day 1, we met my parents and some friends at the Santa
Cruz Wharf in California. Bob and I had already ridden down from Scotts Valley
to our start point. Mile Zero. Alan Kayser, who had gone over our bicycles for
us prior to our departure, and his wife Sue drove over from Saratoga to help
send us off. A small group of fellow ACTC riders had ridden
over the mountain
from Saratoga the day before and planned to ride back to Saratoga with us for
moral support to start this journey.
John Zidak rode to the summit, then back to his Santa Cruz home. Judy Devlin, Bill Reisinger, Margaret Barnes, and Richard Brunner rode all the way.
We had a really nice first day along the coast to Capitola then over Old San Jose Rd., our first hill (mountain to me). For our first and second day we were lucky enough to ride without the extra weight of panniers, since we had previously given them to someone in the club driving to the Del Valle campout . This was good since we had only ridden 200 miles to prep ourselves for this ride and the first 2 days were over mountains.
Richard Brunner and Margaret Barnes let us stay at their home the first night. We had a wonderful evening with Margaret and Richard, then got up early to ride to Milpitas with Richard and then over Calaveras to the ACTC campout at Del Valle. Out of shape! I walked up a section of Calaveras, then walked again the final ascent up to the top before we dropped into Del Valle.
We arrived just in time to put the tent up before it started raining. It poured through the night. Not all of our fellows ACTCers were prepared for rain.
After a luscious and filling breakfast, we snipped and sniped at each other about the proper way to pack up in the rain. It was our first day organizing the panniers after having emptied them the night before.
All our friends packed up for their return ride to San Jose, but Bob and I headed out for our first day by ourselves. We waited for them all to leave so they wouldn’t see us walking up the hill out of the campground with our loaded bikes.
Deb on the Road out of Del ValleI could see us walking across America - average speed 3 mph. We headed north on Vasco Rd up through California's Sacramento Valley. It drizzled all day. We were soaked through. The hand dryer at McDonalds was used to dry my hair during our snack stop. We unanimously decided to pass on camping on Brannan Island and got a motel room in Rio Vista next to a laundromat and restaurant. The room had kind of a smoky smell but it was great. It was dry. The owner did not want us to take our bikes inside, but I convinced her that I would wash them first and that I had a tarp to put under them.
A chance of showers today. We’re heading north for Davis. Dry bags, tent and shoes. Everything is now safely wrapped in plastic. The water repellant panniers are not water proof.
Well it’s Monday, Day 4, and we started out with a partly cloudy day. We had a terrible couple miles on Route 12 out of Rio Vista. We almost got run over by a big truck. There is no shoulder, and it’s not a good road for cycling. For safety’s sake we decided to take some back roads instead of Route 12 and wound up on muddy, dirt roads. It was really, really awful. We had mud coming up through our fenders and derailleurs. It was not a good experience. But after that we had a pretty good ride. The weather cleared, and we wound our way north on some more back roads. We saw a lot of farm country, and it was pretty nice. Toward the end of the day we got stuck on this terrible road that they were preparing to repave. They have a machine that roughs up the surface, and we had to ride on it for about five miles. We called it riding over waffles. The road looked like a giant waffle. The road felt like a giant waffle. We did enjoy Davis which is known as the Bicycle Capital of California. They were bicycles and bicycle paths everywhere and lots of nice bicycle shops. We finished the day in Woodland, California in a Motel 6. We went 55 miles today.
When we left Rio Vista on Highway 12 this morning, there was a big truck that I got sucked behind. There was so much vortex that I wobbled back and forth and almost fell over. The truck did not move over at all. We took the next road to the right, but it didn’t stay paved long. We wanted to stay on these back roads to stay off the highway, but it was mud-suckin’ riding and we didn’t like it. After a slow 7-8 miles we reached another paved road. The rest of the way up the valley we rode through wheat fields – all the dogs were fenced, which was good. We lunched in Dixon with the high school bunch and then rode more back roads to Davis. I had numerous pee stops while Bob held my bicycle up. Then we hit waffle land…my crotch! Two more days and we start going up hills. Ooooohhhhh…
I did buy a full-sized floor pump today because I didn’t like this other tiny little pump. It was just too hard to pump up tires so now we’re schlepping around this big pump. At least it’s light. On our third day, after leaving Del Valle, I got a flat tire coming down the hill. I had hoped that it would be our first and only, knock on wood, flat, but it wasn’t. We had packed the tubes in corn starch so they would be lubricated and easy to change. But we really didn’t stop and think that corn starch in the rain can get pretty sticky.
We’re also getting a little bit sore at night after we get done riding and a half hour later, walking hurts, and some of the muscles get a little stiff. I’m beginning to think that we should have done more training rides. Maybe 200 miles wasn’t enough?
Bob will carry the floor pump across America. He wanted it. He carries it.
I did, and I did. All the way. And happily.
We rode through many fields of winter wheat and alfalfa ready to be harvested and baby corn plants just coming up. Lots and lots of tomatoes. There must be a lot of money in tomatoes. John Wiley Trucking has lots and lots of trucks for tomatoes, peaches, and sand and gravel. What a combination! Plus I really hurt. My butt hurts, my back hurts, my legs hurt. We can hardly walk when we get done. It’s not like a pain, it’s like whenever we move, it hurts. It’s all Bob’s fault.
Whine, whine, whine…
Oh, yeah, what about you?
We went from Woodland to Colusa and most of the route was right along the Sacramento River. We were mostly on a levee road. There was almost no traffic--probably only had 3-4 cars passed us in about 40 miles. The weather was really nice. The wind was at our back and we only had one flat. My rear tire again. And other than that it was fairly uneventful. We had a wonderful dinner. Deb will tell about the dinner and the funny guy who owned the place where we ate.
We had a good shoulder leaving Woodland to Knight’s Landing. And then it wasn’t a great road that we took along the river. Parts of it were very bumpy. There was one dirt section, but most of the day the wind was at our backs and what Bob said was true. We were on and off the levee. There was no traffic and we just chatted and moseyed along.
Bob at a Walnut Grove near ColusaExcept for those 3 BIG dogs in the middle of the road, it was an uneventful day. As we dropped down off the levee to pass in front of a farm house, we looked ahead and there they were, already stiff legged and centered in the road. No roads around. We dismounted, put the bicycles around us and slowly walked by them until they were out of sight.
Yards in the valley were full of spring blooms. Roses in full first bloom. Remember this is California in May.
After setting up camp in Colusa we tried to find a restaurant. The local bike shop owner directed us to one down the street. They weren’t serving so we went to another referred restaurant. By the time we arrived the owner knew we were coming because one of the patrons at the other establishment had already gotten to the bar and told everybody that 2 new riders were in town. The owner kept coming out and asking us questions and then going back to report to the people at the bar. We could hear him telling the guys at the bar, then he would come out and ask us a couple of more questions about our trip. We would tell him our route and how we were going across Oregon and Wyoming, then he would go back to the bar. A small town. This is what is happening here. We like Colusa. There are lots of little parks with tree lined streets. We are at Sacramento State Recreation Area. Right on the river. It’s a nice campground. No bugs. Good showers.
We left the campground in Colusa early…it was a beautiful clear day. No clouds. Found the river road parallel to the Sacramento River again. Once again we tried to ask the local truck drivers for route suggestions. They said to stay on the main highway, so we ignored that suggestion. For a long time we had no wind. Walnuts and fields and rice. Heading closer to Chico though we were looking for the town of Afton. We were going up all these roads and then one business had a sign that said Afton General Store, so we decided that we were there. Bought our food there. 25 more miles to Chico.. Sure enough…that was the town. That is probably what it is going to be like all the way across the country. We have got to stop and buy our food when we find it, cause you never know when or if you will find it again.
With dismay in my voice, I state "Then the wind shifted." We are riding not straight into it, but it is blasting us to the side and it started to rain. We put on our rain gear and it stopped. Ominous huge black clouds. By the time we arrived in Chico they had blown away. Got a motel room here and some more maps. We did not take the route that I had planned on Highway 32 to Chester because it was too steep, windy and narrow and too much traffic plus it had just snowed up there. Following the recommendation of the locals we will ride north to Red Bluff along Highway 99. It will not be a fun day riding. Nobody seems to ride north here. They all ride to the south and nobody could tell us a good route to go. We are just going to hit the big road and blast away.
Bob got another flat on his rear tire yesterday, so when we got to Chico we bought some Mr. Tuffy’s for the rear tires. Mr. Tuffy has now been installed on both bicycles. Have to see how that works. So the second night in a row we have had excellent dinners. We are going to eat our way across America.
On the way to Chico we also stopped at the Llano Seco Wildlife Refuge. They were just bazillions of kinds of birds flying around, and it was beautiful and green - very nice. Then as we got north towards Chico you could see the storm blowing through. Big huge black clouds going from the west to the east. We got there after they did, so we got just a couple of drops of rain. It got cold in the middle of the day.
Note the above comment: west to east. The winds blow from the west. In retrospect no one will ever be able to talk me into riding from the east to west.
It took us a while to get out of Chico. We didn’t have a good route. Finally we took the bike path way up around the airport and wound up going up in the hills a little bit before cutting back over to 99. The first part of 99 was pretty harrowing without much of a shoulder, and there were lots of trucks of trucks going by, but further up the shoulder widened, and it became pretty nice. It was a good ride. Sunny. No clouds. Now we are in Red Bluff where we had a pretty good steak dinner. Our waitress Rachel was quite beautiful.
Deb at the Sacramento River near Red Bluff
Tomorrow we finally hit the hills. We are at the north end of the Sacramento Valley. We are out of flat spots. We are headed up into the hills tomorrow to a KOA Campground. This is Thursday night. It is supposed to rain Sunday and Monday.
Another day was flat, but we rode into head wind all day, so I feel like I am getting stronger. As long as we have got all day to go our 5 miles I should be OK. I know, if I want to get across America I will have to ride a little farther than 5 miles each day.
At lunch in a diner we asked for route advice or suggestions to get off Hwy 99. No ideas from the car drivers. I asked the sheriff . He said stay on 99. Drivers only know the highways even if they live in an area.
We are lazy. We didn’t look for a campground. That would have entailed riding a couple of more miles away from our turn-off point. There were clouds. It might rain. Let’s just get a room! Yeah! TV. Weather channel. King-size bed and hot shower.
We left Red Bluff and headed up towards Lassen National Park. It’s our first day climbing, and WE CLIMBED. We got to what the locals call "The Big Hill". It was, and we just walked most of the way. This sucker was extremely steep.
We started up Highway 36 out of Red Bluff and there were quite a few trucks
for the first 11 miles. Not much shoulder or intermittent shoulders. Trucks were
constantly passing simultaneously in both directions. Then we turned off the
highway at Jakes Place. The owner had lived in Santa Cruz many years ago, but
left for the country quiet. We turned off on a side road through gently rolling
grazing land. 
While we were stopped to eat a snack I noticed a sign across the road -- "Soap Butte Hunting Club---No Hunting"
It was gentle climbing for another 16 miles to a little town called Manton. This was not really a town, but there was a diner. The 80-year old waitress said we could sit anywhere we liked. She took our order and then she scratched her head, then she went looking for the pie. Meanwhile somebody asked her for ketchup---she totally lost it. She came back to Bob and asked "What did you want?" "Pie". "Oh, oh, let me go see what kind of pie we have". She came back looked at me and said "What was it you wanted?" I said "Soup".. Meanwhile the little diner had filled up. Everybody in the little town must have shown up simultaneously. There were people talking fishing and the place was full. People were getting their own sodas. A half hour later she comes back and says to me " We don’t have any soup." So I thought I’d try something really simple and asked for potato salad. Finally we got 2 root beers. We ordered the same soda to make it easier and a piece of pie. Bob had a great piece of banana cream pie. Yummm, he loved it. I had my potato salad. I took us maybe an hour to get 2 root beers, one piece of pie and one potato salad.
Then we started climbing. The road the rest of the way to Highway 44 was only 5 miles and we maybe rode 2.5. We walked most of it. It was steep. It was not fun. It was not even fun walking. It was steep, steep, steep. We had to push the bicycles up and up and up. We got to Shingletown and there is nothing here. We arrived at our KOA campground where we had little deli sandwiches for dinner. Got the tent set up and took our glorious hot showers. Almost dark. Almost bedtime. It is cold up here. Snowed 2 days ago. It is overcast now and it doesn’t look like it is going to storm, but the bicycles are covered. It will be a cold ride tomorrow. Try to make it to Burney Falls.
The countryside we rode through today was beautiful. It is just spring time. The lupine, sweet peas, dogwood blooming. First time I have been to this Lassen area in the spring time. Green grass. Hasn’t been hot yet. Really, really nice.
I should point out that we left the Sacramento River Valley and all the farms. We passed through scrub oak, and now we are up in the pine trees and the big redwoods.
There are no redwoods here. Those are cedars.
OK. There are lots of big cedars that look just like redwoods.
It is Saturday night. We are in Fall River Mills in a motel. We had a 60-mile day. The first part of the day was all uphill. We went up and up and up to just under 6000 feet, and then we down and down and down to about 3000 feet. It was pretty good. We did all right. Except in the morning we couldn’t find any food. We went 25 miles before we found food. We had a nice big breakfast. The last part of the day was pretty easy until we got close to Fall River Mills, and then we got to another uphill. Anyway we found a motel. We just beat a rainstorm in. We got a few raindrops and it was kind of cold. The scenery was just gorgeous around Lassen and the lava beds.
Viola was to be our breakfast stop. There was no food to be found. We ate
power bars and dried apricots. It was 14 miles up until we reached the summit at
5933 feet. This is my first mountain pass, Eskimo Hill Summit.
Here we crossed over the northern Sierra Nevada. It was almost going to rain all day long. It was cold, but then we were climbing. We were sweaty. I just took Bob’s sweat-soaked vest out its sack. He didn’t take it off during the ride up hill and he had his Burley on over it. Then it was a really nice downhill of 14-15 miles, no maybe even longer. It was a long downhill and then a lot of flat. We followed alongside Hat Creek, which is a beautiful creek. Water is high now because it is spring runoff. The redbud trees are blooming everywhere. People have lilacs in their yards and the iris is still blooming.
We saw a bicycle tourer today, but he turned off and disappeared down another road before we could say hello to him. He is the first tourer that we have seen.
The elevation is at 3500 feet here. There are lava formations all over. We took a little side road (Cassel Rd.) to get us off 299. Highway 89 was great. Very nice end of the day. 89 from Old Station or even from to where we turned off at Cassel was absolutely smooth sailing. It was a great paved road. There was a bit of a climb on Cassel Road, then a long downhill into Fall River Mills. We pumped to stay ahead of the rain.
I forgot to mention a theory that I have. A house with a peacock has a dog. 4 out of 4.
The highlight of each of my days is hot shower at the end of the ride and putting on clean clothes. I keep asking Bob, "Why are we doing this?"
We had a really good dinner tonight. Two people from the Bay Area who both had high tech jobs chucked it all and bought a little hotel in Fall River Mills. Now they are running their hotel and having a pretty good time. They are working hard, but they are happy.
If you ever come through here, have the smoked Fall River trout. It was great plus their special fresh homemade brownies with whipped cream plus fudge sauce and ice cream that Bob and I shared for dessert.
Bob is an irritating little mother. He swears at inanimate objects. It is not their fault and instead of fixing them he just swears at them. I don’t get it!
It’s just like Debbie! You know…I can’t fix her so I just swear at her.
We are lucky to arrive in Fall River Mills on Saturday night. The motel is booked up every other day of the week with a large construction crew working on a big house near by.
It is not dark yet, but it is bedtime. Bob bought a floor pump back in Davis. He has been carrying it and every time he lifts up the tool bag, he goes "oh, my god, I can’t believe I’m carrying all this" and I keep reminding him that he is a guy, that he is bigger and stronger than I am and this is as it should be.
It is Mother’s Day. Well, we left our little motel before 7 this morning. We had a long day, so wanted to get an early start. We went up the road to Steve’s Steakhouse in McArthur. The diner was open. The first thing we noticed is the variation on "You not from around here, are ya?" We were wearing the wrong hats. Everybody either has a baseball hat of some kind or a Stetson. We didn’t fit in with our bicycle helmets. They served us a nice breakfast and we took off.
Bob overlooking Fall River Mills Valley near Lassen
It was about 18 more miles to Bieber and there was a 3.5 mile grade, which I might add we did really well, a long, slow grade, so we didn’t have to get off. We are getting stronger. Then we rode, stopped at Bieber and bought sandwiches, because we were going into some pretty rural areas where we weren’t sure what we would find for food. From there we headed north on Lookout-Hackamore Rd. to where it intersected with highway 139. Maybe 20 trucks passed on this whole 30 mile section of road. It was a really nice ride with a gradual up and down but mostly flat. It was really pretty. We enjoyed it a lot. We could ride side by side and talk with each other. Then it was another 11 mile to the turnoff to Lava Beds National Monument and Tionesta. Unfortunately the grocery store here was closed early for Mother’s Day. We ate our remaining sandwich, carrots and split a Snickers bar. We were pretty hungry.
It was pretty funny when Deb walked into the restaurant, looked around, and said a little too loudly, "We’re wearing the wrong hats".
Tonight we are in a little cabin right by Lava Beds national Monument. The bathroom is across the yard. We have a nice, little cabin with a fridge and a stove and a sink and a bed, and that is about all. It’s rustic. We both got a flat tire today. Deb’s front and my rear again. That is four rear flats I’ve gotten. The last one blew off the rim during a descent. I’m beginning to get a bit nervous. I can’t true my rear wheel anymore.
It was very beautiful today. We were riding through The Big Valley as it’s called here. There are a lot of ranches and farmland, and then we went up a little higher in some really pretty forest. So we’re finally past Mt. Shasta, past Lassen, and tomorrow we should finally be in Oregon.
We were surprised at how little wildlife we saw. It was so remote that we thought we’d see more deer. We only saw 5 or 6, but we did see lots of geese. There are grasslands leading out where the Pitt River goes through the whole big valley with lots of ducks and other birds. Climbing out of the Fall River Valley was scenic also looking back over the valley toward Lassen and Shasta. There are lots of little ponds this time of year filled with snow melt and spring rain.
Monday Morning we left Tionesta. It was overcast, imminent rain, but it held off, and we rode into Lava Beds National Monument.
Deb is forgetting that last night we had a little visitor. Just before we went to bed the owners little kitty who they put out every night came in and slept with us for about half the night. It was a very affectionate kitty, and he crawled all over the place and jumped on our face, and played with our feet, and cuddled up to us and slept with us.
Before we left Tionesta we stopped at the grocery store. It’s one of those little stores that has everything and is run by an ex-biker. This is the store that was closed last night. It was open this morning. He said he was there last night and would have fed us if we had knocked on the door. Anyway, it was an ageing Hell’s Angel with tattoos all over his arms, long hair and beard in a smoky little store, but he had sweet rolls, juice, and he was making a pot of coffee. I made Bob wait while the coffee perked so I could have a cup before we took off. Bob has a hard time looking at people with tattoos and long scruffy beards, but he was pleasant enough and we talked about our ride before heading north. There was no traffic for 14 miles until we arrived at the monument headquarters. After looking at the museum and talking to the curators, we explored a lighted cave, then we headed onward. It was another 7-8 miles before a car approached. We have the whole place to ourselves. Short little hills. Not too much climbing.
From the park headquarters it was down and down until we got to the flats of Tule Lake for another 10-15 miles. It was a well paved road along the lake with the wind at our backs. Our friend Brian calls it "Big Cookie Riding". We were screaming along. The rain held off.
I was a bit disappointed when we entered Oregon. There was no "Welcome to Oregon" sign. We wanted pictures at the border of each new state. Too bad, Oregon.
40 miles till we found hot food, a breakfast place recommended by the park’s staff. We ordered our first meal at one o’clock. We were hungry after 40 miles of riding. Then it started raining. An intermittent shower. After we checked in to a Motel 6 in Klamath Falls, it started pouring. Motels 6s have washers and dryers, a very handy feature for us. Tomorrow is a layover day. No riding.
It was over a hundred miles between restaurants, so we were eating dried fruit and nuts and whatever we had along with us. We didn’t have a decent meal for over a hundred miles. Breakfast yesterday and sandwiches in between.
Anyway I had 5-6 flats on my rear tire. It is all out of whack. Not straight, so we are taking our bikes in. Tomorrow is our first rest day after 11 days riding, so we are taking a rest day here in Klamath Falls. We are getting our bikes serviced, and I want to have my rear wheel checked.