Steak's Ride From Seattle, WA to Loomis, CA

Day One:

Left Seattle at 3pm and arrived in Roseburg, OR at 10:20pm.  After getting such a late start I pretty much just bombed it down I-5 to eat up as much mileage as possible.

My first gas up was just south of Portland in Tigard, Oregon which was 177 miles with 4.20 gallons for 42.1 MPG.  Second gas up was in Roseburg, Oregon which was 167 miles with 4.03 gallons for 41.4 MPG.

Ate dinner at Dos Amigos Fiesta and feasted on a nice bowl of Molcajete and a Margarita rocks with salt...  

If the weather holds tomorrow my plan is to cut over to Crater Lake for some beautiful scenery and some mountain twisties, then down through Klamath Falls and into California.  I'm hoping to route along Mt. Shasta and then into Mt Lassen Nat'l wilderness favoring the Sierra Nevada Range routes.

This embedded map should update automatically as my SPOT Tracker keeps updating my positions via satellite.  

Embedding the map seems to screw up the forum formatting, so here is a link to the SpotWalla map page. I'll have to figure out the embedding problem later...

This is cool. Not as good as being there, but cool never the less.

Upon reflection, I am probably going to skip Crater Lake, Mt. Shasta, and Mt. Lassen (too much snow still) in favor of a HWY 96 loop west from Yreka to Happy Camp and Willow Creek.  Should be a good day...





Click the "View Larger Map" link to see the actual proposed route. Another embedding problem to figure out...

Jude and I did some of that area last summer on the Cali. Great area but it was very smokey due to fires at the time.

Pete

Soooooo.
Loomis, CA is Very Far Away from me.
Quite a bit of trouble to rendevouz.

Dat's what I told you...  

Glad you're getting some riding time, hope the weather holds up for you! Fingers crossed I might get to go for a ride this weekend!

very cool!

Ohhhhhh. You happy bastard!

Suspect your loop thru Klamath National forest and Weaverville, CA to Redding, CA was an inspired choice. What did you think of those twisties, eh?

Cheers,
Jin

Did you go tramping thru the Sierra's??   

Day Two:

What a fantastic day of riding.  Long day (12 hours), but well worth the investment.  Scenic Highway 96 out of Yreka over to Happy Camp and then on to Willow Creek was pure bliss along the Klamath River.  The weather was perfect for riding.  Clear blue skies, light breeze, temperatures in the 80s, 150 miles of constant turning.  From big, gentle sweepers to full on corkscrew twisties as the road follows the Klamath River.  With nary another vehicle to share the road with on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon, it was an epic detour...  Other that a few delays for road/slide repairs where both directions funneled into a single lane, there wasn't much of any reason to slow down to take some photos.  I did manage to stop a couple of times, photos appearing below.  I have to say though that my favorite stretch of all came between Willow Creek and Redding on the way back to the I-5 corridor.  There were sections through here that were absolutely sublime with toes and pegs touching down on perfectly smooth and well banked chicanes that were like riding on a roller coaster.  Click here to view this stretch on Google Maps.

After departing Roseburg, Oregon just after 11am, I arrived in Yreka, California just after 2pm where I stopped for a gas up and a Cheeseburger.  At 2:40pm I turned onto Hwy 96 and headed for Happy Camp (appropriately named) where I stopped 80 minutes later to snap a few photos and to enjoy a nice pipe on the riverside.  By 6:40pm I was in Willow Creek for another gas up and headed back to Redding and I-5 for the slog down to Sacramento.  I had no idea that the fantastic ride was only to get that much better...

I rolled into Redding just as the sun was setting at a quarter past 8pm.  Fuck, still 3 more hours down the drone of I-5 just to get to Sacramento...  I would have loved to take a more interesting route to Loomis, but it was already late, I was starting to get tired, and the thought of dodging wildlife on unlit backroads for the next 4 hours was not very appealing.  So down I-5 I went.  Fortunately, with a 70 MPH speed limit, I was able to average about 80 MPH in the dark of night to make it to Don's before midnight.  On the plus side, I did make good time and rolled into Don's garage in Loomis, CA at about 11:15pm.  Long day...

Here are some photos:

Loaded up in my driveway and ready to roll.
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After a tedious slog down I-5 the whole way, a tasty Margarita at Dos Amigos Fiesta in Roseburg, Oregon was a welcome reward.
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Then came the tasty Mexican stew, albeit not in the traditional and namesake Molcajete stone bowl, satisfying...
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Wednesday, on the road to Happy Camp - Seattle, in California???
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On a nondescript corner in Happy Camp...
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Even the cryptic Sasquatch is drawn to the mighty GRiSO...
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With a Caltrans road crew limiting traffic just ahead as they cleared a big rockslide, it was time to enjoy a spot on the Klamath.
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Time to break out the pipe for a little Meat Pie...  A shot of nicotine was just what the doctor ordered, as the sun was making me weary.
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Yummy!
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Last pic for the day, the hazards of riding along a river when the sun is going down...  Although it was great for cutting the glare of oncoming headlights while bombing down the interstate.
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Got the chicken strips down to all but a couple-few millimeters...
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Dolce.

Looking very philisophical here.


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This ride report is great fantastic. Thanks for sharing!


 

DAMN those are some bugs!!!!!

You did 299? Hell yeah that rocks.

Steak,

Awesome, awesome. Wish I could be there with you instead of welding and grinding and sniffing patina chemicals all day.

Go back and look at your Sasquatch pictures - the way your gear and gloves are sitting on the back  it looks like there's a baby Squatch tryin' to sneak aboard the GRiSO - maybe it's a Diavolo Nero!

Say hi to Don.

Pete 

I love the spot....lets loved one go straight to the scene of the crash  

96 is a favorite ride and such beautiful country in that whole region. Enjoying your report, thanks!