A few days in NorCal

[melville]

I got through tax season and had arranged a few days to get out and about to see some folks. But then, none of the people I expected to see were where I had expected to see them. So I took the same days and went where I wanted to go. In my car trip last November, I sampled CA Hwy 49 from Auburn south. I wanted to see the northern bits of 49, and check out Grass Valley. The plan looked like this. Here's Ernst, almost ready to go:



I'll have a gear review as part of this report. The bag on the back of the seat is new, as is the Camelbak pack leaning on the wall.

When checking CL a couple days before I found this:

https://humboldt.craigslist.org/mcy/d/m ... 17182.html

They were going my same way, and about the same time. I figured I'd show up and be social and maybe ride a ways with these guys. Here's the bunch gathering:



They ended up around 20 riders. I had the only bike with either air cooling or spoked wheels. But the older guys were giving my bike mad props. We rolled out right about on time at 10. Then they disappeared:

https://youtu.be/b7oAo6BVNqA

But I caught up to some of them when the road got rough:

https://youtu.be/V7xKfS7Zhsk

That's the section of 36 that is closed on weekdays while they straighten it. This may be my last ride on the original alignment on my favorite section. I rode with those guys for another couple miles before they turned off at the Dinsmore Mall. The growers who live in the hills nearby call it the Mall because you can get everything you need there--fuel, hydroponics supplies, food, and for the off the gridders up there, print porn. With another 100 miles to go to Red Bluff, I figured I'd see the sportbikers again but they never caught back up.

Other than the construction zone, 36 was its usual awesome. Here's a favorite bit near the Red Bluff end:

https://youtu.be/sZa8HOtTgRU

I'll leave off here for tonight.

[melville]

Picking up from Red Bluff, where I stopped to lose a layer of liner. 36 continues east from RB, but it's a very different road and terrain. Here's a look mostly west from a vista point:



Long sightlines and long straightaways as you climb up from the valley floor. Eventually you hit the mountains again and the road gets curvier, really improving when you get to the south entrance to Lassen National Park. I continued on 36/89 from there, leaving 36 behind at Lake Almanor. 89 joins 70 for a bit and then meets 49 after Graeagle and Calpine. 49 climbed steadily from the junction with 89 as I headed west, reaching 6,750 feet at Yuba Summit. On the uphill side, there was still a lot of sand on the road from winter road operations and after a couple little sand twitches from the bike I was concerned about the other side of the pass. But no worries, the other side was fully swept and made a great ride especially where it shared a canyon with the Yuba River. Here's a 49 sampler, just over the top of Yuba Summit:

https://youtu.be/rtknmBpT4G4

And another, well down the hill:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jUYAbTSAmc

49 took me back to civilization when it met Hwy 20 in Nevada City and it became slabbish to Grass Valley. But it wasn't that far. I got to GV and found my hotel quickly:



Parking was around the back. A very pleasant place. An Irish band was rehearsing in the restaurant when I got there. It looked like they ordered dinner once a week and brought their instruments.

All that riding made me hungry, of course. But Maria's was just down the street. Nom nom nom:







Well sated, I wobbled back to the hotel and slept the sleep of the just.

[Zombie Master]

Livin' the good life!

[melville]

I awoke the next morning and had some time to kill before the 9:00 yoga class I had planned to attend. So I wandered about Grass Valley and checked stuff out.

On this place, the neon looked legit:



A quick call to Google revealed it was legit:

http://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/dealer/

That's the 110 S Auburn address.

There's a way cool movie theater:



And this was a couple blocks away:



in the front yard of this fabulous house:



I went to yoga after this, here, where the teacher/owner knew one of my teachers back home. A great class.

After class I wandered a bit and made it into this bookstore, which is worth visiting. I'd have left some room in my bags if I'd known about this bookstore. It was like Shorey's Books back in Seattle, but cleaner and well-lit, if a bit smaller.

Then it was back to the hotel to check out and load up.

[melville]

All checked out and bike loaded, it was time to go to Santa Rosa. I'd planned to take this route, but I missed where 128 took off to the right and ended up on 121, which took me to the city of Napa. 121 was great! I was happy with my mistake. It becomes Monticello and in town it becomes Trancas. I took it across town and past Hwy 29. When I got there, I kinda remembered that I needed to get on 29 to get back to 128 but I really didn't wanna ride 29, which is slabbish for a stretch. So I took the first sizable county road after crossing 29. I figured it would get me closer to where I wanted to be. It turned out to be a real goat trail of a paved road, Dry Creek Road. I stuck with it because I remembered seeing that road name when I was setting this trip up. On the uphill side, going west from Napa, it's deep in the trees. Once over the top, it's called Trinity and it's out of the trees. Here's a sampler:

https://youtu.be/nDfIVt_mVO0

The GoPro distorts things--that's a steep descent, mostly in second gear.

Here are speedier times on 128, approaching Lake Berryessa:

https://youtu.be/2wj1tFQti6M

The minivan that pulled out from the right was not as big a deal as it may have looked--Airheads dive quite a lot under braking. I had time for a friendly wave to the den mother and to see her blush.

Editing to add Lake Berryessa pix:






Trinity Road dumped me on Hwy 12, which I took to Santa Rosa and my cheep motel.

[Zombie Master]

Santa Rosa has some nasty accommodation.

Good trip.

[melville]

After checking in at my motel and finding my room was much better than the one I had last time, I took a walk to go to evening yoga. I found that this:



Had turned into this:



The car belongs to a friend of one of my internet friends. He saw the pic last year and said the top was getting chopped over the winter. And it has!

Yoga class was good, a nice bookend to my Misdirected Monday. After class, it was time for a burrito. I'd been to Taqueria Las Palmas last year and it was excellent, but doing the same thing again does not advance the cause of burrito science.

I'd called Google about where else to go, and it looked like there were several options if I crossed the freeway. So in the fading light, I set off in search of dinner. I found Lola's, which is a large Mexican supermarket with a taqueria on the side. I had the distinct impression that Mayra was trying out her English when she took my order. She had a good sense of humor when I tried out my Spanish right back at her. Anyway, the money shots:





Pollo, Super. And worthy, but not as good as Las Palmas.

After eating, I set out to walk back to my motel. In the twilight, I'd gotten 90 degrees off directionally and so I wandered quite a while thinking I was going East when in fact I was going South. Not that it would have mattered--not only are there only a few spots to cross the freeway, but I was on the other side of the recently newly active railroad tracks. There are even fewer places to cross the tracks. So I backtracked and found myself at Lola's again and walked back under the freeway to downtown and then South to my motel. So ended my Misdirected Monday, with about 1 1/2 hours of walking.

[melville]

So it occurs to me that I never quite finished this report. Indeed, it's not obvious that I made it home. So here we go. I woke up the next morning and got my stuff together. I'd moved a setting on my camera and got this result for my bike at dawn, purely by accident:



Once loaded up, I went shopping over to Cyclegear for a jacket where I found a worthy Alpinestars model. I placed an order for the 'Hi-Viz' version, but you'll see that it's just relatively Hi-Viz, not nuclear yellow or orange, when I get pix of it in a bit. I headed north, first on 101 but at Healdsburg I turned to Dry Creek Road (yes, another Dry Creek) which is more or less an ancient 101 alignment when combined with Dutcher Creek Road. This made for a good mellow ride for a bit to Cloverdale. I've wondered about Dutcher Creek Road and how it got its name. Reading it straight, I come up with 'the road of the creek of the people who are more Dutch than you.'Then back to 101 until I was nearly to Leggett, where I picked up Hwy 271, which snakes around 101 for a few miles as it is another old alignment for 101. I like this road, as it keeps me from the cherry picking CHiPs who hang out at the bottom of the hill on 101, like this one:



That happened when I was feeling a bit of time pressure after 10 days away and in the middle of a 400 mile day. Lesson learned--any fun vehicle NEEDS to go on 271.

Back to 101, and safely home from Leggett. But with some unfinished business in Santa Rosa. More to come.

[Zombie Master]

How about some Vietnamese?

[melville]

How about some Vietnamese?

They all ride Honda Cubs. I might have problems keeping up.