Would You Like Ice With That? - 335 miles

The day started out pretty cool. We weren't rugged up because - this is supposed to be a summer trip. Might have to buy some extra clothes though.

Charleen is wearing the wet weather jacket. It works well as a windbreak and with the summer jacket on underneath it is a good compromise. Well - almost.

First bad sign of the day was a little one outside Chester saying Hwy89 through the park was closed. We kept on anyway and rode up to the park to be greeted by a happy ranger who informed us the road was still being cleared of snow and would not be fully open for a couple of days yet. But it was OK to go as far as we could, so we did.
A great ride up there with the road in places dropping right off the edge. No pulling over here. We had our first look at snow close up. Pretty dirty and melting at this time of the year, but it gave a nice touch to the scenery. I even dug some out from under to chew on. Checked the colour first.

After quite a few pics and some drive-by photography, we headed back down to the ranger station and over coffee made alternate plans of travel. There was nothing for it, we had to go around. But the problem was fuel. The closest was Red Bluff some 70 miles away and we already had 160 miles on the clock since last fuel-up. But it looked OK and was mostly downhill as we were at over 7000ft again.

Down we went. Still quite painfull for Charleen with her headcold and blocked ears. We made it in to town with 230 miles on the trip and put in 5.81 gallons. How many gallons does a Goldwing hold? I don't know.

Then we turned on to the I-5 freeway towards Redding where I thought we were to turn west towards the coast. But madam GPS had other ideas. She ordered us off the freeway about half way there and led us a merry distance through farming areas. It looked like they were farming rocks. The fields were very rock-strewn and all the fences were drystone walls. Throughout the fields there were reo-mesh baskets about 3ft high and filled with rocks. Then we saw the entrance to one farm and sure enough the mesh baskets were on pallets ready for shipping.

Turns out I had left one waypoint in when re-routing so the GPS had led us back there. Oh well - better than boring Interstate.

Back through Redding we went and eyed off a large mountain range in front of us. We had to go either over or around. Either prospect was Ok by us. After a delightful chase up the west side we were stopped by roadworks for quite a while. Finally got going and cleared the traffic before we were stopped again - even longer this time. A good twenty minute wait.
The rest of the road was worth it though. We were the first vehicle through and the twisty road was good fun and we were fairly sure there would be no one slowing us up. That was until we heard a siren wailing behind and a quick glance showed a Sherrif's 4WD coming up fast behind us. Uh Oh. I knew we were pushing it a bit, but were hardly doing much more than the state limit of 55 in these sharp couners. So I slowed and signalled I was ppulling over, except there was nowhere to do so. He hit the fast sirens and I pulled as far right as I could and he roared past and disappeared into the distance. Phew!!

A bit later we got to the next little town and the road curved left - turning straight towards a big blue-black cloud we had been paralelling. We decided to put the wets on just in case. This was getting a daily occurrence. A little rain each afternoon. Well, we were getting used to it. But, you know Mother Nature, just when you think she has done her worst - she does worse. We entered a heavily forested area with tight corners and steep grades just as the storm hit. Strong winds, then heavy rain, then hail. Ouch ouch ouch. Hail on the knuckles hurts. There was no place to safely shelter so it was power on. The rain got heavier and the hail continued and we were sloshing along the road and up in to the teeth of the storm - ours gritted with steely determination. So she gritted hers. Around one corner we were faced with a road covered in ice from recently fallen hail. Bloody Heck!! Hell had frozen over and we had to ride through it.

And we did. Not quickly mind you and yes it was slippery in bits. We even went by a car that had pulled over and stopped when it got too much. Well lucky them. We had to keep going. Putting the feet down would probably have seen the bike on its side.

Finally got through and we then had a nice misty ride on wet roads all the way down to near the coast where we joined Highway 101 where we headed just a few miles north to Eureka and our arranged meeting place with Jack.

With the cold weather and Charleen still not very well, we opted for a cabin. Nice little log building not much bigger than our tent but more cosy and it even has a heater. Nice.

We received some emails from Jack, the upshot of which he is mobile again and staying tonight about half way between Bishop and here at his parent's place. He will join us for dinner tomorrow night, as we planned to stay here two nights. We are going for a little day-ride in to the mountains tomorrow. Should be fun.

Charleen - Have you sorted today's photos yet?
Now our laundry is done, I'll find some photos for you :).

She did - and here they are.

Road to the sky

Ice with that?

nICE photography

Nice wave

Yep, they pass on that side

Ice with THAT?

Luckily no ice with that