Freewheeling in California 2022

It took us a little longer to get off the island than anticipated. We hadn't made a ferry reservation for our mid-week passage as the sailings were largely unfilled. We were greeted with a possible 3 ferry wait at Duke Point. It was a rookie mistake, as it was the day before the Easter long week-end. In the end, it was just a one ferry/two hour wait before we loaded up for Tsawwassen. There was a short wait at the US border and suddenly we were thrust into the USA. We made a stop at Trader Joe's in Bellingham for supplies including the evening's dinner of lentil soup, ciabatta and salad. We pressed on to Bay View State Park (within sight of the Anacortes refinery) for the night. It was probably the coolest night of the trip. We were surprised by the level of ambient noise including the distant interstate, trains, helicopters and so forth; civilization was not far away.

We drove through Seattle on the I-5 the following morning after rush hour and we had a largely uneventful drive to Portland where we were reunited with our Asian buddies Bruce & Andrea who took us in and fed us a fine pizza dinner. Bruce gave us a tour of the garden and the studio that he has been working on. The following day, we all relaxed and chatted away and that culminated in a splendid take-out Burmese dinner. We also went out for a couple of walks and I purchased a T-Mobile prepaid SIM card that provided us with oodles of cellular data throughout our trip.

The I-5 was quiet on Easter Sunday. We stopped in Medford and went in the REI and neighbouring Trader Joe's before continuing on over the California border. We detoured through not overly interesting Mt Shasta City and then checked into the Shasta Lodge which was offering off-season rates for their comfortable cabins.

The morning drive to Redding from Shasta Lodge took less than hour. We parked at the Turtle Bay/Sundial Bridge where locals were coming and going from their walks. We unloaded the bikes and rode the Sacramento River trail up to the Shasta Lake dam. It was paved all the way and quite enjoyable. 62km with 350 of total ascent was a nice start to the trip. The campground below the dam looked pretty good so we opted to drive to it via the I-5 and showed identification in order to drive across the dam. The campground was close to an OHV (Off Highway Vehicle) area, and although it was not busy, some of the campers ran generators and it was not particularly quiet. However, the forecast light rain turned out to be much more substantial and we drove over to a covered picnic area and prepared and ate our dinner in the dry.

The following morning, we drove back to Redding and then east to Millville and parked at the elementary school. We rode out on the Whitmore road, onto the small settlement of Oak Run and back to the car; 750m of ascent on the 67km ride. Traffic was sparse through the ranch land and forest areas.

We had noticed that camping was possible at the Woodson Bridge State Recreation area. It was not busy, however we could hear the traffic going over the bridge that was a kilometre away. We went for a morning walk along the river and were impressed by the immense oak trees.

Rain was in the forecast, so we had booked accommodation in Chico. We rode a leisurely 25km loop on the west side of Chico through the almond and walnut orchards. Traffic was light and the terrain was dead flat.

We booked a studio at the "New Tudor Cottage", a short distance from the university and downtown Chico. We used the provided instructions on how to access the garage and the comfortable studio. We had an excellent experience, but never had any face-to-face contact with the owners. We wandered the downtown area on foot and the next morning, we set out on bikes to check out Bidwell Park. We ended up riding out until the asphalt gave way to dirt on the east side of town. Armed with a pdf copy of the Chico bike trails/routes, we made our way south to Costco in search of Coleman propane tanks for our cooker. No propane tanks, but we left with a $5 roast chicken. Later in the day, I followed the bike routes up to Trader Joe's and 44km of riding that day. Our Portland buddies had suggested watching "The Serpent" on Netflix and we enjoyed a couple of episodes. It did rain off and on during our stay.

We left Chico fairly early and drove half an hour to Oroville, We parked at a government building and rode a circuit around Table Mountain (50km with 500m of elevation gain). The roads were quite enjoyable. As we rode through olive orchards, bees would sometimes bounce off our faces so we were sure to keep our mouths closed. Table Mountain is well known for its Spring flowers in a volcanic area, but they did not live up to the billing.

There are state recreation areas around the Oroville reservoir. We pulled into one of them and took a campsite for the Friday night. There seemed to be but a handful of other campers that night. We encountered diurnal mosquitoes, but not enough to dampen our spirits. I rode down to the lake itself from the campsite and then over to the Oroville Dam, in total 25km with a surprising 400m of ascent required.

It was the week-end, so we checked camping availability around Clear Lake and I managed to book the last available campsite at Kelsey Creek. We could take our time that day, knowing that we had a spot reserved. First, we made a small detour near the Sacramento River to visit "Glenn, California". There wasn't much too it. Glenn is surrounded by almond groves and rice fields are not far away. We opted for a fairly leisurely ride up the Scots Valley from Lakeport. The parking area was busy because a bass fishing tournament was on that day.

Scots Valley was a 50km out and back ride from Lakeport with light uphill riding (200m in total). When we returned to Lakeport the fishermen were bringing in their catches for the weigh-in. We drove over to the campground and pitched our tent. We had a little extra time, so I rode through the mixed farmland (vineyards and pear orchards stood out) to Kelseyville and back. Some of the campers were no-shows, so it seemed very quiet for a Saturday night.

The weather forecast looked good for the next week, so we drove out to the coast from Clear Lake. We opted for the slow roads out and drove over three scenic passes via Hopland and Boonville out to Point Arena. I had read that there was a nice coastal walk south of the point, so we dropped the bikes off at the north end and drove to the south end of the hike. It was a stunning walk and we finished with a ride out to the lighthouse and rode back to the car on the edge of the village. The one hour drive along Highway #1 to Van Damme State Park was impressive. We had no problem getting a campsite; we chose one in the rain forest along the creek. In the evening, we drove a little ways south to check out a beach that we had passed on the way in.

In the morning, we loaded up the bikes onto the car and drove over to the Pygmy forest which was a bit of a yawn. We carried onto Mendocino and parked the car. We did a Mendocino bike tour that totalled 40km. By chance, we rode down to the mouth of Big River and spotted a gated road. We rode on good gravel 20km out and back along the river. Later we accessed the Mendocino headlands, periodically locking up our bikes and checking out the rugged coastline on foot.

We had more time in the day, so we drove north, stopping first at Russian Gulch State Park and through Fort Bragg. We had read that there was a paved path going north and we jumped on our bikes for another out and back ride of 20km, mostly along the beach. The Pudding Creek trestle was another point of interest on the path.

We packed our tent and headed north up the California coast. We passed Westport and then drove up the hill on the Branscomb road. Once we hit the high point, we found a place to park the car and we rode the Branscomb road out and back (45km with 200m of ascent). It was quiet. The mill at Branscomb had shut down some years earlier, so there wasn't much left of the village. We passed through a small pocket of old growth redwoods (Admiral Standley recreation area) which impressed us at the time. Bigger trees lay ahead of us later in the day.

Once we were back in the car on Highway #1, the road became tortuously winding until we reached Highway 101. The Albee Creek Campground, Humboldt Redwoods State Park, would be a nice spot to camp in, but when we pulled up to it, we realized that it hadn't opened for the season yet. We retraced our steps and went to the Burlington campground on the Avenue of the Giants. We didn't have any problems getting a site, but as it turned out, a group of late arriving younger women kept us awake longer than we wished. We went for an evening stroll across the road in one of many spectacular redwood groves.

We weren't sure if our noisy neighbours were staying on, so we packed up our tent in the morning and drove to the Founder's Grove and off-loaded the bikes. There was some bridge painting going on and the access to the Matole road was closed for a short while, so we rode south along the Avenue of the Giants until the access was reopened. The Matole road goes out to the Lost Coast and it does not see much traffic, mostly redwood tourists, so it was a fantastic place to ride. We rode as far as an old cemetery and returned, stopping to walk and gawk at some of the redwood groves. Check out the video at the bottom of this page to get an idea of what it is like to ride through the giants. We rode and walked 60km that day, including the northern part of the Avenue of the Giants. We camped again at the Burlington Campground, this time without noisy neighbours.

We drove up the northern section of the Avenue of the Giants to another impressive redwood grove walk and continued on to Eureka and picked up groceries at Costco and some Coleman propane at Walmart. We were hungry and had lunch at Chipotle. We had a burrito each which was far too much food, but the leftovers went to good use the following day. We continued on to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. There were a number of campsites available at Elk Prairie, but we decided to backtrack a little and head for Gold Beach and Fern Canyon. It was a Thursday and there were a few available campsites (we later discovered that it was fully booked for the week-end). We set up camp and then continued on the gravel road to Fern Canyon. Apparently, visitor numbers are controlled beginning May 1 and we could see why as the road is tight in places and there is limited parking. We did a short loop that encompassed the impressive Fern Canyon and then headed back to the camp to feed the sandflies (blackflies). There is a nice beach there and the slightly remote campground offered hot showers and a wifi (no cell reception). Sheila got quite munched by the blackflies and a couple of weeks later was still itchy from their bites.

We had enough of the blackflies by the following morning and went up to Elk Prairie Campground. Sheila drove while I hiked the 8.5km Miners' Ridge trail to get there. Sheila spoke with the camp host and discovered that just one site (#66) was available that night so we took it. Someone had just cancelled their booking for two nights, and we ended up in the site for two nights.

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park has the Newton B Drury Parkway that runs parallel to Hwy #101 and it had very light traffic, making it a splendid bike ride. We also rolled down the Coastal Drive, left our bikes and hiked down the Carruthers Cove trail to a quiet beach. In total, we rode 40km and did a number of redwood walks. I was quite impressed by the large sitka spruce stands close to the ocean; redwoods are not salt tolerant, but the spruce trees flourish in that environment.

We had some overnight and early morning rain ; we had to do some puddle management to ensure the water would not overflow into tent place. We had a slightly late start to the day, drove out to the coast and the Sue-Meg State Park and over to Trinidad before returning for a short hike to Trilium Falls and more redwoods.

It was May 1 and we drove south, first through Arcata (a college town) for a brief walkabout. There was a May Day celebration getting underway. We stopped to pick some groceries up and a car wash before continuing onto Eureka. We drove through the old town and were impressed by some of the Victorian style architecture and made a note to return after our Ferndale visit. I had read Ferndale was interesting and we were not disappointed. We stopped by and parked at the fairgrounds where camping was available.

Our first stop was the "No Brand Burger Stand". We are not big burger fans but this was a treat. We split a jalepeno cheeseburger and a chocolate milkshake and that was plenty. We were fuelled up for the largely flat 40+km farm country ride that included going out to the coast. Later, I noticed that there were some trails at the road's end (on gaia.gps), so in the evening we drove out and took in the views and sunset at the Lost Coast Headland.

The next day we drove into Eureka and parked the car so we could spin around the old town on our bikes. Eureka seemed a little run down compared to Ferndale and there were a number of homeless people in the streets. We picked up one of the bike paths and returned to share another burrito at Chipotle.

Then we turned our car east on Highway 299. There were dark clouds and heavy showers in the area, so we stopped in Blue Lake to let them pass before continuing on. We turned north on Highway 96 through Hoopa Reservation. Beyond Hoopa, road traffic dropped off considerably. We had passed by a couple of forestry recreation sites that were closed and gated, so when we came across the Aikens Creek campground, we stopped there for the night. We had a nice site by a clear creek and there was one other camper some distance away. At one point, two dogs appeared at our campsite and we have no idea if they were with someone or simply out on a long romp.

A 20 minute drive the next morning brought us to the Salmon River. We found a river access point and unloaded the bikes. We rode up the Salmon River valley to the Forks of Salmon. That particular section of the river features Class III & IV water. Traffic was negligible (a post truck, Fed Ex van, two pick-ups supporting a rafting group , one local and an obviously terrified tourist navigating the road). It was a splendid ride out and back 60km with 600m of ascent.

We were tempted to stay around the Salmon River to ride further up the North and South forks, but decided to continue on for ongoing variety. Highway 96 passes through a surprisingly large settlement of Happy Camp before it brought us to Seiad Valley, a hamlet where we had pulled off of the PCT in 2003 (we walked the California section). We talked to the shop owner and he even offered to pull out the log books, but we didn't see the need. We turned off the 96 onto the Scott River road through Scott Bar to the Indian Scotty Campground which was closed and gated. However, we had spotted other unofficial camping areas along the river and went back a couple of kilometres. We talked to other campers and they warned us about the abundant poison oak, which was much appreciated.

The next day, we rode from our camp down the Scott river out to hay farms before turning around (32km with 200m of ascent). Traffic was light.

After the Scott river road ride, we drove out to Fort Jones and once again launched the bikes, this time out onto Scott Valley. We followed the eastern edge of the valley and made our way to Etna. We had stayed in Etna in 2003. The Denny Bar got rave reviews on Google Maps, so we had beer and a very filling lunch (we went halfers on the pizza and burger). We rode through the less interesting central part of Scott Valley back to the car for a further ride of 45km, mostly flat. It was one of the few warm days on our trip, with temperature hitting 27C by the time we got back to the vehicle. The weather forecast indicated a deluge of rain the next day, so we explored different possibilities and opted to drive east towards the arid Lava Bed National Monument. We halted at Shatter Campground south of Mt Hebron. We were the only people staying there and it was very pleasant, except a couple of trains passed by in the middle of the night.

On our exit from Shatter Campground, I drove slowly along the gravel road so we wouldn't kick up too much dust onto the bikes. We passed through the tiny community of Mt Hebron and when we reached Dorris, we had cell reception so we stopped on a suburban street to check the latest weather forecast. A woman came out of her home offering assistance; "are you lost?".

Our route took us across the Oregon border and a Sinclair station in Worden. Who can resist a dinosaur logo? Apparently the Sinclair dinosaur image was introduced in the 1930's and back then they gave out albums so that you could collect dinosaur stamps. Nowadays, the company is publicly traded and is listed on the NYSE as DINO. Gas is a dollar/gallon cheaper in Oregon than California.

We drove through blowing sand at times, but much of the area is farmed with the help of irrigation. We drove up into the lava beds and were careful with opening car doors, otherwise the wind might have emptied the contents from the car.

We checked in at the Monument information centre and then went down to the campground and managed to find a site that was wind protected, set up camp had lunch and then went tubing.

It seemed that the premier, most accessible tubes/caves are found on the "Cave Loop", a one mile loop road. There about nine caves along the loop road, with good access. They have been graded least, moderate and most challenging. We figured that we would start easy and see where that would lead us. However, we determined that even the most challenging had good, straight forward access and we could carry on in them easily until you had to start crawling. It was an impressive afternoon. The Sentinel Cave is a kilometre long and you enter at one end and emerge a kilometre away. We did go into the Catacombs some ways; we were not prepared get on our bellies, but if we had, we could have gone 2 kilometres in.

It was all quite cool. Topside was also of interest. Alas, the fire of 2020 ripped through the park and much of the hiking was closed off. On our second day, we packed up and made the fairly easy hike to the top of Schonchin Butte and later detoured to the Fleener Chimneys for a look around. I wanted to ride something of the Monument, so Sheila drove out, while I rode out. The wind was strong, and it required a full grip on the handlebars when cross winds were encountered.

The weather forecast was poor, so we had booked a room at Bard's Inn, Ashland. We figured that we would assess the forthcoming weather at that point. We were edging towards packing up and heading home but then opted for a visit to the Oregon coast where temperatures are at least moderated by the Pacific. Interior temperatures were forecast to drop for a few days, with some snow expected in parts of central and eastern Oregon. The Bard's Inn is on the edge of downtown, so we didn't need to ride far to get a feeling for the older part of Ashland.

It is about a three hour drive from Ashland to Brookings. We managed to extend that with yet another stop to the Medford REI and neighbouring Trader Joe's. Parts of the drive along the Smith river road were impressive after the recent rains with abundant water falls and the fast flowing Smith river. We had booked a place at Ocean Suites. It receives good reviews and we were not disappointed; simple but clean and spacious. Despite the prognostications of abundant rain, we arrived in the sunshine and had a fine afternoon making short walks in the Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor, north of Brookings.

It rained hard overnight, but by morning, it had improved with hail showers pushing through, that gave way to rain, only later in the day. The weather windows, allowed us ample opportunity to wander Harris Beach and later on we went south as far as the California border. We did get on the bikes, but by mid-afternoon, the rain crept in and we retreated to our suite. We completed watching "The Serpent" on Netflix.

We wished we had a little more time to have wandered the beach at Pistol river when we drove past it, the following morning. We detoured to Cape Blanco for views of the coast line. Then we drove over to the Elk river road (just north of Port Orford) and parked the car within sight of the Highway 101. We did a little over 50km out and back on the Elk River. It was a beautiful ride, but we could have had better weather as it turned wet and cold on the return leg. By the time we returned to the car, Sheila was quite cold and didn't warm up the rest of the day.

We made our way to Bullard Beach State Park to camp. After dinner, we drove back across the Coquille river for a look at the Bandon beach at sunset.

The next section of Highway 101 runs largely inland and we passed through Coos Bay and Reedsport to reach the Smith River. We drove a little ways in on the north side to the first bridge and pulled out the bikes for an out and back ride along the the north shore. It was another beautiful ride. We reached a high point and had a bite to eat. Showers were threatening and we headed back. When the rain hit, I waited under Douglas fir trees, but Sheila got cold, so she chose to ride through the rain back to the car.

We retraced our drive through Reedsport and took a tent spot at the Umpqua Lighthouse State Park. The tenting was quiet and pleasant but a fair ways from the ocean, so we drove down and checked out the expansive beach and sand dunes area.

We had considered a ride inland (East of the I-5), but opted to stay along the coast and drove as far north as Lincoln City. There were plenty of awe spots along the way and we made the small detour to Yaquina Head. It is federally administered so our National Park pass (purchased at the Grand Canyon the previous November) took care of the entrance fees. Yaquina is just north of Newport which looked like an interesting place with fine public beaches at hand. Once we turned inland from Lincoln City, the driving seemed less interesting.

We were having reasonable luck camping at the Oregon state parks, so we opted to stay at the Champoeg State Park. We took a tent site in the small tenting area (with hindsight, we should have taken a powered site which were roomier) and made a pleasant 15km ride around the park and along the Williamette river to Butteville. The forecast was for rain beginning early evening, so we had dinner in the day use area (we could retreat to a covered picnic table if necessary) which gave as a good view of the serious Frisbee golf activities. It didn't rain that evening, but it did start up after we had packed up our tent the following morning. Unfortunately, the tent sites were close to together and a late arriving party managed to make plenty of noise on arrival and the massive snoring was disturbing.

We got up to the reality of a rainy day. The original plan was to stay in Portland with our buddies, but we figured that it was time to head home and I gave them a call to say that we were heading north. We stopped at the REI flagship store in Seattle around mid-day. When we got back on the interstate, the rain had intensified and the driving through north Seattle on the I-5 was full-on. The rain encouraged us to stay in a hotel that night. It was the Bay City Motor Inn, Bellingham for us, nicely located for a short walk to a taco food truck and later, once the rain had stopped, we even walked to REI. We made a walking tour of old, downtown Bellingham which was somewhat subdued in the rain.

The following day, we filled up on gas and crossed the border back into BC. Sheila was randomly selected to complete a remote Covid test. We picked up a few things at IKEA Richmond and stopped at an Asian supermarket before reaching Horseshoe Bay. Overnight with friends and a ferry ride later, we were back on Vancouver Island.