Hello California West Coast

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Thursday, October 16, 2008

From Tuesday morning to Wednesday evening we travelled west 600 miles from Eureka, Nevada to Eureka, California: from sage brush desert to redwood rain forest, from clear blue sky to dense sea fog, from 6000 feet to sea level, from night frost to warm moist air, from Casino land to Enviro land.

Susanville, CA to Hydesville, CA on Highway 36 is a route to enjoy. Lassen Volcano dominates the rock formations as far as Interstate 5 at Red Bluffs. Huge Ponderosa Pine forests all along the road and virtually no traffic, again.

A Highway 36 road sign warns of 140 miles of narrow winding road west of Red Bluffs. These winds started immediately and kept on coming until we reached the sea. Added to that was a gradual climb through the Shasta Trinity National Forest, spotted with black forest fire residue. At a high point we stopped and climbed a small hill named by Richard “Flat Coyote” summit. The coyote was indeed flat from ATV’s driving over the carcuss to get to the overlook without any sweat. Mt Shasta was visible 100 miles to the north east. A long north ridge with a large snow bound summit block on the south end.

After Flat Coyote summit the road trends downhill for 80 miles, with several hills to climb along the way. Braking was not an option for 80 miles, so Dodge lower gears were in constant use. A final drop on a 10 %!g(MISSING)rade was added by the California Highway Engineers near Bridgeville.

Kayla's musings while driving:
One of the criteria for this trip was to find Robert Frost roads less traveled by, avoiding large towns. Thus it was that we found ourselves crossing the state on California highway 36, a tortuous winding road up, over and through mountains and meadows, with warning signs along the way that the road was not suitable for RV's, trucks, and anything over 24 feet long - not us. Once through the Sacramento Valley, and heading further west, the road, although paved, was an adventure in itself. Sometimes even the middle line disappeared to make room for vehicles going both ways to decide for themselves how to avoid each other.

An hour into the slow winding drive, we checked the mileage and had only come about 30 miles, with well over 100 miles to go! What an exciting, but very long day driving through the Coast Mountains. Up one set of hills or mountains, down into valleys, up again over a pass, down again into high meadows, up another set of mountains, down again. Lower gears, higher gears, some braking around the hairpins. Richard took video along the way, and each time he said that we were going down, but wait - we had to go up and over around and through yet again. Eureka was a very long way off.

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Photos

Flat Coyote Summit
Short climb to the overlook

Flat Coyote Summit
Overlook north eats

Giant Redwood
Redwood State Park

Base of Giant Redwood
Arms extended ddi not hope to guage the girth