Labor Day 2005
by Jim Smith

Or how to make a 1200 mile trip into a 2000 mile one.

I've not seen my brother since our dad passed away some 7 years ago. A visit was long overdue, and Labor Day seemed to be a great time to take a run up to Portland and say “Hi”. The destination seemed easy enough, but then I sat down with my mapping software to plan a route. That’s when the easy turned into a “hummm. I need to average 600 plus miles a day if I’m going to do this” - The problem was that I figured as long as I was riding, I might as well see what there was to see along the way, so I  diverted to places like the Lava Beds National Monument, then out to Ft. Bidwell, followed by a short ride on 395 to us 97 and into Crater Lake, followed by a “Back across Oregon” and up to Portland for the night. The way home was planned to ride the “Columbia River Gorge” to The Dalles, then pick up US-97 again and head south to Klamath Falls, then into Weed, Mt. Shasta, pick up US-89 to US-44 to 149 to 70 to 20   to 49 to 505 and finally the last 50 miles or so on 80/680.

While an occasional 600 plus mile day isn’t all that daunting, I really wasn’t looking forward to doing three of them in a row. Here is how it all worked out.

In order to make what was sure to be a very long day on Saturday a little shorter, I managed to leave work a couple of hours early on Friday. I scooted out of the office an hopped on 680 and took it up across the bridge – traffic was heavy, but lighter than I expected. I then hopped on CA-12 and went into Napa where I picked up the 121/128.   It was my intent to avoid as much of the madness around and through Vacaville as possible. I buzzed across 128 and it deposited me on the 505 in Winters where I made good time up to Anderson where I spent the night. If you ever find yourself in Redding looking for a bite to eat or for a nightcap, I’d like to suggest the “Cheescakes Unlimited”  in the Downtown Mall, or the second restaurant out in the Enterprise area -   both are owned by my Nephew Cory and both are worth a visit!   I stayed at the Knights Bridge Best Western in Anderson, and had dinner at a little Mexican Restaurant on the property – Meal, including a Margarita was $11.00, not bad ! So I gained a lttle headstart of about 230 miles on my trip by leaving early on Friday.

Saturday I gassed up at $3.09 a gallon and was on the road by 7:30.   A short hop up I-5 till I was able to get on 299 East bound where I spent the majority of the rest of the morning. The Eastbound ride on 299 was quite scenic, quiet and relaxing. There wasn’t a lot of traffic, and there were plenty of opportunities to pass what traffic there was. Coming of the Hatchet Mt. Summit (4333’) was my signal to get ready for my first stop of the day – McArthur Burney Falls just 6 miles North of 299 on 89. My family moved to Redding from San Jose when I was 18 (and I lived there for all of a year and a half), and one of my earliest memories of the area was a trip my brother and some friends made in my first car (1954 Ford !) out to Burney Falls – I’ve not been back in some 35 years.   When I pulled in to pay my fees the Park Ranger asked if I’d ever been there before and I told her not in the last 35 years she just smiled and said “That’s ok, they are still in the same place!” Great line – gonna have to remember it. This is a very nice State Park – a little hiking, a little camping, a little of everything, I hated to only be able to spend about 20 minutes there. There is a very nice trail from the top of the observation point down to the pool at the bottom of the falls – it was easy enough when I was 18, but I decided against taking it in full armor an riding boots this time. I regained CA-299 Eastbound and finally made it to Alturas around 11:30. The Bike didn’t really need gas, but I decided that it would be a good idea, “just in case” $3.49 a gallon (that really hurt). Some water and a quick chat with a gold winger from Lake Tahoe who was on his way “the long way” to Boise to see a friend and I was on my way up to see Ft. Bidwell - The Easternmost town in the State of Ca., and an important part of California’s history. The original Fort was intended to keep the “Maurading Indians from Oregon, Nevada and Northern Ca. in check”. The history can be found here: http://www.militarymuseum.org/FtBidwell.html . This is a section of Ca. that I’ve never been to before, and found that it is very remenicient of some of the desert areas along 395 in the South. There is a large expanse of what was originally an alkali lake that is now dried up and gone. An interesting rode note here - County Road 1 off of 299 will get you into Ft. Bidwell. For me, my next stop was to be Crater Lake, which meant I had to either go over,   or around Fandango Pk. (7750’). My GPS planned to take me over this peak via County Road 2 - NOT ! County road 2 was hard pack gravel – windey and twisty and 28 miles of it. There was no way I was taking my new bike over that road. I must have wasted 45 minutes running back and forth and all around looking for a way that was paved. There wasn’t any, so I shut the GPS off (So I wouldn’t have to listen to Henerietta saying “Off Route – Recalculating”, and made my way back down CR-1 to 299 and 295 to 395 North. Total detour of probably 100 miles. This put me finally into Lakeview, Or a little after 1:30. I was very surprised to find that it’s against the law to do self service gas in Oregon, but then too it’s been a long while since I was up there. I was also a little shocked to see that they have the speed limit set to 55 on 2 lane highways, which the locals followed religiously around towns, but ignored completely out in the boonies. From Lakeview I headed out to Crater Lake. I took 140 West out of Lakeview for about 80 miles, then Picked up Or-39 headed Northwest for quite a while finally turned right onto US-97 North for a while before taking Or-62 up into the park. This park attracts about 500,000 visitors annually and the lake is known for it’s intense blue color and the fact that it is the deepest lake in the United States, and the seventh deepest in the world.   The views around the 33 mile Rim Drive are truly spectacular. I arrived at 4:30 and it was quite cool (52 degrees!) and cloudy, so my stay was abbreviated for both of those reasons and also because I was still in South Central Oregon and I still had to get to Portland before my day was done. I took 138 out of the Northwest Corner of the park and headed toward Eugene. Cutting across the Cascades was really very beautiful. The forests were deep green and helped keep the ride cool and comfortable. The ride from Crater Lake to Eugene was a little over 2 hours, once in Eugene I dropped all pretense and grabbed hold of I-5 and made a bee line for Portland some 130 miles away. Wow! Traffic on the super slab was very heavy. I finally arrived in Portand at 9:00 some 13 ½ hours after leaving Anderson.   It was a very long day and something over 700 miles to show for it! After checking into my motel   (Comfort Inn in Tualatin) I called my brother and we confirmed a breakfast meeting in the morning before I had to head back out again to ride the gorge and head for home. Dinner Saturday night consisted of a small pizza delivered to my room - $10.00 and it wasn’t bad!

Sunday I was up early and ready to go. I met Ted at a restaurant just around the corner from the Motel where I enjoyed my chicken fried steak and eggs, and had a great, albeit way to short chat trying to catch up with all the goings on with our families. I was back on the road at 10:30 and headed East on I-84, or another way pf putting it was “I was heading through the Columbia River Gorge – heading toward “The Dells”. This again was a new part of the Country for me, and I have mixed feelings about this part of my ride. This is a mammoth river, wide, deep and long. Stretching from the Pacific through Portland , past The Dells and on into Hells Canyon. I think I had expected more stopping and viewing points, but that was not to be had. Instead this ride was 60 miles of very scenic river viewing with no place to stop and snap a photo or two.   The exception being the Multnomah Falls – here there was a large parking lot with an underground passage to the actual falls. Very nice, and a welcome stop about 20 miles East of Portland. These falls, at 620 Feet are the second highest year round waterfall in the United States (so says the marketing hype), but it seems to me that Yosemite has both Yosemite Falls, and Bridal Veil Falls that exceed that 620 feet – oh well, still a very impressive stop, and Oregon’s number 2 tourist destination!

There are a number of other falls along the gorge also, and as I found, out they are for the most part accessable via the many state parks that abound along the gorge - This is where the scenery really is.

I Exited I-84 at The Dells and took US-197 South East to 97. The Dells is actually kind of a large inland Port City.   Barges cruise up and down the river delivering goods for distribution through out the area.   Gas was a more reasonable $3.09 a gallon here (if anyone can call that reasonable). The area South East of The Dells was very reminiscent of the area along hiway 120 East of 395. With a lot of small elevation changes and twisties until the road finally leveled out into a relatively straight shot of   hi-desert highway. Keeping the ever present Mt. Hood   always on my right. The plan on Sunday was to get at least to Klamath Falls, so that the ride home on Monday should be relatively painless. That would make Sunday about a 400 mile day. I stayed on US-97 all the way and arrived in Klamath Falls at 6:30, found a Holiday Inn Express that was reasonable and got checked in. Dinner that night was at Sizzler, I used to think that was an ok restaurant chain – now I know better.

Monday morning, back on trusty US-97 and continued my Southerly route. A new Mountain – Mt. Shasta was soon dominating the horizon.   It was a new perspective for me as I had always seen it from the   South, and occasionally from the West, this was the first time seeing it from the East, and it does look a lot more impressive than I remembered it. I arrived in Weed about 9:20 and decided that the “Hungry Moose” that had chicken fried steak anytime would be a good place to have a breakfast. An hour later and full, after spending a whopping   $7.80 for 2 eggs, the chicken fried steak, hash browns, coffee, orange juice, and toast I jumped on I-5 once again for the short 9 mile ride south to Mt. Shasta and US-89 to continue my ride home. An hour later and I was passing Burney Falls again, followed by 299 and then another hour or so until Ca-44 intersected. I thought I was heading up to Lassen Park, but discovered to late that I was heading East instead of West to the park, so,   I wound up running into highway 36 and then 4 miles later wound up  in Susanville, which is exactly in the center of nowhere – needing gas – $3.19 a gallon.. I had my choice of either taking 395 into Reno, and then I-80 home or heading back west on CA-36 and going around Lake Almanor via Ca-147 back to CA-89 to the CA-70 junction at Indian Falls and down the Feather River gorge – easy decision! I backtracked the short distance to the 36 and 44 intersection, then continued on 36 until I was able to pick up CA-147 on the Eastern Shore of Lake Almanor, lots of traffic! Traffic continued a little heavier than expected down the gorge, but it moved along without any problems. This makes the 4th time I’ve been on 70 in the last 8 months. I’m finding that I like it more every time I ride it. Fun, fast, scenic, and technical enough to make me pay attention. The ride through Oroville and into Yuba City and Marysville was uneventful. Rather than continuing on 70 into Sacramento I decided to head East a bit more and took CA-20 instead, with the original intent of picking up CA-45 into Woodland. Instead, I wound up continuing on to Williams and then picking up the I-5 home. I arrived in my driveway at 6:30 – 11 hours after leaving Klamath Falls, and posting something over 500 miles for the day. Odometer for the trip registered 1907.6 miles.   The GPS had 1830.9.   Whichever is right it was still a long three days.   Fun!