Friday, October 3, 2008

day # 6




  Today was unquestionably the best riding of the trip, maybe ever. from Weaverville to Arcata's city limits is 92 miles. Thats ninety-two miles of continuous banking, turning, climbing, descending, accelerating, and braking. All along one of the most scenic corridors Ive ever seen. The sparkling river, the swarms of butterflies, the steep canyon walls, a perfect road surface, clear blue skies, crisp air...i was pretty much riding along agape and struggling to pilot the bike and take in the scenery at the same time. Mile after mile, around every turn was another mind-boggling vista. Ive ridden other places as beautiful but never for such a sustained distance...nearly 100 miles of it! If you have Google Earth, try playing a tour of this route, it will make you dizzy...

  heres the three legs of the days riding, starting with Hwy. 3 back from camp to Old Town Weaverville, then west on 299 through Willow Creek and finally Arcata:







  This area was also the site of several major wildfires over the summer, and their aftermath was clearly visible from the road. In many areas, the fire had burned right up to and across it. Some stretches of 299 were flanked on either side by white ash and black sticks where there was once green brush and cedars, and some spots still smoldered. 


  I learned from locals that 299 had only just been reopened a day or two earlier. Here's an excerpt from an area news bulletin: 


Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for 80 homes northwest of Junction City tonight as the Eagle Fire jumped Highway 299.

The Trinity County residents who live in Coopers Bar Estates were told about 10:45 p.m. to leave their homes, Shasta-Trinity National Forest spokesman Mike Odle said. An evacuation of the south and west sides of the the subdivision is in progress, Odle said. The fire was about a half-mile away from homes at 11 p.m.

In addition, the Trinity Canyon Lodge and some campers have been evacuated due to the fire threat.

About 31 miles of Highway 299 were shut down around 11 p.m. The closure is in effect from Weaverville to Big Bar and from the Bigfoot Campground to Big Flat, a California Highway Patrol dispatcher said. The stretch covers 23 miles west of Weaverville to eight miles east of Weaverville, Odle said.



  Smoke continued the entire Trinity River Valley through most of September. I was told that only a day or two earlier there was still so much smoke in the skies over Weaverville that it obscured the sun. 


  The major group of fires in the Shasta-Trinity Wilderness was part of the Iron Complex, a series of fires that had burned nearly 90,000 acres of the forest. On the day I first arrived in Weaverville the memorial service had just been held for 11 firefighters that had lost their lives in a helicopter crash about 15 miles northwest of Junction City. 

a few links:


  Once to the coast and into Eureka, i decided to treat myself to a motel, so i got a room downtown next to the new New Seasons-like store and took the rest of the day off. My room was on the upper level, at the very end, and west-facing. I spent the rest of the afternoon with my feet up on the balcony, sipping Lagunitas and writing in the setting sun. nice.




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