Today i rode back inland to Willow Creek and Hwy. 96, and on through Happy Camp along the Klamath River. The road surface was good, but the route was so twisty and filled with blind curves that i had to ride at a very slow pace, sometimes as slow as 10-15MPH. Yet another brow-beating of incredible scenery and roads, but this time the river was less than perfect. The Klamath has been invaded by a variety of blue-green algae that has transformed its waters into frothy pools and its banks into murky stinkholes.
an article on this situation can be found here
each time i pulled over to have a splash in the water i found the same polluted shores and stinky pools. This persisted along its entire length from Willow Creek all the way back to the I-5 corridor near Ashland.
check out the tiny frogs jumping around at my feet...
i had ridden the bike all the way down to the shore without thinking about getting back up the steep rocky trail, so i took off some of my bags and my gear in case i had to pick the bike up if i fell over. it was also really hot so i was sweating like crazy. perfect time for a video in case i screwed it up...
i was finally getting into the rugged interior of the Jefferson State; fewer roads and towns, the road surface was getting broken and unmaintained, and the road signs were all perforated with bullet holes...every one of them. most were unreadable. i dont remember seeing another person for dozens of miles. really long day. the best was still to come, however, because that evening i finally encountered the crazy local dude that i always do at some point. this time it was hippie john, a real-life Tommy Chong burnout. this guy was such a career wastoid he was nearly unintelligible. he was hanging out at the Rainbow Resort, a random outpost in the middle of nowhere with a general store and a couple rental cabins. along with a handful of nearby farms this place made up the town of Hamburg, CA. i rolled up to get some beer and ended up sitting outside with the store clerk (herself a 50-60 something old hippie lady) and john for maybe a half-hour, just quietly talking and watching cars go by while the sun was setting. i was so comfortable and had such a good feeling about the place that i decided to go big and rent the cabin for the night. i think i must have been the first customer she'd had in a really long time because she wasnt even sure how to deal with the situation. once i was settled in and changed out of my riding gear, i went back out onto their little lawn and just sat there, feet up on a log, drinking Bud with the two of them til the store closed. it was definitely the highlight of the whole trip.
looking west from my cabin door at the store and its little patch of lawn:
a kid from the area showed up after a while, probably 18 or so, and sat with us under the umbrella. this gave john somebody familiar to bullshit with so i got to just sit back and take it all in and try not to laugh my ass off at this dude. the kid, Troy, seemed pretty sharp and reminded me of what i imagine my brother Tate might have been like at his age; soft-spoken, sandy blonde hair, stocky build, very polite, and quietly confident. after a while i was getting more interested in having a lucid conversation with him about all the Humbolt County lore than just sitting there listening to the town drunk ramble on and on about whatever. nonetheless, john continued to lecture both of us about physics, women, and how to best prepare fresh vegetables. after at least 45 minutes of this, it dawned on me that i should be recording it somehow, since there was no way i was ever going to be able to faithfully re-enact it once i got home, so i ran over to my room and grabbed my camera. i didnt think that directly filming him would have been good for a couple reasons, mainly because i wanted pure candidness, but i also thought that it might freak the old coot out and trigger some kind of paranoid delusion and ruin the whole thing. so i chose to start the recording and just set the camera down (in my lap at first, then on top of the table), pointed at nothing, and let the scene play out as if nothing was different. i missed out on getting any image(s), but i did get spontaneity. the worst part is that i actually ran out of memory after only 13 minutes, but i did end up with a few gems...priceless, really...enjoy!
john and troy eventually took off once the sun fell behind the ridge and i had the place to myself for the rest of the night. except for the dogs, i guess. normally i dont like them, but country dogs are different. it was nice having two temporary best friends for the night...
it was very quiet and still without anyone else around, so i thought i'd see how many cans of Bud i could drink then went to bed...a good day.
