Lonely roads in California and Nevada

Today marks the second week of our motorcycle trip from home in Prescott, Arizona to Denver to visit our kids; through Wyoming and into Montana to visit friends Sharon and Chris; west through Idaho and a 2-day stop in Walla Walla, Washington; continuing west to Portland, Oregon where we spent 3 days; and now heading home along the Pacific Coast Scenic Byway through Oregon and California, finally turning east into Nevada. 10 days on the BMW has shown us a wide variety of landscapes, small towns, large cities, and twisting highways.

Today we started our trip in Chester, California on Lake Almanor, a large reservoir with the first dam built in 1914. Chester reminds us of small towns in the Adirondacks in upstate New York, where year-round outdoor sports and activities drive the local economy.

Yesterday we ended our ride on California 36, enjoying the twisties and climbs up and down the mountains to Chester. Today Route 36 heading east from Chester is a straight road running through wide open meadows, pine forests that have been recently logged, and a short section twisting through the mountains.

Southeast of Susanville we picked up US route 395, heading southeast to Reno, NV through irrigated farmland with views of the Sierra Nevada mountain range to the west.

We rode through Reno, NV on Interstate 80 east for about 40 miles, turning off onto Route 50, which roughly follows the path of the Pony Express in 1860-1861. Route 50 is known as the "Loneliest Highway" for good reason:  the towns are tiny and spread far apart, and there is almost no traffic. We zoomed through 4 mile and 8 mile flats, sandy areas that spread for miles on both sides of the road.

We turned south onto Nevada route 316 in Middlegate Station, one of the Pony Express stops. This road had even less traffic than Route 50, with only one small, dusty town with mostly empty buildings along the 63 mile stretch we traveled. Gabbs is the home of the only magnesia mine in the United States, yet the town is considered a semi-ghost town.

The one gas station in Gabbs featured a broken-down building with no glass in the windows and 2 non-functioning gas pumps. We've been in this situation before, and Mike slowed down from 80 mph to 55 mph to conserve gas, and when we reached Route 95 we turned north instead of south to find the closest gas station. We made it to the gas station in Hawthorne with 17 miles to spare.

We noticed hundreds of dirt and grass-covered bunkers on both sides of the highway around Hawthorne, and later discovered that this is the site of the Hawthorne Army Depot, a 14,236 acre facility that was originally built in 1930 and today has over 2,000 ammunition storage bunkers with over 600,000 square feet of storage space.

As we headed south with a full tank of gas, the temperature climbed into the mid-90's even at 5,000- 6,000' elevation. A sign just outside Hawthorne stated "no services for 100 miles", another indication of how remote this area is.

We passed a few empty buildings covered with graffiti, remnants of isolated towns that are gradually disappearing into the desert until we rode into Tonopah, our destination for the night. Tonopah began with the accidental discovery of gold and silver in 1900 by a prospector named Jim Butler. Jim's burro got loose overnight, and when he found it the next morning he picked up a rock to throw at it. He noticed the rock was heavier than expected, and stumbled upon the second-richest silver strike in Nevada.

The 408 miles we traveled today seem remote and desolate to us; imagine how it must have felt to pioneers and prospectors in the late 1800's. I'm glad we have a BMW motorcycle instead of a burro!

Pacific coast, redwoods, and pine forests mean twisty motorcycle roads

Today's ride was all about the weather - and the trees. We started in Gold Beach, CA at 8:30am riding through a misty fog that rolled off the Pacific Ocean and drifted down from the tops of the trees, leaving the road clear but obscuring our long-distance views over the ocean.

The temperature was in the low 50's all morning. Periodically the sun would start to burn off some of the mist, then we would round a bend in the Pacific Coast Scenic Byway and the fog rolled in again.

We soon crossed into California, and 101 veered inland through flat farmland and fields of lilies grown in this part of the country known as the Easter Lily capital of the world. Just south of Crescent City we rode into the Redwood National Forest, home to the tallest trees in the world. It's really difficult to take photos that capture these trees that grow to about 370' tall.

Route 101 twists and turns, winding its way through the forests, then along the rocky coast, and back into the forest. There are plenty of passing lanes, giving Mike the opportunity to zoom past slower moving trucks and campers so that we had open road in front of us for much of the ride.

For a minute or two the rays of the sun broke through the mist and scattered through the tops of the redwoods, creating a dazzling display of nature's power.

We turned off the Pacific Coast Scenic Byway in McKinleyville, heading east on CA 299, the Trinity Highway. The temperature rose from 60 degrees to 70 degrees in 20 minutes, and continued up to 80 degrees in another 25 minutes as the sun came out and we rode away from the ocean. CA 299 is another twisty, turning road that climbs up and down through the high ridges and steep valleys. We climbed two summits before lunch:  Lord Ellis Summit at 2263', named for a miner who petitioned the state to improve a mule road through this area; and Berry Summit at 2871'.

We know the road is going to be even more fun when we see signs like this:

We stopped for lunch in Willow Creek, at 610' on the Trinity River. We spent the next couple of hours riding along the river, over more summits, and through the never-ending forests.

We passed several construction sites along the road, stopping for 25 minutes at one point where we got off the motorcycle, stretched, and counted 115 cars going past us before it was our turn on the one-lane road.

A few twisty miles later, we rode into Redding where the temperature hit 101 degrees - a 50 degree increase from when we started our ride this morning. After a beautiful ride along the coast, through redwood forests, and on little-traveled roads, it was hot and frustrating to sit at stoplight after stoplight and ride for a few busy miles south on Interstate 5 before we turned east on CA 36. The road starts out straight, cutting through the Tehama State Wildlife Area with yellow-brown fields with periodic views of snow-capped mountains in the far distance.

Then the road really becomes fun:  twisting and turning as it climbs from 500' elevation in Redding to Morgan Summit at 5768' where the temperature mercifully dropped to the low 70's. Route 36 snakes through the Lassen National Forest, a diverse area formed by the granite of the Sierra Nevada, the lava of the Cascades and the Modoc Plateau, and sagebrush of the Great Basin.

We saw the turn for the Lassen Volcanic National Park, but will have to save this trip for another day when we can experience the hot water areas where Mt. Lassen last erupted in 1915.

We ended our trip today in Chester, a town of about 2000 people nestled in the forest on the edge of Lake Almanor. Don't miss dinner at the Burger Depot where the friendly staff, train decor, a model train that runs around the room on a ledge near the ceiling, and good-tasting food made our evening meal a delight.

We experienced a wide range of scenery and temperatures during our 367 mile ride today, with 3,148 miles total on this trip - so far.