Monday, May 11, 2009

ACTUAL State Parks

Forgive the absence of anything even remotely referring to State parks in the last post. I've been in busy-mode, trying to get things accomplished and the blog is well down the list of things actually that important.

So, I left Alameda on the 6th and headed up to Red Bluff City. A note in regards to Google Maps, GPS units and the best laid plans of mice and men; No amount of careful planning can make up for a wrong turn. After the late experience on the PCH 1 and peoples' comments on how services dry up north of San Francisco, I decided to follow interstate 5 up through the middle of California. I left Alameda, following a written set of directions taped to the bike and a GPS unit in my pocket, narrating turns on the off occasion. These things did not prevent me from taking that 'wrong turn', going into San Francisco. It's not often I can say I really hated going to San Fran, but hey; The road system is complex and confusing at this point. I had no desire to get into a 'Gordian knot' there.

Actually the worst part was having to spring 4 bucks for the toll going over the bridge. I decided at that point to stop at Treasure Island and snap some pics to try to get some of my money back...
Treasure Island view
Treasure Island 250

After this little detour, I found the proper route and headed north towards Red Bluff. The route...
Map 5

At this point I cannot find anything particularly unpleasant to say about the northwestern part of this country. I'm sure it has it's crappy element of people, but terrain-wise it is absolutely beautiful. I do admit a fairly large number of insects suicided on my faceshield and scoot. At one point I'm pretty sure I passed through a cloud of hornets, only realizing what they were after I passed through. Lucked out and didn't get any in the jacket.

I was about 20 miles from my goal when 1) I saw the sign for the State Park and 2) saw this...
Northern California Sky

The State Park system is quite nice through the area. I never stayed at a campground that wasn't state the whole trip. Super-cheap, clean and maintained. (Guess I'm a bit of a socialist.) The only drawback to this one was the insects. Ants, mosquitoes and ticks. A proper tent kept them all at bay though. I'll probably make a post later about equipment that I had and what I wished I had...

No comments: