Our Fateful Canada Trip 2013

This story is the compilation of video photos and thoughts from our infamous “Canada Trip” during August of 2013 of which I had been planning for many years. After Tinker and I and our great friends John and Vicky did the Colorado Rocky Mountain ride trip back in 2009, we all believed that it would be very hard to ever experience anything as beautiful as we had for those 10 days on the road.  I had heard many great stories of the Canadian Rockies and thought well we will just have to see how they compare.

The plan was to spend another 10 days on the road and ride up through Nevada, Oregon, Idaho and then into Banff and Jasper National Parks in Alberta Canada. On the return we would hit Glacier National Park (B.C.), Revelstoke National Park and then down through Kelowna using the ferries of Okanagan Lake. I love the waterways!

I had mapped out and setup some great byways up through Idaho to see some of the beautiful back country of all the National Forest lands and Canyon lands that this great state has to offer ending up in Sandpoint along Lake Pend Oreille. This is a great little town to just hide-away and enjoy before our excursion into “Americas Hat”.

The trip was sort of doomed from the beginning as the plans didn’t quite work out as we had put down on paper. First off, this trip was not going to include our riding friends so they would be really missed; it was just going to be Tinker and myself on the road on our own. Second we had to ride through Northeastern NEVADA!.... yuck!... Third, weather became a constant peril that we just couldn’t avoid by any detour in the high country. And fourth, WEATHER conditions became the ultimate end to our fate for travelling to all the beautiful parks in Canada and getting us home safe. I will explain further as the story goes on. 

Here is our first leg of the trip from Sacramento, California up to Sandpoint, Idaho.

This explains some of the places in the pictures of the video:

Leaving Sacramento on Hwy 49 to Placerville, then to Hwy 50 to South Lake Tahoe. We went around the lake and out the east side near Carson City and out 447 around Pyramid Lake to 49 again which would take us up to Winnemucca. From there we hit 95 to Mc Dermitt, (Tumbleweed Junction) Nevada for the first night. 

Day 2 would be 95 North through Jordan Valley with unbelievable skies that looked as if God was leading the way before us…  We would cross over into Idaho somewhere in the desolate countryside of cattle and hay growing wild and along the way many river crossings. Caldwell would be the first city we would see since leaving Sac and found our way to Hwy 55 North which would be our road of choice for the next 100 or so miles around Lake Cascade and Payette Lake in McCall. From there it would be up 95 through Salmon River Canyon and Hells Canyon up to Grangeville for the night. Great little town and people!

Day 3 started pretty ugly coming out the backside of town on a very winding Hwy 13 all downhill to Kooskia. The fog was so thick you couldn’t see but 20 ft in front of the bike and it was wet fog and about 45 degrees out. We stopped and had breakfast at some awesome home-cooked -food-place! By the time we got out of there the sun was out and it was just … well beautiful!  

On down Hwy 12 (Lewis and Clark Trail) along the Clearwater River Canyon – this is one of the most beautiful roadways in the west to Orofino where we would catch the cutoff to Hwy 3 through the backside of the Saint Joe National Forest and up to Lake Coeur d’Alene. We hit some big rainstorms along this route as we came upon the lake. There was nowhere to stop and dry out so we just plowed through it and kept on going. Our goal was to get to Sandpoint for the night and dry-out there and eat and sleep well, and we did. We were soaked through all our riding gear but there was no laundry at this hotel we stayed at… so our room became a steam bath with all the drying leather and clothes with the heater turned up to 90 degrees. We found our dry clothes and made our way to the bar and the restaurant and made merry!

Day 3 ended ugly.

Weather and news reports in Alberta, Canada ranged from torrential rains in the valleys to blizzard snow conditions in the higher elevations which is exactly where we were headed…  we decided to wait it out a day in Sandpoint and see if it would clear out, but the reports were pretty much that a “system was blowing in over the next 4-5 days” and that would pretty much waste all the time we had to go up and come back from all the parks we wanted to visit. And with the weather socking everything in, there wouldn’t be anything to see! Canada at this point was a bust.

PLAN B!!!!  With all the bad weather up north we decided to go south and then over to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands of Washington State. These islands are in the “Banana Belt” of the Pacific Northwest and always have some good sun shining on them. Being that our plans had all changed now, we still had time to enjoy life however it was dealt to us. We were a bit saddened by the change but I think we shook the doldrums by the time we got headed into some sunshine…

Here is the second leg of the trip from Sandpoint, Idaho to Anacortes, Washington.

That sunshine wouldn’t come very quickly, as we headed out of Sandpoint we were under dark clouds along Hwy 2 down to Newport where we would catch Hwy 20 across Colville National Forest lands. Hit some more POUNDING RAIN… and then into Colville where we would go south along 395 to Addy. There we would continue across the mountains to the Columbia River where we caught the ferry across to Inchilum. 

Once here we didn’t really know which direction to head so we mapped out some more back roads and continued to traverse our way across the mountains to highway 155 and then headed down to Grand Coulee. We would spend the night there with some good food and a laser light show on the dam, it’s pretty cool. They release and run white water down the face of the dam and use it for the screen. 

Breakfast was at a local dive place where the staff pretty much lets you help yourself… and then onto the road again up through the mountains on hwy 174 to Brewster and then connect up with Hwy 153 North to Hwy 20 to take on the Cascade Mountain Range heading toward the coast of Washington. The Cascades, the high mountain lakes and rivers are just awe inspiring to witness. I wished I had taken some better pictures of the entire landscape but we were on a trek to meet a ferry by 4:00 and time was wasting!  

We made it into Anacortes with enough time to sit at the bar at Anthonys in the marina and have a few drinks and some good food and recall the days memories… in beautiful SUNSHINE!  We didn’t have to wear any rain gear for the first time since we left Nevada! The ferry ride over to Friday Harbor was late afternoon and the waters were calm and it was just a great end to a very long day.

The LAST LEG video contains our time on San Juan Island which is the largest of the 8 islands in the area. The photos include a visit over to Roche Harbor, Smallpox Bay, Lime Kiln Park and around to the southern area known as Cattle Point. It also includes the ride from Sydney B.C. down Hwy 101 through Washington and Oregon to our ultimate fate in Crescent City, California. 

Our trip over to Roche Harbor on the far north end of the island is always an enjoyable time of taking in all the history, grandeur and the feast the place has to offer. The harbor was used as bulk lime loading facility back in the late 1800’s of the lime that was mined on the island. The place is now known as a stop off point for the huge Million Dollar luxury ships that navigate the inside passage of Vancouver Island and into the Puget Sound for a place to dock, re-fuel and re-supply before heading to sea again either  to the north or south. Some pretty nice vessels in this place!  Had a visit by a sea plane too! and the best BLOODY
MARYS in the world!!!!

We also stopped into Smallpox Bay where many kayakers begin their journey out into the Straights around all the islands and points beyond!... My brother and I did a 7 day Kayak trip many years ago from here, what a great adventure that was.

We then went to Lime Kiln State Park where there is a lighthouse perfect for a backdrop of pictures. The waters are so blue and the lush greenery of the island makes for much color.  We then made our way further down the west side of the island where you can pretty much just look across to Victoria, Canada on the opposite shoreline. Lots of clouds over there, here? SUNSHINE!

We spent 2 days in Friday Harbor before finally leaving (against our will). It’s always hard leaving the islands and it was a bit sad again because we knew that at this point of our ride we were now turning the handlebars towards the direction of home and we would soon be back and this vacation would be over. Little did we know the beauty that was still ahead of us.

The ferry ride to Sydney was a gorgeous day to ride upon the waters of the Straights and the ride down into Victoria was very nice along the shoreline. We parked the bikes at the ferry terminal and walked out through the city to see all the local stuff going on, catch some food and tried to find a cigar store. Things were looking up weather wise as the day was shedding its warmth upon us. The ferry ride from Victoria over to Port Angeles Washington is about an hour and half tour across the Straights of Juan De Fuca and it was a bit windy out there so we were chopping the seas. Good thing the bikes were strapped down below with about 20 others a couple  hundred cars.

The city of Port Angeles sets right at the base of the north side of the Olympic National Park. Onto good ole Hwy 101 again and riding along we came upon Lake Crescent in the mountains of the Olympic Range. Wow what a beautiful site to see. It was getting pretty late in the day so we decided to find someplace out on the coast and bag down for the night. We rode into the town of Sekiu which is still on the Straights heading out to the point. We found a great little place to stay and some great neighbors to sit and tell stories with of our travels. In the morning we packed up and rode out to Neah Bay about 18 miles up the road to look around at Americas Northwestern most point. We watched a couple Eagles fight for some food on the banks near the marina. As we ate our breakfast meal together, it occurred to me that they were probably another husband and wife team out on an adventure of life together too. 

On down the road along Hwy 101 south and we were into the typical Washington fog and mist of the Olympic coastline most of the way down to Astoria, Oregon where we stopped in again for the night.  From there we continued on down the coast highway through the Oregon fog and mist and saw whatever we could of the Oceanside communities along the way. We ended up stopping in Gold Beach for the night with possible plans to head inland in the morning to get some relief from the cold and damp dreariness of the Oregon coast which is hit or miss, sometimes it can be fantastic out here.

The next day we hear news of a huge fire raging through the mountains where we planned to ride through to the Rogue River Canyon so the inland route was a no-go. We decide to keep on going down the coast and make the best of it, besides we were headed for our last stop which would be the isolated little secret village of Shelter Cove on the Lost Coast of California to spend our last night in peace and quiet with one another, it had to be special.

Well it was special alright… about 5 miles outside of Crescent city headed south we started to pass an 18 wheeler driving through the mountains at a pretty good clip and we come to the passing lanes and he doesn’t move over. So I went to the right lane trying to see whats up?  Well there’s a car there and he’s trying pass on an uphill grade and I’m just thinking WTF! …. All of sudden I see his right turn signal and he starts coming over so I move out to the left lane and start going around him just as a right turn starts banking I lean the bike over harder to lean into it and the front wheel begins to slide across the pavement (which is damp by the way)…. I slide across the double yellow trying to straighten it out and I see cars coming at me. I can see the ladies face (in disbelief) in the front car looking at me heading at her in her lane and I twist the handlebars one more time to try and get the bike to go right, the back wheel starts to slide now and do the wiggle thing, so at this point I know the only way to keep from going down in the road is to straighten this thing out and go off the left shoulder. Well there’s about  12 inches of pavement past the fog line on the road, about another 12 inches of dirt on the edge and then a canyon past that… is about all I can see. So I let it roll out to the left and let that front wheel down on the dirt and thinking to myself this is gonna hurt… and BAM!   I am on the ground rolling my way down the grade….  trying to breath, hurting.

I hear people, sirens, Tinker yelling. My bike ends up about 80 feet down a gorge. I am able to crawl back up to the road from about 20 feet down, can’t catch my breath can’t stand up, can’t lay down. It’s a mess.

I thank you Lord for sparing my life once again and although we never made it to Shelter Cove I still was able to spend the last night of our trip with my best friend and partner in life…  in the Crescent City Hospital. Thank you for her too! 

Happy Trails! 

A New Victory....

Introducing the all new custom.... XR-"Hammered"

This bike build came out beyond my wildest dreams and ideas! The pub napkin drawings and computer renderings fail in comparison to what has become reality. It has now come to life and runs and rolls down the road again. This thing is a beast! which is what I was trying to create, instead of a skinny little tired, spoke wheeled chopper bobber, I wanted a fat tire, low slung, stretched out bulky wide cruiser 'bobber' that just looked like "Brutus" coming down the road.

The lines of the old XC come to life as new world "Big Bike", sporting some cafe styling with the extended chin spoiler and the new bullet fairing to enclose the front end. The 6 degree raked front end and the lowered rear shock strut bring the whole bike down to earth and gives it that finished Pro-Street look I love so much.

 

The Hammer rear fender has been all welded closed into one piece and provides a large deck area covering the 200mm x 17" rear wheel/tire combo. I added the new LED brake/tail light and the MBW LED turnsignals to the rim of the fender. The license plate bracket had to be custom made to fit under the assembly. And the exhaust?....  well just look at it! it is big and fat too... It is a shorty 2-into1 header into a 4" collector with no baffle at this time. Im having a reverse cone baffle made for it that will quiet it down and and give it some required back pressure. But for now - it's OBNOXIOUS!  

The body and paint work was done by Mike Wilson Auto Body and the pinstriping by Eggie Foust - just phenomenal work done by both to make this bike just 'pop' with color and detail. Both of them have done work for me before but this has gone over the top. Great work guys!

 

Here are the rest of the pics

Pauls 2011 XR-"HAMMERED"

More Final Assembly

OK so final assembly has come down now to just some semantics waiting on parts that the supply house have screwed up but they are forgiven .... unless I cant ride this weekend....  All kidding aside I am so ready to get on this beast again and go do some road riding my body is aching! Its been almost a year!  A few more Aleve and I can calm down a bit.

All the major parts are on the bike, I am waiting for a speedo harness to completed the front end headlamp wiring and assembly and a much needed 2-into-1 header that my exhaust Guru Guy has spent more than 5 weeks trying to put together and should be done TODAY as promised for the 10th time. Tired of promises just get the damn pipe DONE! - see I am getting irritable now...

Pics will be up as soon as I can roll her out into the sunlight and get the good camera out, because these phone pics are just horrible and dont do it any justice whatsoever. So sorry for the lack of Photos - I know its much better to see it than to hear about it.

 Almost Done!  

Final Assembly

Parts are starting to come in from my painter - Mike Wilson Auto Body (the same one that did the Dyna paint job) and they will be going on piece by piece. The paint color was a bit of challenge as I wanted to keep with the dark look of the original XC due to the lines of the bike, I think it is very Darth Vadar looking! - I know I'm aging myself with that comment!  So I looked around for something dark but something that had some 'color' too instead of just stark black. I was reading a speed magazine (shocking!) and found a report on the Hennessey Venom GT, (the worlds fastest motorcar)  and as I looked at the gallery of photos, the color just came alive to me and.... well that was it!

The color was called "Dark Knight Grey", how fitting to my Darth euphemism...

I decided to add a bit of my own splash to it and used a HOK black base coat and then a HOK Anthracite Metallic Grey candy and layered it until it had some depth. It came out sweet as pie!

At night or in the shade it will look almost near black and when in the sunlight, the metallics pop and the grey comes out as vivid as the sun itself. It screams beauty!

STEP 1 - I needed to get it 'rolling' again so the first order of business was to get it back on two wheels and have that part all done. I decided to reuse the stock OEM 10 spoke sprocket, but I had it polished and then had the spokes painted the same color as the body of the bike to give it some contrast. I think it came out perfect.

The new rim is a billet Arlen Ness Evil 7 wheel that is now wider and larger than the stock wheel. It is a 17" diameter x 6.5" wide to handle the new Shinko 005 Advance 200mm rear rubber. 

With the new rubber and the new wheel all installed on the bike, its ready to come off the jacks and set its print on the ground once again. It's gonna feel good to burn all those 'new tire whiskers' off that brand new tire!!!   

Next will be the front end, getting all the new shrouds and front grill onto the bike, the front fender, the headlight and all the turn signals and wiring completed. Then back to the rear. 

Next Stage to Begin...

Well all the pre-construction mock up work is done at this point. The body parts are going out for painting now, the color is going to be a Titanium Grey Metallic with some Cherry Maroon highlights in it. The one-off custom seat is off being upholstered and the exhaust parts are off being made into a new custom stainless steel 2-into-1 header with a shorty megaphone.

I think the bike is going to come out pretty nice and although it will resemble some other models, it will be mostly different from anything else out there. I didn't want to stray too far away from the norm.

Here's some update photos:

"Cross" breeding with a Hammer

Well the work has been going on for a few weeks now, getting a hold of parts from many suppliers across the country retail, wholesale and just people selling their own stuff!  Have found some great deals, people on forums selling their stuff and willing to make me some good deals, I thank them for their time.

The biggest thing (I thought) was getting a rear fender off of a 2008 Victory Hammer to fit onto the 2011 Cross Country rear frame section.

The XC has a wide aluminum forged hunk of frame at the back, where the Hammer is a tube frame and simply has struts out the back just like any other bike might have to hold up the back seat and fender. This is a shot of the underside of the XC modular frame where the wheel basically goes. The 4 bolt holes on the left bolt to the engine. The orientation should be vertical.

The fender was more than wide enough to fit over the frame but the front had to be modified to sit down onto the frame. At the back edges of the fender where they met the frame mounting points, I used some steel tubing cut down to make a stand-off between the frame mounting holes and the fender. At the ends of the tubes I welded a 5/16-18 nut and welded them to the fender. The bolt then threads from the inside of the frame into the fender tubes and nothing shows on the outside. Here is a shot with the stock wheel still on the bike.

The chrome side struts have front mounting holes that aligned perfectly with the frame holes, and again I used the steel tubing welded into place to make up the distance between the fender and the frame. A chrome socket head cap screw will mount this end of the fender on each side. The struts lay right on top of the side covers and look somewhat smooth. So that was it!

Next was fitting a larger rear rim and tire with the stock swingarm assembly. The new rim is a 17" x 6.25" wide billet aluminum wheel by Arlen Ness. Very Nice!

I added a 200/30R-17 tire to it and mounting it up with the new fender and it looks real good!

I did find that the wheel well is very tight so it will have to be taken back apart and milled out to be safe. The swingarm is ready for welding and then it goes to polisher for final finishing. Next will be the front end!

Rebuilding the Victory for Another Run

So after contemplating what to do with the bike after wrecking it and then getting half way through parting it out I finally decided on rebuilding it. I had most of the the major parts left; basically a rolling chassis with the motor and trans and all suspension still intact. This XC (Cross Country) bike is a perfect platform for any custom rig so I figured what the hell!  I decided not to go back to the original design of a bagger bike this time and go for more of a performance look with the option of adding bags if needed for long trips.

The bike used to look like this in its basic stock form, I loved it and it worked great as-was: 106 Cu. In. EFI engine with a 6 speed trans, 2 into 2 exhaust, inverted front suspension, mono-shock rear air/hyd suspension, and aluminum forged frame. 18x3 front wheel dual disk brake and 16x5 rear single disk brake. Tires WERE Avon soft compound 130mm front and 180mm rear and WERE not good for riding in wet weather.... most likely the root cause of my crash, I should have changed to all weather tires before that trip!

The wreck destroyed the entire fairing and the left side bag mostly. The rest of the bike was pretty much untouched by the grace of God! So off came the wrecked parts and what was left was this base bike:

The new design is going to follow after the Victory Hot-rod model called the "Hammer". This bike has a mono-shock suspension and inverted front suspension also like the Cross Country but with a tube frame chassis. The Cross Country is a forged aluminum modular frame chassis with many better attributes. 

So mostly what I was looking to take from this model was the rear fender and seat design. The picture below is a custom designed Hammer with a 250mm rear tire installed. But this is way too much for my XC swing-arm to handle. So I will be limited to a 200mm on a 6.25" wide rim that will be added.

On the front of the bike I am looking into changing the rake of the front suspension to get a more stretched pro-stock type look out of it. With the handlebars raking back so definitively it just seems this bike needs that addition to make it all come together. I will have to go to a 21" front wheel too, which I don't want to do but the rake requires it to keep the proper steering geometry.

I will be adding the bullet style headlamp and single gauge in place of the full fairing and no windshield again like back in the old days of eating bugs and the wind in your face feeling! ...  

The other thing I really want to do is tye in the front chin spoiler and enclose where the crash bars used to be and cover the bottom frame of the bike like a cafe' style racer valance would do. Roland Sands did a phenomenal job on a Hammer Salt Flat racer and I really like the combination he came up with.

Nothing as extreme as the Sands bike, but this is a blacked out version, of my idea and it will be painted whatever color I end up going with. So that's where I am with a basic design. 

A "XR - Hammer"

McCloud Anniversary Ride 2013

Celebrating our 10^th Anniversary, my wife and I rode out to the little town of McCloud, CA which sits on the southern slope of Mount Shasta on Highway 89 at about 3,200 feet above sea level. The mountain gives this picturesque little town so much personality as you ride into it from all different directions. The backdrop is that magnificent snow covered peak standing like a proud warrior in protection of its surroundings. Mount Shasta or as the natives knew it as Uytaahkoo literally means “White Mountain” in the Karuk language. The mountain has so much information about it I could go on for days, but basically it is 14,179 in height, it is the second tallest peak in the entire Cascade Mountain Range and it has 7 named glaciers on it. It is Northern California’s pride and joy. 

Our ride to McCloud, we decided would consist mainly of riding only back roads we could find north up through the central valley and staying completely off the slabs. Once out of the hustle and bustle of all the city limits (in our way…) we headed out onto the Oroville Hwy or otherwise known as Hwy 70. Up and around Lake Oroville we rode out into the Feather River Canyon area which has got to be one of the most scenic of highways in the Norcal area.  It was also the most scenic of railways for travelers in the 50’s riding the California Zephyr between the Pacific Northwest and our state.

This is such a wonderful ride for all the scenery; the terrain and elevation changes and contours of the turns and the smoothness of the roadways. You can really ‘run’ these roads and enjoy them. We left the canyon at Highway 89 towards Lake Almanor with our sights set on seeing the lake from the eastern side. (A turn on Highway 147 allowed us to do just that!)  If you choose to, Hwy 89 continues on across the front of the dam and goes into Chester which we have been through many times already, but we were going to try a new direction this time and find our way back to Hwy 89 again further on up the road a piece.

We took 147 around the east side of Lake Almanor with so many beautiful views right from the road and headed for our little lunch break in the town of Westwood. There we had some pizza and salad at Buffalo Chip’s Pizza & Pub. 

Was very good with homemade pizza dough and all the fixin’s. Leaving there we found some local fuel and headed on down Mooney Road out the back of town. This would take us out to Highway 44 around the backside of Mount Lassen which was still pretty well covered with snow at this time of year. I doubt we could have gotten over the pass there without some snow mobiles. Highway 44 would eventually lead us back to Highway 89 and into the Burney area. From this point on Hwy 89 opens up and has a lot of straight long roadway through the open forest lands. It’s an area where there’s not much to see for awhile and not many cars or people around. A good testing area for Bonneville runs if ya know what I mean. …  Oh finally I see the White Mountain coming into view… that means we’re close…. Well not so fast…. It just means you can see it from very far away…. I think we rode another hour and a half after first sighting the Big White Behemoth in the distance. Then we saw a town sign…. WE are HERE!!!!   And HERE was awesome! 

We stayed at the McCloud Mercantile and it is really an amazing place with all kinds of little shops, a couple cafes, and just plain friendly country folk to make acquaintances with. We had dinner that night in town at the local Café and enjoyed some conversation with the owners about the town, their business and all the good things that makes it such a great place to be. Small town folk are just happy that way and enjoy expressing themselves to people that wonder and ask.

The next morning we had breakfast at the Café and ventured off on a day ride around Klammath Park. We took off up Hwy 5 to 97 and went to the east and then circled back around into Yreka via some farm roads. We found our way to Hwy 263 and made our way north out of town into big canyon country along the Old Shasta River. We turned west on Hwy 96 after crossing the Klammath River and began our river ride. Hwy 96 winds it way alongside the river for miles and it’s a great road, very minimal traffic, actually none! I think we saw one car in 50 miles. We stopped along the way and took a little stroll along the river and got a few pictures. At the confluence of the Klammath and Scott Rivers is Scott River Road; theres where we turned and headed south on our days journey towards…. Lunch. 

 

Now Scott River Road is a 1 lane goat trail for the most part that traverses up the side of the Trinity Mountains in that region. The overhead bluffs that you look down from are majestic although harrowing for someone with any kind of fear of heights… which is not me. 

Once back down from the mountain peaks it runs along the river and back out into the farm land which it supplies where it runs into Highway 3 at Fort Jones. Instead of taking Hwy 3 south at that point we crossed the two-lane and continued on Eastside Road which would take us into the town of Etna where we stopped in at Dotties for an Extreme Burger and some mega fries! What a great burger!... I forgot a picture of it, but it WAS good.

We left Dotties and headed south on Hwy 3 and made our way through the farm lands of irrigation districts and lots of stuff growing green and lush. After a spray or two, we made our way to Gazelle-Callahan Road and cut off towards the snowy peaked mountain tops in the distance. This road was another very nice find and it meandered its way through the canyons and up the peaks of some of the Klammath Forest area (I believe). There was one downhill section that almost every turn had dirt and gravel strewn across the apex and so couldn’t do much but try and make it safely through. Must have been a heavy rain there a few days before us, but on this day the sun was out and the sky was a full blue with no clouds to be seen in any direction. Gazelle-Callahan Road ends at Old Hwy 99S and that is where you come into full view of The White Mountain and she follows in every direction to wherever you go from there.

We stopped into Mount Shasta City for a walk around town. This is where the headwaters of the Sacramento River actually just bubble out of the ground from the aquifers below. We stopped into a local pub and had some refreshments as it was almost 90 degrees outside. It was beautiful! Talked with a few locals and continued our little walk around and then hit the road again for the few miles back to McCloud. Since it was so nice out we decide to run on out to Lake McCloud… how creative a name! This is a reservoir in the absolute middle of nowhere. But there were fisherman that had found it and they were out doing their thing. We rode around the paved side of the lake all the way to the dam. It was about 5-7 miles maybe but was a nice place to be cool in the late afternoon heat.

 

  

Nice day ride! 

We took a few pictures by an old Fire Engine hook & Ladder Truck that was just outside of town. I would say it was from the 40-50’s era but it must have been a beautiful piece of machinery back in its day. It still was in my eyes. Love this old stuff!

 For dinner that night we ventured across town… (across the highway) over to Aarons Steak house and met the nice people that run the place and had some good laughs with the bartenders there. We all told storys of our travels through life… ours being a little more literal on that trip.

   

 

The next day was the ride home, this time outside of the confines of Hwy 5 all the way. We found the side roads that travel south on the eastern side and it took a bit longer but was sure a lot more relaxing and less stressful. Mostly on highways 99, 45, and 20 along the Sacramento river for the most part.

Another great ride, home safe and sound.