Aneel's trip report.
Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2004 22:53:06 -0700
Subject: Progress report
I'm in Weed.
I headed back to Washington briefly, to get in a visit
to Stonehenge.
After that, it was pretty much straight down RT-97,
with only a jog west
to see Crater Lake.
97 is a mostly-straight road through farmland,
grassland, and forest. I
took a couple city-slicker pictures in places where
you can see nothing
but fields all the way to the horizon. Sadly, there
was no place to stop
for a picture of the giant sunflower field. One
drawback to riding a
street bike is that I can't safely pull off onto a
gravel shoulder
unless I'm going slowly. It's too easy to skid and
lose control.
97 was also really sunny and very hot. It was probably
over 90F most of
the way, which is fine while I'm moving.
Unfortunately, the highway goes
through a few towns, and while I was stopped at
traffic lights, I was
roasting in my heavy riding jacket and pants.
Crater Lake was refreshing. High enough that it was
cooler, even in the
sun. There was snow by the side of the road in a lot
of places. The
views are amazing.
I meant to stop in Klamath Falls, but when I stopped
for gas (40-60c/gal
cheaper than across the border in CA) it didn't look
very appealing. The
guidebook confirmed that, while it's a sizeable town,
there's not much
there, so I decided to push south to CA. Some amazing
views of Shasta at
sunset along the way.
Miles: 439.1
Time: about 9hrs
-- aneel's phone