Into Oregon

After leaving San Diego on May 5th, we're finally out of California!  What a fine day we had. We had  an early start to the day since we had lots of miles and elevation to cover. I understand why we do this - to give people lots of time to complete the ride. But - it can be frustrating. I've been waiting for my room for over two hours now.  Poor Ann laid down on a bench outside and Emily thought she looked like a homeless person.  All clean now, though, and almost time for margaritas.

We saw an amazing diversity of terrain today. From the pine forests of Mount Shasta down into agricultural valleys and rolling barren hills and then back up to Siskiyou Summit, across the PCT and down, down, down through largely deciduous forest, more agriculture and finally the booming metropolis of Ashland, Oregon.  A beautiful ride.......  With the more open terrain on the north side of Mount Shasta we had great views of the mountain behind us for about 45 miles.  Mount Shasta is a beautiful and imposing mountain, but I suppose I have even more of an affinity for it since my boots made a summit attempt earlier this month.  My friend Tami was wearing them at the time, but still......  And no sooner did we look south to see Mount Shasta, but we could look north and see the next snow-covered, volcanic looking mountain in the distance.  Not sure yet which one it is.

One of the best things about today's ride was the utter lack of traffic - heaven!  We went about 14 miles on North Old Stage Road and probably saw a half dozen cars in all that time.  Mostly rural residential areas.  We had a little bit of early climbing and then a gentle downhill for miles and miles.  We were on old Hwy 99 and a variety of backroads that eventually took us into the little town of Montague for a SAG stop at 36 miles.  Below are some views along the way (and diminishing views of Shasta) and some photos at Montague.

A long stretch on a quiet Ager Road/CR A28 which took us over the Klamth River and through Hornbrook toward a 7 mile stretch on I-5 into Oregon.  A steady climb on the interstate and I raced a transport truck which was really struggling to make it up the hill.  He won, but was a good sport about "racing".

Shortly after we passed into Oregon we took Exit 1 to continue climbing to Siskiyou Summit on Old Hwy 99.  Poor Sheila, our Scottish rider.  She knew we were to take exit 1.  The first exit we saw on I-5 was exit 793.  Poor girl thought she was going to be on the highway for days.  Patty had failed to explain that each state has their own series of numbers and once we crossed the state line the numbers would begin again at 1.  Anyway, once off the interstate we continued to climb for another almost 4 miles.  We got up quite a bit higher than the interstate travelled.

We crossed the PCT twice shortly after the summit and then had a most fabulous winding traffic-free descent for about 12 miles.

Seems I can't load any more pictures right now for some reason.  Oh well.....  might get a few more in here tomorrow.  Or not.....

Our guide Patty will be going home in a few days.  As per the plan, our new guide Katie arrived today.  They'll overlap for a couple of days and then Patty will leave from Crater Lake.  A short day tomorrow.

Stats for the day:
127 km / 79 miles from Mount Shasta CA to Ashland OR
3827 feet up
5347 feet down
Weather:  Stellar.  Started about 6C and reached a high of mid-20sC.  Sunny with a bit of high cloud. A bit of a headwind on the last 5 miles into Ashland.