San Francisco bay is home to not only good vibes but also pleasant climate, which, especially during the summer, stays in moderate temperatures around 20°C, making it a great place to survive the heat.
This realisation came as soon as I got over the last horizon and left the bay. It was hot, dry and deserted although the Pacific breeze made these conditions more bearable. Entering the Napa wine country, the sun was already setting down, shining beautiful orange light on the vineyards. In these dramatic conditions, I went to resupply at Walmart, the place where you find the weirdest American creatures, and I walked out with a helmet, feeling immediately safer on the road.
Adapting to new climate
It was dark, the heat was out, making it a surprisingly good time to cover some more ground. I had to get across the great valley to make it up to the mountains - the road started to incline into the hills separating the Pacific coast from the great valley. I cycled for nearly 2 hours in the dark, watching my progress on the map, but my energy was suddenly out, my body needed some rest, so I just randomly pulled over and slept in the bushes besides the road.
It was my first night out of my friend’s comfy couch in SF, I slept ok for I dreamed about being robbed while sleeping, I guess there are some memories you won’t forget. However, when I woke up, none of this happened, the sky was clear blue, which was a sign of a good day ahead.
I cycled through some beautiful hilly landscapes of golden weed, scary old trees, lakes and fish-filled creeks. I took a refreshing swim in the dam and damn, I forgot my shoe there, I mean my ever-lasting hiking shoes that I have had for 4 years. I didn’t even say a proper goodbye to them.
The Great Valley
As I cycled out of the hills, I entered the great Californian farmland plateau, where much of USA’s fruit, nut and veg production comes from: strawberries, peaches, cherries, apples, pears, walnuts were all being grown here and some of the produce was ripe and being harvested - strawberries and peaches. At first, I was excited, but as all these farms had big “no trespassing” signs and cameras, it was rather painful to watch because I didn’t wanna get in trouble.
The roads became super boring, no need to turn for 20kms, I could fall asleep easily even when pedaling. There seemed to be some interesting POIs along the way, but the Yolo village was flat out boring, junkie houses, low-income inhabitants and nothing worth mentioning besides the liquor store. Meanwhile, the heat was terrific, I was drinking 6L of water and still felt dehydrated. I picked the only mountain in the neverending flats as my destination, with the intention to camp there.
That didn’t go quite well, the hills were fenced out and no trespassing was amended with radioactivity warning sign posts, I ended up just besides and slightly above the road, I didn’t even pitch my tent and fell asleep watching the stars.
I had the last stretch before I would enter the mountains. I welcomed the new day with energizing coffee and filling porridge. I was going early, making good progress, which meant I could be out of the valley before the peak heatwave. The day got better when I grabbed a couple of super tasty peaches off a fallen tree. Last shopping and resupplying before hitting the mountains, I bought a better helmet, week’s worth of groceries and took out some cash just in case. I don’t know how, but the day went by like that and suddenly it was dark. I found a sweet spot by the river, which meant a shower and an all night frog orchestra.
Mountains
Mountains, finally: the road was climbing alongside the river, hitting the “summit” via a dirt road, I was all dust. The bike was heavy with all the load made worse by improper backpack set-up, which kept on falling out. I was alone, there were only a handful of cars passing by. I was spinning on 1-1 for the most time.
I found a free campsite somewhere in the woods, where I was completely on my own. I walked around naked, washed in the freezing cold creek, patched holes on my backpack and made dinner - I was serving chia seed rice with avocado. I hanged my food on a tree and dreamt about bears all night (allegory to Mr. Babiš’s book entitled “what I dream about when I have a moment to sleep”).
At this point, I was in the infinity of Plumas woods, it felt really wild and remote as you couldn’t see any town on the horizon. I felt quite small underneath the giant trees, decorated with eye-catching green moss. The views were beautiful, cascaded forest, deep valleys and finally the majestic Lassen Volcano standing out above all.
Vulcanic
I entered the volcanic land of Lassen - snow-capped mountains, forest, lakes and nice temperatures. There was still a lot of snow up at Lassen, so I had to change plans and take a detour around the closed mountain pass. This made me camp nearby Chester, which was a small village with a real good ice cream / milkshake place and Subway, where they gave me a footlong for free!
The free camping was really nice - grass camp spots shaded by pines with toilets and creek nearby. In the morning, I checked out the (Neptuno?) Lake situated 7km further up the dirt road, of which the last 2km were snowed and I had to walk. I exercised in the closed campsite and took a refreshing swim in the lake, which reflected the Lassen volcano like a mirror. A curious deer came to check out what I was doing.
Back at Chester, I enjoyed an Oreo milkshake (+ wifi) and talked to some curious people who were amazed that I got here from San Fran. I bought shell brackets and plastic straps to secure my backpack in place. The bike setup seems to be complete.
Further, the ride led along Lake Almanor, which was super nice, I would happily spend my entire summer chilling here by the water. Lake Almanor is a really large lake, something around 10km by 30km, there’s a lot of summer houses, boat rentals, restaurants and day use areas, where you can pull-over and hang out in privacy.
I was now backtracking the Pacific Crest Trail, which intersects natural beauty from Mexico all the way up to Canada. I felt like in my beloved Šumava - the meadows, wetlands, mountains were all quite familiar. Tonight, I set up camp next to Poison Lake, not too far from the road. I survived.
I decided to spend a little more time in the area and take a little hiking trip up to Thousand Lake Wilderness. It was a long thirsty ride up, too much elevation, but I did it. You could get amazing views down to Mount Shasta - another huge snowed volcano. I parked my bike at the trailhead and followed the lava path up into the woods damaged by a forest fire. There were people returning with fresh trout and at this point, I thought of buying a fishing rod and catch fish for dinner.
Took electro for swim
The afternoon was super chill, I spent it reading, eating and floating on the lake. Everything was wonderful until I decided to take a few more pictures of the sunset lake reflections, at which point I fell down in the water, drowning my cellphone and camera a bit as well. I was mad, but it was all my mistake, a really stupid one.
I had no navigation, but I kinda knew the way and just asked people directions. I had no idea of the spatiotemporal dimension and I didn’t worry about it. For the next couple of days, I woke up with the sun, did my morning ritual (yoga+exercise+breakfast) and started riding. It was the 4th of July around this time, I noticed it only by seeing a lot of shops closed, I couldn’t see the fireworks from the nature.
Heat
The environment became once again very deserted, dry and hot. Some farmland, otherwise just flat out boring thirsty riding. The forest out here was also deserted, there was just very little water. Just before I entered Klamath Falls, there were Lava Beds - a system of lava caves, of which each is quite unique in shape, bacteria, light. They were quite interesting, the highlight being the Golden Dome, which was a huge cave overgrown with gold bacteria, making it shine like some Russian tzar’s palace.
