Day 16 - Mixed Bag

Today we had planned a transit day - just to get into position to run our next scheduled road - the Pacific Coast Highway from Monterrey to Morro Bay. We executed our plan, though it was not totally smooth sailing.

We awoke at a reasonable hour, only to hear the distinct sound of rain on the window! A check on the weather radar showed  small front moving through our location (Grants Pass, OR) that looked like it might clear the are in an hour or so, leaving us with a dry start to the day.

Not what we like to see to start the day!

We took our time at breakfast, had an extra cup of coffee and by 7:45 local time, the rain almost stopped. We packed up the bikes, and geared up for rain just in case and left the hotel at 8:15 AM. It was barely sprinkling and we thought we might get lucky.... Just a few miles down I-5 and the rain picked up and we ran in a moderate rain for about 30 miles with another 30 or so of in and out sprinkles. We didn't get to dry pavement until 135 miles out. As rain goes this really wasn't too bad, especially since we were geared up for it from the start. At 150 miles, we stopped at a rest area and the sun was shining so we took off all the rain gear. The temps had come up from a low of 58 to now 73 so it was quite comfortable.

Lakehead Rest Area where we shed the rain gear

If you look closely t the above photo you will note that there are still some clouds around. This was at the head of Shasta Lake, just about 40 miles south of Mt Shasta - which was so socked in by the clouds that we couldn't see it when we went by.

The mornings ride wasn't without some fun though. As we were still in the Cascades, we went up and over several passes (mountains) which meant some nice twisting turning and elevation changing roads, and the road surfaces were quite good making it a very enjoyable experience. Traffic was fairly light to boot which further contributed to the fun times.

Eventually though we exited the mountains and got into California farming country. We stopped for lunch in Corning, CA which it turns out bills itself as the "Olive City". I had seen some trees that went on for miles just before we got there so I surmise they were, in fact, olive trees.

Eventually, we exited the I-5 for I-80 and then I-680 to get around San Francisco. That made for some excitement. When we merged onto I-80 there were 5 lanes of traffic, very nearly bumper to bumper, travelling at 75 MPH (the "normal" ones). Some were weaving in and out to try to maintain 80+ ! It was a bit of a "white knuckle ride" to keep together and on route with these California drivers running like they were the only ones on the road that mattered. Anyways, we made it through and eventually got out onto US-101 where things calmed down a lot and before long we were at our hotel destination for tonight in Gilroy, CA. We even got there early enough to have time to do some laundry :-)


Stats for today: 451 miles in 7:41 elapsed time

Added GPS Track for the day: