We had planned another short riding day to give ourselves a break. Our plan was to leave Susanville and stop at the Lassen Volcanic Monument to check out the visitor’s center and maybe swing by the sulfur springs. After that we’d head into Redding and call it a day.
The volcanic gods wanted to keep their sulfur a secret. As we were riding west we were looking for the visitor center which has a unique name that starts with the letter “K” and sounds vaguely Asian (go figure). We rode through the park craning our necks every which way to find it, but no such luck. By that point in the day we were ready to keep going on towards Redding so we didn’t turn back and look for it when it was clear that we were miles beyond the park. It probably turned out for the best because I needed to call into work for a quick meeting and we would have been in no way within AT&T’s network had we located the visitor’s center.
We took CA Route 36 most of the way which was great going through Lassen National Forest. Really good curves in there that brought me unreasonable joy. The CA Route 89 through the park was closed with a late snow so we needed to take some side roads between CA Route 36 and CA Route 44. Keep in mind that our “favorite” GPS had lead us out onto an unpaved forest service road alleging it was paved. It also has routed us in completely incomprehensible directions that seem to be completely opposite of the settings I have for the routing. Needless to say we had some serious apprehension of the route that it had chosen to get us between the two CA Routes. The first turn off ended up being a private drive — I suspect we weren’t the first Garmin users to try it. We drove further down and the GPS found the next route in. We gingerly took it expecting it to turn to gravel at any point. It didn’t, and turned out to be some of the most fun riding we’ve had so far on this trip. It was completely back roads, rural, super twisty, and entirely fun. There were some hair pin turns that made for some exciting moments.
Upon arriving in town we went to the Chipotle for lunch. Mark another one on our Chipotle list! Someday we’ll get them to sponsor our ride across the country visiting each Chipotle.
It was blisteringly hot here compared to the high desert in Susanville. It was hot there (mid-80’s), but it was hotter here (high 80’s). I must be an official Pacific Northwest person because that was way too hot for me. After we dumped our bikes and gear at the hotel we walked over to Alehouse Pub. We drank ourselves silly and then went out for dinner. I’ll be feeling it tomorrow, but we had to let loose.