Epic-er and epic-er….

Four Corners Tour, Day 3; Epic Ride, Day 23:

We are in Fort Bragg, CA, after riding some more magnificent roads.  The first part of today’s ride was on a road I used to look at from the air as I’d fly to Oregon in Cessna 172s.  It’s CA-96, the Klamath River Road.  The longest straight stretch might have been a half mile.  It was downhill all the way from where we got on just north of Yreka to Erreka, the other “reka” in California, so we got 248 miles out of the tank, a new record for Rick, even though we did about 40 miles  on I-5 between Ashland and Yreka at 70mph.

The Klamath River is a national wild and scenic river and the pavement was in mostly good shape, although we had to stop for a couple of construction sites.  We rode to Happy Camp and took a quick break and then rode non-stop to Eureka, where we got gas.  It had been smoky all the way from Yreka to Happy Camp, and while we were stopped there it got significantly worse, but as we went on west, it got better.

Getting out of Eureka was an ordeal, but just a bit out of town, the traffic got light and we moved right along till we got to Legget, where we took CA-1 to the coast and to Fort Bragg.  It was extremely technical, getting darkish, coolish, and very, very interesting.  Lots of ups and downs, curves ranging from 15-30mph, and then a good view of the coast after about 22 miles.

We got here and the restaurant on the motel parking lot had already closed but we found a great Italian hole-in-the-wall in a strip mall behind the Motel 6.  They’d closed already, but the chef told us what he could serve us and we got an outstanding meal with no pressure to hurry.  If you’re in Fort Bragg and have a hankering for Italian food go to D’Aurelios’s at 438 Franklin Street and tell them we sent you.

Tomorrow we’ll end up in Salinas, about 10 miles from Monterey.

Some pictures:

About half way between Yreka and Happy Camp.

Amongst the redwoods on 101.

The Spacific Coast north of Fort Bragg;

Too bad I didn’t get the picture of the sunset I saw about two minutes before I took this.  It was much more colorful and had ocean and everything.  At least I got a picture.
Stats:  Day, 336 miles; Trip, 9,156; Year, 15,005; Total, 67,093.

Tomorrow we’ll end up in Salinas, about 10 miles from Monterey.