Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Into The West

Great Basin will be nice to go back to for an extended stay someday.  The potential for hiking, stargazing and astronomy presentations are much to appealing to go without.  Unfortunately, it was overcast the entire time I was there.
I camped about halfway up that slope.  Once again, there was a nice loud stream next to my site and after the long day of riding I slept like a baby lamb.
Here's a picture of most of the Great Basin range.
Riding through Nevada was mostly pleasurable despite my preconceived notions based on previous trips there.  Another overcast day kept the temperature reasonable.  There were some neat sites along the way too.
Go Green!
Not so green!  But that's okay, these were the largest dump trucks I had ever seen.  They were on their way to a local mining operation and traffic over this peak was stopped to give these folk plenty of time and room.
I intended to stop in Reno for the evening before heading up to Crater Lake...but much of the afternoon and through Reno was spent in this atmospheric poo caused by the wild fires at Yosemite!  By the time I got into town over 65,000 acres were uncontained.  Besides, traffic through Reno was fairly crazy!
So welcome to northeast California!  I stayed at a small place called the Sierra Motel, took advantage of handicap accessible showers - which put my body in shock as it had been a while!
The following morning, I headed up to Crater Lake!
The drive through northeast Cali and southeast Oregon was beautiful!

I had passed through that valley in the distance before ascending this peak.
And on the other side of that peak was this fine lake!  This view looks back at said peak I ascended.  Climate, view, humidity, temperature - all perfect on this day!
 Yes, I headed for that mountain in the back of this picture!
On the way up to Crater Lake I HAD to stop and check out this valley where 7,700 years ago liquid hot magma flowed down.  Supposedly, one can see fossilized steam from this view - but I suffer from male-pattern-blindness.  If it's in front of me I'll never see it!
There's a 33 mile road (Rim Road) that circles Crater Lake.  Here's one view.  That gravel along the bottom represents the side of the road.  And that tree in the center is an old-growth forest tree - at least 150 ft tall too...so be careful if you ever get to drive or ride around rim road.  There's a lot of places to fall - very exciting!
Although, the following morning when it was time to leave I was not so thrilled about driving through this fog around rim road.  That WAS a little freaky...
Before leaving the fog cleared around the west side of the lake and I spent a good 15 minutes just sitting on my bike at the pull-off just viewing the lake.  It was peaceful, quiet, no traffic and the air was the freshest I ever breathed.  I thought deep thoughts...and forget what they were at this point...but it's the experience that counts, right?

From here I left for Hillsboro, OR, where a couple old friends live.  I've been with them for two days ... getting there was quite an adventure and a post for another time!

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