I stayed in camp most of the day - ran a load of laundry, charged up the laptop and spent a lot of time reading. I walked around and took some pictures and watched the resident otter enjoying his floating island in the little pond. I went to Trinidad for lunch and had a nice short ride. I had hoped to ride out to the point, but it turns out that the road we saw last night is really a trail, and just paved for maintenance vehicles. Too bad, it looked like fun. It has been a nice quiet day, but a little cold and overcast.

I figured out a nice route through the mountains from Trinidad along some of California's better highways (according to Destination Highways, at least).

At Willow Creek, I turned north onto Highway 96, which runs into the Hoopa reservation. It's supposed to be a decent road, and in places it was- in other places the speed limit was too low, or the neverending California construction was too annoying. On smaller highways (like this), CALDOT doesn't hesitate to employ a cadre of flaggers, and pilot truck drivers for simple tasks like trimming the underbrush.

I started out on Highway 299, which is the main highway between Redding and Eureka. It's a busy road that is twisty and mountainous. There are some good passing lanes, some striped areas, and lots of nice drivers who will pull to the side to let you go past. It was a nice 50-mile warmup for the bike!

I turned off 96 onto Salmon River Road, staying on it as it changed names and narrowed to one lane. It was fairly technical, cut into a steep hillside along the Salmon River. Some sort of trenching operation was going on, luckily the road was too narrow for the pilot truck, so it was just a couple of flaggers. There were several small stretches with the same construction team- the last one was a cable truck, parked diagonally across the (narrow) road. One flagger was trying to watch both directions; there was a car waiting on the other side, and obviously they weren't planning on moving the truck immediately. The flagger motioned for me to ride through the ditch. Cool! I probably couldn't have made it if I had my side cases, but it was simple and fast without them.

Eventually the road became wide again, and that's when DH2 properly started. It was a lonely high-speed highway, climbing over a pass before joining Highway 3 on the way to Trinity Lake and the town of Weaverville.

The strech of Highway 3 that I ran is basically a steep descent down to Trinity Lake. It was a little technical to ride down, and I was thinking "this would be more fun to ride UP." So I did. I ran about eight miles of it uphill, which meant I had to ride down it twice. Oh well. There was no traffic because of yet another construction project at the top of the pass.

The ride along Trinity Lake is a little busier, not quite as much fun, but .. interesting. The lake is down 130 feet from its last peak (in 2006). This meant there weren't many boats, since the boat ramps are closed, marooned a hundred feet above the waterline. The water isn't even visible from some of the boat ramps. Huh.

I turned back west on Highway 299 at Weaverville to head back towards Tamara and the campsite. A half-dozen miles later, I realized I'd missed my best opportunity for gas. So I turned around, went back, and filled up. I also had a bite of Chinese food while I was there, enjoying the air conditioning and explaining why I choose to wear gear in such heat.

Back on Highway 299, the traffic was moderate, but many moved onto the shoulder so I wouldn't have to wait behind them. That was nice, as the sharp curves were much more enjoyable on a motorcycle than they'd be in an SUV or logging truck.

I dropped by Eureka for some supplies we were low on (Gaz camping canister, Sprayway), then headed back to camp. The notorious fog on the coast hadn't burned off, so it was pretty chilly in camp. I much prefer the chill over the heat I'd experienced earlier in the day!

During the day I mounted the video camera to the side of the V-Strom. I took an hour or two of photos. Unfortunately, the cheap tripod mount on the video camera broke in a new and unique way: the tiny screw on the inside stayed attached, but the plastic threads started spinning. That meant the RAM mount was stuck on the video camera, so the SD card and battery weren't accessible. Huh.

A quick trip to the hardware store solved that: I bought a hacksaw blade and removed the excess RAM mount, then used some 2-part plastic epoxy to glue the whole thing together. My cheap HD video camera just increased in size significantly, but it's also significantly more usable.

The video from this event probably won't come out until well after the trip is over, so hopefully it'll look decent!