This is my WIFE, here are my BIKES, and these are my STORIES

Between Butt Lake and Lake Almanor to the north west is a few hundred miles of roads like this. The more you ride them the more you recognize the color of the dirt. If you know the color of the dirt you know what part of the area you are in. My Garmin Montana helps a little too .




A little road construction on hwy 36 in Chester




Out of Chester there is a road to Drakesbad that cuts over to Child's Meadows. My dad and I road it last time I was up here to get to Lassen Park and its a nice wide gravel road with some quiet pavement stretches.







Probably my favorite type of road sign of all time:




About 8 miles of this:




To get to this:










Past Wilson Lake:




From Wilson Lake you continue on down the hill until you reach Hwy 36 again at Child's Meadows. The Meadows themselves are of pretty good size for this area. Its sort of at the base of Lassen Park and to my understanding used to be a "resort" destination. It's definitely seen some better days though.





Old Homestead

man there is some beautiful riding up there. I wish I would have known about it all when I was in college.....and had a bike..... and friends to take me riding..... etc

and I need to get me one of those new GoPro's - looks like a really slick package

If you ever come back up this way, bring a bike and lets ride!

I had seen some roads on the far side of the meadow from 36 a while back and after coming up here to Lassen Park I just had to check some of them out since I was up here. Nothing special. As I was approaching hwy 32 I realized I was going to dump out on the Lassen Trail. I could afford another 15 miles of dirt. I like these trail markers. I looked them up and there are over 2000 in western Nevada and California. Would be a great adventure to find them all.











I was looking to find an alternate route back onto hwy 32 from the Lassen Trail and thought I saw the intersection on the Garmin I wanted so I used the "Go To Here" function and it quickly rerouted me through some uncharted territory. The Panther Fire was a real recent burn up in this area and I thought I would see some new trails cut out but I must have been to far above the general burn area.







This road got narrower and steeper. I could really feel the drop in elevation but no sign of the highway. Some parts of the trail were really overgrown and I was starting to think it had been gated down at the bottom...One way to find out.














Success. Back on Hwy 32 with a new waypoint added.






Quick stop at windy cut. This is the damage cause from the Panther Fire. Now when I saw this I was pretty suprised at how much more has burned. It was suppossed to be well taken care of a couple weeks ago. I may be very wrong at where I thought the burn extended to but I've ridden around it a few times now and it seems like it is much bigger.







I believe this is the Narrows. Hard to tell without the vegetation but I was up on that side right after the fire when we rode Ponderosa way to Lassen trail.






:huh





This figure is kind of odd. You can easily see it if you pull of the Highway. It looks like someone holding a baby in their arms with the naked eye. With the zoom, faces start to pop out.







The little hills way off in the distance is the Sutter Buttes. They are referred to as the "Smallest Mountain Range in the World." A close up drive by is in the works. The roads through them are off limits.







Back down to the valley and off to work. Not a bad morning at all.

Meeting with my future landlord at noon and changing tires on the red bike in the morning. Only day off I have until the following weekend. Sorry bud. We'll ride soon.

I'm not surprised. I was a little pissed myself. They (the government) can't do anything in an efficient manner. How many years? It's saddens me what's going on. I read some of the "Agenda 21" this morning. Not good.
Sorry for the hi-jack Jeramie, I'll be following this post. I really appreciate the passion you have for riding.
Ride on bud, while you can.

I have been falling behind pretty miserably here with the RR's so I will try to update this between jobs the next couple days.
We have been experiencing particularly hot weather for late June and early July this year...all the more reason to head for the hills and RIDE!

My good buddy and co-worker Burt bought a KTM 500 EXC-f a few months back and we try to get away once a week and head somewhere. July 1st was scheduled to be 112 degrees here in Chico so we decided to head up to the High Lakes at ~6500ft we thought we could escape the heat at least while we were up there. Its a pretty technical route so my weapon of choice was the KTM 350.






We headed up and out of Butte Creek Canyon via Centerville rd which offers spectacular views, gravel rd and very light, if any, traffic.











Burt hadn't been to Bald Mountain Lookout tower, so we took Powelton rd to Skyway then doubled back to Stirling City and rode Retson Rd up to the Lookout.








A look up to Mt. Lassen. The snow has all but melted completely in less than a month.





A look back at the canyon we came up and Chico in the background





Looking towards the High Lakes area, Feather River Canyon, Highway 70 and beyond.





At 6000ft we decided to stop into the Philbrook Lake area for some water and a quick break before hitting the OHV area. It was approaching 100 degrees around this time and it wasn't even 9am...gonna be a long day














We get hydrated finish off some jerky and a 'nola bar and head out. Next stop Spring Valley Lake and the rest of the High Lakes OHV area.

Great stuff. I was born and raised in Chico and grew up riding around Butte Meadows, Chester and Lake Almanor. I can't wait to get back to Ca.
Thanks for sharing.

Haven't made the trip yet this year. Been so busy, crazy year. Now I think I've got a cracked case on the 09 KLR. Ol' Blue has been commissioned into commute duty.

Good to see the Ride Reports are back on track,Ive been riding bicycles mainly lately but the 1250 Bandit may go out in the AM.
The High Lakes are always a good get away,gets pretty bouldery in spots up there.

We rode mt bikes up Pulga road from the bottom a week ago,it was steep and hot,we jumped in every creek we could or soaked our shirts in them.
Trying to do 110 miles a week.

A true KLR rider would either use bubble gum or epoxy and seal that case right up.
2 part Epoxy is tough as nails and lasts for many years.

...full on into moving right now. Not enough hours in the day.:huh

Awesome stuff, thanks for sharing! I love North Cal!

More Adventures needed!


Thanks.

Great post and nice pictures. I was looking up highway 70 and found this road. Is it rideable? Drops back out to 70 near Tobin.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/39°54'02.5"N+121°21'32.8"W/@39.8997948,-121.3612704,15.2z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d39.900689!4d-121.359103