66.0 Lakes and roads and parks... and helicopters?

Not quite Burt Bacharach's little ditty but...

Having rested in Burney we moved up to Klamath Falls which is near a lake but lacks waterfalls; not even rapids. It's a bit less Nowheresville than Burney, but not that much less. At least there were some 'food trucks' near by and a tap room with 27 different beers on tap. Apparently it is becoming quite the norm here to sell a ridiculous amount of beers with bizarre names. It no longer suffices to simply ask for an IPA and that's even before you get into the size of the glass, remembering, of course, that a pint here isn't a pint anyway and you have to name what you would like in fluid ounces.

We are now in Oregon and it seems that here, for once, prices of things are the prices that you pay. There are no taxes that squeeze in at the end to embarass you - just when you had got the 10$ bill out thinking that, just because that was the price indicated, that would be the price you would pay. 

Klamath was our base for Crater Lake, both a lake and a National Park. It was quite a way from the Park but that way we got to see lots more trees; the forests can seem never ending. We also saw and heard a number of helicopters scooping sacks of water from the lakes to dowse forest fires.

Crater Lake is the most magnificent blue colour due, probably, to its depth at over 600m putting it in the top ten deepest of lakes globally. And it is in the crater of a volcano - with a cone of a small volcano in the lake too. We could not ride all the way round as part of the road on the Eastern edge had collapsed. But we managed a short hike up to an old fire look-out point. Fires here are not new.

We then headed up to Bend to meet Doug. We had met Doug in Ecuador. Our American and Canadian motorbike insurance was bought online whilst we were in Mexico and before we crossed the border into the USA. Whilst the Americans are satisfied with a digital copy of our insurance this does not seem to be the case with the Canadians. They insist on us carrying a paper copy. A paper copy that has been printed on special paper. So when we bought the insurance we had to give an address in the USA where the Canadian paperwork could be sent to. Thank you Doug. Bend is a lovely place. Doug bought us dinner that evening and we had a lovely time in a restaurant where you needed cutlery to eat the food. As we said, Bend is a very pleasant place. Thanks again Doug!

From Bend we headed to Portland. We passed by Smith Rock which is another American rock climbing mecca. And then Mount Hood became more and more visible as we approached it. And then the Columbia River. There always seems to be something to look at. Portland itself was just a short stopover and we had a quick walk down the river. The river and the bridges reminded us a bit of St Petersburg and London. And Istanbul. And Paris. In fact any city with a river and bridges. Careful, we must be becoming blasé...

65.0 Unexpected

Having traversed Yosemite we unexpectedly found that our bed, cake and coffee stop was next to a lake, Mono Lake. Not being too pressurised we went to the Visitor Centre on leaving - comfy seats and aircon even though we didn't need them; it being early in the day. Mono Lake has no outlet and is fed by streams and springs. There is a stalacmite type reaction going on between the spring water bubbling up at the bottom of the lake and the saline lake water. There is also a drawdown issue with the City of Los Angeles Water Board taking water. This has led to a drop in the level of the water thus exposing growths of stalacmite material, some of them then having been sculpted by the wind.

The drop in water level significantly increased the salinity of the lake and every year it has trillions of brine shrimp which, along with a special salt loving fly attracts millions of migrating sea birds. And it was just outside our motel.

Having done National Parks we now do lakes a bit as we headed on from Mono Lake to Lake Tahoe which, in winter, is apparently a famous ski resort. Hard to imagine snow here at present. Lake Tahoe was, unexpectedly to us, block to block motels and hotels. We were a couple of blocks from the beach which was fenced off (photos through the grille) and you had to pay 10$ to walk on the beach. Each. Not for us. We were glad not to be staying here more than the overnight stop. If it is expensive now, well in winter...

We did have a nice ride around the lake as we headed for Lassen Volcanic National Park. Not somewhere we had heard of before, but we saw it on the map and as it is free entrance for us... Note however that the aircon in the film auditorium could have been better. Mount Lassen had been quite violent just over a 100yrs ago and there were some nice contemporary photos as well as a film taken at the time. At the start of the park there were a number of sulphur smelling steam jets adjacent to the road. We are not sure whether there is a lake within the crater but there was a lovely lake on the road near the top of Mount Lassen. And the remains of snow even though it was so hot. All very unexpected.

We then rode to the sleepy town of Burney which really is Nowheresville. Despite it being Nowheresville, it has a very wide road going through it which nonetheless you can cross at ease because there is no traffic. We did meet a couple of guys riding Harley Electraglides across Northern California at the motel; ours at home is a 2009 model, theirs were a 1970's model and a 1951 model. And they thought we were adventurous! We benefited from Burney being a sleepy town by taking a day off, having a bottle of wine, enjoying roast chicken and potato salad from Safeway on a patch of grass under a tree in the motel's parking lot - and sleeping! 

64.0 And things just keep getting bigger

Yosemite. We had to go there. It's a mecca for climbing and we had to have the photos to send to the progeny; El Capitan and Half Dome being the famous rock-climbing faces. And then there are the waterfalls too - substantial torrents even in July.

There is so much forest here, not just the sequoias but also 'normal' trees. People here live with forest fires and there are warning signs everywhere. That and for bears who have not as yet been visible. There are also 100% black cows here. Presumably black ones must taste better in the burgers? It is still very hot and we were very glad to arrive in Mariposa - again, a place situated at an economic distance from the entrance to a National Park. However, Yosemite being Yosemite,  the distance needed to be further... 

We actually ended up staying just across the road from where we stayed in 2014 - and just across the road from the Yosemite Climbing Museum - rusty pitons and bits of old rope...

We have, with practice, worked out our strategy for these National Parks (another 60$ 'saved'). The hikes are proving too strenuous in the heat, but we can manage 4 to 5 miles as long as it's not too steep for too long. Then we visit the Visitor Centre as they usually have an auditorium showing a welcome film. And the auditorium usually has padded seats and aircon...

After we had our hiking day we rode west to east through the National Park - over the Tioga Pass. Between Los Angeles and San Francisco there are only a handful of east-west roads that cross the Sierra Nevada and the Tioga is one of them - but only in the summer as snow closes it from the end of October. As this road is one of the main entrances into Yosemite, we reckon it becomes impossible to enter the valley from the east in winter. The Sierra Nevada is effectively a big block of white granite 400 miles long that has been thrust up by the earth's tectonic movements. White granite that bizarely looks like snow in the sun.

By going to Los Angeles and Sequoia we had avoided Death Valley. In 2014 when we crossed Death Vallley it registered just over 100°F.  During last week it registered 128°F (54°C). Hikers have been reported as having died through dehydration throughout Arizona, Nevada and Utah in the last few weeks and a motorcyclist also died through lack of water in Death Valley whilst we were heading to Los Angeles. 

One of the things that has amazed us a number of times over the last few weeks is how far you can see without there being any man-made impact on the vista. We crossed the Sierra Nevada via Tiago Pass and it was great in a number of ways. Firstly it was quite a lot cooler due to the altitude (3,000m). Our stolen breakfast picnic tasted all the better for it. There were also some beautiful lakes and meadows up there. And some striking white rock outcrops with trees seemingly growing out of nothing. And some excellent views of the other side of Half Dome where the cables are supposed to help you 'hike' up it. And our accommodation for the end of the day at the bottom of the pass also had a coffee shop with home made cakes...