Coastal Recon

After months of rather sedentary planning, logistical decisions, and computerized prepwork, Kelly and I actually had a chance to get out of Portland this past weekend to do some recon for The Long Road South.  Originally, we'd been planning on heading straight west to leave Portland, getting to the Oregon coast a quickly as possible then starting south.  Almost every time we told someone new of our route they'd comment on the northern portion of the Oregon coast - how narrow the shoulders are, how bad the traffic is, etc.  I've learned to take such comments with a grain of salt, is there any segment of road in the world that couldn't be described a "dangerous?"  But after the 100th or so comment about the northern Oregon coast we decided that maybe we should look and see if there's other options for heading out of Portland.  Thus a road trip was born. 

So Kelly and I packed the car with some camping gear and headed south through the Willamette Valley to Eugene.  From Eugene we went west on highway 126, our first option for getting to the coast.  It's a nice road, pretty and not overly hilly, what for climbing a mountain range and all, but pretty busy - being that it's the main artery between Eugene and the Oregon Dunes.  RV's and toy haulers abound.  We camped for the night in a stand of trees near some big, sandy hills and in the morning set off on Highway 101.  Now Highway 101 in Oregon is part of the Pacific Coast Bike Route.  It's a bike route for a couple reasons.  1. It's incredibly beautiful.  2.  For the most part, it's not a freeway.  See below for photographic evidence.

The problem with the coast roads is that they're narrow, twisting, almost always climbing or descending, subject to whatever weather gets blown in from the ocean, and because of their beauty, often jam packed with traffic.  And unfortunately, the placement of large yellow traffic signs painted with a stick figure bicyclist doesn't necessarily make them bike friendly.  Seth's handcycle is a particularly wide apparatus, and through most of northern California the left back wheel would be hanging a foot or two into traffic.  We rolled over and over steep undulations some 500ft high and more, watched the fog roll in like a living thing, and turned the Volvo's headlights on through midday rainstorms so other cars could see us coming.  Much of the terrain and weather reminded us of our hardest days in Ireland.The more we drove, the more we started asking ourselves if there might not be a better option.

In fact, there may be.  Highway 97 runs straight down the high plateau of central Oregon before splitting off into a few minor highways in northeastern California.  From there you can weave through the Lower Klamath Wildlife Refuge, Lava Beds National Monument, McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial Park, and Lassen National Forest, before winding up somewhere around Chico.  From there roads cut west to Clear Lake and down into California's wine country.  It's the Shasta Cascades, remote, dry, and relatively lightly traveled.  All of this presents a whole different set of challenges than those faced on the coast route, but ones we're intrigued by.  Any of you readers traveled in this part of the country?  We'd love advice, things not to miss, or any knowledge you can pass on as we research the feasibility of changing the route down to San Francisco.