Cali Moto Tour 2009 - Day 1

Cali Moto Tour 2009 - Day 1 - June 1

Burl: June 1, 2009 - Monday 8:00pm - We pulled away from our driveway at 8:45 AM this morning. I was worrying that the note i left on the neighbors door would blow away and the kitty would be locked up and starving for 2-1/2 weeks :-(

I spent the first half of the drive entertaining myself by trying to memorize the names and order of the towns we passed through... LaPine, Gilchrist, Crescent, Chemult, Klamath Falls? I tried meditating and worked on my core strength. I got bored but it is also nice to just have to sit; no cleaning bathtubs for 2-1/2 weeks!

We stopped for lunch at Petroglyph Point, part of Lavabeds National Park. I felt torn between getting into the mountains sooner and 'enjoying the moment'... or whatever. I decided to take some time to explore where we were at, because i've always done the opposite in the past, and have often regretted it. It makes me feel rushed and then i get where i want to get and i can't slow down. The petroglyphs were neat, one looked like this: (sketch of what appears to be an anatomically correct male stick figure).
We were graced with a lovely breeze of sage as we headed into the pines of Modoc National Forest. Meh. After chatting with a ranger and getting our fire permit, we finally made it to Burney Falls. We passed through some cute little towns and got some nice views of the East side of Mt. Shasta along the way, but the waterfall was by far the prettiest thing all day. This thing was straight out of Fern Gully. The river below was nice too, with big bunch grasses poking up in the middle of the water. As we sat at the base of the falls, getting misted, i wished we'd skipped the petroglyphs!

We didn't want to get to a camp site too late, so we took off to drive around Britton Lake. So here we are now, at the lovely little spot we found. Just me and my babe and my babe's farts.

Troy: Today was probably (hopefully) the worst day in terms of just blasting miles on boring highways. That's great news because today wasn't that bad. We have enough time for this trip, that we should be able to have a lot of low-mileage travel days, as long as we don't linger in one place for too long.
It was cool to go to Burney Falls because it was one of those beautiful pictures in some faraway place that is the picture in a calendar. I mean it. It actually was a picture in a calendar in my office, that i saw earlier this year, and subsequently incorporated into our travel plans. It worked out very well.