I hadn't planned on anykind of ride report for this day but what the heck. My day started where I was just courious about some boat launching facilities down on the "Mighty Sacramento River" in the Chico area so off I went. My route would take me down Honey Run Rd. out of Paradise toward Chico so I stopped here for a quick photo op. Looking downstream from inside the bridge, Butte Creek, From there I continued on to Durham and through Durham, Daton and onto Ord Ferry Rd. until I came to the River Rd. and turned north. The Sacramento River. Water is moving pretty fast, a lot of water being let out of the Shasta Dam providing irrigation for the farmers and trying to keep the Salmon moving upstream to spawn. I kept heading north on River Rd. and came to Hwy 32 and turned east. Old barn along the way. I headed east through Chico and decided to go on up Hwy 32 above Forest Hill and catch Scout Rd. over to Skyway to see how the paving project was going. I took Humbolt Rd. and by-passed Scout Rd. but when I turned south heading toward Skyway I came accross a road closed sign. The barricade was open on one side so I thought maybe as "local traffic" I might get through, not! I came upon a very large road cut out (and construction crew) where they were installing a large culvet. So back the way I had come. I stopped and was looking at my rerouting options and one of the workers came up and suggested the detour that they set up that would take me accross Jonesville Rd. to Humbug Rd. Nice guy and "Hell Yeah" I know that road and where it comes out, I was happy for the dirt. Jonesville Rd. The detour was well marked once you hit the dirt about 10 miles up the road FROM WHERE IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN MARKED! hello? No matter I was just happy to be on dirt. I turned right here and was back on familiar territory. Stopped at this little creek and had a rest and a snack. This is Mud Lake in the way that I'm used to seeing it. Approx. 6 weeks ago it was full of water. Only about 3 feet deep. As I was getting close to pavement again I came upon where there was a lot of logging going on. I'm not opposed to logging but really, does the land have to be trashed and raped so badly? REALLY? Off in the distance you can see the smoke rising from the Chips Fire in the Feather River Canyon. I beleive it's over 5,000 acres at this point. I was really feeling saddened for the fire fighters, the wind was blowing accross the mountain tops pretty good today and the predicted weather is for valley temps to be near and over 100 dgrs all week. Well, that's all I have, only a few miles of pavement to home. Not too bad for "not going to do a ride report". Any day on the bike is a GREAT day, sore knee and all. Ride on.
Nice ride Redog1. Humbug Road is always a blast. Glad to see it is clear of smoke around there. The Chips Fire is nothing nice!
