Dam Tour SW Day 2

Today I got off to a late start leaving at 9:30 or so.  This worked out great for my route was from Burns Oregon to Delintment Lake Dam along a high mountain forest service road suffering from an overpopulation of Forest Rats.  I try to avoid travel in morning and late evening in Forest Rat county and the cold weather this morning also gave me a second excuse.

The road was paved all the way to this dam and I was dam grateful for that.   On the way I had a Forest Rat run out in front of me and spotted two others.  I missed the rat with ease but it served a reminder to continue to keep the speed to 40 to 45mph.  Rats.

My dual sport riding buddy Curtis enjoys gravel roads provided there is some scenery.  There was a bit of scenery along this road, scenes of vast open spaces of nothing.  After gaining elevation and leaving an old burn area I followed a tree lined road for 20 miles.  This road would have put a frown on Curtis' face.  Once I reached the lake I smiled because the scenery improved.

The fellow who shot this photo was fishing from the dock in the background.  He had not got a bite all morning.  This is when I realized I had found the middle of nowhere.  This became a theme for the rest of the ride today.

Here is my Delintment Lake Dam Tour photo.

Photo below Central Oregon High Country.

My Garmin 550 GPS was completely worthless even from Burns, Oregon.  I went entirely on my memory of the web page directions.  That is dam dangerous.   All in all the ride was a down and out of 90 or so miles.

Here is my route for the day.


View Larger Map

I gassed up for the second time in Burns, Oregon once again today, knowing not where gas might be had again.  It was miles of mostly uninteresting road.  There was a rest area explaining the geology of the area.  Some areas line Summer Lake and Albert Lake shown above a sinking will other area remain in place.  Very interesting.

At the rest area I traded ear plugs for the Ipod.  Before leaving home I created a playlist by selecting all rock music and dragging to the playlist.  My Ipod is mostly rock, jazz and classical.  With this little trick was listen to hundreds or rock songs randomly as I Ramble On.

Below is a photo of  Ana River Dam.

Twenty miles or so after leaving Ana River Dam I left Hwy 31 for the Silver Creek road leading to Hwy 97.  This was the best road all day long and as a bonus the forest was cut back improving vision for wayward Forest Rats.

I considered ending the day in Yreka.  My route is west along Hwy 66 to Ashland a road yet unroad by moi.  I want to take some photos using my 35 DSLR instead of the point in shoot I used today.  The best photo opportunities will be on Monday morning with the sun in the east.

Monday is a big day.  California Hwy 96,  to Eureka and Hwy 36 to Red Bluff.  Whoo hooo