"Shasta Snow Trip"
page 3

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Friday, 2-Feb-01, continued...
(approx. 10:30 a.m.)

   And so, after taking the left onto Sherwood Road at the north end of Willits, we ascended some more nice hills, and the views became increasingly picturesque as the pavement disappeared and the houses and signs of relative modernization became more scarce.  The buildings and properties that we did see tended towards the rustic, and when we splashed through a stream cutting through the dirt road, we knew we weren't in Kansas anymore...

    Up to this point, all three buses had been relatively clean, but the mud and snow that we were just starting to hit was changing that fact rapidly.   The going was bouncy and rough, not to mention loud, but awesome fun....nothing even close to scary.....there was plenty of road to slide around on in most cases, and the gear and provisions I had packed the day before were sitting tight...there was a small mishap involving gravity and coffee, and the handheld CB kept threatening to hurl itself from its perch with malicious intent, but otherwise, the inherent toughness of our Volkswagens was being again proven.  And gleefully so!

I'll take this moment to share with you my thoughts on the stupendous amount of gear that I had deemed necessary to pack along with me...both for security purposes and fun.  I have always tended to lug too much stuff on trips, although I see myself as someone who packs light.  Go figure.  You'll find a list of my cargo on the Trip Specs page, as well as any notes from the other pilots.  There was only one "extra" item that did take up a lot of space, and was never used....a Meade ETX Astro90 telescope and tripod....I was going to take some close-up shots of Mt. Shasta, but the day we had time for it, well, see for yourself...it's the first pic on Shasta 1....Oh well!  And the two boxes of tools were never opened!!  I guess I wasn't driving my steed hard enough!?

    So after this second side-road, which was a bit more involved than Geysers Road, albeit shorter, we returned to Hwy. 101 somewhere north of Longvale, and headed south on 101 to Hwy 162, which was a nice canyon highway running along above the banks of the Eel River....on the other side, there ran train tracks, which were periodically covered by rockslides...a very interesting sight to see!   Approximately two-thirds of the way to Covelo on 162, to a little road called Poonkinny Road, which winds its way over Poonkinny Ridge, and then back to 162 and into the teeming metropolis of Covelo.  Perhaps sprawling would be a better adjective!   Here's some shots of Poonkinny Road!  

Naturally, I missed some of the great ones...where the road was a bit worse, but then, I was drivin' at the time!

Every once in a great while, the leader's voice would crackle through our CB's saying"Car coming!" which meant "Get out of the middle of the road, you guys!"  There may have been a little loose driving going on, but who am I to say?!

And here's a couple exciting shots in Covelo....

   Just outside (north) of Covelo, we left 162, and headed up into the hills again....
                        .....this time to Zenia!

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