MT. SHASTA CITY

Mt. Shasta always in view today.

DATE:  Sun, Oct. 2, 2011

HOME: Mt. Shasta, CA, . Shasta  Mountain Inn

DISTANCE:  41

ALTITUDE: 2100 ft

WEATHER:  Cool, partly cloudy, but very stiff headwinds

NARRATIVE: 

Our goal today was to get to Mt. Shasta.  The weather report had winds picking up in the afternoon, getting colder, but no rain today.  We know we’ll be in Shasta for awhile if the weather report is right – there’s a front with high winds on Sun. night, Mon. morning, but the big storm is on Tuesday/Wed.  Our problem is that we need a clear day to go 60 miles to the next spot unless we camp, which also means we need a good day. 

I got an OMIGOD – the winds (yesterday)- email from Alison.  They actually persevered through extremely high winds to get to McCloud yesterday.  Turns out that Weed and the Shasta Valley are infamous for their high winds (a local told us 50-60 in the winter is not uncommon).  We had beautiful riding in the morning past open ranch land with views of Shasta dominating the skyline.  But, around 10:30 we began encountering stiff headwinds – our biking speed went front 12-14mph to 5-7mph.  We found some trees for a break, and about 10 miles from Shasta we began climbing and were somewhat shielded by trees from the wind. 

We actually had a difficult time finding a place to stay – we wanted a nice B&B intown within walking distance to stores/restaurants.  Finally settled on a wonderful place that had a spot for us tonight but not tomorrow, and then the following two nights.  Our thinking now is to go to McCloud tomorrow if this place has no cancellations – while only 10 miles away it puts us 10 miles closer (50 mile day) to somewhere to stay. 

Several people recommended a Japanese Restaurant, Vivifly.  Not good, and we remember how wonderful the one in Bend was….

Even though we may have to move on tomorrow we are soooooo looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.  Breakfast here isn’t till 9:00 – very, very civilized.  And, they’re letting us use their washer/dryer to do our laundry:)  And they have a great view of Mt. Shasta.  Great place.  We can only hope there's a cancellation tomorrow since it will be raining all week!