September 22 A great bike trail

 

Sunday, September 22 The Great Bike Trail

I really like it here. Lots to sniff.  My maternal human took me for a long walk.  I got to roll, and sniff, and jump on things to explore.  Did you know my human can run as fast as I can?

Although it was in the 90’s here yesterday, it cooled down nicely overnight.  The Elks is right on the Sacramento River.  We walk ½ a block through the parking lot of the senior center and we are on the bike trail.  To our right, you can pedal 14.5 miles to Shasta Dam.  To the left is the Sundial Bridge, about 1.5 miles.  So we headed left.

It is a beautiful trail with the river flowing easily on our right.  On our left is a nice park, with benches, some with statues sitting on them.  It is shaded and very serene.  We walk under the railroad trestles and there is a dam.  They have built fish ladders and there is a viewing area with big windows where you can watch any salmon that might be heading upstream.  We didn’t see any. 

At this point, Spouse headed back as he had to figure out what is going on with the truck.  He has his suspicions, but has to know for sure.

I continue on.  The trail wanders a teensy bit from the river, which is now framed with native oaks, sycamores, grasses and even my beloved berry brambles.  There are a few bicyclists and people walking their dogs.  It is easy walking which ultimately takes me to the Sundial Bridge.  It looks like a sundial, thus the name, probably acts as one too if you were to position yourself right.  The bridge is lined with foggy glass panels the color of the water below.  There are fisherman enjoying their Sunday.  It is beautiful.  Across the bridge is a small farmers market.  Ohhh…  those little pies look good… but I have no money… Ugh.

I head back over the bridge where there is a botanical garden.  It is mostly native plants, with a peaceful water garden, bee gardens, a butterfly garden and such.  It takes me back to the river trail and I head home. 

I have been gone so long, Spouse has been to Auto Zone and back and has diagnosed and fixed the truck.  But I don’t want to leave now!  Let’s get on the bikes and go towards the dam!

Thus, we will stay another day!  We get on our bikes and… WTF?  Mine is only charged to 80%???  Well, too late now.  We will go as long as we are comfortable then turn around.

The river is now on our left.  There are a few homes set back from the trail with nice views.  For about 200 feet, we leave the trail in a subdivision, then pick it up again.  No big deal as it is remote, with no cars.  We are heading into the dry rolling hills dotted with trees.  The trail goes up, down, and left and right.  It is a workout (as much as you want your ebikes to work!).  It is closed ahead, but we will act like the locals we see and disregard the sign and continue on.

There are occasional benches where you can sit to enjoy the scenery.  The trail is gorgeous.  Geese honk at us as they fly by.  Ducks quack at us as they go by.  The hawk doesn’t make a sound…

We come to a bridge that crosses the river, and we continue to the dam.  Damn… I notice I only have 43% power…  we will not make Shasta for sure.  Spouse is at 39%.  The Keswick dam is just a half mile up, so we head to that as our destination.  In the middle of nowhere, the Keswick dam is a huge concrete monster.  We watch the water spiling through on one side, and we watch the calm waters waiting to get through on the other side.  Rolling hills for as far as the eye can see.  There is almost no traffic.  The trail is ours for the most part.  It’s another 10 miles to Shasta, which is not something we want to try with our power diminished.  Thus, we turn around.

I was at 43% when we made the turnaround… when we got back to our base, I was at 42%, hmm… go figure.  We decided to pedal to the Sundial Bridge.  I got the mini pies…  2 apple crumble, 2 boysenberry.  (It was 4 for $20 so I had to support the economy).

Back at Artee… Rudy loves it here.  He wants to check everything out.  I follow him all over.  Good thing he is on a leash as he really wants to wander.

We decided to take the rest of the day off.  And we split one of the boysenberry pies.  Oh yum!

Tomorrow, we will head for the Elks in Nevada City.  There, we are hooking up with our friends Kathy and Brian, who happen to be there, and then we will visit with our old friend Sue in Grass Valley before we head home.

I have to say that this is one of the best bike trails we have ridden.  I would schedule us up here again so that we could make it up to Shasta.  This was a wonderful treat!