Sacramento, California

After a great 4 days in the outdoors in Northern California it was back to the city life in the capitol, Sacramento. The vibe that I got right away was like being back home in Ottawa, it was a seemingly sleepy and quiet government town. This city was not without a certain nostalgic charm, grand beauty, and lots of great new friends. 

9,090 km

One of the first things I noticed when I rolled into town was that it had a lot of bike lanes. It was a great city to have a bike as my form of transport as the entire downtown has an extensive bike network which helped me see a lot of the city. My new friend Mike and I spent a few days biking around, grabbing some eats, and checking out the gems that Sac has to offer. A few of our stops included interesting neighborhoods, Old Sacramento, a great coffee shop, the State Capitol Plaza, and the birth place of Capitol Bike Polo "The Ruff House". 

       

The "Ruff House"
     

 
The State Capitol plaza was really cool and planned out with a large avenue lined with government buildings that lines up perfectly with the triumphant golden "Tower Bridge". The plaza grounds themselves contain approximately 1140 trees in the park (not including shrubs) representing over 200 types of trees. Mike and I stopped to try and knock down some fresh oranges out of one of the trees, but they were all a little past ripe. The plaza is also the home Apollo 14 Moon Tree, planted as a sapling in 1976 that was grown from a seed (among hundreds) carried by command module pilot Stuart Roosa during the 1971 mission.

 

Old Sacramento was really cool, and wonderfully preserved waterfront town and the architecture is primarily of Spanish style buildings similar to that of Havana, or San Juan. On the river in Old Sac is where the Delta King Steam Boat is docked. It was cool seeing a steam boat for the first time in person, although now it operates as a hotel. Old Sac is also a great place to walk down the river to the Tower bridge to get a close up of this awesome feat of engineering.

The rest of my time in Sac was filled with cappuccinos, beers at Track 7, and even a day trip to San Francisco. My friend Joe and his family were kind enough to put me up during the time I was in town and it was priceless as always to have the local knowledge to hook me up with all the best spots in town. It was also so great to have friends in Mike, Christine, and Capitol bike polo to show me around and a great time at the polo courts! It was a great and relaxing time in Sacramento, and can't wait to visit again in the future!

Be sure to check out my FYI: Sacramento & Northern California blog post coming up soon!

Northern California Experience

9,090 km

After my few weeks in Oregon I was fortunate enough to meet up with my buddies Lachie and Niki again in Oakland, California where we rented a car. At the time I had no idea what was planned, but I would soon experience an amazing journey through Northern California.

We left Oakland for the Napa and Sonoma Valleys where we intended on visiting some vineyards. We drove north through Napa Valley with a short stop for lunch in the town of Napa. We continued to St. Helena where we took the very winding and scenic Spring Mountain Road over the ridge and hills separating the Napa and Sonoma valleys. 
 

We ended up in Santa Rosa in the early afternoon where we visited one of the most saught after and highly regarded craft breweries in North America, Russian River Brewing Company. I of course enjoyed a number of great sour and barrel aged beers, and grabbed their marquee beer, Pliny the Elder IIPA, to go.

We then made our way off to a couple of great wineries and vineyards with my favorite being Hook & Ladder, before settling down in the first camping spot at Austin Creek State Recreation Area. It was a sweet camping spot that directly neighbors Armstrong Redwood StatePark. The drive up to Austin Creek was amazing with great mountain side views, and the camp site was quiet and each site was shrouded under large redwoods. We enjoyed a nice bottle of wine and some craft beer, and got a good sleep before a big drive the next day.

In the morning we drove off to the coast to take a winding and scenic drive up Hwy 1. The whole drive was filled with long ocean exposures, quick peaks of ocean cliffs and outcroppings and beautiful farms falling away to the seaside. One of the most captivating places that we experienced was the Russian River delta where you can find great cliffside viewpoints of the sandy delta and surrounding mountains sweeping away south.

The end of the second day found us setting up our camp at the Humboldt Redwoods State Park after a few stops in eclectic towns where that hippie vibe is still obvious. The main street in Garberville was filled with backpackers looking to make some good money harvesting the finest crop Humboldt County has to offer.

We were able to spend a full day in Humboldt Redwoods to explore the area. I decided I needed some time to myself and in the outdoors, so I decided to hike Grasshopper Mountain. The only adversity I faced on the hike was that they had removed the seasonal bridges across the Eel River, but that didn't stop me! Off came the hiking boots and rolled the shorts up and waded across to the trail head.

 

I observed some wildlife on my hike, fortunately no mountain lions, but lots of lizards, mule deer, and eagles. I was keeping an eye out for rattlesnakes but I did not see any... I would like to see one... from a safe distance of course!

Day four was my last day in Northern California and it was back to Sacramento. It was a very memorable and unique drive along another winding hwy, Hwy 36. It was an ever changing landscape as the hwy works it way up and down, through the Shasta and Trinity mountain passes. Starting with the Redwoods Standing tall, the hwy works its way up to the Shasta and Trinity National Forests, and then to the semi-arid lands beyond Platina.

All in all it was a great first experience of California, abut they say not to judge a book by its cover. I really hope the rest of this book is as great as the first 4 days!

Cascadia: Part II

7,115 km

Hey everyone, I'm a little behind my posts cause I have been taken in by the nicest people in Sacramento, California and have had little down time. So I have taken a minute to sit down here at Insight Coffee Roasters in Sac before we play polo to grind out a post or two. Here is what I got up to the last week I was in Oregon. Enjoy!

I took the bolt bus back to Portland with my friends Niki and Lachie from Sydney and intended to stay there for about a week. The weather when we arrived was sunny and relatively warm so we seized the moment, borrowed a friends car, and drove out to the Oregon coast to take in Cannon Beach and Point Lookout State park. 

Cannon Beach is a very long beach on the north coast of Oregon State and is lined on both ends by large and picturesque igneous rock formations. It was on my Oregon to do list and I'm definitely glad I was able to get out and take some photos.

Next it was off down the coast to Cape Lookout State Park which is located near Tillamook. The park hosts a a pretty standard campsite fitting for RV's, cyclists, families, and road trippers. We set up camp and took in the amazing sunset, and then drank the evening away, and even tried to get the pesky raccoons drunk with some bourbon.

In the morning we cooked up breakfast, then I hit the beach for a walk south from the campsite and tok some great photos. Later in my journey I would learn that it was indeed a better idea to trek the other way, north, to the actual cape. It is supposedly very beautiful where the the Cape wraps up Netarts Bay. Oh well, here are some photos.  
 

After a morning on the coast it was on the road again for a very scenic drive along the Wilson River(Hwy 6) back to Portland. 

 

The weekend that followed was full of polo, craft beer, bike rides, and street food. I met up with my bud Jordan for the last time while in North America only an hour before my train ride down to Oakland, and I met some interesting people over a few beers. 

I boarded the Amtrak Coast Starlight on the 8^th of October for my journey into California. If you are looking for a great way to see some scenery of the west coast, this is Not the way to do it. At least the stretch from Portland to Oakland is operated as a commuter type of deal. You board the train at 2:30pm in Portland and it is dark by Klamath Falls, then you wake up in Sacramento in the morning only to get mediocre views of the Bay Area's less than interesting industry and suburban sprawl. This is not to say the stretches between Seattle and Portland, or Oakland and Los Angeles are not great, as I have not done it. 

Anyways in summary Portland proved to only further perk my interest of the city and of Oregon, leaving me wanting more. It is a great city with great beer, great food, great scenery, even better bike lanes, great polo, and even greater people.

Farewell Portland!.

For a more in depth review of my favorite stops and shops, check out my FYI: Portland post.

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