Daily miles 290
Saturday I drove from Lake Tahoe to Healdsburg, CA. Ah, Northern California. The Sierra Nevada mountains. Lush pine forests covering the lower slopes of snow capped mountains. Deep rugged valleys. Fresh pine scented mountain air. It all just makes you feel wonderful to be alive.
Or so I'm told. I experienced none of it myself because the raging forest fires blanketed the whole area with a pall of smoke. I couldn't see very much at all.
The smoke went on for miles and miles and made Sacramento feel like LA.
To make matters worse, I-80 in California has by far the worst road surface of any interstate I have seen. It really felt like it was cobblestoned. I had to shut off the stereo because it couldn't compete with the road noise. At first I thought maybe it was that way for traction up in the mountains during snow season, but the horror show continued pretty much all the way to Sacramento. I actually began to miss the Cross Bronx Expressway. At least you don't go deaf driving on it...
I then took I-5 north until I reached Route 20, and took that west until I reached Clearlake and drove around it. I was expecting a resort atmosphere of sorts given its proximity to San Fran, but instead it was a collection of small towns with not that much going on. I was surprised. I then took Route 29 down the west side of the lake.
I was surprised that it was an actual freeway, which didn't really seem to belong given that it sits between normal routes. The road surface was excellent.
By far the best part of the drive was Route 175 from the lake to 101 over the mountains. I had heard it was a great drive from a biker and I was not disappointed! It's extremely curvy with switchback after switchback. Needless to say I had my hands full driving the car, so no pictures. It was incredible. I felt like cheering after I did it, and it more than made up for the Cobblestone Freeway.
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