Wherever You Are, There You Are: Meandering in Southern Oregon and Northern California - Part 2

It pains me to read of the fire situation in Oregon right now. Time is a funny thing, especially when you travel. It seems like just yesterday I was riding through that section and it was cold, cloudy and rainy. Now it is dry and being ravaged by fires. I recently saw some AP photos that were so devastatingly stunning. As a disaster responder and crisis worker, seeing coverage of these events always hits a little differently knowing the impact and toll it takes on people who are the most effected by the losses they endure to these events. Especially as I mentally prepare to set off on the typed recollection Part 2 of my adventure. When I look back on that section of my ride, its hard to imagine fire standing a chance against all of that moisture. But the storm eventually passed, and once I made it out of the rain I emerged into an otherwise crisp, beautiful Tuesday morning. There was very little traffic on the backroads and I made fairly decent time through the forests and down toward Grants Pass. I took a quick opportunity to snap a photo of Cascade Gorge and then cruised the rest of the way on little roads that paralleled the main freeways. These roads took me through little towns and I smiled as I rode through Grants Pass, as it will forever hold a special place in my heart as a brief home during my childhood. I still fondly remember playing in those trees, watching dad fish in the Rogue River, and eating blackberries right off the bush. To my surprise, the little corner store is still standing... as is my old elementary school. Then again, maybe it wasn't so long ago.

Cascade Gorge

The rest of the ride from Grants Pass to Cave Junction was fairly uneventful and a little more trafficked.  I cruised along as the KTM hummed beneath me.  A few towns, a near miss with an old lady in a truck, and a couple of Bigfoot Billboards later and I was sitting at a Chevron double checking and triple checking the route I mapped, the weather radar, and the most recent road conditions.  Radar was indicating some decent clouds up at the top of the Pacific Coast Ranges along Greyback Road, but nothing appeared to be an impediment.  This trip was the first run with my new Rev'it gear setup and I'll have more to report on my overall experience at the end of this writeup.  But for now I'll say I was feeling pretty confident. 

As I started the ascent up Greyback Road, I arrived at a barricade at the entry point.  The barricades were half in the roadway, but the rest of the blockades had been moved revealing quite an opening.  I took that as an all-clear to proceed and off I went. When I had mapped the route, I saw tons of images of lush green forests. This became my expectation, which was quickly uprooted by reality. 

Klamath National Forest, After the Slater Fire of 2020

As mentioned, we are not strangers to fire devastation.  I live in an area that is regularly hit pretty hard by fires and I've seen firsthand the unique culture of trauma and resilience of people who live in these areas.  However, the further I went up Greyback road, the more desolate and eerily still this once lush forest was. I didn't see a single person or animal the entire way until my descent into Happy Camp, and as I reached a crest along the peak, the view was of a horizon of hundreds of thousands of acres of charred and dying trees.  It was humbling and it made my heart heavy. Nature is as vicious as she is mighty and beautiful. My idea to deviate from the pavement onto some fire roads was thwarted by bright signage indicating the instability of the landscape due to the fire damage and unsettled ground (the recent rains probably didn't help). So I spent the next 15-20 miles silently taking in the sights and smells of seemingly abandoned forests before I finally came down into a work camp of Cal Trans Crews who were staged near Happy Camp, working tirelessly to clear out the devastation. 

The View from the Top...

Once I arrived in Happy Camp, I stopped to snap a pic with a Bigfoot Statue at an apparently abandoned gas station.  There I was greeted by a couple of Cal Trans guys, and a local CHP officer who had many questions about the bike. The CHP officer asked if the gates were open on the Oregon side and my response was: "Well, there was an opening wide enough for a truck to fit through so I interpreted that as an invitation."  He smiled.  I smiled nervously and we all went back to talking about bikes before they threw me a few recommendations for routes to avoid the summer tourists and I went on my way.