Day 13 - The Day of 35's - Wind Chill to Down Hill

Day 13 -  Manzanita Lake to Anderson.
AND THE WIND BLEW ALL NIGHT! Sometimes there were so many needles blowing out of the trees that it sounded like rain. AND it was even colder last night than the night before. Our sleeping bags were not heavy enough to combat the cool breeze through the tent.

The campground host told us it was blowing 35mph farther up the mountain, it was 35F here and not supposed to reach 60F at this elevation (6000'). You can bet the ride up and down at 8500' would be COLD! It was more than enough to confirm our decision to head west to Redding instead of east to Chester and Lake Almanor.

Trying to find the least cool spot to eat breakfast.

Needles and pine cones everywhere!

The Loomis Museum on our way out. We had waited until 10:00 in hopes that it might warm up a bit. The sunshine makes it look warm but it is still less than 40F and very windy.....but it was going to be a tailwind now instead of a headwind :)

For the first downhill stretches we had to take sun breaks to warm up.

It should say snowstorms because we couldn't figure out why rain would matter. But then again, maybe they don't get rainstorms here??

The beginning of one mile of 9% down hill with the valley in the distance. Are we smiling....you bet! Downhill, a tailwind, a good shoulder, sunshine and beautiful scenery. And starting to shed some layers too. Another 35......35 mph!

These made us smile too!

The campground host also told us about Dersch Road as a good way to get off Highway 44 and that it would be good cycling. In fact, we decided that we didn't need to go to Redding after all (too big and we've stayed there before) and are going to head to Anderson instead. 

Most of the time we had the road to ourselves, except for an occasional log truck or chip truck. They were our smell of the day as many had cedar on board.

An older version of the road went over that bridge over Bear Creek.

It has warmed up enough that now we are taking shade breaks instead of sun breaks.

Aptly named Dry Creek.

We can finally see Mt. Shasta ....from afar.

Our first glimpse of the Sacramento River. We are thinking that a nice alternative to our original plan will be to follow the river as it flows down the valley.

We usually average about 10 mph most days. Today we averaged 14 mph and our ending elevation is 5,600 feet lower than where we started. We wore shorts to dinner.  We went to bed really early since we hadn't slept well at all last night. Tomorrow is a just a slightly altered adventure.