Planned detour

Sunday, May 29th
Yreka, CA

Next stop is Redding, CA but there's a lake in the way. Instead of taking the cars-only bridge on I-5, I'll make a three-day trip around the lake. 150 miles total, 50 miles a day. Most importantly, there's a grocery store in each town I will reach.

Map

I've discovered bread. A loaf for $2 has 105% DV of carbohydrates. Much better money than two energy bars, or eight bricks of Ramen. Throw in a bunch of bananas, a can of beans, and some packets of sugar - I should be good for a day of travel under $5. Until I reach another buffet.

Bread comes with free compression sack!

Morning camp

Empty lot near Siskiyou college.

Had some David Lynch level weird dreams.

"Color scheme.
Nervous and Sisyphus.
The color scheme, wink. Oh right.
Fat lady conspiring on street bench with fat man.
An author named 'Anonymous Reviewer'.
Book has chapter reviews only in the Japanese edition.
Took textbook from teacher's office.
Her name was like Sisyphus.
Two new rules for biking: no homework in bed nor in the study room; too much clutter."

Me, not making any sense of dreams.
What does it all mean??

There's all these bugs that crawl into my bags at night for warmth.

When I sit down inside a store, they fall out of my stuff and cawl on my things like I'm made of bugs. I feel like that dirty scary man behind the dumpster in Mulholland Dr.

I didn't leave Yreka until 8pm on Sunday. I bought a rotisserie chicken on Sunday and spent the afternoon eating it at a park.

Got to Weed in the dark around 11 pm on old highway 99. Many run-over snakes on the road. Birds that looked like bats. Invisible running water. Didn't want to camp in this environment.

Lots of stars over the road. I watched airplanes blink through the torso of Orion's constellation, like in that Fantastic Voyage movie.

The final 15 minutes into town I expected to be a breeze. Usually, the highway turns into a wide city street. Gas stations and little shops escort me. But this was not the case.

Unpaved gravel path around private manors and estates. Total darkness except for the flashlight on my phone. Noisy frogs. A graffiti'd bridge underpass where people are taken to get murdered, probably. Scary.

Then nothing happened and I got used to it. It became just a slow trudge over loose dirt and rocks, watching the minutes subtract from my ETA.
 
Memorial Day. Monday, May 30th
Weed, CA

Town's claim to fame is its name. I like the police cars that say "City of Weed Police". It was either that, or they'd have "Weed Police".

Morning camp outside a golf course.

It's hot. Sun melts the clear plastic of my handlebar bag onto my phone's screen. I want to wait until early evening again before I travel.