From Redwood City to Lake Almanor is more than two hundred miles. If you go the way I did, it takes all day. I rode freeways out of the San Francisco Bay Area to get me to the Sierras. I got off I-80 at Auburn. Not much more to say about that part of the ride, except my 1988 BMW K75C devoured the freeways and interstates in smooth comfort with only a small headlight fairing.

The sign on the bank said 92 degrees as I refueled in Auburn. It confirmed what my sweat-soaked helmet and riding suit were already telling me. It was past noon, but I rushed to get on CA-49 before having lunch. A few miles out I saw a white restaraunt on a hill and gave in to the heat, thirst and hunger.

After inhaling an above average roadhouse lunch and refilling all my water bottles, I kicked tires with the white-haired couple riding their spiffy BMW K100LT-based sidecar rig. Gran'ma was riding in style in a fully enclosed cab. I saw a lot more BMW riders that day on their way south to a big rally in Mariposa.

I meandered all day along the foothills. CA-70, CA-89, and finally CA-36 right outside Chester. It was supper time when I checked in to my room at the inn, but I needed to get cleaned up before I could eat. The room was in the bottom of the inn, below the parking lot and cut into the banks of the stream.

I had my own private patio outside a sliding door that opened toward the stream. The water crashed loudly over the rocks in the thin cool air. The long hot ride to Lake Almanor was over.