Info needed on Hwy 36 West to East

Will be exploring Hwy. 36 from Fortuna to Hwy. 3, north through Hayfork, and
eastward on Hwy. 299 into Redding this summer. I hear highly of it.

What should one expect for a comfortable (okay, first-time) riding-time
leaving Fortuna in the early AM to avoid the summer heat? We'd like to
crash around noon in some early-check-in, air-conditioned Redding motel as
the summer valley temps will get to hot to ride after 11-12 o'clock.

Any recommended stops along the way? Food? Eats? Sights? Gas? Leos?

We were thinking of camping somewhere near Fortuna the first night if there
is a nice tent and motorcycle friendly campground. If not, we'll motel it
if it's too hot in July to make camping unadvisable.

Tia.

B~

 

36 is awesome. 3 is awesome. 299 is awesome. 96 is awesome.

yes.

36 is pretty technical. non stop twisties. valley side has dips with
turns. two people on a r1100rs in the air needing to turn. i mean, this is
a great road, but watch the throttle on those dips. steering in the air is
no fun!

96 is fassssst. i held 80mph on my k75s, it was so fun i turned around and
did the whole damn road the other way. 80mph was comfortable, i could have
gone faster, but it was so sweet i wanted to enjoy it. the best part is the
klamath river, designated wild and scenic the whole route. nice, since you
can camp or swim or whatever anywhere.
not a lot of fuel available up there if you wish to explore the higher
velocities.
I did a Mendo>36>I5>96>Mendo run in October, will be doing it yearly if
anyone wants to come along. Nice weekend! We will throw in obstacles like
Hwy 3 sometimes, or even do it clock wise, what the hell.

otherwise, July will be hot valley side, cold coast side. forest fires
could be an additional distraction

don't let ANY of that stop you!

mendodave

 

oh yes

i've been riding on the NorCal coast for 35 years, and usually west to east
is better, mostly because of the sun.

the roads are shite either way, it depends on where you are at sunrising or
sunsetting

dave

 

Rethinking this thing out, I may do the route going east to west. I'm
thinking early morning departure from the Valley's heat with the sun at my
back may be a better route. Heading to the coast may be a better - or
cooler - way.

I was thinking of a layover in Weaverville near the 299 & 3 junction and
attack 36 westward in the morning. Weaverville looks sort of quaint, has a
theater to bail out of the heat until the motel check-in time (if it's
open), and has the most motels I can find near the route. I didn't see
anything motel-wise along 36 itself. Weaverville looks pretty reasonable on
accommodations unlike Redding which seems higher.

Red Bluff would put me too far south since I'll be on 299 to begin with
either into or out of Lassen N.P. I do like Red Bluff as a town though.

I may break at Willets or Ukiah on the southward leg on 101 once off of 36.
I thought about the Comfort Inn at Fortuna, but Ukiah would make a better
stop for the mileage back down to Santa Cruz the next day (fighting Bay area
traffic). I think two 200 miles saddle days would be better than a 100 and
a 300 day. Don't know how long riding time to spend along the 3 to 101
portion of 36 though? Maybe 36 will wear me out to the point of crashing in
Fortuna?

Thanks all for the ideas.....and the heads-up on the sand trap on 36. I
dumped my H-D on that sand-crap once and did a front slide out on another.
To this day, if I see sand on asphalt the PF# still goes off the scale.
Hopefully, I won't be in that region to the east of 3 on 36.

B~

 

Indeed! It's ALL good!

--
PC Paul
89 PC800
77 R100RS

Trip pics at: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/paul1cart/my_photos

"To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to
society" - Theodore Roosevelt

 

I just saw that on the Lassen NP website where it says the Summit Lake
campgrounds may not open until middle of July. Must be a lot of snow up
there. I don't know, but I have a hunch that 89 through there may open by
July 4th or so just for possible vacationers. Nice place to camp in. Not
much noise there last year in the South Summit Lake campground which was
mostly tent campers and bikers. The noisy generator crowd was in the
flush-toilet Summit Lake North Campground. Cripes! They got flush toilets
in their RV buses and they still camp at a flush-toilet campground?

I need to make a night at Chico. If for nothing else, they got some hot
nightspots since it is primarily a party-college town. Okay, Hwy 32 out of
there is pretty cool in the mornings as well. Saw a lot of bikes along that
road.

B~