Trip Summary

Distance: 576.99 miles
Climbing: 7553 feet
Difficulty: medium
Link to final route in RidewithGPS

Full photo gallery from this trip

Getting a little itchy during the rainy, cold and dark Portland winter, I hunted a bit for "winter-recommended bike tours nearby" and found this gem:

The Great Cental Valley Bicycle Route

Since I could easily get to Sacramento by train, I started planning in earnest and a few weeks later I was arriving in Sacramento, planning to ride north to Shasta Lake and then back to Sacramento - essentially doing this portion of the larger route as an out-and-back trip. In the end, I deviated substantially from the route, but used more than half of the routing in my journey. This route was what I ended up actually riding, including visits to my hosts' homes, and various rerouting for closed roads, sightseeing, and per the advice of several hosts.

While I was out on the road, I had 0 mechanical issues, and struggled with wind but not cold nor heat. I had driven through Redding, Chico, and Sacramento in the past, but that hardly counts as visiting, so this area was all new to me. I saw a fair amount of boring flat farmland but also a fair amount of more interesting cute countryside, wetlands, buttes and foothills, with my highest point being the Shasta Lake Dam.

Some of the best part of the trip wasn't riding, though - I had 4 great stays at homes of friends old and new, making this trip a tremendous social success which I'll strive to replicate on future trips. WarmShowers, a website to facilitate friendly home stays for touring cyclists, was a huge help in connecting me with 3 families who were incredibly gracious hosts, feeding me and making me feel very much at home between campsites and AirBNB stays. I look forward to seeing all of them again someday as these were not just "a space to sleep and shower" but real, meaningful, enjoyable connections, conversations, and we spent many hours chatting in each case.

Major thanks to David & Robin, Eleanor & Martin, Katie & Aren, and Marius & Lea

You can read more about the trip in the individual daily journals linked below, which also link to my per-day routes on Strava.

Day 0 - Sacramento to Roseville
Day 1 - Roseville to Davis
Day 2 - Davis to Yuba City
Day 3 - Yuba City past Oroville
Day 4 - campground to Red Bluff
Day 5 - Red Bluff to Redding
Day off - Riding around Redding
Day 6 - Redding to past Corning
Day 7 - campsite to Chico and around town
Day 8 - Chico to Yuba City
Day 9 - Yuba City back to Sacramento

You can read about my other trips on the main page of this site