A Taste of whats to come

A cool morning greeted us, and that was the point: to get up early and ride through the desert before it got hot. From Burns to its Junction, then south on 395 the temps stayed below 60. The problem was that we were dressed for a warm day and were a bit cold.
Wagontire is a 'town' in Oregon which is slowly going to dust. I went through it eight years ago on my first sport-touring ride in the pacific northwest, back when someone lived there, sold us gas and let us use the bathroom, while informing us Wagontire was for sale, including the international airport. The town itself is just a couple buildings.
Continuing across the desert we passed cinder cones, alkali lakes and the Abert rim. By 10am we had reached Alturas, were out of the desert, and hungry so we grabbed breakfast at what used to be the Black Bear diner. Great breakfast!
Since we had made such good progress today, we decided to continue to the coast. That means hwy 299! Long one of my favorites, this road from Redding to Euraka is over one hundreds miles of sweepers, twisties, mountains, perfect pavement and 55 mph speed limit, and it is challenging to maintain that pace.
The end of the road came at a campground in Fortuna. To get there we had to go through Eureka, and that appears to be the home of wierdos. The people we saw were either scruffy hippie-wanna-bes, Che Geuvara emulators, homeless, or deranged. Perhaps a combo of them all.
So anyway, the campground was nice and right next to the Eel river brewpub. Besides sampling their beer (the Triple Exultation was excellent - aged in a whiskey barrel) the food was excellent too. Paul and I ate too much of our smoked tri-tip sandwhi hes, while Chuck ate saltines.