I could only get away from the project for a week, and I *really*
needed to get away, but I didn't feel like walking (or riding) the
whole way away; so:

  Short Summary:  A one-week "Northern California Overview" vacation trip --
        car-camping, mountain biking, and hiking.  Tahoe, Lassen, Shasta,
        Trinity Alps, Redwood Nat'l Park, Lost Coast, and Boggs Mountain.

  MTB Summary:  Power Line Trail in South Lake Tahoe; the "Bizz" Johnson
        rails-to-trail west from Susanville; a trail in Redwood N.P.;
        Mattole Lighthouse trail; Boggs Mountain.

  Backcountry summary:  Grizzly Lake (nr Thompson Peak, in Trinity Alps) !!!

  Camping/Parks/Points-of-Interest summary:
        Lake Tahoe
        Plumas-Eureka State Park (SP)
        Wilson Lake Ice Cave
        Lassen National Park (NP)
        Subway Cave
        McArthur Burney Falls Memorial SP
        Mt Shasta
        Castle Crags SP
        Trinity Alps Wilderness Area
        Hoopa Reservation
        Redwood NP
        King Range Nat'l Conservation Area (BLM) (aka "Lost Coast")
        Boggs Mountain State Demonstration Forest

  Overall Impression:
        Boy, there sure are a lot of neat places up there in Northern
        California.  A lot of people think of the SF Bay Area as "Northern
        California" but it's really not all that far north.

        And those neat places aren't all that far apart; I didn't really
        feel too rushed, although it'd probably be more fun to do the
        same route in two weeks instead.

Gory Details Available upon request.  Enough Gory requests and I'll post
the whole report.

A little more detail on the MTB rides I took or almost took:

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:Sat. 10/02:  SLT to P-E SP:
    Visited my mother Saturday A.M., after which I rode from her house up
    to the middle of the Power Line Trail, and rode out and back along the
    east half of that trail -- four miles of fun singletrack that ends at
    the top of the road (Ski Run Blvd) that leads up to Heavenly Valley
    Ski Area.  [The whole trail is 8 or 9 miles long, but I only planned
    to do that half.]  Saw a total of 3 people during the whole ride.  On
    the way back to the folks' house I detoured through the USFS land
    behind their house -- it's a 300-acre parcel labeled "The first
    Santini-Burton Land Acquisition", and has a bunch of flattish trails
    through it.   Total of 14 miles riding.

    This half of the trail is labeled "Flume Trail" on the Latitude 40
    Tahoe-South MTB map.  One way to find it is to take Pioneer Trail
    to High Meadow Trail, turn south, and drive (or ride) off the end of the
    road ... onto the dirt road; the east part of the trail is .4 mile
    up the road, on the left.   The west half is also fun (it starts
    about .2 mile lower), but I didn't have time to ride there today.

    [[[Went up to Plumas-Eureka SP.  Eureka Peak was luminous in the (two
    nights past full) moonglow.]]]

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Sun. 10/03:  P-E SP to Lassen NP
    This is a very nice campground.  Jamison Creek flows by below it;
    there are enough trees to afford the sites some privacy; and a fun
    little trail starts from the site next to mine.  So I took a morning
    bike ride on that trail (its destination is Grass Lake, 1.8 miles up).
    I rode a few minutes, crossed the creek, checked out the old Jamison
    Mines buildings, and then headed up the rocky climb toward the lake.
    I probably only got about 1/3 of a mile before I decided the trail was
    too rocky for my bike, and turned around.  Fun ride back down.

    [[[ Back to the car ...  I drove through Johnsville and up to the
    ski area -- it looks like maybe the dirt roads up there might make
    for better MTB rides than the one I tried this morning.
    Anyway, drove to Susanville.  East of Lassen, at the edge of the
    flattish desertish area of northeasternmost California.]]]

    I went back to A-21, went on east through Westwood, and saw the big
    statues of Paul Bunyan and the blue ox "Babe" at the town park.  I
    headed east on CA-36, to Susanville.  My goal here was the "Bizz
    Johnson Trail", a "rails-to-trails" conversion trail that goes west
    from Susanville, for 30 miles upstream along the Susan River, to
    Westwood.  An article about this trail appeared in the San Jose
    Mercury News the week before the start of my trip; I'd never heard of
    the trail before that.  Unfortunately, the article gives very vague
    info about actually finding the eastern end of the trail.  It says
    "Hobo Camp" but no signs in town tell you where that is; and the real
    end of the trail is a few blocks farther east.  To get there, take 36
    into town and turn right onto Richmond Road (the street signs at
    Richmond at 36 have at least two different names on them); follow the
    detour due to construction, and the main trailhead is on the west
    (right) side of Richmond, less than a mile south of 36.

    The article says, "the six miles closest to Susanville are the most
    stunning ... as the trail hugs the spectacular Susan River canyon."
    Well, "spectacular" wouldn't be the word I'd use, but it was pretty,
    and was a fun and easy ride in pretty country.  I rode about 11 miles
    up from Susanville, through the two tunnels (fun, but wimpy, straight
    and short compared to the one the Felton/Roaring Camp/Santa Cruz train
    used to go through), blew past a small group of youths :-), and
    climbed a bit over 800 feet.  For me, the highlight (besides passing
    the youths) was the beautiful view of Bunnell Ranch.  The other
    highlight was turning around and going back down -- despite the
    mildness of the grade, heading downhill made a big speed difference.
    Total ride for me was about 23 miles.

        [For you roadies, the surface is pretty solid, not too
        bumpy, and only in one spot is it anything like steep.
        (That spot is about 6 miles up from Susanville, where
        the trail crosses under CA-36, at "Devil's Corral".)
        There are several wooden bridges where the trail crosses
        the Susan River; on the way back down, when going pretty
        fast, I'd guess it's advisable to jump the bike onto
        each bridge so that the square corner of the wood doesn't
        hit a skinny tire too hard.  But then what do I know
        about road bikes?]

    After that ride, I was planning to go into Lassen and camp at one of
    the Summit Lake campgrounds.  So I headed west on 36, retracing the
    last few miles of driving ... I recalled that one net person had
    mentioned the Wilson Lake Ice Cave.  So when I noticed the Wilson Lake
    turnoff (just south of Lassen), I took it.  It's a dirt road, in
    pretty decent shape.  It was about 5 pm at this point.  After going in
    past the lake, seeing no clues about any Ice Cave, I turned here and
    there, exploring some of the roads north and northeast of the lake,
    went for a walk on a pile of broken lava rocks, found a very small
    cave, and generally had little luck.  Finally, I gave up and decided
    to head back to 89.  On the way *out*, I discovered that the very
    first intersection had a nice "Ice Cave" sign -- that you could only
    see if you were headed *out* towards 89!  Take 10 points away from AAA
    for the inaccuracy of their Ice Cave placement on their Northeastern
    California map.  (So, what you do if you want to find this cave is to
    take the first real right turn off the Wilson Lake road -- I think the
    sign I *could* see said "Willow Camp".)

    I took that turn, drove on down, and took a left turn clearly labeled
    "Ice Cave"; that road deteriorated to the point where I decided to
    park the car, and ride the MTB the last quarter-mile or so.  It was
    getting on towards twilight at this point.  As I was getting the bike
    ready, I noticed deer tracks and rather large cat tracks in the
    powdery dirt of the road.  Hmmm ... looking closer convinced me that
    they were bobcat tracks (too small for mountain lion -- under 2
    inches) and that it was just a coincidence that they're next to the
    deer tracks.  Still, it gave a bit of an edge to the ride over to the
    cave.  Since I was on the MTB, I could just ride onto the trail at the
    end of the road, and start up toward the cave.  The trail got too
    rocky, though, and I abandoned the bike to walk the last part of the
    trail.

    After all this time and effort, the cave was quite a disappointment.
    I was glad I had enjoyed the journey, because this destination was
    pretty boring.  The cave is a small lava tube, and the ice in it is so
    dirty that it's real hard to tell that it's not just rock or dirt.  I
    climbed down into the cave for pictures, but I'm sure that you won't
    be able to tell the ice from the rock.  Oh well.

    [[[ a few days later ... ]]]

Thursday 10/07:  Redwood National Park

    [[[ Got to Redwood National Park after 3 pm Thursday, ... ]]]
    I discovered at the "Tall Trees Access" that permits to go see the
    "Tall Trees Grove" are issued only from 9 to 2 or so (until they run
    out), only 35 per day, from the "Redwood Information Center" on US-101
    just south of Orick.  Since it was already 3:30 or 4, I guess I missed
    my Thursday chance for that!  I drove on down to that Info Center,
    studied their relief map for a bit, and decided to alter my plans so
    that I'd camp in RNP and spend less time in the Lost Coast area.

    But since it was only 4:30, I decided to do a bike ride in RNP first.
    There are three or four MTB trails in the park; only one of them
    looked like much of a workout.  So I started from Lost Man Creek
    picnic area (near sea level) at about 5, and rode up to Holter
    ridge.  It's 10.5 miles from the picnic area to the spot where Holter
    Ridge road hits the (Paved) Bald Hills road, up at 2100' elevation,
    near the Tall Trees Access road.  Since I was worried a bit about the
    daylight, I turned around after about 7 miles, at 6:20.  Wham!  By
    6:40 I was back at my car (let's hear it for gravity!)  About 13
    miles, 2000' of climbing.  This trail is a lot like the ones in
    Nisene Marks, or the upper/outer reaches of Big Basin -- surrounded
    by similar Redwood forests, but you can *feel* that the climate up
    in RNP is wetter.  Even if the day itself was neither cool nor damp.

        [This road is more gravelly and steeper than the Bizz Johnson
        trail; I'd expect it'd be a little less fun on a road bike.]

    [[[ ... ]]]

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Friday 10/08:  RNP, Lost Coast, to Boggs (late).

    [[[ After hiking down & back from seeing the Tall Trees grove ... ]]]
    As I was exiting the access gate, a couple was waiting up there
    trying to figure out the permit story.  They told me they'd seen a
    bear by the road, back where Holter Ridge Road hit the main road.
    Hmmm...  glad I hadn't talked to them before my ride last night!

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Saturday 10/09:  Exploring Boggs Mountain
    Fun MTB and Camping weekend with Rick (Laurie wouldn't come), and
    Phil and Terry and their kids.  I forget whether Rick posted a
    trail mix about it, but suffice it to say:  I ended up with 20 fun
    miles of riding that day, and only repeated one short stretch of
    singletrack.  Definitely a place to return to, on a weekend with
    better weather!