Alturas, California

Friday, August 2, 2002

Continuing south from Worden along US-97, I crossed the border into California. Just before the "bug station" where they ask you if you're carrying any fruits or vegetables (as if there aren't enough of both already in Californian politics), I took Hwy-161 which is also known as Stateline.

This road runs in an almost perfectly straight line and, at least today, was lightly travelled. I took the opportunity to compare the speedometer readings to those calculated by the GPS receiver. If we assume that the GPS is perfectly accurate (not an altogether safe assumption), STraddle's speedometer is about 4% "optimistic" -- that is to say, it reads a little high. The higher the speed, the greater the inaccuracy. I evaluated a number of speeds and made mental notes of the results. You will just have to ask me about it in person.

I was riding on the north edge of the Modoc Game Preserve (which, I'm told goes good on toast). This area is, I'm sure, normally quite picturesque but today it looked like something out of a SCI-FI adventure. The smoke in the sky washed out any color other than grey. The water, which was perfectly still, made a perfect refection of the monochromatic sameness above it. If not for the vegetation, I would not have been able to distinguish the horizon line. Even the water foul looked grey.

I joined up with Hwy-133 to the southeast, then Hwy-299 to the northeast and finally US-395 into Alturas.

With this checkpoint stamp collected, there remains only one additional "in state" rally stop. I'll pick it up on the way back into Oregon in a few days. Meanwhile, I'm contemplating (even as I write this) how much of my riding vacation I will devote to collecting "out of state" rally points. If I ride to some place that is rally-related, you will see it reported here.

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