Paskenta

November 27, 2020

Before taking up today’s ride, let’s have a better look at that water tower. At Rachael’s encouragement I went back for another web search and came up with this article, an account of a visit to the ranch last year by a history class that received a guided tour from Les. It has some interesting additional historical information about the ranch and the tower, as well as one excellent photograph of the tower. I’m including it here, in case the article itself disappears some day.

The water tower at J&M Ranch. Good enough! The lighting is a bit better than when we were there, actually. The only thing missing is the large raven’s nest under the eaves on the right.

And, where did yesterday’s entry for Thanksgiving go? For me, it went to a complete day off the bike. One of my old-guy aches seems to be a mild hamstring injury that’s been bothering me for about a week. My left leg gets achy right behind the knee, and I thought I should give it a RICE break (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) for the day. Actually, an RIICE break, since ibuprofen is involved as well.

That spring chick Rocky wasn’t held back though, and went off on her own outing for an impressive 14 mile hike along the North Rim Trail up to Sentinel’s Viewpoint, the highest ground in Upper Bidwell Park. She returned with this visual report:

The better half of Team Anderson surveys the terrain.

Sentinel’s Viewpoint, the high point of Upper Bidwell Park. The high ground in the distance must be Sutter Buttes, a complex of eroded lava domes just outside Yuba City.

The view across the Central Valley from Sentinel’s Viewpoint.

Looking across Big Chico Creek canyon to the south rim.

Today is our last full day in Chico. After twelve nights here, we’re moving on tomorrow morning. Since we have to load the bikes into the car anyway, we decide to drive a ways out of town today to see some different country for our last ride. We’re off to Corning, a small town on the Sacramento River about 30 miles north of here, for a ride west up the other side of the valley. It’s an out and back, our destination the hamlet of Paskenta.

I’m not going to say more about the bike ride itself, which seems odd because it was the best ride of our stay here in Cisco. Beautiful, varied, even more interesting than the endless nut groves. A road and a region we’d love to ride again. I could go on, but we have to go on. We’re leaving for another long drive south shortly, and I’m loath to fall behind. Just look.