Day 3 Dec 20

This to will pass.
I got a good fresh start at first daylight and was feeling positive about the day ahead. After all I had made about 7 degrees of latitude south, California was on the horizon and it never rains in California.
Only a few miles down the road and I was starting up a pass that was going to crest above 4000 feet. Of course it started to snow but I get through this and its only 400 miles to Sacramento where I have a safe haven at Rick and Donna's. That's Terry's sis and brother in law.
Well there was to be many an obstacle twixt here and there.
The snow out of Ashland was a challenge but never developed past single tracks of wet pavement. I dropped some elevation and the snow disappeared. On the flats there was a bit of high winds just before Weed. As I said before the bike was a compromise on side wind stability and it is tiring tensing against the buffeting.
The wind abated a bit just about the time the CDOT (Cal. Dept. of Trans.)set up a road block diverting cars that were two wheel drive and advising them they could not proceed without traction devices. The implication is that it could get bad between weed and Shasta, right. They waved me on through.
The road turned to snow with wet tire tracks then at about 3500 feet it went all white, then hard snow and visibility decreasing. I am thinking that I am close to summit and conditions should improve after, its the last pass I'll push on a little farther.
The snow increased and the ruts got deeper. I couldn't climb out of the right hand lane rut at times, it was at least real difficult. My riding technique here is to weight the pegs as much as you can it allows the bike to squirm under you and you have a better chance of accommodating its lack of traction. I don't contend I know what I'm doing its just what works for me. Standing on the pegs at about 15 to twenty MPH is complicated by the snow build up on my helmet visor, I have to wipe it off with my left hand every few seconds.
I am in the right most rut when one of my cleaning swipes revealed the sign that indicated summit. Alright now I can drop some elevation and get out of this stuff. WRONG. It got worse I had to go even slower , the 18 wheelers with chains on were passing me. The slush was smacking me and ice was building up on the bike and fairing and my chest.
Again at about 3500 ft it started to rain, black ribbons of wet pavement appeared in the wheel ruts and if I tucked behind the wind screen the air pressure generated by about 40 MPH helped the visor stay clear.
I don't know how much time had passed, I am sure my perception was a life time longer than the reality.
It was the last challenge of this type and I had a couple hundred miles to Rick and Donna's safe haven.
I stopped in Redding for coffee and a warm up. The severe soaking and thermal degradation at Shasta was still effecting me. The 65 MPH speeds and the 50 degree temp was still sucking body heat from me.
I remember talking to a sailor in Hawaii who fell off his boat in the middle of the Pacific half way on his passage to Hawaii. His wife and brother in law were crew, they saw it happen and did everything hey could to stop the boat. They threw anything that was in reach that would float overboard, life rings, lines, a cooler, cushions. He was in the water watching the boat get smaller and collecting some of this stuff. the swells and sea conditions contributed to them not stumbling on him for 9 hrs. He survived. The point is he related to me that hypothermia was a major concern. In 70 degree water for that time span his mental capacity had diminished greatly and his muscles wouldn't cooperate. When he saw the boat he thought it was a hallucination, but yelled at it anyway.
Now as I recall that tail I am looking for my exit, the one after the Sacramento Air Port, 99n to Marysville. Now which way does that throttle twist to slow me down? Then I'm on the ramp to the stop sign. there's no stop sign on the 99n ramp! So I turn left and find myself going the wrong way on the road leading out of the Air Port. Hypothermia sneaks up on you. I stop off the road opened up my clothing checked the pocket warmers, they had ran out of O2 and hardened. I massaged them into heaters again and put them under my turtle neck next to my carotids.I could feel the black riding gear absorbing heat from the sun. I was there for about 20 minutes a 20 minutes that would have been better spent earlier.
I held the speed down reducing the wind chill and started out again. It was about 15 miles to Rick and Donna's. Safe haven, hot shower and at 4Oclock a 45 Minute nap in a warm blanket I was exhausted.
No Excuses for how stupid some of this was, but a comment. When you establish an itinerary you complicate the issues and increase the risks. If you sail to the next port or climb a mountain under deadline pressure you make risk management more difficult.
I know this and still set a priority to see Rick and Donna before they left for Xmas Holiday. Slipping that little thing in was damn near suicide.
Mia culpa Mia culpa Mia Maxima culpa.