Because some of my weekend escapades came off in spite of poor planning on my part, there have been days I might have been able to be scenic all the way up and back, but I simply left too late in the day. I love me some nature, but sleep is a part of nature I have particular fondness, and weekends are when long slumber comes with the fewest consequences.
In this case, I had to split my ride-round the buttes over two weekends. After seeing the Sutter Buttes, I decided I would come back and see what lived across the valley on the west side. I had no idea just how awesome things were over there. I suspect almost none who go by it all have any clue either.
This is very much their loss. The discovery was equally my gain.
If you take I-5 north of Sacto, you might be tempted to think there really ain't anything in the valley to see. Yeah, the Sutter Buttes jut out and are easily seen, but beyond that, it must feel to many that things don't get good til you get up to the volcanoes near Redding. Without a doubt, that area is absolutely incredible, but I can say without reservation that those who just take I-5 and do nothing to examine the valley in detail miss amazing things. For one, there are also buttes on the western side of the valley; however - to the degree one can "hide" a butte - you don't realize they are there until you get right up upon them. This I did.
The western buttes (if they had a proper name, it escapes me now) are kinda hard to see from I-5 because of the way the eastern face of the Mendocino National Forest's mountains are situated. From I-5, the Central Valley in these parts seems flat until they rise up either into the foothills of The Sierra or the Mendo Mountains. In reality, to the west of I-5, the land actually undergoes a descent of sufficient depth that the buttes and hills which sit in the middle of the depression don't appear to be much of anything from the highway.
While it is true that these buttes ain't the beauts that the Sutter Buttes are, on their own, they are a helluva sight to see. If Iowa had only this series of buttes somewhere in the state, you can damn well bet it would be on their state f'n quarter; but in Cali, something like this seems to only be middling! How sad. I am actually glad of my midwestern provenance at such times...I am positive it gives me a much greater appreciation of these things.
While it is true that these weekends gave me Butte Fever (Catch It!), there was something else to the far-western valley which really makes it stand out for me. Once you round the buttes, you gain access to a good 75 miles of incredible canyon and valley country. Running almost due north-south for the 75 miles north of Cache Creek Casino and the Highway 20 area of the western valley, there are absolutely stunning valleys to traverse.
Parallel to the mountains and the highway, but snuggly tucked into the base of the mountains are foothills, passes, and long thin valleys as beautiful to behold as anything in the state - at least in my mind. As is common, the roads are largely empty and you get incredible vistas all to yourself. For the couple of hours I made the trek south, there really was only one or two settlements of ANY kind (at least only 2 that appeared inhabited), with pretty much everything else left to the gentleman/woman rancher and their cows. The only way to make this tonic for the soul more potent would be to see it by bike, or on foot. Perhaps if I ever get well, I will make a point of doing this. As it stands now, I am planning to return when the mountain passes to the west open up so I can see what is over the front range. If what lies at the base is any indicator, then surely I will see more of what God does to show off. California has been blessed like no place on earth I have seen..
I already have a special love for the Mendo Forest. It is the snow of those mountains that feeds my beloved Eel River. I thank God someone had the foresight to set aside a goodly amount of those mountains as a National Park. With degenerates like those now in the White House at the helm, there are limits to how much protection even that affords, but even so, there is still much there to prove just how blessed the state of California truly is. It is sappy and such to say, but I feel a connection to these places. I feel called to them. I don't hug trees, but I easily could. I understand where that comes from, and the impulse to want to make physical the warm connection one feels by passively sensing these places is not so strange. The mud feels charged with something there that I can only describe as being charged in the way the elements which make up our bodies are charged. There is something dynamic, living, and giving in these places. If you have never felt this about any place, I am sorry for you. Scoff if you want, but it is in you too y'all.
I can't wait to get back here and see it when the summer sun dries it out. It must look like the African Savannah. Awesome.
Not everything I took in was awesome. Some sadist ran over a beautiful Acorn Woodpecker - my personal woodpecker companion on many of these trips. I understand it could have been an accident, but when you hit a big bird with a bright red crown - one as agile as any - I have to think it was either sick on the road or the person driving was sick in the head on the road. Sigh.
Gooey as I may be in writing this, I can say that there is no shortage of Acorn Woodpeckers in California of late. I see them often and they are already out and about going about their business this spring. I tried getting some close-ups of live ones, but they didn't really turn out. Telephone poles, fence posts, old stumps & branches, and anything else I saw made of wood usually bore the scars of at least a few visits from an Acorn Woodpecker. Warms my heart I tell ya, sad as the death of even one is to me.
As I have mentioned before, on my backburner is a website idea that contains nothing but road directions of where a newbie/visitor can go in California to see its beauty in ways they might not read about elsewhere. The backroads through the canyons and long (endless-looking really) valleys don't really look like much on the maps. Worse, they sometimes look like something when there actually isn't much there. This trip was along roads I have seen in the atlas many times, but never tried because I couldn't see how there would be anything there. Perhaps I am just a dumbass, but that alone wouldn't explain it.
In places like this, there is still many chances to truly "get away from it all" and cram much relaxation into a short amount of time. I am no expert on Cali yet, but I am certainly an apprentice well into my training. To learn these things is to want to share them. To feel the pleasure I feel in these valleys is something too good not to want others to feel. It is soul-coal (to borrow from The Knitters) for me. I know others could find the same in it.
Alas, that is a project that has to get in line behind the dozens of other things I tell myself I really oughta get to. Maybe someday. For now, being a student of California's backroads is enough for my soul to fully take in let alone for my brain to digest!
Posted by rudayday at April 03, 2008 04:03 PM