Going to California: Redding to Woodland, CA

We did it again. We cheated. Just a little bit.

Unless you want to pedal over Grants Pass and head out to the coast, there isn’t really a great cycling route going into California from Oregon, especially at this time of year.

So we rented a truck at the Medford Airport and drove the 149 miles to Redding. (And we’re glad we did!) It saved us from the oncoming cold, circuitous Maps navigation for an unestablished cycling route, and maybe a few tears.

Most people ride the coast when they tour California, which makes sense. But not us. We wanted to be consistently unconventional and dip down into Central Valley. We did this for two reasons. 1.) Cortney has a ton of family here, and it was the perfect opportunity to see people she hadn’t seen in ages. 2.) I went to school in Chico and we wanted to visit—Bidwell Park and the town are near and dear to my heart.

Before leaving Redding for Red Bluff, we checked out the Sundial Bridge over the Mighty Sacramento River. Riding off of Old US Route 99, you go through miles of walnut and almond orchards and small almost-forgotten towns like Cottonwood and Anderson. There’s also a lot of nice winding country roads with literally zero traffic, like this:

True to form, the asphalt disappeared on many of the roads we took. And even though chunky gravel isn’t Cortney’s specialty, she did brilliantly.

Like a lot of the Central Valley, there aren’t many tent camping options. (Unless you want to stealth camp along the river or hide out in some farmer’s orchard.) So we opted to stay at the Red Bluff KOA on the Mighty Sac. The staff all expressed concern about about locking our bikes outside since there had been some theft recently, and we were able to safely store them in one of their offices. Very kind of them.

Riding to Chico the next day, we had some cooler temps and some crazy winds. And some circuitous routes through private orchards and more dirt roads.

There was one 20-mile stretch that carried us through private walnut orchards on dirt roads. (Thanks, Google!) Luckily, we didn’t see another soul.

It was great to be back in Chico and notice all the changes. If we made more time I would’ve loved to take Cortney to Upper Park. But our walkabout was an awesome way to spend the afternoon.

From Chico, we had a good day of riding down to Colusa. We saw an insanely impressive amount of egrets and herons, but most of it looked a lot like this:

And the end of the ride looked like this:

Heading down to Woodland, we had nothing but tailwinds out of the north. It was glorious. We even worked in some more dirt roads along levees and canals.

The standout highlight of this trip was our visit with our Woodland Warm Showers host, Mark. His generosity, curiosity, inventiveness (he makes his own bike bags, among other things) stories, hospitality, and shared passion for cycling were all incredible. Cort and I have deep admiration and appreciation for him. (THANK YOU, MARK!!)

NEXT UP… Our original plan was to spend more time in the Central Valley. But due to the lack of camping options and established routes, we’re heading to Davis and the wine country.

-Erik