24: It's a beautiful morning in Bieber California

The sun is shining, the birds are tweeting and chirping and dancing around, and there are big puffy clouds around the horizon. We are planning to leave this little town and head for the Lava Beds National Monument.( I have to just take a moment to tell you that I am dictating this, and my phone took down 'love of beds' National Monument. And at this moment in our tour, that's pretty appropriate!)

Packed, then unpacked so we could order the new rack

The country we are going to head through today is pretty cut off. We're told by the locals, who live in towns of 200, that there is 'nothing' up there. So I guess that is 'Nothing' with a capital N!

The cafe/store/deli in Bieber

Uh oh.  Not looking good.

This morning we had breakfast at the combination cafe and store. We bought some canned chili and Fritos for our dinner tonight. And she made us a deli sandwich to eat on the road. It really is one-stop shopping. 

The fields around here are pretty saturated. So we are mindful of mosquitoes everywhere we go. We are headed into Oregon soon. We should cross the border tomorrow after we leave the National Monument. I would say I am hoping for a dryer climate, but I guess that's not going to happen. 

We hope to see Crater Lake on this trip, but the forecast is for rain. So we'll take a look at the visitor cam, and decide whether or not we want to climb up there before we make that climb later this week.

In the meantime, we are placing an order for a new back rack to hold the pack. And so we have taken everything off the bike so that Roger can take pictures and email them to the pack rack manufacturer.

This post goes out to my nephew Jason, who asked me in a message, 'what is it that you do the rest of the day when you're not on the bike?' We rolled out at 7:45, had breakfast, now we have disassembled the rig, and soon we will put it all back and head out.  (That happened at 9:30 am!)

Meanwhile, looks at the clouds building! Uh oh. In the space of time it took me to compose this message, the day has turned from beautiful to threatening!

--- and then later, after making it to Klamath Falls ---

The rest of our day was dry after all.  We rode on a very nice "short cut" road through timber lands. It was not clear-cut, but trees were taken based on their size, location, and genetics.  (Interesting stuff we learned from some tree guys sitting in the bar.)

Sunset at Lava Beds Indian Wells Camground

We made it to Lava Beds in time to view one of the caves, then set up our camp in what was literally the quietest place I have ever slept. No wind, no auto sounds, no birds, not even jets overhead, no stream running by - it was just so silent you could hear your own blood in your ears.  Unbelievable.

It would have been a very peaceful night were it not for the raccoon and deer that came in the night to rummage about our pots and pans left on the picnic table!  We knew enough to not leave food out, but it had not occurred to us that they would be interested in our pots or cook stove.  But they were!  Had to get out of the tent to chase them off - and made a note that we will not leave that stuff out again.

The day's report:  Bieber to Lava Beds National Monument, 61.5 miles/1096 to date