Laineyk

Hi! First time touring and the Sierra Cascades are defeating me about 7 days of biking in. I'm headed South to North and would like to hit some flat lands for a bit to give my legs a break. I'm looking at going up the Central Valley from Bakersfield to Redding. Any recommendations for roads to avoid, sights to see, availability of camping along the way, etc. I'd prefer to stay as wild as possible but limit the elevation change until I can get more in shape to rejoin the route further north. I've already changed the gear ratios on my bike and am sending a bunch of stuff home. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated!

BigAura

Take a full rest day or even two, especially if you've been riding every day. Gear down and go slow and steady. Being young or you generally consider yourself fit then those are good signs and you'll probably recover.

Darth Lefty 

It's like 110F right now in the Central Valley. Everyone not stuck at work is headed to the mountains or coast.

tjkoko

Well, avoid I5. There are some roads that'll parallel Hwy 99.

Salamandrine 

Yeah, it's going to be pretty hot. Start your day early. There are plenty of country roads that essentially go the same direction as the 99. The central valley is largely endless miles of dead flat farmland. There's definitely pretty bits nonetheless. You could go through the foothills on the east side of the valley, which would be arguably more scenic, but hillier. There's some interesting old towns along the way.

Doug64

Sent you PM, actually several. My phone was doing wierd things so I used my usual technique, and just kept clicking away.

saddlesores

as others have said, take a break....for a day at least.
rest and recover, hit the intertubes for research.

remember, you don't have to continue your tour, at least not
in that specific area. if the hills are too much for now, if
the weather is too freaking hot, if the scenery isn't scenic,
then go someplace else.

no point in wasting your limited vacation time on a miserable
tour that's painful and boring.

just decide on a better place and go there. at the next town
with a greyhound (amtrak?) station, box up your bike and
leave. next day you'll be in a better place.

if the heat isn't a problem for you, take a bus to salt lake.
tour the national parks in utah.

prathmann

Actually I-5 wasn't too bad. The constant truck traffic blocks much of the wind you tend to get while riding north. And it has nice rest areas along the way and plenty of commercial services. It's only bike-legal up to Tracy but that would be a good stretch from the Bakersfield area.

But if I were the OP I'd consider completely different options since the Central Valley is really hot at this time. Going down (N - S) the coast is an obvious choice so you get the benefit of tailwinds, much more reasonable temperatures, and lots of hike&bike camping places. Then use public transit to get to wherever you need to be.

Salamandrine 

Hot weather doesn't bug me that much, but everyone is different. (also I was born in the central valley)

That said the coastal route does have plenty of camping, cool weather, and a well known route, and it's among the worlds most spectacular places AFA scenery.

stevepusser

I guess the record-breaking heat wave in SoCal a few days ago was really bad, right? And another one is forecast to hit here in a few days, this one with the possible addition of some monsoon humidity.

I don't know where you are right now--possibly in the ranges east of LA, but you could get down to San Bernardino and catch the Metrolink commuter train with your bike to LA. From there, you could take Amtrak up to Bakersfield in the hot Central Valley, or stay on Amtrak and catch one of their buses up into the higher, cooler Sierra, such as to Yosemite or Lake Tahoe. This will skip the killer desert-like climbs on the ACA route you'll find south of Yosemite.

Another option is to take the Metrolink to Lancaster and catch the EST bus, which has racks for two bikes. north up to Bishop or Mammoth Lakes, and continue your tour from there. There's also the YARTS bus service from the Central Valley or Eastern Sierra which serves the Yosemite region and takes bikes, should you need that option.

Laineyk

[QUOTE=saddlesores;18864211]as others have said, take a break....for a day at least.
rest and recover, hit the intertubes for research.

remember, you don't have to continue your tour, at least not
in that specific area. if the hills are too much for now, if
the weather is too freaking hot, if the scenery isn't scenic,
then go someplace else.

no point in wasting your limited vacation time on a miserable
tour that's painful and boring.



I like your way of thinking! Since this is my first tour, I want to love it. Pondering picking up the trail further north.

Salamandrine 

One thing to be aware of is that the entire central valley is hot in the summer, from Bakersfield all the way to Chico. It would be easy to assume that going north would be cooler, but it's not. However it is a dry heat.

B. Carfree

Because of the nature of the delta, you will fight heat-driven headwinds until you are north of the delta, then the wind favors you. If you decide to ride Bakersfield to Redding, try to ride in the wee hours while you are in the San Joaquin valley, like 3:00 AM to 10:00 AM. Once into the Sacramento valley, start after 9:00 AM and let that wind carry you as far as you like.

For those unfamiliar with Central Valley geography, and why the coldest winter is a summer's day in San Francisco, here's a primer. As the summer sun heats the land and air of the Central Valley, said air becomes less dense and rises up the mountains (Sierra, Tehachapis, Siskiyous). This air must be replaced. Replacement air comes in from the ocean at the San Francisco bay, which cools SF immensely and makes Rio Vista a board-sailing Mecca. At the delta, this airflow splits north/south. In the event of a stubborn high pressure system, all bets are off; you get baked without any breeze.

stevepusser

And for some reason, Redding, at the far northern end of the Central Valley, is often the hottest spot in the Valley; sometimes hotter than Palm Springs on the same day (at least it was the day I began a tour northwards from there) As for the dry heat in the valley, don't forget that the agriculture there adds a noticeable amount of moisture to the air there, and I definitely feel it when riding there in the summer and left the dry foothills to enter the orchards and fields. Nothing like the eastern US, of course.

Current forecast for the next week for Redding:

Day High/Low Description Precip Wind Humidity
Today

Jun 24 94°F 66°F Sunny
0%
NE 11 mph
20%


Sat

Jun 25 102° 67° Sunny
0%
NNE 10 mph
19%


Sun

Jun 26 104° 68° Sunny
0%
ESE 8 mph
24%


Mon

Jun 27 104° 70° Sunny
0%
ESE 9 mph
26%


Tue

Jun 28 106° 71° Sunny
0%
E 7 mph
24%


Wed

Jun 29 107° 71° Sunny
0%
ENE 7 mph
25%


Thu

Jun 30 104° 70° Sunny
0%
ESE 9 mph
26%


Fri

Jul 1 100° 70° Sunny
0%
SE 8 mph
25%

B. Carfree

The reason Redding is the hottest place in the Central Valley is because that cool ocean air has to travel a couple hundred miles over not-so-cool land to get there. By the time it arrives in Redding, the air that frosted SF and cooled Davis is a sirocco.

I always found the air near irrigated fields to be significantly cooler than anyplace nearby. Any added humidity never caused any discomfort that wasn't overwhelmed by the cooling effect. With the move towards nut crops, there's fewer of these oases of chilling than there used to be, but the added tree canopy may make up for that in some settings.

stevepusser

Hmmm-instead of going up the Central Valley, how about going up the reasonably flat Owens Valley on the east side of the Sierra until you get to Bishop? It should be a somewhat cooler ride with less humidity and air pollution, maybe winds from the south if there's high pressure over the southwest US, and the scenery is majestic (though you may feel like an ant crawling along a Manhattan sidewalk). The missile scenes from Iron Man, the little town in Tremors, and many other movies have been shot there. There are nice little towns, volcanic fields with cinder cones, the Owens river, developed pay campgrounds and there should be opportunities for free camping, too. It's more "wild" than the CV, too, which is almost all agricultural. Maybe you'll be ready for some climbing after Bishop, because it really starts after that if you stay on 395, though I guess you can also head north from there into Nevada and do a really "road less traveled" route.