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<\/a><\/p>\na raven repeatedly chasing an eagle [not shown] on my way up the canyon, then continued<\/p>\n
on pavement as far as the lower end of Duck Flat where one<\/p>\n can cut around to the west and north seeking<\/p>\n and seemingly finding the Tuledad Road towards California which exited Nevada after 3.8 miles<\/p>\n of allegedly non-maintained road onto the allegedly maintained Roads of Lassen County<\/p>\n which start out quite nicely,<\/p>\n actually, although unpredictable deteriorations appeared with increasing frequency,<\/p>\n especially once one intersected 512 [not marked – numbers all courtesy of google afterwards]* and climbed, or the truck did, across frequent streamlets and rocky gullies into the southern<\/p>\n reaches of the South Warner Wilderness<\/a> where many [many] gates were encountered as well as<\/p>\n a dozen or so miles of not-bladed-since-whenever-the-last-fire-was rockiness, some stretches<\/p>\n being none the worse for wear, some very much so with plenty of ruts ‘n’ rocks and, yes,<\/p>\n gates. Around Red Rock Lake<\/a> a deeply rutted but for the moment unmudded zone,<\/p>\n navigable at pretty much five mph at best, was particularly memorable for that as well<\/p>\n as a small population of Sandhill Cranes, fleeing the camera. It was additionally observed that<\/p>\n the further one advanced into Cali the more gates were inexplicably abused<\/p>\n but at the last one there was a substantial corral and Actual Signage<\/p>\n [Hwy 81 is what 447 was called before it was paved…forty + years ago] preceding<\/p>\n the actually maintained CR 510 for the remaining 14 miles down to Madeline<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 From there it was 395 north through Likely<\/a> where a sleazy silky flag demanding America be “taken back” flew, although just how far back [17th century, maybe, but of course with all the $100,000 pickup trucks and automatic weapons intact] is unknown…and hopefully unlikely.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0By one I was in Alturas with its post office, tire shops [no used 33×12.50 R15s] and the Holiday<\/a> for a last week’s foods…an hour later i<\/span>n Cedarville<\/a> was momentarily\/nostalgically tempted to continue on 299 across the causeway to where pavement ends, Nevada begins and where, after getting gas at the Chevron that was on the lefthand corner in March 1967, my fascination with this country began with some ill-advised directionless wandering out onto the slippery slopes<\/p>\n of 8A all the way to Denio, but didn’t; turned south and was glad, by the time I’d reached Duck Lake<\/a> utterly spent, that I hadn’t…so paused to rest my eyes, stretch, eat an avocado and<\/p>\n ultimately continue down the former Hwy 81,<\/p>\n past the turn taken five hours earlier,<\/p>\n over the Buffalo Hills<\/a>,<\/p>\n and down to the desert at the base of the Granites to turn<\/p>\n right on the Smoke Creek Road, Wall Spring by four…<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n