There are many very memorable trips I’ve done over the past few years, but my excursion on the Bizz Johnson Trail in October of 2017 was, and may remain, a “one of a kind”. I’d been making occasional backpacking trips since April of 2017, and wanted to get one last trip in for the year. Thing was, my options for going someplace new were limited. I was dependent on public transportation and had already gone to those places around and not too far away from Reno where I was living at the time. So I did a little research and came up with this trip on the
Bizz Johnson Trail. The neat part was I could make this a “bike-packing” trip, something I’d never done before. I had a suitable bicycle and all the camping gear, and discovered that I could get to Susanville on a bus with my bicycle. Trip
on!
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Load it up and go:
The Bizz Johnson Trail is one of those “Rails-to-Trails” places and is excellent for bicycling. Motorized vehicles are not allowed but horses and hikers are. My sojourn was to be three nights/four days with two different campsites. Since the trail is an old railroad grade it’s never steep (averages about 1.5%; 3% max) and is plenty wide, but it was nevertheless a steady uphill trek. I had a little over twelve miles to do so I split the inbound trip into two nights.
I woke up the next morning around 5:30 a.m. Like I said, it was cold so I got a fire going. This, and coffee, is a fine way to start the day.
One of the more interesting aspects of this trail is that you still go through the old railroad tunnels. Here’s one of them:
Of course, scenic photos are all well and good, but another purpose for the trip was to photograph wildlife if I could. As soon as it got light on my first morning by the river I walked over to replenish my water bottles and scared up a Great Blue Heron. Naturally, my camera was back in the camp site. Darn! First good photo op and I missed it. I did get a second opportunity a bit later that morning.
It was neat about those flickers. As I was pedaling along, all of a sudden out in front of me several (probably ten or more) Red-Shafted Flickers burst out of the Pine trees ahead, startled by my approach. The above photo was the best I could do because when they settled back in the trees they became all but invisible.
A few others once I finally got to second camp, at Goumaz Campground:
I didn’t see any Beaver, but it was obvious they were still around:
I took many other photos on the trip but they are mostly of the scenic and historic variety, so I’ll save them for now and put them down in the comments as and if appropriate. For now, I’ll close and say it’s always a fine thing to take a trip down Memory Lane from time to time. Keeps you feeling young.
This next summer I may make this trip again but I’ll start from its other end, near Westwood, CA. I’ll also have to get a new bicycle as I no longer have the one from this trip and the one I do now have wouldn’t be up to the job. I need a better bicycle anyway. Maybe something like this:
Now It's Your Turn
Anything you’d like to reminisce about and share? How about anything you’ve noted happening in your area or travels? As usual post your observations as well as their general location in the comments.
Thank you.
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