Skyway-Inskip

[KLRay]

I went for my first ride of the year yesterday. Took Skyway up to Inskip. Went as far as I could before I had to turn around. Only saw one other guy, on a cruiser.

[pashnit]

Ah yes, I remember this ride! Great fun! Had to turn around also, but did it on the Venture.

[Toyuzu]

Nice scenery. Looks about like the mountains down here at around 5000 ft. elevation.

[pashnit]

Btw KL- do you know where this picture was taken? It was on that same ride around Magalia. I pulled off the road to the east (side of the road) to a little parking area, to find the aquaduct / irrigation canal dug into the mountain side that's so common up at that elevation throughout the foothills. I walked along the aquaduct for a short distance, almost like it was a hiking trail.

Figured you might know, there's only so many of these along that ride. To this day, I'm not exactly sure where I took this picture.

[KLRay]

Ah yes, the flume. It's kinda weird to see water actually running up hill!
I believe that it was originally dug to drain water out of the riverbed so they could mine for gold, the siphon lifts the water to an elevation of around 3000ft over the mountain before it flows back down. Now they use the water to generate electricity. They have made a hiking trail out of it, they have organised hikes and they put up benchs along the way so people could sit down and rest. That spot looks familiar, I think that it's not too far past Desabla Reservior. I'll have to run up when I get a chance and see if I can find it for you and take a pic.
If you get back up here one of these days you oughta give me a shout, it'd be an honor be able to say I got to ride with one of the greats.

[GoestRyder]

Really miss living in the Chico area. Just recently bought a bike after a 20 years absence....owned my last one while attending Chico State....loved riding around in the hills above Chico and especially up towards Lake Almanor/Lassen Park...I live in Central CA now....thanks for posting the pictures and ride description...brings back great memories....

[DaleC]

Really miss living in the Chico area. Just recently bought a bike after a 20 years absence....owned my last one while attending Chico State....loved riding around in the hills above Chico and especially up towards Lake Almanor/Lassen Park...I live in Central CA now....thanks for posting the pictures and ride description...brings back great memories....

That area above Chico was calling me last Sunday afternoon too, especially with the solid blue skies and bright sun shining, but I sure wasn't aware of the Skyway-Inskip route. I think I'll save that for warmer times when the white stuff isn't all over the ground, especially with my bike (picking up a 850 lb bike that has fallen on it's side in snow with motorcycle boots that tend to slip isn't something I have mastered as yet). I took the much more conservative (and nearby to the north Hwy 70) up to Hwy 36. Here is just north of Inskip.



Since the closest service station was in the town of Chester, I had to continue east and continue climbing higher elevations (and deeper snow) on Hwy 36. By the time I reached Chester it was dark, the temperature was falling quickly down below 30 and I was concerned about ice and black ice anywhere on the road heading over to Hwy 70 and back home, so I opted to spend the night in Chester. Chester is an elevation of 4524 feet according to my GPS, but when it's winter and dark or early morning that ground is all ice.



Now I need to go back and find that Skyway up to Inskip path. It's probably a good thing I didn't know about it last week. When is it summer????

DaleC

[KLRay]

Originally Posted by pashnit

Btw KL- do you know where this picture was taken? It was on that same ride around Magalia. I pulled off the road to the east (side of the road) to a little parking area, to find the aquaduct / irrigation canal dug into the mountain side that's so common up at that elevation throughout the foothills. I walked along the aquaduct for a short distance, almost like it was a hiking trail.

Figured you might know, there's only so many of these along that ride. To this day, I'm not exactly sure where I took this picture.

Took this pic this am...is this it?

[Big Kahuna]

That's just darn creepy!

[pashnit]

You're right, that is uncanny! It is the same exact spot, even the trees are the same. And you can see the walk way even above the aquaduct that I took a nice afternoon stroll up. I probably took that picture ten years ago. Nice to know not much changes in some places.

So where is this in relation to the map above then?