Wally Byam is the creator of Airstream, and responsible for the aluminum trailers that are synonymous with the brand’s name. He arranged some fascinating trailer caravans in the middle of the last century, and the Airstream Life blog has an interesting article about those trips and two books he wrote. Airstream Life is publishing these books in one collection for $19. Seems like a good price for an interesting look into the history of an American icon. I’ve ordered mine.
Airstream has some new models for 2010: the International Serenity and a 30’ version of the Flying Cloud. The Serenity’s layout looks to be the same as the other Internationals, including our 2008 25’ model, with a new interior makeover. I appreciate the look of the lighter colors, although imagine that it could look dirty pretty easily. Likewise, I like the interior of the new Flying Cloud—I’ve always thought the recliners would be nice, even if a 30’ trailer is too long for me to truly desire. Nice additions!
Great pic of an Airstream painted all red. Striking!
Josh and Jo, Erik and Elizabeth and Shane joined Val, Ainsley and me for a weekend trip. I towed the Airstream up and stayed at the Sierra Skies RV Park and the rest of the group stayed at Herrington’s Sierra Pines, in nearby Sierra City. Josh and Jo got there early enough on Friday to take the tandem out for a ride, while the rest of us arrived later that day.
We did two rides on Saturday. The first had us doing Packer Saddle down Sunrise, Pauley Creek, Third Divide and First Divide. It was supposed to be a 10:30 AM shuttle, but it left late and we rode slowly, making us a bit late for our 3:00 PM shuttle for the second run. We left for our second run about 4 PM.
The weather didn’t disappoint. Blue skies, cool temperatures and tacky trails made these prime riding conditions. I brought my new Clik Elite Medium Nature backpack housing my SLR, hoping to catch some of the beautiful fall colors. That made for a heavy pack on my back all day, but I’m happy I did it in retrospect.
The second run was supposed to be Sunrise to Butcher Ranch to Second Divide to First Divide, but we were really running out of light. Jo had an early fall and I had 3 (!) flats, which conspired to slow us way down. We rolled into Downieville in complete darkness after riding by braille down the road, bypassing First Divide completely and having taken the shorter Third Divide again.
Those of us who rode caught up with the non-riding contingent at a local restaurant (I forget the name, but it was the only one open this late in the season), which was pretty good food. After having been in the saddle all day, we all really dug in. I had a rib-eye steak that was really very good.
Sunday saw Erik and Shane flake and head out early, while Josh, Jo and I headed up for a run. Josh and I headed down Sunrise and Jo went down the road, ostensibly to meet at the intersection where the trail splits to either Butcher or Pauley. Jo passed the sign and rode on, causing Josh to head out looking for her. We spent about an hour looking for each other, but connected up and continued on. We took a slow pace down, catching Butcher Ranch and finally hitting Second Divide. It was getting late after that, so we caught the road instead of First Divide and then parted ways.
These photos and more can be found in my Flickr Photoset for the trip.
These folks did months traveling in an Airstream, and their blog is great. Six weeks is the longest we've spent in ours, and it was a great trip (I need to write about that sometime). I haven't had the chance to read every entry, but the ones I have read have been good. Some of those destinations are amazing, and I'll definitely check the site out for ideas the next time we're looking to make a trip in the trailer.
