Video is optimized for broadband access.
Wide-angle lenses used to record video straighten the curves
out. For a truer sense of twistiness watch the mirror dip .
At a Glance
Legendary Jedediah Strong Smith was
certainly not your typical frontiersman, given that he didn't
drink, smoke or use profanity, never boasted and exhibited the
open faith of an NFL wide receiver. Seems JS wouldn't match the
profile of today’s average rider either. But with his sense of
adventure and predilection for leather, you can see him Riding
for the Son on this route along the middle branch of the last
wild river system in California. Jed’d particularly like the
early tight stuff among the majestic redwood Scenery but he'd
also enjoy slicing through the less impressive, but still dense,
forest all the way to O'Brien in Oregon. The road does have some
straight four-lane stretches, yet when the Twistiness strikes,
it hits as hard as a grizzly. Combine these curves with the
buckskin-smooth Pavement and excellent Engineering and even
Jedediah might show some uncharacteristic exuberance. Certainly,
as an early seeker of Remoteness, he would be displeased with
the ungodly traffic that can clog what's become a major trail to
and from the I-5 at Grants Pass, OR. He just wouldn't be cussin’
at it. Yet, despite his probity, Smith was still well respected
by his more ribald colleagues. He was always invited to the
annual Mountain Man Rendezvous – a kind of Wild West precursor to
show-and-shines. In fact, his 1832 eulogy could easily apply to
this DH: "One whom none could approach without respect, and whom
none could know without esteem."