Sutter Buttes

[Bugnatr]

After a week of snow, cold and power outages the worst is over now so I headed down the hill for a ride around the Sutter Buttes located north of Sacramento in the middle of California's massive central valley. It's a unique place surrounded by agriculture and the Sacramento River a few miles to the west. The south Butte is 2,165 feet high but considering the valley floor is around 50' it does seem to rise up high and can be seen for miles.

Here is a why it's time to get out of Dodge.

There they are behind the big rice silos looking northwest

Lot's of volcanic rock and sheep pastures with a mix of natural gas wells

Looking from the west side to the east

Here's the Sacramento River, nice and quiet

Time to throw a log on the fire back in a jiff.

 

[Bugnatr]

Ahh.. toasty fire

Cotton North of Sacramento? News to me but here they were in harvest.

This is also a big bird area with lots of winter geese and duck habitat.

Time for a break to visit with the longhorns

A view of the Buttes from the north with some clouds. Temps were around 50 so perfect Gen 1 riding weather.

One last final view from the hills on the way home before more wet slushy stuff tonight and tomorrow.

 

[wheatonFJR]

Very nice...thanks for taking us along. :clapping:

 

[Tree Doc]

Cool Beans!

That photo from the north side is pretty much my perspective from my Duck Blind up at my Duck Club east of Willows. I'm just a bit farther north right off of 162. If I had to guess, I'd say you shot that Pic headed S/B on Pennington Rd?

The Buttes are just an awesome scene though I tend to see them from a little different perspective than most. They're most beautiful when I'm sitting in a hole in the ground in a flooded rice field in the morning darkness listening to ducks and geese, sometimes numbering in the 10's of thousands, all around me and then the sun rises in the east exposing the Buttes in all their glory.

Did you know there is an old Nike Base just a ways west of Graylodge at the base of the Buttes? The missile silos are still there. Also, some of the most elite Duck Clubs in the country are located at the northern base and a little north of the Buttes. Charles Schwab owns one of them. You should definitely treat yourself to the Auto Tour at Graylodge Refuge as well as the Sacramento Refuge right of I-5 near Willows, and the Colusa Refuge, as well.

I love that area in the winter time. The stormier the better! I spent over 60 days in the hole last season enjoying it! I take my motorcycle up all the time to tour around on the better weather days after I finish hunting in the a.m.

If you like watching Geese, check this out. My club manager/guide friend took this video of my ponds and blind and uses it on his website. The Buttes "should" have been in the video but there is too much smoke in the air from the burning rice fields. Just another perspective of the area.

All the birds in the video are Specklebelly Geese. Sorry for the shaky camera...you might need Dramamine!

 

[dcarver]

Excellent!

I love 'in my hood rides'

Now back to read it again...

 

[Bugnatr]

Thanks guys. TreeDoc you have the north side pic correct. I worked Sutter and Colusa County's including the Buttes for 3 years in the early 80's doing pest control and know most of the roads out there. Been to many of the private duck clubs on the west side, talk about rat problems!

I even have flown through them in a small plane. They truly are a unique place, and seem to generate their own weather sometimes. It's always fun to go down there when we have too much sand on our roads up here after a snowstorm.

The north valley is amazing in the winter with all the waterfowl. One has to see it to believe how many birds are there. Today was real quiet which made for a nice triple digit run on the Colusa-Gridley hwy :lol:

 

[vabrzn]

thanks for posting

 

[CAJW]

Nice report. Thanks for documenting this for those of us who were working and not able to get out to enjoy it. (a broken mirror mount on my Gen I is also part of my excuse for not riding, i.e. dreaded Soltek fatigue). Last time I was on a picker it was International Harvester 2 row. Looks like that John Deer 6 row job would be at least 3X faster and the enclosed cab with a heater would be a real luxury back then, but now seems to be SOP. Thanks for sharing and I'll have to check that area out next time when in the neighborhood.

 

[HYCLE]

Cool Beans!

.

Did you know there is an old Nike Base just a ways west of Graylodge at the base of the Buttes? The missile silos are still there.

My Ex-Wife's family owned the property at the missle base and 1000 acres ajoining the site.

There are three underground silos that were meant to house titan rocket and the project was canceled before they were completed.

I think the titan rockets are now used to launch the space shuttle.

I don't think these were the Nike class rockets as they were ICBMs with a 5000 to 9000 mile range.My link

"The launch sequence took approximately 15 minutes. After receiving a launch order, the crew filled the missile's tanks with 200,000 pounds of liquid oxygen and RP-1. After the missile was fueled, it rode to the surface on the silo elevator and then was fired. The flight began with the ignition of the large first-stage engine that burned for 134 seconds and propelled the missile to an altitude of 35 miles. As the first stage expired and fell away, the second stage fired; it burned for another 156 seconds, boosting the missile to an altitude of150 miles and a velocity of 22,554 feet per second. After the second stage fen silent, two small vernier engines fired for an additional 50 seconds making final course corrections to the trajectory, After the vernier engines burned out, the reent6 vehicle carrying the war-head followed a ballistic trajectory, and at the apogee of its flight soared to an altitude of 541 miles above the earth's surface. Time elapsed for a 5,500 mile flight: 33 minutes"

 

[Bugnatr]

Cool Beans!

.

Did you know there is an old Nike Base just a ways west of Graylodge at the base of the Buttes? The missile silos are still there.

My Ex-Wife's family owned the property at the missle base and 1000 acres ajoining the site.

There are three underground silos that were meant to house titan rocket and the project was canceled before they were completed.

I think the titan rockets are now used to launch the space shuttle.

I don't think these were the Nike class rockets as they were ICBMs with a 5000 to 9000 mile range.My link

"The launch sequence took approximately 15 minutes. After receiving a launch order, the crew filled the missile's tanks with 200,000 pounds of liquid oxygen and RP-1. After the missile was fueled, it rode to the surface on the silo elevator and then was fired. The flight began with the ignition of the large first-stage engine that burned for 134 seconds and propelled the missile to an altitude of 35 miles. As the first stage expired and fell away, the second stage fired; it burned for another 156 seconds, boosting the missile to an altitude of150 miles and a velocity of 22,554 feet per second. After the second stage fen silent, two small vernier engines fired for an additional 50 seconds making final course corrections to the trajectory, After the vernier engines burned out, the reent6 vehicle carrying the war-head followed a ballistic trajectory, and at the apogee of its flight soared to an altitude of 541 miles above the earth's surface. Time elapsed for a 5,500 mile flight: 33 minutes"

So in other words you have 33 minutes to "kiss your *** goodbye"

 

[Tree Doc]

Yeah...cool info!

 

[Old Michael]

Cool report and pics, Bug.

And Mikey HYCLE.

Sitting around, reminiscing about the Cold War?

Unemployment sucks, huh?

 

[HYCLE]

Cool report and pics, Bug.

And Mikey HYCLE.

Sitting around, reminiscing about the Cold War?

Unemployment sucks, huh?

Worse than that, I was thinking about the Ex-Wife.

 

[madmike2]

Doug, what a great report to view on a cold rainy night. Good on you, sir! :clapping:

Cool report and pics, Bug.

And Mikey HYCLE.

Sitting around, reminiscing about the Cold War?

Unemployment sucks, huh?

Worse than that, I was thinking about the Ex-Wife.

Ahhhh...remembering ex-wife-unit causes thoughts about weapons of mass destruction. Seems logical to me. :blink:

 

[escapefjrtist]

Thanks for the pics and sharing the ride with us!

--G

 

[Bugnatr]

Thanks for the pics and sharing the ride with us!

--G

Thanks! Good thing I rode when I could. More rain / snow today :angry2: