Morgan Meadows (near Mt. Eddy)

Note: I would say Deadfall meadows starts at tree line on Mt. Eddy and goes down the west side of Mt. Eddy sort of. Then Morgan Meadows is on the east Side of Mt. Eddy starting about tree line down quite a ways. So, Morgan meadows sort of faces Mt. Shasta on the east side of mt. Eddy.
end note.

If you go up the right 4 wheel drive roads you wind up at Morgan Meadows which is what we did today. My friend said that he and I had ridden up here on motorcycles, I think he had a Yamaha 175 street bike and I had a 1974 Honda 250 XL Dualsport (but I don't think they called them that yet). It just means it's an off road and on road bike that can be licensed but ridden in all kinds of conditions (if you have the skills for that). Neither of these bikes is very good on the freeway because you don't have enough power at freeway speeds to pull out of dangerous situations where drivers don't or can't or won't see you.

So, he said 40 years ago we had come up to Morgan Meadows with a girlfriend of his and I think I was alone on my motorcycle at the time so this would make it about 1979 or 40 years ago now.

I cannot imagine going down the road we did today on any kind of motorcycle with anyone on the back because you would have to downshift into the lowest gear while using the rear brake without winding up sliding on the ground with the bike sideways. So, I really cannot imagine us going down this road with anyone on the back of his motorcycle because it was a street bike and this road is a totally 4 wheel drive road where if you didn't have 4 wheel drive low range and a whole lot of ground clearance that it likely wouldn't be safe even in a truck like I was driving today which is my tundra in 4 wheel drive low range in the lowest gear going down. The only thing worse than going down this road would be trying to go up it and how much this would tend to harm your tires unless you were an expert off roader at really really slow speeds going up in the lowest gears in 4 wheel drive low range.

The road I'm talking about goes directly from Morgan Meadows straight down the hills towards Lake Siskiyou and more than once we wondered if we wanted to continue going down on this thing because the road was really really crazy and a 4 wheel drive only road to boot. So, yes it is a short cut IF you have the vehicle and the skills and the 4 wheel drive low range to make it manageable. And most important of all new enough tires and ground clearance to pull the whole thing off without going off a cliff along the way down.