EB
09-08-2020, 03:57 PM
With the record-setting heat wave and smokey conditions making the SF Bay Area incredibly unpleasant, and a long Labor Day weekend on tap, we decided to flee to Mendo at the last minute and shelter on the North Coast. Mendocino high temperatures were hovering at about 75 degrees F, vs. daytime highs in Marin that reached 110(!) degrees F in some cases. And at least until the Oak Fire kicked off in Willits on Monday, AQI in Mendocino was around 50.
Given that the rest of California had already had the same idea, we normally would have faced a real problem finding lodging, but my mom still lives up in Fort Bragg, so we were sorted for a place to stay as long as we didn't mind a pair of highly active spaniels. We put the mountain bikes on the roof and headed up. Road and gravel riding in Mendo is good, but with the clueless holiday traffic and a notorious lack of adequate road shoulders throughout the county, I figured I'd stick to the trail bike this time. Besides, the trail system up here is world-class, and a pretty well-kept secret at that.
I grew up in Mendocino County on the coast, but I didn't take up riding bikes until college, so I have not really ever had the pleasure of riding these trails on a regular basis. I'm always recommending them to people, but this would be the first time I'd try to hit one of the more strenuous loops in the area, the ride known to locals as the Double Loop.
On Sunday, my wife and I had a little warmup with a quick ride through Van Damme State Park (https://www.strava.com/activities/4023374059).
This is strictly a family excursion, but worth your time if you are in the area. Van Damme State Park starts right on the coast at a small, rocky beach off Highway 1. We started riding inland on a paved road through the designated campgrounds, which were completely full - growing up here, I'd never seen this campground more than 1/3rd occupied, but the pandemic has driven camp bookings in California all the way until next year.
Soon we passed a gate and the paved road transitioned to a gentle grade on a dirt path, about four to six feet wide, with regular casual hiker encounters. The attraction here isn't the riding itself, but the views - the trail follows the path of a gorgeous restored creek called Little River, and the canyon is filled on both sides with a profusion of young coastal redwoods and their associated flora - ferns, thimbleberries, redwood sorrel, and the rest. Along the way, we crossed a total of nine elegant little wooden bridges and several small waterfalls, with the grade never getting over 1 to 2%. It's truly a story-book experience - you keep expecting little elves to jump out at you. There was a bit of mud and an old downed tree to deal with in one section, a testament to CA State Parks lack of budget for just about anything these days, but otherwise, it was smooth sailing to the fork at the end of the canyon. To the left is a singletrack leading to a waterfall, where bikes aren't allowed currently, and to the right a creek crossing and then a loose dirt/gravel service road that winds up through the forest canopy and ultimately ends at a pygmy forest area and a paved descent back to Highway 1 (if you're so inclined) or a return trip on the service road. We started the climb, which is fairly strenuous at about 8 to 12% grade, but turned back as my wife, as a novice descender, got more and more nervous about the return trip. A quick ride back to the car got the whole thing done in about 48 minutes of casual rolling time.
No photos from this ride, as we were too busy gawking at everything.
On Monday, I got kitted up for a solo trail ride in JDSF and the Woodlands area, using Roo Harris's invaluable paper guidebook (https://www.trailforks.com/localproducts/61/) that includes several dozen choice routes through the area, and is a great supplement to Trailforks which has a lot of gaps in this area. I chose the Double Loop Redux, which is a classic locals ride that is also easily visible on the Strava heatmap, which I used to build a quick route for the Wahoo ELMNT.
Roo uses difficulty ratings a little bit differently than the typical green/blue/black diamond scale - so the black diamond rating here is primarily a measure of how strenuous the riding is, vs. how technical it is. Turns out, he was not kidding around with this rating, but we'll get to that in a bit.
I took a quick glance at the profile, the distance (~ 17 miles), and the total climbing amount (~ 2300 feet), and I figured that I'd be fine with one regular-sized water bottle and no snacks (cue Jaws theme). I did have the presence of mind to bring the knee and elbow pads - I crash often enough on trail rides that I never go without them on new trails, and the planned route included a couple of spicy DH runs and a lot of steep exposure on narrow singletrack.
After parking at the end of the pavement about 3.25 miles up County Road 409 from Highway 1, I jumped onto a winding, gently climbing singletrack called Parallel Action that (not surprisingly) parallels the dirt road up to the Woodlands/JDSF entrance. A few things that I had been warned about became immediately apparent:
GPS lock frequently wanders in the thick forest canopy, making the map and the Wahoo breadcrump trail on my computer only occasionally useful
There are few, if any trail signs in JDSF. The land manager actively blocks people from putting up signs for mysterious reasons and will remove volunteer signage, so only the trails in the Woodlands sections have any signage.
The trails are maze-like and there are few landmarks, so getting lost is almost guaranteed the first few times
After a ride up Parallel Action to the first fire road and taking a wrong turn along the way that dumped me onto 409, I misinterpreted the Wahoo map and Roo's directions, and ended up going back down Parallel Action for quite a ways before I realizing that I'd probably seen the trail before and needed to double back. I was definitely starting to understand why everyone talks about getting lost here.
I finally found the right gravel road to start ascending towards Forest History/Manly Gulch DH, before spying what looked like a really tasty machine-built flow trail on the hill down to my right that was headed in the general direction of Forest History. Further, because of the GPS inaccuracies, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to continue following the gravel road, or if this flow trail was an enhancement to the loop I was following that people were already using.
I figured "YOLO" - and so I bushwhacked down the hill and jumped onto the flow trail, but after several swoops through the forrest, it quickly became apparent that this trail was actively being constructed, rather than being ready for riding - the trail surface was still fresh and loose from the caterpillar work, with small vegetation roots sticking up through the unseasoned surface. It also became apparent that a) I was going the opposite direction than that intended by the builder b) the trail was being constructed while I was on it - first a series of trail grooming tools appeared and then finally I was confronted by an active caterpillar! After a series of apologies to the driver, he gestured towards the road and suggested that I bushwhack back onto it.
After bushwhacking back and a bit of grinding up the gravel road about 3/4 of a mile further, I finally reached the trailhead for Forest History/Manly Gulch, one of the few trails here that has proper signage. This is a terrific single-track DH run through the forest to the bottom of the canyon with two options - straight down forest history, or off to the left along Manly Gulch. People debate which is better, but I wanted to follow my route and so took the left for Manly Gulch.
This downhill is amazing - winding fast and flowy singletrack through the forest, plenty of little root drops to navigate, some fairly intense vertical exposure on tight singletrack, and some very nice bridge construction on some portions. This was probably the highlight of the ride, despite a silly crash from a front wheel washout on one of the least technical sections at the bottom, requiring a quick handlebar and seatpost re-adjustment.
I was feeling pretty good about my water bottle contents and energy level at this point, probably because I hadn't looked at the profile enough to realize at this point I had an big singletrack climbing grind ahead of me AND another descent AND another climb out...
After crossing the valley of the gulch and another creek, I settled into a long climbing grind that includes a long grunt up an old logging skid - for those not familiar with logged forests, logging skids were used in 19th century logging for dragging harvest logs up hills using an animal team or (later) steam engines and primitive rail tracks. In other words, they go straight up the hill... yeah. It was at this point that I began to realize that my water supply might not hold up, but this grind led to a second amazing DH singletrack run down called Steam Donkey and a DH trail aptly called Big Tree, which included a sketchy feature where you actually ride along an old downed redwood. Was very much thanking myself for running 180 rotors with 4pot brakes at this point, though the infamous "wandering bite point" of Shimano brakes did start to rear its head a bit.
After traversing the bottom of the canyon a second time after the DH, I passed an old boiler on the aptly named Boiler trail. This was a case of riding a DH trail uphill - this became apparent when I came upon a drop that would have been very much rideable going the opposite direction, but was a mandatory hike-a-bike in my direction. About 3/4s of the way up this trail, I definitively bonked. At the top of the trail, I ran out of water.
I looked at the map and realized I had another gravel road grind and singletrack traverse ahead of me before starting back downhill to the car, and I was out of supplies. I started walking.
Like an angel, a random car appeared ahead of me and after waving them down, they refilled my bottle... halfway. It was enough to get me on the bike again and I got to the next singletrack section, Gas Cap, where a very friendly dad and his two sons were sitting on bikes. They were incredibly kind and took pity on me and gave me a bunch of water and an energy bar - thank the trail gods! Gas Cap ended up being yet another fun downhill and XC traverse that included several really fun drops, but also earned me yet another crash and bar re-adjustment - again proving why I always bring pads on a new ride!
At the end of Gas Cap, I bid my new friends goodbye and bushwhacked a few feet back to the gravel road to finish the descent back to my car. All in all, a bit of Type 2 fun, but overall, epic ride. Can't wait to do it again on a different loop, this time with adequate water!
Photos here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CE2WTvXl_1h/
Full Strava recording here: https://www.strava.com/activities/4027032517
Given that the rest of California had already had the same idea, we normally would have faced a real problem finding lodging, but my mom still lives up in Fort Bragg, so we were sorted for a place to stay as long as we didn't mind a pair of highly active spaniels. We put the mountain bikes on the roof and headed up. Road and gravel riding in Mendo is good, but with the clueless holiday traffic and a notorious lack of adequate road shoulders throughout the county, I figured I'd stick to the trail bike this time. Besides, the trail system up here is world-class, and a pretty well-kept secret at that.
I grew up in Mendocino County on the coast, but I didn't take up riding bikes until college, so I have not really ever had the pleasure of riding these trails on a regular basis. I'm always recommending them to people, but this would be the first time I'd try to hit one of the more strenuous loops in the area, the ride known to locals as the Double Loop.
On Sunday, my wife and I had a little warmup with a quick ride through Van Damme State Park (https://www.strava.com/activities/4023374059).
This is strictly a family excursion, but worth your time if you are in the area. Van Damme State Park starts right on the coast at a small, rocky beach off Highway 1. We started riding inland on a paved road through the designated campgrounds, which were completely full - growing up here, I'd never seen this campground more than 1/3rd occupied, but the pandemic has driven camp bookings in California all the way until next year.
Soon we passed a gate and the paved road transitioned to a gentle grade on a dirt path, about four to six feet wide, with regular casual hiker encounters. The attraction here isn't the riding itself, but the views - the trail follows the path of a gorgeous restored creek called Little River, and the canyon is filled on both sides with a profusion of young coastal redwoods and their associated flora - ferns, thimbleberries, redwood sorrel, and the rest. Along the way, we crossed a total of nine elegant little wooden bridges and several small waterfalls, with the grade never getting over 1 to 2%. It's truly a story-book experience - you keep expecting little elves to jump out at you. There was a bit of mud and an old downed tree to deal with in one section, a testament to CA State Parks lack of budget for just about anything these days, but otherwise, it was smooth sailing to the fork at the end of the canyon. To the left is a singletrack leading to a waterfall, where bikes aren't allowed currently, and to the right a creek crossing and then a loose dirt/gravel service road that winds up through the forest canopy and ultimately ends at a pygmy forest area and a paved descent back to Highway 1 (if you're so inclined) or a return trip on the service road. We started the climb, which is fairly strenuous at about 8 to 12% grade, but turned back as my wife, as a novice descender, got more and more nervous about the return trip. A quick ride back to the car got the whole thing done in about 48 minutes of casual rolling time.
No photos from this ride, as we were too busy gawking at everything.
On Monday, I got kitted up for a solo trail ride in JDSF and the Woodlands area, using Roo Harris's invaluable paper guidebook (https://www.trailforks.com/localproducts/61/) that includes several dozen choice routes through the area, and is a great supplement to Trailforks which has a lot of gaps in this area. I chose the Double Loop Redux, which is a classic locals ride that is also easily visible on the Strava heatmap, which I used to build a quick route for the Wahoo ELMNT.
Roo uses difficulty ratings a little bit differently than the typical green/blue/black diamond scale - so the black diamond rating here is primarily a measure of how strenuous the riding is, vs. how technical it is. Turns out, he was not kidding around with this rating, but we'll get to that in a bit.
I took a quick glance at the profile, the distance (~ 17 miles), and the total climbing amount (~ 2300 feet), and I figured that I'd be fine with one regular-sized water bottle and no snacks (cue Jaws theme). I did have the presence of mind to bring the knee and elbow pads - I crash often enough on trail rides that I never go without them on new trails, and the planned route included a couple of spicy DH runs and a lot of steep exposure on narrow singletrack.
After parking at the end of the pavement about 3.25 miles up County Road 409 from Highway 1, I jumped onto a winding, gently climbing singletrack called Parallel Action that (not surprisingly) parallels the dirt road up to the Woodlands/JDSF entrance. A few things that I had been warned about became immediately apparent:
GPS lock frequently wanders in the thick forest canopy, making the map and the Wahoo breadcrump trail on my computer only occasionally useful
There are few, if any trail signs in JDSF. The land manager actively blocks people from putting up signs for mysterious reasons and will remove volunteer signage, so only the trails in the Woodlands sections have any signage.
The trails are maze-like and there are few landmarks, so getting lost is almost guaranteed the first few times
After a ride up Parallel Action to the first fire road and taking a wrong turn along the way that dumped me onto 409, I misinterpreted the Wahoo map and Roo's directions, and ended up going back down Parallel Action for quite a ways before I realizing that I'd probably seen the trail before and needed to double back. I was definitely starting to understand why everyone talks about getting lost here.
I finally found the right gravel road to start ascending towards Forest History/Manly Gulch DH, before spying what looked like a really tasty machine-built flow trail on the hill down to my right that was headed in the general direction of Forest History. Further, because of the GPS inaccuracies, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to continue following the gravel road, or if this flow trail was an enhancement to the loop I was following that people were already using.
I figured "YOLO" - and so I bushwhacked down the hill and jumped onto the flow trail, but after several swoops through the forrest, it quickly became apparent that this trail was actively being constructed, rather than being ready for riding - the trail surface was still fresh and loose from the caterpillar work, with small vegetation roots sticking up through the unseasoned surface. It also became apparent that a) I was going the opposite direction than that intended by the builder b) the trail was being constructed while I was on it - first a series of trail grooming tools appeared and then finally I was confronted by an active caterpillar! After a series of apologies to the driver, he gestured towards the road and suggested that I bushwhack back onto it.
After bushwhacking back and a bit of grinding up the gravel road about 3/4 of a mile further, I finally reached the trailhead for Forest History/Manly Gulch, one of the few trails here that has proper signage. This is a terrific single-track DH run through the forest to the bottom of the canyon with two options - straight down forest history, or off to the left along Manly Gulch. People debate which is better, but I wanted to follow my route and so took the left for Manly Gulch.
This downhill is amazing - winding fast and flowy singletrack through the forest, plenty of little root drops to navigate, some fairly intense vertical exposure on tight singletrack, and some very nice bridge construction on some portions. This was probably the highlight of the ride, despite a silly crash from a front wheel washout on one of the least technical sections at the bottom, requiring a quick handlebar and seatpost re-adjustment.
I was feeling pretty good about my water bottle contents and energy level at this point, probably because I hadn't looked at the profile enough to realize at this point I had an big singletrack climbing grind ahead of me AND another descent AND another climb out...
After crossing the valley of the gulch and another creek, I settled into a long climbing grind that includes a long grunt up an old logging skid - for those not familiar with logged forests, logging skids were used in 19th century logging for dragging harvest logs up hills using an animal team or (later) steam engines and primitive rail tracks. In other words, they go straight up the hill... yeah. It was at this point that I began to realize that my water supply might not hold up, but this grind led to a second amazing DH singletrack run down called Steam Donkey and a DH trail aptly called Big Tree, which included a sketchy feature where you actually ride along an old downed redwood. Was very much thanking myself for running 180 rotors with 4pot brakes at this point, though the infamous "wandering bite point" of Shimano brakes did start to rear its head a bit.
After traversing the bottom of the canyon a second time after the DH, I passed an old boiler on the aptly named Boiler trail. This was a case of riding a DH trail uphill - this became apparent when I came upon a drop that would have been very much rideable going the opposite direction, but was a mandatory hike-a-bike in my direction. About 3/4s of the way up this trail, I definitively bonked. At the top of the trail, I ran out of water.
I looked at the map and realized I had another gravel road grind and singletrack traverse ahead of me before starting back downhill to the car, and I was out of supplies. I started walking.
Like an angel, a random car appeared ahead of me and after waving them down, they refilled my bottle... halfway. It was enough to get me on the bike again and I got to the next singletrack section, Gas Cap, where a very friendly dad and his two sons were sitting on bikes. They were incredibly kind and took pity on me and gave me a bunch of water and an energy bar - thank the trail gods! Gas Cap ended up being yet another fun downhill and XC traverse that included several really fun drops, but also earned me yet another crash and bar re-adjustment - again proving why I always bring pads on a new ride!
At the end of Gas Cap, I bid my new friends goodbye and bushwhacked a few feet back to the gravel road to finish the descent back to my car. All in all, a bit of Type 2 fun, but overall, epic ride. Can't wait to do it again on a different loop, this time with adequate water!
Photos here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CE2WTvXl_1h/
Full Strava recording here: https://www.strava.com/activities/4027032517