Mountain Biking
Contributed by Rich Owings, Make Your Own Maps
The Mendocino Coast has some great mountain biking — you just have to know where to look. Two of the most popular areas are the Jackson State Demonstration Forest and the Mendocino Woodlands State Park.
Jackson State Demonstration Forest
This 50,000 acre woodland is wide open for biking. Be cautious though—this is an easy place to get lost. Though there isn’t a lot of logging activity right now, forestry activities can close roads and trails, turning your loop ride into a longer than expected out-and-back! The most popular single-track is the Road 500 trail. The JDSF Recreational Access blog is a good resource on this park.
Mendocino Woodlands State Park
The Woodlands, as it is known to locals, is a jewel. One of the sweetest single-tracks on the coast, Manly Gulch, is located there. The image above shows me threading a narrow stretch of single track. Here is a trail map of the Woodlands.
Other mountain biking areas
The Big River unit is a massive new addition to the Mendocino Headlands State Park. Most biking opportunities are double track and the main haul road is heavily used. Still, you get beautiful views of the river and wildlife, even if you do have to share the scenery.
Sinkyone Wilderness State Park, located well north of Fort Bragg, is off limits to bikes. But two roads on the back side of the wilderness area allow you to explore incredibly beautiful, rugged and isolated country.
Caveats and resources
The usual caveats apply: respect other users, don’t ride single-track trails in the winter when they are wet. You know the drill. Oh, and to help you navigate the Mendocino Coast back country, check out my post on GPS for mountain bikers.
As far as resources go, here are a couple of good trail guides:
- Mendocino Coast Bike Rides: A little dated, but still an excellent resource. Just remember that some trails and roads in JDSF may have changed.
- Mendocino Outdoors covers biking trails that are more suitable to beginning and intermediate riders.
- Caltrans District 1 Bicycle Tourism: this is an excellent and very detailed guide to riding bicycles along the Mendocino Coast
Road Bikes (an addendum by DFF)
We haven’t really talked about regular road bikes because there are limited opportunities for fun riding. Most of the trails are gravel or dirt. You can ride along Highway One, as many people do each summer, but it’s not the most pleasant of rides. You’re right next to a lot of traffic, and there are no shoulders for most of Highway One along the Coast (no bike lanes, either). A friend of mine uses his road bike on One every morning for training, but he starts riding before the sun comes up. Ugh!
The Haul Road in Fort Bragg that starts at Pudding Creek is paved, with a few washed out sections. You can ride for perhaps 4 miles before you get to the miles-long break in the road. You can also follow many of the bluff trails in MacKerricher on a road bike, since they are pretty smooth. I’d make sure to have Kevlar tires, though!
Cyclist Resources
- Catch a Canoe and Bicyles, Too: Bike rentals, purchase and repair, Hwy 1 & Comptche-Ukiah Rd., Mendocino, 707-937-0273.
- Fort Bragg Cyclery: Bike rentals, purchase and repair, 221 N. Main St., Fort Bragg, 707-96543509.
Related Posts and Pages
Dan Gjerde said,
Caltrans recently published this flyer of the Pacific Coast Bike Route (for the North Coast). It provides some basic information about the elevation changes.
The District 1 staff worked with the Mendocino Coast Cyclists and the City of Fort Bragg, and is committed to improve cycling on Highway 1, as part of ongoing operations. With improved GIS data, they hope to widen segments of Highway 1 (to provide a respectable bike shoulder) as they routinely resurface sections of Highway 1, where space allows.
You may want to post a link to it on web sites where people are looking for information about cycling opportunities.
Joe Fant said,
The link that you have on the bottom of the mountain-bikes page seems to be broken:
http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist1/d1transplan/bikeguide/full.pdf is not found.
thanks.
dff said,
Thanks, Joe.
Here is the updated link: http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist1/d1transplan/bikeped/bikeguide/index.htm. They have created an excellent resource for bicyclists in this area.
Mary said,
Are there any decent paved bike trails in the North Coast area? Anywhere from Elk to Cleone (and beyond) would be fine. Heading up for a 4-day weekend and planning to bring my bike… not sure if I should, given I can’t find many paved trails to ride (other than Old Haul Rd. and Fern Canyon at VanDamme & Russian Gulch). Any tips??
dff said,
Mary,
Slim pickings for road bikes…. I have a friend who rides every day, but he rides very early in the morning on Highway One, before normal people are awake.
The Haul Road at MacKerricher is the longest stretch of pavement with no vehicles, but it runs out after 4 or 5 miles — several miles of the road were washed away in a big storm years ago. You can stretch your ride by following dirt side trails over along the ocean.
I’m not aware of a paved trail into the Fern Canyon — it’s dirt after the parking lot.
If you have Kevlar tires and don’t mind some gravel, then the road on the north side of Big River in Mendocino will let you ride for 8 or 9 miles before it starts turning into single- and double-track. This is an old logging road, and it’s still in decent shape (mostly). It is not paved, but it’s a solid surface covered with gravel.
Most of the other roads with decent pavement have cars on them, and no shoulders or bike lanes. Point Cabrillo Drive between Mendocino and Caspar, or Little Lake Road east of Mendocino are examples of that — quite a bit of traffic, so it wouldn’t be much fun riding.
Riding south on Highway One below the Navarro River would cut down on traffic quite a bit, but there’s still a lot. Most people head north on One from Highway 128, so the road down to Elk has a lot fewer cars. Elk down to Manchester/Point Arena actually opens up for some long straight stretches on One if you’re determined…
Another approach: rent mountain bikes at Catch A Canoe in Mendocino (down on Big River), and go ride for more than a dozen miles out along Big River, or other places out in the Jackson Forest. There are tremendous opportunities for mountain biking here on the Coast!
RSS feed for comments on this post · TrackBack URI
