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!

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.

thanks.

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.

http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist1/d1transplan/bikeguide/full.pdf