We left Chiloquin and hit Hwy 97 South through Weed and onto I-5. Our timing was good since Weed is now up in smoke (not a Cheech and Chong reference but could very well be considering the reputation of Weed) and I think the Hwy is probably closed through there.
We hustled down I-5 and then headed over to the coast via Willams turn-off on I-5. It was a long day of driving but we made our way just north of Fort Bragg with the intention of riding the Mendocino area on Monday.
The plan of attack was to hit the local bike shop in Fort Bragg and then get maps and beta for the local riding. The expectations were lofty since Bike mag just did an article on the area and were portraying it as a great mountain bike destination area.
I usually try to go in and spend money at local bike shops as an exchange for them providing a little info on local trails. We bought a few things but unfortunately were told they had been out of guidebooks for a while (when I talked to them earlier in the week they mentioned they had guidebooks??) but instead they had an overpriced and out-dated (which we would find out later) map we could buy. They did not volunteer where I could purchase said guidebook until I prodded them on who else might carry the guidebook. All in all the shop was not helpful and as with all else in the area, was overpriced. I guess we should have been alerted when we referenced Oakridge and in return got blank stares.
We quickly made our way down to Mendocino where we moved the tin can to a new camp site on the Russian River Gulch area by the coast. From there, we could ride to trailheads that would open up into more trail. We took the dogs out for a nice long walk along the cliffs of Mendo and then got our ride on...
I was anticipating riding through some Redwood old growth and probably should have lowered my expectations since there was little to no old growth on the trails we rode.
There is absolutely no trail marking in the Mendo trail system which made for some interesting riding. We had a map but could not tell where we were based on the many turns and lack of trail markers. We spent about 3 hrs riding and getting a little lost and found until we made our way back to camp. There was some fun riding along the way but it was incredibly difficult to link up long sections of single track without spending a fair amount of time on dirt roads or road. Most of the climbs and descents were pretty short and punchy (about 400-500ft of elevation change max) so the short punchy trails and relatively short mileage of the trails made it hard to find flow.
We rolled back into camp thinking we must have missed the sweet nectar of trails everyone was referencing and made it a determined point to get out the next day and find the secret stash of goods!
Some pix from day 1:
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