Resources and Reflections

Sherwood Road is a county road, but for most of its length you would never know it. The track shown on the map below begins at Columbi Market in Ft. Bragg and ends at Hwy 101 in Willits and the geo-tagged photos give a pretty fair idea of the conditions along the way; Pudding Creek “peanut butter” clays, named so both for their color and consistency when wet, which is a very good reason to ride this in the dry (May-October) season. The road runs more of less paralell to the Skunk Train route but offset a few miles to the north and several hundred feet in altitude.

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Popularity: 26% [?]

This is a 35 mile loop with two significant climbs. The GPX file mapped below was hand made in Google Earth and will be uploaded to the Garmin for navigation purposes,

Cave Creek to Potter Valley
July 09; Planning on riding the route this afternoon, wondering about conditions at Cave Creek Rd.; did I get the route right, are there locked gates (the satellite photos were dicey at the crest)? SHould be an interesting ride. The camera and GPS are charged and ready to go, and the navigation route (shown above) is loaded and ready to go. Sunscreen, water and carbs and I should be out the door by 1:30.
Ok, finally out the door at 4:30.

Popularity: 14% [?]

This was my first attempt to create a KML path in Google Earth, use TCXConverter to transform the KML to GPX, upload the GPX to the GPS and ride the route. Oy! with the acronyms.
The USGS topo calls this Main Ranch Road, paralleling Eldridge Creek to the back side of Greenfield Ranch and thence to Orr Springs Road, right up at the top by Mann Ranch. With the permission of someone along the course of the road, I hope to ride all the way through from Redwood Valley and make a really nice 30 mile loop down Orr Springs, down to North State Street and back through Calpella to Redwood Valley. Not to mention this being the most direct route to the hot springs, less than 15 miles and very little traffic, saweeeeet! The road surface looks very dusty from the satellite photos, but fairly well traveled, with perhaps a dozen or so homesteads along the way by the looks of it.
On further research, I’m told by the Mendocino County Surveyor’s office that Main Ranch Road is a privately owned road with multiple owners.

Main Ranch Road
Hoping to ride this today, more news tomorrow.

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Popularity: 35% [?]

If you like to just wander around and stick mostly to the flat ground, here’s a thirty mile route around Ukiah and environs. Starting in Redwood Vally, its a quick spin own to Ukiah, a nice ten mile warm-up on the wide clean shoulders on Hwy. 101, and its legal too. Of course extra caution is required at exits and entries.
Then there’s a little tour of Old Town Ukiah and a loop out Talmadge road into the vineyards. Out here near Vichy Springs Road, you’ll find El Dorado and other Porsche-riddled enclaves up on the foothills above the valley.
Then its a quick loop back into town and back north to close the circle.

Ukiah valley tour

Popularity: unranked [?]

Tomki Road to the north of Redwood Valley, as the county signs repeatedly make clear, is  ”not maintained in winter”. Well, its not much maintained in summer either. Rocky rough when you get up into the canyon, with the added attraction of seven water crossings, Tomki Road is always an entertaining and challenging ride.

Approaching from the south you ride through the rolling vineyards of Redwood Valley over a series of gradually rising steps heading north on either East or West Road, take your pick because both meet ath a three-way intersection with Tomki Road, at the north end of the Valley. About four miles in from the intersection, things begin to get interesting as the road starts to climb at about 12% for two and a half miles, rising almost a thousand feet from that point to the crest at 1935′. Along the way you’ll pass one buddist and one greek orthodox monastery as the narrow but reasonably clean asphalt rises in a series of about ten tight, winding ’s’ curves through thick forests of california oak, white fir and even the occaisonal redwood, all second and third growth.

Oh yes, and don’t forget the poison oak, its thick as lobbyists on congress. I’m a big advocate of Hawaiian philosophy as applied to cycling; eat when hungry, rest when tired, ride when ready, drink whenevah. But when resting along the road in northern California, beware, unpleasant surprises can lurk in the grass. Poison oak is chifest among these, but the very prickly and uncomfortable Goat’s Head is a thing to be reckoned with as well. To barrel through the copuntryside as if the devil is on your heels, without stopping to take in the scenery seems a waste to me, so, by all means,  stop to take it in, but choose your perch carefully in these parts.

Feast your eyes upon the details, recorded July 3rd on a cooling late afternoon.

Tomki Road

Popularity: unranked [?]

June ‘08 – A true wilderness adventure to one of California’s most remote stretches of coastline; The Lost Coast. Beginning in Willits, we ride north on Hwy 101 to Laytonville where we head west on Branscomb Road through misty redwoods and down to the coast at Rockport. From there its north along the Pacific Coast Highway to where it veers northeast to skirt the Sinkyone – Lost Coast wilderness. There’s a great climb up into the coast range and then a brutal gravel/mud swathed trip down to Usal Beach. See the Route Map here More »

Popularity: 17% [?]

May ‘08, Left Willits at 5:30 PM arrived in Cache Creek Campground at 1 AM with 80 lbs. in my (then) new Arkel panniers. I always love a long ride through new countryside. Believe it or not, riding at night, if you are well illuminated, is often safer than the traffic clogged daytime.
This ride sealed my place as the Emerald Empire Adventures partner and cycle touring guide, bona fides as it were. See the Route Map More »

Popularity: 15% [?]

This is not a ride for those made nervous by narrow shoulders, variable road conditions, windy headlands or 35 miles of uphill slogging from Ft. Bragg back to Willits via Sherwood Rd. On the other hand, for those of sterner constitution, this ride will thrill chill and make you feel alive. I first rode this route on Memorial Day weekend in ‘08 and have riddn various sections of it in different combinations many times since. The Ft. Bragg to Willits Section, via Sherwood Rd. is a really exceptional backwoods experience and a challenge for any rider.

Popularity: 13% [?]