southern humboldt rides

Finally got my wife, Meredith, to take a ride. We just did The Wildcat down to Petrolia, lunch at the Yellow Rose, then over across Honeydew to Avenue of the Giants and up the back way through Scotia and Rio Dell home. 99 miles. 6 fucking hours. I just absolutely cannot grasp the scale here. 99 miles would have taken me under 90 minutes back home, minus the lunch stop. Granted, we did stop a lot, but still...

I've seen the same two dudes on KLRs on two rides, now. I know they are brothers and live in Fortuna, because I talked to them briefly on Upper Bear River the other day. I think they said their last name was Sanders...? Saw them again today coming over Honeydew. One red KLR, one green KLR. Anyone know them, or are you guys on here?

Do you mean "back east"? To this transplant this is is home now.

Where's that bridge?

Honeydew

Two great choices at this bridge. Hang a right and head over to Shelter Cove, or cross the bridge and go over Panther Gap then down into the Giant Redwood area. Either way and you wont be disappointed, Thanks for posting theses photos MeefZan. I have taken the same route you posted and it took as long or longer, funny how that works.

Lol, yeah I guess. I'm only 7 months here, I still feel out of sorts sometimes.

I think home will always be Ohio, this is just the next step.

It took me a year. Just watch the weather forecasts for next week and beyond. No thanks. I just got a little reminder of back east. A neighbor got a flat and needed a tire changed. The crank down spare tire carrier didn't work and I had to grind the damn thing off. She then told me the truck was from Chicago. I told her I spent the last half century doing shit like that. She is a native here and had no idea of what she was getting when she bought that.

Hah. Ive ridden from Ferndale to ave of giants,up Panther Gap through Honeydew,camped at Mattole Grange hall,then done the unknown coast and the climb back up to Ferndale,about 100 miles only it took 2 days. On road bicycles. Brutal climb on panther gap and up to Ferndale from coast. Local club organizes the ride.
Think Ive done it 5 times,great ride. Sierra Nevada provided beer at Mattole.

>"I got a lot of long, sullen looks; and one guy followed me and told me not to vandalize his property. I agreed not to and he seemed content with my promise and left me. No weed farmers out here, just old dairy farms. Camp Weott is out there north of Ferndale:"

Yeah, you're on a dead end county road through a ranch or two...
I suppose they (owners) would wonder what you're doing out there.

The Eel river... 'delta' or stream bed was used by lots of folks for 'partying', shooting, 4WD, motorcycles... etc.
One land owner closed off a main access (Fernbridge). Not many places left to go.
I suppose there are people looking for other 'routes' to get down to the Eel.

>"Also had my first negative experience with lane splitting yesterday morning."

People in NW California aren't used to lane splitting. I usually avoid it.

Yeah, we had just gotten here when the owner shut down access under Fern Bridge. You can still access the river delta at the end of East Ferry Rd, and if the water is low enough, run that all the way to Fern Bridge. Some old cars and an abandoned boat out there, lots of old camp fires, and lots of target shooting areas into the west riverbank.

Of all the other roads that end in the river north of 211, I haven't really seen "river delta access". The water basically laps the end of the road and there is no ready access to the bank for anything other than maybe boating.

Would I be chastised greatly if I post pictures from Northern Humboldt? Or is anything north of Ferndale against the rules?

Go for it!

Took a ride on Maple Creek and Butler Valley Roads a few days ago. I had done it in a car, but never on my bike. With the bad weather coming, I raced the rain to get through it.

One of the many unpaved sections of Maple Creek Rd. between Bald Mountain Rd. and Butler Valley Rd. I still haven't figured out why there will be a small section of pavement followed by a mile or so of dirt, then another small paved section, followed by dirt. Maybe there's a historical reason I'm not aware of.


Bridge over the Mad River on Butler Valley Rd.


Alpacas?!


Looking downstream on the Mad River


The road is on the move


Looking down toward Eureka from Kneeland Rd.


Not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

Total Distance: 60 miles (Starting and ending in McKinleyville)
Deer seen: 2
Oncoming vehicles avoided: 3 (including a right-hand-drive Ford Ranger)
Potholes dodged: 6.02X10^23

That's a lot of potholes!

years ago I had bicycled a lot of humboldt. A buddy lives in Arcata. At times I head back up on one of my motos and repeat some the loops that i can remember.

Rules are made to be broken, go for it. Kind of like these.......... this ride started around Kneeland ended in Blue Lake.

Love your photos and stories MeefZah. That photo of the Redcrest Store is like a Post Card, beautiful.

When I worked at the mill in Redcrest we would sit on that porch and drink beer after work. The tourists would stop and take pictures of us.
Oh and Maple creek road was all paved back in the day, but it is cheaper for the county to tear it up and make it gravel then re pave it.

Well thanks!

Baird road. Not good... it seems like there is a 'lotsa shit' up there nowadays.

---------- (Copied from Lost Coast Outpost)

...Incident occured on Baird Rd in Hoopa.

HVTPD Officers spoke with the male victim.

The male victim stated he was sitting in his vehicle when suspect Daniel Pratt, Jr. (18 years old)
drove up to his vehicle in a white SUV, exited his vehicle with a firearm and fired several shots
into the air.

Pratt brandished an additional handgun and demanded the victim hand over all of his stuff.
The victim began to drive away and Pratt fired shots into the victim’s vehicle.
No one was injured during this incident.