southern humboldt rides

Well there is always this. The owner even let us in one day, awesome. I know how to get there but cant remember the names of the roads. Shhhh.

anyone going to the flat track races in Fortuna today ? thinking of riding up from Redway around 11

I came over 36 yesterday.
Caltrans has gone 'mad' with the 'double yellow' lines on the 2-lanes.
Most all of the 'passing spots' have now been double-yellowed. Grim.

Grim, I agree. makes for frustrated people passing in unsafe places

I may. I actually have 2 tickets if you want one.

Damn, I would have gone.

A guy told me about a gnarly road called 'Devil's Backbone' - the extension of Mad River Rock Lookout Road just off Hwy 36 west of Mad River. He said he'd only do it on a quad after nearly wadding his truck up on a downhill, and he didn't think a guy could get a bike up it. So naturally I planned on trying it on the Strom. However, it rained all day today, and I didn't want to ride in the rain, so I decided to take the truck to check it out.

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4303208,-123.5156529,13z (If the map link works)

I went up Redwood House, Shower's Pass, Stepp Rd (dead end), and some FS roads and enjoyed the leaves and the mini-waterfalls in every crevice coming down the hillsides from all the rain. Took FR 1N10 south east off 36 for like 20 miles, came through a nasty washout. The road was supposed to cross the Van Duzen River and end on Van Duzen River Road, and I assume there normally is a ford in the river to get across, but it was too high and flowing too fast to try it. Had to go all the way back up FR 1N10 to Hwy 36.

Then I took 36 east to Mad River Rock Lookout Road. Once the "road" ends and it becomes the Devil's Backbone... holy shit. That was some of the craziest stuff I've done in the truck. 39 degrees, almost dark, and raining. Some of the hills were so steep I don't think I could have ridden up them on an ADV bike, and the trail snaked between trees and deadfall just wide enough to get a large OHV or a smaller truck through. It curved back and forth on the downhills so fast that I was turning the wheel from full lock left to full lock right repeatedly and was damn near unable to even keep it on the trail because the truck couldn't turn fast enough! One long downhill basically dropped straight down into a creek that had washed out so badly I was sure I was going to get high centered on the bank and have to drag out with the winch - but I made it. It was pretty epic. I could absolutely do it on the WR250, and maybe, maybe, if it was drier I could get enough traction on the Strom to navigate it north to south without sliding on my side down a hill. Not sure I could run it south to north on the Strom under any conditions. The road / trail goes all the way through to VD River Rd, even though the maps don't show that.

Shower's Pass Rd



Fall colors on Shower's Pass



These trees are all over in the National Forest, they are pretty awesome





Shower's Pass Rd



Old farm building on Shower's Pass Rd



Moss covered cattle guard on Stepp Rd



Fall colors and water everywhere on FR 1N10




Waterfall with metal guard over it on Larabee Butte Road. The other side of the road had the "exit" for the waterfall, and it was cascading pretty forcefully a long way down the mountain. I assume the metal guard is to keep people from falling in and going for a wild, final ride.



Fallen rock on Larabee Butte Rd. This was huge, and I guess maybe weighed 1000+ (?) pounds. I tried to push it and made exactly zero progress.



Water was everywhere



Washout on FR 1N10. Safety first! Or just go around...





Devil's Backbone (one of the few spots I dared get out and try a picture)

Beautiful photos meefzah, Showers Pass was another favorite ride when I was in Humboldt. I lived in Hydesville and would ride out 36 to Redwood Rd. or Bridgeville and ride over Showers Pass to the Kneeland Heilo Pad at the CDF? site. There is a Y in the rode on Showers (cant remember the name) that also goes to Kneeland but kind of winds around to the back side. I think.I tried a few times to go that way and that road has a lot of cattle on it. Two separate times some guys in a truck stopped me and said" this isn't a private road but we really don't like Motorcycles around here". I was Solo both times so thought it wise to retreat...I bet Twilight could shed some light on this road. So in an earlier post I said "you guys are going to cause me to buy an other bike....Thanks Lets Ride !

>"There is a Y in the rode on Showers (cant remember the name) that also goes
to Kneeland but kind of winds around to the back side."

Two separate times some guys in a truck stopped me and said "this isn't a private road but we
really don't like Motorcycles around here". I was Solo both times so thought it wise to retreat...
I bet Twilight could shed some light on this road."

Was it Mountain View Road ? That road goes around the east side of the mountain.
Comes down off the hillside, ends up near the Mad River... and then it has a nice uphill road (for bikes)...
back up to the top. That road goes by the Airport.

There used to be a bridge down there, at the end of Jack Shaw road... that crossed the
Mad River and went up to Maple Creek Road. County condemned it,
used to be a skinny dipping spot, dunno if the bridge still there or not.

Hmmm.... I haven't run into any issues on that road.;
but dope growing is really widespread out in that country.

With the dope growing currently... most dope growers don't want to be noticed
by the public. Back road travel is (probably) safer now than in the past.

Lovely photos ! IMHO: It was a good day to be out there in a truck !!!!

Oooo, Tenere. Nice.

Yes Twilight that's the road, Mountain View. Good to know as I never did make the trip all the way thru.
Thanks MeefZah, last "big"bike I owned was a Yamaha FZ-1.(Which I thought at the time was the best I had ever owned) I only have about 300 miles so far but I really like it. I was going thru some old photos the other day(not much else to do on a rainy day) and about 80% of the FZ photos were of it on dirt roads and trails.

I had a silver 2002 FZ-1, I bought it "used" with 600 miles on it and sold it with 50,000 miles on it a few years later. The only thing that ever went bad was the choke cable rotted and snapped maybe a month before I sold it. Fantastic bike. Downside: I went like 80-100 mph everywhere I went on it, it was so smooooooth. I got the only speeding ticket I have ever gotten on it - 119 mph in a 55 zone....

We used devils backbone on a couple of lost coast dual sport rides, everyone made it just fine. We (NBMC) stopped going out there because it's just to far and our sweepers got tired of getting in at midnight!

>"We used devils backbone on a couple of lost coast dual sport rides"

Long ago... there was a lookout on the top of Mad River Rock.
Road north of the rock was improved during construction... rest of the road is still a jeep trail.
I'll see if I can dig out the article. Here' a few...

http://californialookouts.weebly.com/mad-river-rock.html

http://www.snwburd.com/bob/trip_reports/horse_ridge_lookout_1.html

Another interesting one...

https://nooksand.wordpress.com/

If they can someday promise me NO COWS ! on 36,I will promise them to respect their "double yellow" lines.

I gotta check all these roads out,very interesting stuff

Let us know before you do.

I like it around Mad River,that Devil's Backbone looks really neat. It sounds like it comes back in to Van Duzen road but a river crossing would have to happen. Mad River is about 140 miles from Chico so its a jaunt to come check all this stuff out.

Its really hard NOT to notice most growers with their 100's of feet of 8' tall fences and water tanks by the road and Big Metal Gates,but I understand otherwise they try to keep a low profile. Guns have been too common around here with the mexican cartel growers.

i can only imagine what kind of reaction a drone would create