 Topic Name: Routes in California
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Reply #20 on: June 24, 2011, 11:05:38 AM
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Quentin
Posts: 5
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« Reply #20 on: June 24, 2011, 11:05:38 AM » |
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Just got home from a 16 day trip N. Cal trip. continuing to work out all-dirt/no trafffic routes in Northern CA. Started in Chico used the old Ponderosa way which was built in the 1920's as a fire break and ran from Pit River all the way south to King's canyon and now is fragmented/private/flooded. Old Bodfish publication from the 80's claims 200 miles still existent- We rode maybe 100 miles north Chico to Shingletown on the Hwy 44. At 44, the Ponderosa Way becomes a paved road, still pretty and free of any traffic. used mixed pavement and forest service roads to get to town of McCloud and rode dirt and snow over the mountain to Shasta. Amazing snowpack this year in N. Cal- kept getting snowed out of high routes/pushing through snow. Went west through Trinity Alps and South through Mendocino National forest. All in all about 50% dirt, 3% snow, 0% singletrack but about 90% traffic less. I put up a little slideshow on picasa- https://picasaweb.google.com/Quentinbuilder/PonderosaWay2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCIXy19Oxrdv78wE&feat=directlinkQuentin www.fftouring.com |
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Topic Name: Routes in California
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Reply #21 on: June 24, 2011, 11:35:16 AM
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MattySF
Location: San Francisco, CA
Posts: 50
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« Reply #21 on: June 24, 2011, 11:35:16 AM » |
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Real nice tour. great you had some people to share it with.
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Gone Campin!!
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Topic Name: Routes in California
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Reply #22 on: July 24, 2011, 04:36:50 PM
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AmyL
Posts: 120
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« Reply #22 on: July 24, 2011, 04:36:50 PM » |
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Quentin, do you have a gpx or kml (or whatever format) file of your route? I'd love to load it next to a trip I took to see where it differs from a similar tour I took a couple years ago, and use your info to tweak my "ideal" NW Cal route. Here's a long wordy description of our trip http://northwestcalloop.blogspot.com/Better though is just to grab my kmz file and load it into google earth (or TopoFusion or whatever). This file is the IMPROVED route - way I would do it if I repeated the trip. It's 80-90% identical to the trip we took, but I made a few improvements. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15393086/BPL/NW-CA-Bike-Tour.kmzAmy |
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Topic Name: Routes in California
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Reply #23 on: July 25, 2011, 09:39:20 AM
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Quentin
Posts: 5
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« Reply #23 on: July 25, 2011, 09:39:20 AM » |
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Amy, I do not have any digital info for my route- next time I will take a GPS and generate a file. I have been very impressed by the California Atlas by Benchmark press for route planning. I use that as a backbone for route planning and fill in with forest service maps, locals, Cal Fire stations, etc. Although your route and ours, go through many of the same places, they are mostly on different roads near as I can tell. Two parts that I highly recommend are the Ponderosa Way north from Chico all the way to Shingletown on the 299 - The part north of Paynes Creek and 36 become hard to follow as it is on many different properties- and comming into Covelo from the North on the Mina road from Kettenpom. Leaving Covelo on M1 Etsel ridge road to lk pilsbury. Really, really nice riding.
Quentin
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Topic Name: Routes in California
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Reply #24 on: July 25, 2011, 02:01:50 PM
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AmyL
Posts: 120
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« Reply #24 on: July 25, 2011, 02:01:50 PM » |
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Quentin, I just used BikeRouteToaster.com to make digital files of the two segments you mention. When you have a minute, could you take a look and see if they look right? Ponderosa Way north from Chico all the way to Shingletown: http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=284825Kettenpom to Covelo via Mina Road. Leaving Covelo on M1 Etsel ridge road to lk pilsbury: http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=284839BikeRouteToaster is a dang easy way to build a digital file of your route, and either download it or just store it there so you can share it via the link instead of by sending files around. I just started using it recently and I've been happy with it. Thanks again for sharing your trip report. AmyL |
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Topic Name: Routes in California
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Reply #25 on: July 25, 2011, 09:09:37 PM
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Quentin
Posts: 5
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« Reply #25 on: July 25, 2011, 09:09:37 PM » |
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That is really cool, thanks for doing that and making me aware of the resource, I'll document more routes that way when I have a little time.
Quentin
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Topic Name: Routes in California
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Reply #26 on: November 12, 2013, 05:08:09 PM
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Topic Name: Routes in California
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Reply #27 on: November 13, 2013, 01:13:33 PM
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AmyL
Posts: 120
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« Reply #27 on: November 13, 2013, 01:13:33 PM » |
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Sam, BikeRouteToaster was not working yesterday. I just tried the links and they worked for me. Amy
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Topic Name: Routes in California
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Reply #28 on: November 18, 2013, 11:42:47 PM
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ec_duz_it
Location: Santa Barbara
Posts: 440
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« Reply #28 on: November 18, 2013, 11:42:47 PM » |
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If you are willing to come down to Central California, here you go. www.tourdelospadres.com Brand new route. I just figured out the last 6 miles yesterday. |
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Topic Name: Routes in California
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Reply #29 on: January 16, 2014, 04:36:27 PM
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MattL
Location: Sunnyvale, CA
Posts: 97
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« Reply #29 on: January 16, 2014, 04:36:27 PM » |
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https://plus.google.com/114778798171414976706/posts/M9RSH96onC2 is a loop I did in Mendo NF last year as a training ride for the TD. Quentin is right. Mendo is great. Rugged, and you will see bear evidence (fresh scat and prints on every trip I've taken there). I haven't yet seen a bear, but others have. Resupply is available at the west entrance (near Covelo) and at the Soda Creek Store.
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I finished the 2013 TD. I did the whole damn thing,
excluding the 2013 detours, in good style and—as
far as I know—totally in accordance with the rules.
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Topic Name: Routes in California
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Reply #30 on: January 24, 2014, 09:26:13 PM
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sashax
Posts: 27
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« Reply #30 on: January 24, 2014, 09:26:13 PM » |
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Hey, Matt, do you have more details? I mean I could probably reconstruct your route, but offhand how much climbing, what kind of bike, and ('cause I'm lazy) do you have a gps track? I've spent time on 3 sides of MEndo forest, but not spent any time venturing within. That looks like good stuff!
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Topic Name: Routes in California
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Reply #31 on: March 16, 2014, 11:53:18 PM
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TrueNorth
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 10
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« Reply #31 on: March 16, 2014, 11:53:18 PM » |
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A bit farther South but a route my friends and I have been doing that includes lots of dirt. We are riding a modified, more dirt, route in the end of March and I'm taking a GPS so I should have more info by middle April. I suspect Mendocino NF has a lot of potential. http://dylanlovesbikes.blogspot.com/2012/04/condors-take-flight-2012.html |
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Topic Name: Routes in California
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Reply #32 on: May 06, 2014, 01:46:14 PM
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MattL
Location: Sunnyvale, CA
Posts: 97
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« Reply #32 on: May 06, 2014, 01:46:14 PM » |
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Hey, Matt, do you have more details? I mean I could probably reconstruct your route, but offhand how much climbing, what kind of bike, and ('cause I'm lazy) do you have a gps track? I've spent time on 3 sides of MEndo forest, but not spent any time venturing within. That looks like good stuff!
Dropped off the face of the earth, there. I have a stitched together GPX file I'll try to dig up when I get home. My stats say 195 miles and 30,000' of climbing. The real deal. Divide race bike, Ti Fargo with Nanos and my full load. |
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I finished the 2013 TD. I did the whole damn thing,
excluding the 2013 detours, in good style and—as
far as I know—totally in accordance with the rules.
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Topic Name: Routes in California
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Reply #33 on: May 14, 2014, 06:38:47 PM
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MattL
Location: Sunnyvale, CA
Posts: 97
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« Reply #33 on: May 14, 2014, 06:38:47 PM » |
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Here are GPX files.
Big Mendo Loop is the route I planned, complete with some waypoints for resupply, etc.
The Merged v2 zip file contains about 17k points stitched together from the actual ride.
Note that going into Covelo is not necessary if you time it right. There is a camp store/BBQ place right at the intersection of FH7 and M1. Sadly, I noticed this only *after* pointlessly roundtripping on pavement to a very sad C store on the outskirts of Covelo.
May is a great time to do this route.
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I finished the 2013 TD. I did the whole damn thing,
excluding the 2013 detours, in good style and—as
far as I know—totally in accordance with the rules.
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Topic Name: Routes in California
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Reply #34 on: July 01, 2014, 03:35:50 PM
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831loc
Posts: 1
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« Reply #34 on: July 01, 2014, 03:35:50 PM » |
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Here are GPX files.
Big Mendo Loop is the route I planned, complete with some waypoints for resupply, etc.
The Merged v2 zip file contains about 17k points stitched together from the actual ride.
Note that going into Covelo is not necessary if you time it right. There is a camp store/BBQ place right at the intersection of FH7 and M1. Sadly, I noticed this only *after* pointlessly roundtripping on pavement to a very sad C store on the outskirts of Covelo.
May is a great time to do this route.
Hi Matt, I'm very interested in this ride you planned. Could you kindly provide some more information? Feel free to PM. Thanks, |
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Topic Name: Routes in California
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Reply #35 on: July 01, 2014, 04:35:28 PM
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ec_duz_it
Location: Santa Barbara
Posts: 440
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« Reply #35 on: July 01, 2014, 04:35:28 PM » |
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Not sure why I never looked at this one, but I just did and it looks like a great ride. I have family up in that area. Maybe I will come up for a long weekend and give this one a go. It looks like there are two out and backs along the route. What is the first one for? The second one looks like it is for resupply. This is just me, but I would just carry enough food and not worry about resupply. Eliminating the two out and backs would eliminate about 30 miles of riding, making this ride doable at a 2 or 3 day pace. I would assume water is plentiful along the route?
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