All the people I asked yesterday to suggest a ride for today recommended Wanoga Sno Park & the Funner Trail. OK – that was only two people, but one of them did happen to own Cog Wild (the premier MTB guiding outfit in town). Trail maps & gpx files proved difficult to find online, but the a trip to the information center showed that once you found the trailhead it would be very hard to get lost.

I started riding a little earlier than I had intended, as Valerie had to drop me & then get back near town to go horseback riding. Funner started out rather flat & not all that interesting. It was nice & dusty up this way too. As the trail continued it did start to drop off nicely & there were a lot of trail features to play with. One particular log ride was pretty neat. In amongst all the dust, groups of big volcanic rocks would appear all of a sudden. Riding by myself I quickly became annoyed that I wasn’t quite confident enough to ride all that I should & could have – that potential freak accident in the back of my mind. Still, it was a fun little downhill.

I had a good yarn to a couple on really old rigids – they’d been in Bend three years, only been skiing once & this was their first time out riding. Crazy. Shortly after Funner ended & I started riding up Tiddlywinks to the parking lot. This trail is much longer than Funner, so I expected the gradient to pretty easy – but most of the altitude was gained quicker than I thought! On a little rest break a local rider, Chris, caught up & we took it in turns leading up & up. We didn’t make it to the trailhead as Chris knew a side trail to Kiwa Butte & then further on. Following someone became a bit of a problem as one couldn’t see through all the dust. Mostly we climbed to 1700m & could finally see something other than trees – Mt Bachelor. The ski hill on the north (right in the picture) slope was open this past long weekend – I should have carried my skis around for 16000 km (unlikely).

Turning around, I was rather weary & led for a little but then let the local go ahead & literally leave me in his dust. It was little wonder that I had an instant tan at the bottom. Going down Tiddlywinks was actually funner than Funner – for me anyway. There was a neat section with big bermed corners & lots of jumps & doubles – not that I could clear any of the doubles. A good outing all up, I just need to make sure I have some new brake pads & regrease my bottom bracket before I head out next. We’re off to Idaho tomorrow – unplanned – to go riding with Miles (from Fruita & Moab rides) before we come back to Oregon (which I’m still loving).

Initial investigations led me to believe this ride was near Arcata, just north of Eureka.  It turned out it was a long way south – almost two hours’ drive (back past the Avenue of the Giants & then some really twisty roads striking towards the coast). But as Eureka was very cloudy & generally bleh, there wasn’t much to be lost by taking a day trip south.

The trail, near the Lost Coast (quite isolated for Californian coastline) is about five years old & it took me a couple of hours to ride the 18km. You can see the effort that went in to constructing it – it’s beautifully built for mountain-biking (pleasing to see the bikers have right of way for a change). The trail was in great condition, I’m not sure it would need a lot of maintenance as it’s so well built – but I imagine the fallen leaves (covered most of the trail) are trouble when they are wet. Also interestingly, at a couple of the stream crossings you are instructed to use the stepping stones as walking on the gravel bed disturbs the young endangered salmon.

Back to the ride itself – starting from the new trailhead it was pretty level for a while before passing the bottom of a recently constructed terrain park (looks fun, but I didn’t want to keep Valerie waiting longer). There’s a nice 150m vertical descent before the first stream crossing. From there it’s an almost uninterrupted (there is a brief respite two-thirds of the way up) 400m vertical gain. This is mostly pretty good, but stubbornly trying to stay in the middle ring all the way up wasn’t a great idea. Eventually I got to one bit that was too much for my legs, so I had to succumb to the granny ring for a few minutes. Most of this is all in thick forest & with all the switchbacks it was never too warm. As the trail levels briefly there are some small grass clearings, but never enough for a view.

The trail maxed out at about 760m above sea level before starting an excellent downhill. Most of the whole loop is pretty wide & this was no exception – wide & fast. There were plenty of little trail features that you could get nice air off & they all had really nice landings. Eventually there were a couple of places where you could finally see out to the Pacific – this wasn’t one of the most photogenic of my USA rides. The downhill continued nicely before slowly levelling out to 460m & the final stream crossing & climb back to the car. A really good ride all up, but you definitely earn that fun downhill – a bit of pity it’s so far out of the way (there is a campsite near the top of the terrain park).

After I’d cooled down, eaten & packed up we continued out to the coast to look at Shelter Cove. There were a lot of kitted-out hikers in the parking lot – turns out it’s one end of the Lost Coast walk (three days mostly along the coast). I got excited when I saw the black beach from a distance – but it wasn’t ironsand, just grey pebbles. Swimming was actively discouraged due to the surf – some really nasty looking waves that just dump instantly a couple of metres from the edge. That & the rogue waves that occasionally further up the beach & sweep bystanders away.

Falling victim to the “I’m only here once, I had better do this ride” mentality again, I threw caution to the snow & decided to ride as much of the classic Downieville rides that I could. Valerie shuttled me to the top & there was so much more snow at 2100m than there was in Tahoe at 2500m. This is the as far up the road as they had cleared & one of the smaller snowbanks at what would normally be the trailhead.

For the first mile or so, everything was still hardpacked snow ranging from one to three metres deep. I expect the trail down is normally a nice gentle traverse to start with, but all the snow has taken any definition out of the slope – leaving it one really steep hill. I slowly made my way down, most of the time walking backwards kicking my toes in (studs in the front of my riding shoes may have been useful). I only had one slip & slid down a few metres & thankfully landed in a nice big tree well without hitting the tree. The first mile took me one hour as I vaguely followed the track on my GPS picking the easiest path I could see across & down the slope.

The next hour I managed to double my speed – I covered two whole miles! The snow had started to thin a bit, so there were brief patches of riding interspersed with more pushing, & wading through very cold & high running streams. I had long been tempted to put the rogue pair of toe-warmers left in my Camelbak from ski season in my shoes, but it wasn’t that bad.

After two hours I was surprised to come across a guy wandering up the trail with a couple of shovels. The local trail care association & some Forestry Service people have been clearing & tidying the trail from below. Apparently I wasn’t the only nutter out doing such things – fifty or sixty people had rode the trail over the weekend. This boded well – it must be a good trail. Apparently the snow is melting fast, just a few days ago I was told there was almost twice as much snow around! I could hardly believe that, considering how much I’d just seen. Shortly after, at around 1700m the snow was pretty much done with & I could get on with riding singletrack.

The trail crew had done a magnificent job & the trail was an absolute delight. Threading through the never-ending North Californian forest on a mostly dirt trail descending at a gentle, but good, rate was pure bliss. It was easily the best groomed trail I’ve been on during this trip, possibly in North America. The setting & the trail condition reminded me so much of the smooth, fun trails back home in Rotorua. Finishing Butcher’s trail (the one I’d supposedly been on from the start) & crossing the river there was a nasty shock of a climb (not bad, but definitely not going downhill) & I found the start of the Third Divide Trail at the top of the ridge.

Third Divide was more of the same – simply sublime riding in beautiful forest.

About halfway down it started to get a little more rocky & technical, but nothing much to slow one down. Although, I was taking it pretty easy after the morning’s snow trials. Near the end of the trail, with a big grin on my face, I met the only other rider I saw that day & we swapped notes of which trails to ride where around the west-USA. A brief stretch on gravel road & I was on First Divide into Downieville itself. This mostly followed the rivers down the valley & was slightly more exposed than the previous trails.

It was also flatter & had more rocks to deal with on the trail. Not quite as fun, it was still a very good trail in the scheme of things to get into town.

Just as I did make it into town the clouds that had been threatening to make my ride more trying started to send a little rain down – but it was none too bad. With the snow, it was the hardest ride of the trip, but with that came the rewards – definitely the best downhill section I’ve done.  If you get the chance, ride it – just wait a couple of weeks until there is no snow left.  Packing up, eating lunch & noticing more & more July 4 bunting coming out of the closet we headed south towards Sacramento.