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JDSF or Downieville for a mountain bike weekend?

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FixThatBike

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Going to get in a weekend of mountain biking + camping this summer and would like to stay ~3 hours from the Bay Area. It's soooo hard to beat Downieville for that set up, but I'm thinking maybe I should branch out a little bit.

How's Mendocino for an adventure like that? The trails in the Jackson Demo Forest sound amazing ... but maybe not "epic" enough for a whole weekend. What do you think? Any other place I should be thinking of?
 
#2 · (Edited)
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#5 ·
Downieville and JDSF/Mendo are very different riding.

Fwiw, I think mendo beats out anything else listed here if you've never been and like fast, flowly, natural features. Its a lot different than the kitty litter of tahoe, but it is very different riding.

I've ridden everywhere listed in this thread, if that helps.
 
#6 ·
JDSF is Amazing...

FixThatBike said:
Going to get in a weekend of mountain biking + camping this summer and would like to stay ~3 hours from the Bay Area. It's soooo hard to beat Downieville for that set up, but I'm thinking maybe I should branch out a little bit.

How's Mendocino for an adventure like that? The trails in the Jackson Demo Forest sound amazing ... but maybe not "epic" enough for a whole weekend. What do you think? Any other place I should be thinking of?
Click to expand...
If you have never ridden here you owe it to yourself to experience it. The amount of single track is more than anyone can get in over a weekend unless you are planning to ride 50 to 75 miles each day. The challenging climbs and rewarding downhills will have you thinking about your next visit here before the end of summer. Some have equated our trails to Santa Cruz on Steroids. I'd be happy to set up ideas for long days in the saddle if you are interested. You'd be welcome to join our Sunday group ride as well. Most rides are around 20 miles with 3'000' of elevation gain. I doubt you will go home after a weekend here feeling cheated. Again, we are still undiscovered, but with the number of Bay Area people who have joined the Mendocino Coast Cyclists (180+), I think it is a stamp of approval. To prepare: Read Yuri Hauswald's BIKE magazine article July 2014, get a copy of the guide book "Mountain Biking the Mendocino Coast and Beyond", bring your bike and enough money to enjoy a great pizza afterwards at Piaci. What the hell you got to lose? It is only two days to experiment in the redwood empire.

Last year's California Enduro series - Wildwood Adventure Enduro warm up map. Voted the 8 best races in the 2015 series. Four races each day with approximately 32 miles and 4,000' of elevation gain.

BTW: I have created a map for a 103 mile ride incorporating the JDSF and State Parks. Only one person has completed it in 13.5 hours. Interested? Bring lights if you are. Levi Leipheimer barely got in 75 miles and ran out of daylight. Talk with Brian Astell, as he is the only dude to do it.
 
#7 ·
You can't top Roo Harris' information about the area - he's the man who literally wrote the book. JDSF + the surrounding parks definitely have enough singletrack to keep anyone busy. I don't think you'd touch everything in one weekend unless you were planning to ride ~50 miles a day. In the coastal mtns, you won't have the 18 mile long alpine descents or rocky terrain of Downieville, and shuttling's not going to help you cut out any climbing. The trails are smoother and loamier than D'ville, but the trails are fast and some are quite steep. It is a lot like Santa Cruz only with several times the mileage.

If you do Mendo - the trails are very confusing to follow. It's a maze in there. I'd highly recommend doing a group ride with locals if you can, and have them point out the really good descents that are worth climbing for.
 
#9 ·
RooHarris said:
If you have never ridden here you owe it to yourself to experience it. The amount of single track is more than anyone can get in over a weekend unless you are planning to ride 50 to 75 miles each day. The challenging climbs and rewarding downhills will have you thinking about your next visit here before the end of summer. Some have equated our trails to Santa Cruz on Steroids. I'd be happy to set up ideas for long days in the saddle if you are interested. You'd be welcome to join our Sunday group ride as well. Most rides are around 20 miles with 3'000' of elevation gain. I doubt you will go home after a weekend here feeling cheated. Again, we are still undiscovered, but with the number of Bay Area people who have joined the Mendocino Coast Cyclists (180+), I think it is a stamp of approval. To prepare: Read Yuri Hauswald's BIKE magazine article July 2014, get a copy of the guide book "Mountain Biking the Mendocino Coast and Beyond", bring your bike and enough money to enjoy a great pizza afterwards at Piaci. What the hell you got to lose? It is only two days to experiment in the redwood empire.

Last year's California Enduro series - Wildwood Adventure Enduro warm up map. Voted the 8 best races in the 2015 series. Four races each day with approximately 32 miles and 4,000' of elevation gain.

View attachment 1051984

BTW: I have created a map for a 103 mile ride incorporating the JDSF and State Parks. Only one person has completed it in 13.5 hours. Interested? Bring lights if you are. Levi Leipheimer barely got in 75 miles and ran out of daylight. Talk with Brian Astell, as he is the only dude to do it.
Click to expand...
Where can I get that guide book?
 
#11 ·
Me, Roo's book, and my bike have spent several solo days on the mendo trails and I can confirm:

1. Long, fun days of riding as much as you want/can handle.
2. Even with a guide/map and a GPS the crossings and turns can be confusing.
3. Ft Bragg is an awesome town, excellently equipped to handle all your post ride food/beer/lodging requirements.
 
#12 ·
The best part abouing here...

b0bg said:
Me, Roo's book, and my bike have spent several solo days on the mendo trails and I can confirm:

1. Long, fun days of riding as much as you want/can handle.
2. Even with a guide/map and a GPS the crossings and turns can be confusing.
3. Ft Bragg is an awesome town, excellently equipped to handle all your post ride food/beer/lodging requirements.
Click to expand...
The best part of the riding here is: if you get lost, you're still riding and having fun. No bikers have ever needed S&R. Sooner or later you'll find a major landmark and be reoriented (especially south of Hwy 20).
Generally, it is the hapless mushroom pickers who need help at times.

The Garmin 800 series GPS's tend to lose signals (up to 20%) more than any others. The Iphone GPS app seems to work quite well though. Bring lots of water and food as the demanding rides can be under estimated in difficulty. I wrote the guide book technical demands conservatively. I did not want to give anyone using it for the first time a false sense of security. That being said, start early and enjoy the all day adventures you maybe seeking. Then afterwards, enjoy some great beer selection at Piaci! A new restaurant has opened in the old La Playa building - Café Del Mar. Good Caribbean food with a great beer selection on tap.
 
#14 ·
Mendo is very nice indeed but if you are looking for gnar/more black diamond stuff...the other options cater. Mendo is *****in' but I think it's more XC/flow (unless they have built some new stuff that has more DH flavor).
 
#15 ·
So now that this thread opened up it really sparked up my interest. My better half took some time off of work for my birthday and said anything and anywhere I wanted to go. Birthday is March 29th but celebrating from Thursday the 31st through the weekend. Was really wanting to head to Downieville/Forest City/Truckee but I am pretty sure that is way too early in the year. So come into play Mendocino...I grew up abalone diving there and camping at Casper Beach campground, this was before I ever got into mountain biking. The irony is I always took a little rigid Giant mountain bike(that I still have) with me to put around the area. Is there riding access from Caper campground? Or would I be better off camping elsewhere. Thinking I'll probably have a group of about ten couples.
 
#16 ·
Paradise Royale with Frenchmen's Loop

Your guide book will go out today!

The Lost Coast is wild! Paradise Royale (page 56 guide book) is fun, but limited to getting in lots of miles if that is what someone is seeking. The PR loop is just under 12 miles in length with 2,232' of elevation gain. We usually go up for a day (3 hour drive one way from here) twice a year for the change of pace. I haven't fully ridden the new section, but you should plan for a ton of climbing. Switch backs out the kazoo! The south entrance to the new Pacific Rim trail is so difficult to find we drove around for 20 minutes never finding it. Instead, we took the northern entrance off the south east section of the PR loop to challenge it. We climbed for four miles or so then retraced out ride back to the lower PR section as it was getting late. Some of the best views I have ever witnessed in the Lost Coast region.

It can get quite cold up there when the sun goes down, so dress appropriately that time of year.

Here is the latest map with the new additional Frenchmen'Loop or Pacific Rim trail:
 
#17 ·
MTB Marco said:
So now that this thread opened up it really sparked up my interest. My better half took some time off of work for my birthday and said anything and anywhere I wanted to go. Birthday is March 29th but celebrating from Thursday the 31st through the weekend. Was really wanting to head to Downieville/Forest City/Truckee but I am pretty sure that is way too early in the year. So come into play Mendocino...I grew up abalone diving there and camping at Casper Beach campground, this was before I ever got into mountain biking. The irony is I always took a little rigid Giant mountain bike(that I still have) with me to put around the area. Is there riding access from Caper campground? Or would I be better off camping elsewhere. Thinking I'll probably have a group of about ten couples.
Click to expand...
The Caspar Campground is a great area to camp. Ride up 409 to End of Pavement (3.25miles) to Jiro's Playground and begin your ride there. You have all sorts of option to the Mendocino Woodlands SP or even over to the Scales east of Caspar. You'll have a ball riding the newer trails like EZOut, EZN, Purple Skirt, Endo, ONo! Fury 3 to Boiler and beyond.
 
#18 · (Edited)
The only new downhill is the Lindquist PCT Trail (Purple Skirt) which was specifically created for last year's California Enduro series (the Wildwood Enduro Adventure) as EZOut was closed for logging. A very fast white knuckle twisty 3/4 mile downhill with 440' of elevation loss. Now, climb that one!

We are definitely more of an XC style area with loads of climbs and great downhills. The gnar comes in with rooted trails throughout the EOP area. We are currently putting back together the original Caspar Classic trail (Rd 630 - Resurrection Trail?) which was decommissioned 10 years ago. The four mile cross country trail is about half completed thanks to some help last weekend from the Nor-Cal HS group. Thank you Coco for coming up from the south! We still have a number of days left reconfiguring the tread with a number of stream crossings where culverts have been removed. Bridges will be created to avoid disrupting the stream flow into the greater Caspar Creek area.
 
Discussion starter · #19 ·
Fantastic stuff Roo! Thanks for the detail. If I wind up heading up there, I will definitely hit you up for more info and your book.

One question since I keep hearing the trails compared to SC, are they any jumps or features on the trails up there? The redwood singletrack sounds amazing, but I've got to get in a little bit of something stupid to satisfy my downhill fix.
 
#20 ·
FixThatBike said:
Fantastic stuff Roo! Thanks for the detail. If I wind up heading up there, I will definitely hit you up for more info and your book.

One question since I keep hearing the trails compared to SC, are they any jumps or features on the trails up there? The redwood singletrack sounds amazing, but I've got to get in a little bit of something stupid to satisfy my downhill fix.
Click to expand...
Trails like Motorcycle off of Steam Donkey will have the hair on your neck fully alert. It is just plain stupid fast in places with a few jumps here and there. We don't have many real gap like jumps, but a few wall rides on Big Dipper trail.

See added map above for Lindquist PCT trail or what we call Purple Skirt. EZOut trail is now open as timber harvest is done for the next 20 years or so.
 
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