Not sure how much time you have but short or long, it is beautiful on the north coast. The section from Ft Bragg to Mill Valley/SF is gorgeous and the pavement is pretty good. It is of course fairly narrow, tight and twisty for much of that length and I would recommend pannier covers or something else bright yellow for visibility. It can be foggy in the summer, espec in the morning. That would be a nice 3 day ride.
Between Ft Bragg and Leggett to the north, there is a very steep and twisty roller-coaster section for about 40 miles where hwy 1 turns inland and joins up with 101 at Leggett. From there north to Eureka it is a mixture of 4 lane and two lane, although a good part of it is paralleled by the old redwood highway, which is very pretty and low traffic. Beautiful state parks along the river in the redwoods. It flattens out near Eureka/Arcata, then gets very hilly and twisty two lane again going north to Crescent City near the border. I explained it in the opposite direction that you would actually be going, but you can get a pretty good idea if you look at a map. In general, the entire coast from Crescent City down to SF is beautiful, with lots of small towns and places to camp, with some unavoidable 4-lane ito either side of Eureka. Proabably 5-7 days to do it right, espec if you stop a lot.
If it were me, I would probably start up near Eureka/Fortuna and work my way down through the redwoods and state parks like Richardson Grove along 101, spending a night or two, and then heading down hwy 1 from Leggett and taking it the rest of the way south. If you have all terrain tires and don't mind dirt, you can also ride west from Redway out to the Lost Coast and take a dirt road called the Usal Road south from Shelter Cove to Sinkyone Wilderness, eventually coming out near the town of Rockport, north of Fort Bragg. It is gorgeous back in there, but pretty rough, and then you miss the nice state parks along 101. If you do choose that route, make sure you are prepared with supplies.
Just some thoughts, take a look at a map, espec the Calif State Parks - North Coast section - lots of good info.
Last edited by mtnroads; 02-26-06 at 04:45 PM.