shotwellian

For fans of obscure back roads...

For a while I've been thinking of attempting a bike route from the Bay Area up to Humboldt that would avoid 1 and 101 by taking the unpaved roads through Mendocino National Forest. It appears that you can go from Clear Lake to Lake Pillsbury on Elk Mountain Road (google streetview made it that far), and then take M1 (Etsel Ridge Road) to near Covelo and from there take Mina Road to Kettenpom, Zenia, and Alderpoint Road, which connects to Avenue of the Giants and the other great bike roads up there.

Has anyone ridden (or driven, for that matter) any of these routes? I know much of it is unpaved, but I'm trying to determine if it's gravel-grinder unpaved, which would be fine, or technical-mountain-bike-route unpaved, which would be a bummer to discover halfway through.

Thanks for any intel!

venturi95

About 5 years ago I went to Covelo through Orland, Mendicino pass road mainly. It was slow going but do-able on 700 x 32s, some deep gravel and washboards, some rocky bits, but mostly very good gravel. The main thing I remember was that there was not a drop of water up there. It sounds like a good route, let us know if you do it.