Mendo NF Grand Tour/Hoho Magic Rally, 2019

Try to do a Mendocino National Forest Grand Tour every year ...
have managed to do it three of the last four years by also incorporating the BARF Weaverville Rally.
here's my 2019 version of the Mendo NF Grand Tour ... winds up being six days/five nights and
500-600 miles of dirt roads up and back ... this is the first day's route after waking up at 3:30am so
I could put in an eight-hour shift at work:



zoom map link.

left South of Market at 2pm and got to Buck Island at 7pm via Lower Chiles Valley Road, Pope Canyon, finally hitting the dirt a hundred miles from the city by passing through the Knoxville OHV and on to Reiff-Rayhouse Rd. and down to Buck Island. arty



the dirt road down to Buck Island ... they've had bulldozers on Reiff and down to Buck Island recently and the roads were in much better shape than the last time I was up there ...



view of Cache Creek ... my campsite is in the lower left corner of the pic.
The road you can see across the river is new ... bulldozed during the big fire.



it was hot, so a swim in the creek felt great. Because it was a weeknight, had the entire place all to myself.

talked HeatXfer into joining me up on Anthony Peak on Thursday night, before we would ride the rest of the way to Weaverville
and the BARF Hoho Magic Rally on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.



HeatXfer and the mighty KTM 990 filling up in Stonyford.



here's the route we took from Stonyford to Anthony Peak on Thursday ... and a map link.



Hitting the water crossing on Black Diamond Road, on our way up to try to find Sheetiron Mountain ...



Black Diamond Road was a bit gnarly on our loaded bikes. The KTM decided to take a nap ...



soon enough, we'd found our way to the top of Sheetiron Mountain. I'm able to ride to the top about half the times I try. The road is often blocked by fallen trees.

we explored a bit, and found the peak log and signed in at the top.



finding our way up Anthony Peak at the end of the day ...



flowers on Anthony Peak ...



enjoying the sunset ... beautiful, windless evening.



my campsite for Thursday night ...



up early on Friday morning, checked out the sunrise and drank our coffee, and were on the road to Weaverville via Red Bluff by 8 am.

That’s Black Butte in the distance, looking south ... FH-7 makes its way down to Plaskett Meadow and on to Elk Creek just to the left of Black Butte ...

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The route we took on Friday to Weaverville. It was about 90% dirt ...

HeatXfer had this cool app on his phone, where he can take a google maps embed link and upload it into his phone, and be able to see where we were on the phone's gps and where we were on the google maps route that I'd posted on BARF on the Tuesday before ...

it worked without needing cell reception, and kept us from riding in circles too much in the heat down in Red Bluff ...

in any event, I'm still looking for a better way up the east side of the Mendo NF, without having to drop down into Red Bluff for gas. Still trying to find a better option than Mina on the west side. The problem is the Yolla Bolly Wilderness and the Eel River in the west and the South Fork of Cottonwood Creek on the east ...

It's pretty epic dirt from Anthony Peak to Red Bluff ... we'd planned on tryin to get up to the watchtowers on Tomshead Mountain and Bully Choop, but those plans turned out to be mostly aspirational ...

In the end, and in the interest of getting to Weaverville before dark, made the call to try for Tomhead and Bully Choop next year, and made a bee-line north on Deer Lick Road to Douglas City and the 49er Motel in Weaverville.



flying_hun on his Kawasaki at the motel in Weaverville ...



think we counted at least ten big KTM 950s, 990s and 1090s among the 75 people who
signed up for the BARF Hoho Magic Rally this year ... the dirt roads up that way seem
just perfect for the fast, powerful open-savannah cruzers ... arty



1962siia, leojb and HeatXfer share a joke at the rally before our wonderful BBQ dinner on Saturday evening ...
guess it's 950, 990 and 990 left to right ...

some of the roads up around Weaverville:







... the final climb up to the Weaver Bolly watchtower.





and the watch tower itself ...



looking at the Trinity Alps for the northernmost part of the 2019 Mendo NF Grand Tour ...



lots of wildflowers ...



view over Weaverville from Weaver Bolly ... that's Bully Choop in the distance, with Shoemaker Bally and Shasta Bally to the left of the pic ...

Sorry to have missed our Anthony Peak overnighter John, it really is a great spot!

oobus said:

Sorry to have missed our Anthony Peak overnighter John, it really is a great spot!

Click to expand...

Already planning for next year!

looking for my old fly fishing rod, too ...
Square Lake, here we come!

Awesome!!

Thanks for sharing John!

So awesome! Thanks for the great pics and write up of your adventure! I was seriously jealous of the fly fishing that was going on. I'm going to have to dig out my fly rod too. Big dirt bikes, camping and fishing FTW!!! Thanks for taking us along!

Once again a fine write up of a fine route.
I just gotta join you one of these years.

So much envy for the Weaver Bolly.
I really wanted to bag that one this year.
And there I was... keyless.

budman said:

Awesome!!

Thanks for sharing John!

Click to expand...

thanks for reading and posting, and thanks for BARF, budman!

1962siia said:

So awesome! Thanks for the great pics and write up of your adventure! I was seriously jealous of the fly fishing that was going on. I'm going to have to dig out my fly rod too. Big dirt bikes, camping and fishing FTW!!! Thanks for taking us along!

Click to expand...

Eric B sounds like he has a plan for us for a fishing/moto trip up in
the Sierras ... arty

gotta get me a big KTM ...

m0t0_ryder said:

Once again a fine write up of a fine route.
I just gotta join you one of these years.

So much envy for the Weaver Bolly.
I really wanted to bag that one this year.
And there I was... keyless.

Click to expand...

we'll bag Weaver Bolly lookout next year ...

I'm riding with you next year, Johnny.

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soon enough, it was time to head home ...

figured I'd shoot for a two-day trip back to San Francisco and try to camp
on Sheetiron Mountain Sunday evening ...



it's about 200 miles from Weaverville to Sheetiron Mountain, probably 80% dirt and it took me about ten hours ...

pic is the campsite on Sheetiron Mountain with Mt. St. John in the background, looking toward Fouts Springs ... there was quite a bit of fire damage down in Low Gap, but the roads seemed to be open ... guessing I could have continued on M3 to Three Crossing/M10 and Elk Mtn Road and Upper Lake, but decided not to risk being turned around by a locked gate somewhere due to the big fire last year.



sunset over Mount Hull and Sanhedrin Mountain and the Sanhedrin Wilderness to the west ...



benchmark from 1933 ...



Rode back down Black Diamond Road to Stonyford the next morning, where the faithful KLR refused to start after gassing up ...

no headlight, d-e-d, dead. Thought it was maybe the main fuse, but after tearing into it found that I'd lost the bolt to the cable on the negative pole of the battery ... an electrical problem that even I can diagnose and resolve ...

had a spare bolt that fit in the tank bag and was soon on my way home to Lower Haight ...

fun riding with HeatXfer ... arty

looking forward to trying it all again ... have been trying to make
it up Bully Choop to camp some day ... maybe next year ...

see you around
the campfire,
-- SFMCjohn

two wheel tramp said:

I'm riding with you next year, Johnny.

Click to expand...

can't wait!

hoping to leave on Tuesday next year ...

I was just going to say check the battery! Been there, done that... Glad you got it sorted..

Loved the ride report and the fire lookout with the porta-potty! I'll have to add those to the Honey-Bucket App I'm working on...

Cabrito said:

I was just going to say check the battery! Been there, done that... Glad you got it sorted..

Loved the ride report and the fire lookout with the porta-potty! I'll have to add those to the Honey-Bucket App I'm working on...

Click to expand...

One of the porta-potties under the Weaver Bolly watchtower is
actually a pretty nice hot shower with a propane water heater and
a wood-slat floor deck ...

Fantastic John, as usual! I can't thank you enough for your personal Trinity/Mendo tour!

(Oddly enough my electrical problems were caused by a ground loss as well: the grounding terminals to my 2 aux homeruns to the battery had broken clean off and would occasionally make contact well enough for my lights & blinkers to briefly work.)

HeatXfer said:

Fantastic John, as usual! I can't thank you enough for your personal Trinity/Mendo tour! ��

(Oddly enough my electrical problems were caused by a ground loss as well: the grounding terminals to my 2 aux homeruns to the battery had broken clean off and would occasionally make contact well enough for my lights & blinkers to briefly work.)

Click to expand...

enjoyed our tour ... proof KTMs and
Japanese bikes can get along together ...

that’s my kind of electrical problem ... mysteriously intermittent.
if it were my bike it would never be resolved ...

looking forward to Cedarville and Weaverville 2020!




and thanks to ThumperX for a little music for Mendo riding:

ThumperX said:

[YOUTUBE]/B9FzVhw8_bY[/YOUTUBE]

Click to expand...

"Oh Lord I ain't coming home ..."

Thanks for taking us on and sharing another fantastic ride in this thread John!

That looks like a lot of fun! Thanks for great pics and write up.
Do you know all those dirt roads from experience? lots of research? Just looking at maps? What's your secret?