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.