Paradise-Royale Loop

The Tolkin Campground I stayed at was literally at the trailhead. After some coffee I had off on a really early morning ride on the Paradise Royale loop. The trail is roughly 14 miles long with quite a bit of elevation gain.

Lots of great single track

But you don’t start off climbing. From the trailhead its tasty downhill singletrack.

Sneaky climbing.

The trail were purpose built for mountain biking and hats off to the designers. The climbs are not unrelenting despite the elevation they gain.

Up near the top
Yeah this is good $#÷t!
More goodness

The ride finishes up with a climb back to the trailhead and my campsite.

After a late breakfast and a catnap I drove down the mountain to the little town of Shelter Cove.

Rugged looking section of the Lost Coast
Black Sands Beach

I had originally planned on checking out the town, camping for a second night were I was currently at and lake my way to Portland the following day. After seeing the town, I opted to move on up the coast. I made it Crescent City that evening which would make the next day’s drive shorter.

Bear Creek

Yesterday I started a roadtrip that is going to taking me Washington state for a month of work. Instead of flying up I’m taking a handful of vacation days and driving myself up. I am going to some camping, mountain biking and scenic driving on my way up. My first day was a fairly short drive as I went up to Kernville in the afternoon to met up with Jeff Sherman and Bill O’Neil for and even catching up on life.

A bit smoky in area due to a wild fire in Yosemite

The following morning we headed up north. After dropping off a vehicle in Camp Nelson, we made our way back up to the Ponderosa/Quaking Aspens area for the start of the climb.

The climb up the Summit was substantial and downright burly steep in spots.

Getting to the top of the climb is worthy of celebration.

Once on Bear Creek the elevation shedding starting in hurry. Technical in many spots, rippingly flowy often, it was good stuff. The highlight was dropping down through a grove of Giant Sequoias.

Below the grove the trail flora transitioned to oak trees and trail became a bit more flowing with enough grade to be a rip fest

We enjoyed a tasty beer at the bottom. I had the luxury of not having to do the shuttle return back up the mountain so I drove down into the San Joaquin valley and made my way north. A great opening act for this roadtrip.

Hodges Dawn Patrol

It has been pretty hot as of late so a dawn patrol ride was in order. Lake Hodges was the place.

Lake Hodges

My sweetie joined me on this ride as well. We pretty must did the north side trails as an out and back.


It is definitely summer with pretty much all the vegetation in dry hot weather mode. There was some surprises. The cacti for example has just recently flowered which I expected that would have happened much earlier in the year.