On April 20, 2024 I wrote that the night before I stopped in at Shenachie Pub because they didn’t have a cover. They had a jam band playing and the clientele seemed nice. I rode back to the hotel home on my broken bike seat.
In the morning I sat with some boy scouts heading to a scouting event in the lobby at 8:30 eating the complimentary breakfast. I checked out at 10 and visited a few shops looking for used bikes before going to the hardware store. There I discovered the bike seats actually fit on my bike – they were just really cushiony. I installed the new seat across the street in front of Safeway making sure I did it correctly. While testing the bike out, I took pictures of some greenstone in someone’s front yard, which I had seen the previous time I had visited
After that I went to Brick House coffee. One of the baristas, who I had seen twice around town the night before, was out front. I asked him about his bike, a Giant. He told me about it and I learned that he had purchased his bike seat in Ukiah.
I had bagels and some coffee to go before riding to the fairgrounds where I refilled my water bottle. After that I rode zigzag on Commercial Street, Bray, Center Valley, Hill and Eastside Roads through the Willits’ Little Lakes Valley. I stopped to tighten my seat a few times and posted pictures to Twitter and reviewed maps. I got a picture of a red barn.
The climb up the first few switchbacks of Ridgewood Drive was particularly difficult so I took a rest where the road split. Then I chose the lower elevation route because the different branches on the map were named the same and went to the same destination. However, that route was poorer quality and eventually turned into a dirt road which petered out into a trail. I found some residential roads with potential but none were very well defined so I headed back.
Later I found out that branch was basically “Old Ridgewood Drive” and most of the connections had not been renewed. When I returned to Ridgewood Drive, which is paved to the top of the hill, the ride returned to being difficult with a lot of passing cars. When I crested, some locals gave me water. After a short rest I descended into the neighborhoods served by Lakewood Drive and Bear Canyon Roads.
The pavement ended as I passed the branch for Manzanita drive but the roads continued to be good. I arrived where Bear Canyon connected to Wild Iris but decided to go a bit further to look at the connection to Middle Road and found that that was where the “Old Ridgewood” stub would’ve connected had I had the time to go exploring. So I wasn’t too far off. I returned to
the intersection of Bear Canyon and Wild Iris and found a third road between Bear Canyon and Middle. It had no name but it had a sign pointing to Mariposa Creek Road. I followed it since it clearly had the most traffic based upon wheel tread and the automobiles passing by.
I didn’t have a lot of coverage for maps so I wasn’t able to verify any of my route. Also Open Street Map did not have information about it. However, Open Street Map called all of these roads “residential“ so I knew that I’d have to deal with peoples front yards and stuff. It was kind of a downy forest– rather nice. The road brought me essentially to the crest of the Laughlin Range and, while it was a crossroads, the path to the left was gated and the path straight across was just a fire break.
I decided that, despite the barriers and redirects, I had found Mariposa Creek Road. I the road to the right and it followed the crest. Accordingly, the map confirmed that this was indeed Mariposa Creek Road. I took a picture of the valley below the Laughlin Range. I shortly found a gated residential driveway. When I descended, I passed by a few houses, and then the road turned into a fire break.
Lacking any other option, I continued along the fire break and eventually connected to another fire break that came down from the spot along the crest from which I had just come. However, when I had crested, that firebreak did not seem to have a lot of potential being poorly marked. From that merger, the path descended precipitously and I ended up in thick brush – I even had to cross a few downed trees.
I eventually ended up at the Frey Winery above Tomki road. From there I started riding south past the towns of Mariposa Creek and Fisher Lake. At the intersection of East and West roads, I selected East Road into Redwood Valley.
Up to this point I had encountered no traffic going south from behind me, but I figured it was late in the day. However, once I got onto East Road there were quite a few drivers behind me and as I approached Highway 20 it got worse. I eventually took a right and entered Calpella, but I noticed that the one food place in town, a taco truck, had closed for the evening.
From there I headed south on State Street which is a terrible street. I went under the 101 and I ended up passing Clay. I had a salad and a soup at the Ukiah brewery. Then I rode State to my hotel.
This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.
In the morning I sat with some boy scouts heading to a scouting event in the lobby at 8:30 eating the complimentary breakfast. I checked out at 10 and visited a few shops looking for used bikes before going to the hardware store. There I discovered the bike seats actually fit on my bike – they were just really cushiony. I installed the new seat across the street in front of Safeway making sure I did it correctly. While testing the bike out, I took pictures of some greenstone in someone’s front yard, which I had seen the previous time I had visited
After that I went to Brick House coffee. One of the baristas, who I had seen twice around town the night before, was out front. I asked him about his bike, a Giant. He told me about it and I learned that he had purchased his bike seat in Ukiah.
I had bagels and some coffee to go before riding to the fairgrounds where I refilled my water bottle. After that I rode zigzag on Commercial Street, Bray, Center Valley, Hill and Eastside Roads through the Willits’ Little Lakes Valley. I stopped to tighten my seat a few times and posted pictures to Twitter and reviewed maps. I got a picture of a red barn.
The climb up the first few switchbacks of Ridgewood Drive was particularly difficult so I took a rest where the road split. Then I chose the lower elevation route because the different branches on the map were named the same and went to the same destination. However, that route was poorer quality and eventually turned into a dirt road which petered out into a trail. I found some residential roads with potential but none were very well defined so I headed back.
Later I found out that branch was basically “Old Ridgewood Drive” and most of the connections had not been renewed. When I returned to Ridgewood Drive, which is paved to the top of the hill, the ride returned to being difficult with a lot of passing cars. When I crested, some locals gave me water. After a short rest I descended into the neighborhoods served by Lakewood Drive and Bear Canyon Roads.
The pavement ended as I passed the branch for Manzanita drive but the roads continued to be good. I arrived where Bear Canyon connected to Wild Iris but decided to go a bit further to look at the connection to Middle Road and found that that was where the “Old Ridgewood” stub would’ve connected had I had the time to go exploring. So I wasn’t too far off. I returned to
the intersection of Bear Canyon and Wild Iris and found a third road between Bear Canyon and Middle. It had no name but it had a sign pointing to Mariposa Creek Road. I followed it since it clearly had the most traffic based upon wheel tread and the automobiles passing by.
I didn’t have a lot of coverage for maps so I wasn’t able to verify any of my route. Also Open Street Map did not have information about it. However, Open Street Map called all of these roads “residential“ so I knew that I’d have to deal with peoples front yards and stuff. It was kind of a downy forest– rather nice. The road brought me essentially to the crest of the Laughlin Range and, while it was a crossroads, the path to the left was gated and the path straight across was just a fire break.
I decided that, despite the barriers and redirects, I had found Mariposa Creek Road. I the road to the right and it followed the crest. Accordingly, the map confirmed that this was indeed Mariposa Creek Road. I took a picture of the valley below the Laughlin Range. I shortly found a gated residential driveway. When I descended, I passed by a few houses, and then the road turned into a fire break.
Lacking any other option, I continued along the fire break and eventually connected to another fire break that came down from the spot along the crest from which I had just come. However, when I had crested, that firebreak did not seem to have a lot of potential being poorly marked. From that merger, the path descended precipitously and I ended up in thick brush – I even had to cross a few downed trees.
I eventually ended up at the Frey Winery above Tomki road. From there I started riding south past the towns of Mariposa Creek and Fisher Lake. At the intersection of East and West roads, I selected East Road into Redwood Valley.
Up to this point I had encountered no traffic going south from behind me, but I figured it was late in the day. However, once I got onto East Road there were quite a few drivers behind me and as I approached Highway 20 it got worse. I eventually took a right and entered Calpella, but I noticed that the one food place in town, a taco truck, had closed for the evening.
From there I headed south on State Street which is a terrible street. I went under the 101 and I ended up passing Clay. I had a salad and a soup at the Ukiah brewery. Then I rode State to my hotel.
This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.
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