Joined Seavoyage and a bunch of riders from the Bay Area last Sunday on the monthly ride to Lake Berryessa/Rayhouse Road. It was a gorgeous day and a great ride, bunch of really nice guys on a wide variety of bikes. However, I had taken an extra couple of days off from work, so after stopping for lunch at the Cache Creek Casino (actually the gas station at Cache Creek), I continued heading north. My trip was basically this: Hwy 16 to Hwy 20 west Walker Ridge Road to Bartlett Springs Road to Clear Lake (spent night in Clear Lake) Day 2: M1 through Mendo National Forest to Covelo. 116 to 101 and spend the night in Willits Day 3: 101 to Ukiah, Low Gap Road to Comptche. 128 to Cloverdale. West Dry Creek to Healdburg, 101 back to San Francisco. Terrific trip, great weather, no real problems. As usual, gets a little scary riding solo out in the middle of nowhere, but I am as prepared as I can be and know I may have to hike out if something goes wrong (of course, there's always the chance I won't be able to hike out). Looking east at Bear Valley from Walker Ridge Looking back at either Walker Ridge Road or Bartlett Springs Unknown valley Borax Lake East of Clear Lake The store at Soda Creek Resort (Lake Pillsbury) Lake Pillsbury from the top of Hull Mountain Middle Fork of the Eel River from the Bridge at the North end of M1 near Covelo The bridge where Low Gap Road crosses over Masonite Road Overall about 641 miles in three days, but a lot of the time was spent on dirt roads. The bike (2011 KTM 990R) did well and averaged about 38.5 miles per gallon overall, surprising given the amount of time on dirt roads. I did notice that it had a tough time idling at the higher elevations along M1. Otherwise, just a few times getting lost on the fire roads and trails, though I never did find the Pine Mountain fire lookout. I think the road to it may have been the one with the closed gate. Gotta save something for next time, right?
Looks like a fun loop. It was fun seeing so many 990's on the sunday ride, glad you got to extend it a few days. If you ever want another rider along shoot me a PM.
Pine Mountain Lookout is easy to miss even though it's on a pretty well established road. I looked for it twice before I found it, then went, "duh!" when I realized it was under my nose, hiding in plain sight. It is possible the it was behind a closed gate, but there's been a closed gate up there when I was looking for it too. And that wasn't the road. Glad you had a good time up there. With a bit of planning, maybe I'll make it out for a little bit in the future.
Was the road signed? I blew by it the first time and ended up almost all the way down to the Eel river before I thought "This can't be right". Turned around and drove a bit more slowly, came across a sign labeled Lookout Cabin or some such. Definitely different than the other signs that said Pine Mountain Lookout. The road I thought was correct turned out to be a dead end. The only one left was behind a green steel gate. My Mendo map shows a gate on the trail that leads to the lookout. Maybe its only opened on the weekends? (I was there on a Monday)
Sounds like you found the right road, though I don't remember it being marked at all. The lookout is open from Spring until Fall, so it sounds like maybe the closure date has passed.
Isn't the lookout one of those NFS fire lookouts available for rental? If so they are usually locked by combo lock with code provided to the person renting the lookout for the night.
Take M8 ( off of M1 ) towards Potter Valley from SW side of Lake Pillsbury. Take a left on 18n05 and Voila! Staggered across the look out accidently last year. 18N05 will also loop back to M1.