After baking in the Las Vegas heat all summer, the Lost Coast BDR-X looked particularly inviting. I put a ride plan together to ride this route, but in a different way. We stayed near the center of the official figure 8 route at the Bear River Casino near Fortuna, CA. My ride plan had 3 sections, mostly following the BDR-X route but using the Bear River Casino as our center hub. The routes in brown are my ride plan.
We completed my first day ride plan as planned.
We got great ocean views, and parts of it ride right along the ocean. Here is a video of highlights from the ride from Bear River Casino to Shelter Cove.: https://youtu.be/7eqj1sbR1cA .
We stopped for lunch and gas in Shelter Cove. The rain had mostly stopped so we ate lunch at the Surf Point Coffee House, right on the ocean. Video from King Peak Road to the Surf Point Coffee House: https://youtu.be/9ZuuL78G2_c
I would recommend the Surf Point. Good food and great views. After lunch we got gas at the store in Shelter Cover and headed South following our route. We finally got to Usal Road, the more challenging part of this BDR, especially in the rain. This would be easy if it was dry but the wet clay was a bit slick. It was not super wet so we were lucky.
The further South on Usal Road we went, the drier it got. We got some great views where it rides along the hills overlooking the ocean.
Usal road YouTube video: https://youtu.be/HqVxW8JvpFI. This starts North of Usal and continues to highway 1.
By the time we got to highway 1, the rain had mostly stopped and the sun was out at times (but still quite cloudy). We stayed the night at Fort Bragg as planned.
We had dinner along the Noyo River, just down the road from the hotel. We had planned to eat at the Noyo Fish Company but it was closed. We ended up at the Sea Pal Cove which is a fish and chips place.
Here is the Cardo Ride track from this day of riding: https://riserapp.com/t/nZeipwZBb18j and Rewind: https://img.riserapp.com/photos/videos/rewind/1918714-rewind.mp4 . It took us about 6.5 hours between Fortuna and Fort Bragg. If it were not raining, we may have investigated more of the spur trails. We rode to the Saddle Mountain Viewpoint but we were in the fog.
The next day we had breakfast at Denny's in Fort Bragg and looked at the weather forecasts.
The forecasts were not good. As we head North, the forecast called for increasing rain up to almost an inch with 10 to 10mph winds. That is no fun to ride in so we just took highway 1 to highway 101 back to the Bear River Casino where we were staying. We got lucky and only had very light occasional rain on the way back. We got back by 10:30am, loaded the bikes, and had lunch at Jack's Seafood Restaurant in Eureka. After lunch, we decided to check out the Avenue of the Giants.
YouTube of Avenue of the Giants: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD9A3UPa2gs8
Looking at the next day forecast was also looking dismal so we left the next morning. Our plan for a 3-day ride turned into a 1 day adventure ride, and a highway ride back to Fortuna the next day.
Here is the YouTube playlist for this ride: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX5Dr8FexgVw .
This was the complete opposite of Las Vegas weather so it was a nice break for us after cooking all summer. We got some great views and really enjoyed the first day.
