CA-Lake Pillsbury/Elk Mountain/Penny Pines

Mar 9, 2004
30
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April 11-14, Easter Break we decided that all of this nice weather deserved a good trip with the tent trailer and the bikes to a new place. I was thinking Foresthill, Georgetown or Sonora but realized that all of those campgrounds were still closed for the season. Thought about Stonyford but the wife we "required" showers...found a listing for Lake Pillsbury Resort in the Mendocino National Forest. I called Bill at the resort and he said the weather was 85 daytime 60 nights, no problem getting a hook-up site. So we headed off...

After the 4 hour drive from San Jose, our first surprise came when we discovered that the 19 mile access road from Potter's Valley to the lake was a moderately maintained dirt road. I didn't mind but my wife is a bit of a nervous nelly when it comes to anything but straight blacktop(if there is a next time I'll slip her a couple valiums ahead of time). Once we got to the lake area there is a great paved road.

The Lake Pillsbury Resort was deserted when we got there...it seems that most people had the previous week off... which suited us just fine. We got registered, set-up the trailer and unloaded the bikes from the van. Bill found us a 2002 copy of the Upper Lake Ranger District OHV Trails in the area and we studied it for a while.

The area around the lake closes to OHVs from May 18 - Sep 8 but until then there are trails from the Oak Flat campground into the mountains. We took a quick spin out the access road to a little play area that ran along the Eel river toward Scott Dam. Upon returning to camp we discovered that the box with all the lubes and 2-stroke oil was still sitting in the garage.

Next morning, got up and had a leisurely breakfast, loaded the bikes, bought a bottle of oil and loaded the bikes. The 4 mile drive around the lake to Oak Flat was beautiful, passed a couple of dual sports gassing up at Soda Creek. About 10 Families were camped out at Oak Flat which is right at lake level and had a great view. We unloaded and decided to try Trail 63(blue) to warm up and then check out trail 69(black). My son loved the jumps in the trail (62) from the campground to the trail head-.5 miles.

Well, the trail started out fun with a bunch of small creek crossings and short creek runs. But at .8 miles we met a steep hill out of the creek bed that was all loose rock and snaked up the ridge for another mile according to the map. Well it kicked Bryan's butt and wouldn't let him by so we back tracked and decided to try trail 65(green) instead. We felt a little chagrined since we have ridden all of the blue trails at Hollister, Metcalf and Carnegie and some of the black trails without ever having to bail.

The first 2 miles of Trail 65 were a nice easy 4WD trail that provided a good warm-up ride. After the trail crossed the M1 road(California Backcountry Discovery Trail) though the character changed as it headed straight up another steep rocky hill. Bryan cleared this one on his second try, but I got a little hesitant at one transition and it took me 4 attempts before I cleared it. For the rest of the mile, there were more hills and a couple of deep Jeep ruts that tried to make the front and back wheels go separate directions, but it was fun once we knew what to expect. The trail ends at the M1 and we rode it back down instead of riding down the trail. The road goes 2 miles and then hooks back into the easy part of trail 65, which we took. It was a fun ride but sure made us wonder about the trail ratings. Total riding about 18 miles.

If anyone has ridden 69 let me know what its like compared to trail 63 and 65.

The next day we drove 12 miles on M1 (4 paved, 8 dirt) over to the Penny Pines Campground to ride. This was a delightful set of linked trails that gave us a good 35 mile ride through a bunch of different forest types. Using our experience from the day before we started out on the green trails and again ran into situations that seamed way above a green trail rating.
A nice route was 16,11,12,8,9,10,15,21,35,43 & 36 (green with steep down hills),27(black but easier than the previous 2 greens),15.

The trails were in good shape, the rangers were grooming 15 with a mini-dozer and the fresh dirt was a real treat to ride on. Many trails had ribbons on the bushes so they may have been part of the Sawmill Enduro coming up on the 17th http://dirtrider.net/forums3/showthread.php?t=96153

The weather had changed and a storm was threatening so we decided to head home. We drove out through Upper Lake and my wife was much happier about the condition of this road even though it was longer.

I'd love to go back and explore more of the trails possibly staging out of Middle Creek next time.
 

NVR FNSH

~SPONSOR~
Oct 31, 2000
1,235
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I've ridden Pillsbury a couple of times - once by myself and once with my wife. I tried 63 when I was by myself and decided that it wouldn't be smart. I also rode a bit of 69 by myself but turned around when I came to a washout on a sidehill that would have been very ugly if the bike went off the trail. 64 is a bit more difficult than 65 - my wife wasn't real happy with me when I took her up 64 thinking it was 65.....

I prefer camping/parking at Middle Creek or Penny Pines and riding to Pillsbury because the road into Pillsbury sucks. On my WR400 the mileage/fuel range isn't a problem.

Brian
 

rickyd

Hot Sauce
Oct 28, 2001
3,447
0
Isnt that access road going into Pillsbury an old logging road?? We used too go there while i was growing up, stayed at Sunset campground, no showers no nothing but a fun Lake :thumb: WOuld be fun too get my family back up there :thumb: Great write up, brought back lots of good memories..
Rick
 
Mar 9, 2004
30
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I'm glad someone else thought the trail ratings were screwy.

The logging road is M8 on the map and is closed due to a washout. The access road is now 301 (Elk Mtn Rd) also known as the County road. The campgrounds at the North end are cheap or free but primative.
 

NVR FNSH

~SPONSOR~
Oct 31, 2000
1,235
0
There are two roads into Pillsbury from Potter Valley - one is a county road and one is a 'private' logging road so that the logging trucks don't screw up the county road. The county road is the on the east/south side of the river. Both of them suck.

Brian
 

phranticness

Member
Jan 4, 2006
134
1
I used to ride at pillsberry when I was a kid. back when OHV was ok around the lake. The trails in the Mendo national forest can be knarly, and the green labels don't really mean much. Still I love it out there. can't wait for this spring...............happy trails.
 
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