Ferndale to Shelter Cove Two Day Bicycle Tour

Nothing better than rolling along the Unknown Coast, with great views, no traffic, and a nice tailwind.

On the weekend following July 4th, 2018, Sarah Schroer and I decided to execute a two day bike adventure to the coastal hamlet of Shelter Cove, starting in Ferndale, CA. This remote, lonely coastal town happens to be the Southern end of the Lost Coast hiking route, which travels the rugged Northern California coastline, where no paved roads exist.

Our format would be "credit card touring" which means the bike is loaded as light as possible, and we'd be picking up food along the way, enjoying a restaurant and coffee shop for dinner and breakfast, and also enjoying a warm shower and comfortable bed at a motel after our long first day. In our large seat bags, we would carry shorts, T-shirt, flip flops, warm cycling clothing (i.e. dinner garb), an extra tire, spare tubes, toiletries, USB charging equipment, multi tool, and a few other useful bits.

Leaving Ferndale, Sarah climbs up  Mattole Road, or "The Wildcat," in cool fog and drizzle.

Paul climbs into the soupy fog on Mattole Rd. Photo by Sarah Schroer.

We start off from Ferndale in typical weather, foggy, drippy and cool. Our trip to Shelter Cove will be about 70 miles, and will include about 9,500' of climbing. Sounds reasonable, or so I think. I am to be proven wrong. As we climb up Mattole Road, or "The Wildcat," as locals call it, we experience steep grades and cool damp weather. I wonder if we'll be in this fog all day — but as we crest the climb, and begin the descent of the "Endless Hills," a name that refers to Tour of the Unkown Coast (TUC) riders climbing in the opposite direction, the weather clears. We are then treated to spectacular coastal views, as we descend "The Wall," another TUC reference. Feeling lucky for the great views!

As we near the coast on Mattole Road, we encounter some dirt sections before dropping down "The Wall."

At the top of "The Wall," we are fortunate that it is just clear enough to take in the view. On the left you see Mattole Road heading down the coast toward Petrolia.

Sarah enjoys nice views and a tailwind heading down the Unknown Coast.

We were fortunate to have great conditions riding down the coast. Sunny with nice clouds and a tail wind. Photo by Sarah Schroer.

After a joyous, and typical, tailwind down the coast, we climb a bit, then descend to the town of Petrolia, our first stop. We water up, grab some snacks, and carry on to Honeydew, another 15 miles up the road, and our last chance for supplies before we go "off the grid."

Bulletin Board at Petrolia store notes folks looking for "seasonal" work, a place to stay, and a missing 30-something woman. And of course various hippy healing opportunities.

With the smell of weed wafting about due to locals hanging out, we resupply at the Honeydew Store. Fortunately, folks are generally friendly to cyclists.

At Honeydew, we resupply with liquid and food, leave our backwards trip along the TUC course, to begin the long climb up Wilder Ridge Road. This climb is brutal! It's extremely steep, and part way up, it changes to loose dirt, as it switchbacks up the steep slope, and it's all we can do to keep our loaded gravel bikes moving up the grade!

This is big time pot growing country, as evidenced by sounds, sights and smells along the way. We don't feel like we are in any danger, as recent relaxing of laws seems to have put everyone at ease. But I note that rather than seeing beat up older Ford F-150 trucks driven by ranchers, I see more modern Toyota TRD trucks, BMW and Cadillac SUV's, etc., covered with dust, driven by younger long haired folks. The culture has changed.

The climb up Wilder Ridge Road is brutal, steep, with a long switchback dirt section.

Many matches are burned but we finally crest the climb, at over 2,000' and we now elect to leave the potholed rough pavement of Wilder Ridge in exchange for a dirt adventure on Kings Peak Road. This road starts with a steep, rocky descent all the way down to a river crossing at the bottom. It's fully rideable but a bit sketch on the gravel bikes. At the bottom, the road climbs again, and rolls along for what seems like an eternity. Much of the road is loose, rocky, and bumpy, but there are other sections that are quite smooth, and define what I would call "good gravel riding." These smoother sections were welcomed by this fatigued crew of two.

We leave Wilder Ridge Rd. heading for Kings Peak Rd. Paul looks weary already. Photo by Sarah Schroer.

The descent of King Peak Road is loose and rocky gravel, sometimes tricky. Sarah has no trouble on this steep, slippery, switchback using her newfound dirt skilz.

Much of King Peak road was fairly rough and rocky gravel, pretty, but difficult!

We finally arrive at Shelter Cove Road, and all that is left now is a 2,000' plummet to the tiny town. As we roll into town, we locate our funky home for the night, Mario's Marina Motel, near the boat launch area, with Deli, Bait Shop, and Bar. We inquire where to check in, as there is no office at the motel. We find that we check in at the bar, and come into a scene of locals, loud and friendly, wondering how the hell we were going to get out of this hole on our bicycles, up the extremely steep climb. Exhausted, we just tell them we'll deal with that in the morning.

Sarah reads the plaque at the lighthouse in Shelter Cove, that I affectionately refer to as "Stubby." As it turns out, this vertically challenged lighthouse was originally placed at Cape Mendocino, on a 400' bluff, so it's diminutive stature was not a terrible handicap, nor the butt of any jokes. It's now at Shelter Cove strictly as a tourist attraction... worked for us, as we were drawn to it on the way to dinner

The very first thing you must do at the end of your ride when light touring, is wash your kit and hang to dry with whatever creative method you can come up with, such as hanging on a warm lamp. OK, maybe it's the second thing. First you head to the store and grab a beer and a bag of chips to hold you until dinner.

We inquire about dinner at the bar while we pick up our motel key, and are told that the Venezuelan Restaurant, about a mile across town, is the best choice. We're not thrilled about mounting the bikes again after a huge day, but we do so, and enjoy a nice ride along the coast, toward the restaurant.

Views along the coast on the way to dinner. A few clouds, but no fog on this lovely coastal evening.

Dining al fresco at the Venezuelan Restaurant. Open ceiling, with glass wind breaks kept us nice and cozy. Indoor dining is also available. Good food, but portions were way too small for hungry cyclists!

This is the Venezuelan Restaurant in Shelter Cove. Convenient bike parking in front.

After a nice dinner, it was time to head back to the hotel, and fall asleep to a movie, while our washed kits dry over warm lamps in the room.

Long shadows after a long day, sight seeing, and a nice dinner.

Day 2

Shelter Cove is a boating community, both commercial and pleasure boats are launched by tractors, as the ramp down to the ocean is too steep for normal vehicles. There is no harbor, all boats, including fishing vessels, are pulled out of the water at the end of each day.

Dropping a boat into the water.

Not sure what possessed me to ride down this steep  ramp to view the boat launch, but I did. Yield for Tractor. I did.

Paul demonstrates proper "Yield tfor Tractor" technique. Photo by Sarah Schroer.

In the morning we head to the coffee shop at about 7:30 AM, and have a wonderful breakfast with coffee, tea, tamales, and muffins. Additionally we had them make us bagel sandwiches for the road. Our coffee shop bill was $50, but well worth the expense.

Seal Rock in the morning, on the way to breakfast, with dozens of seals.

Coffee Shop Parking.

(l to r) Two bagel sandwiches to go, two tamales, coffee, muffin #1, muffin #2, two more tamales, tea, coastal view. Off to a good start on day 2!

We have several options for returning to Ferndale. One involves an additional dirt loop to the South. We nix that one, being too exhausted from Day 1! Another involves heading back to Honeydew, then continuing backwards on the TUC course. But that involves some junk miles on Hwy 101, and a flat run into Ferndale. In the end, we can't resist backtracking the way we came, which is by far the nicest, if redundant, route back to Ferndale. We choose to make one variation. Instead of returning on the dirt Kings Peak Road, we'll stay on pavement, and take Ettersburg Road back to Wilder Ridge, then descend into Honeydew, and finish our ride on the TUC course, going the "correct" direction. This involves more distance and climbing, but we can't face the difficult dirt of Kings Peak Rd. again!

Locals told us to climb out of Shelter Cove on Toth Road to stay off the main highway. We did, and were treated to this nice view of Shelter Cove as we climbed the steep 2,000' to get out of this deep hole!

The climb out of Shelter Cove is brutal! We take Toth Road to stay off the main highway, but it isn't any easier. It's no wonder that Shelter Cove isn't a cycling destination. The road in and out is just too difficult for most cyclists.

Headed to Ettersburg on our way back to Honeydew.

We climb and roll on Ettersburg Road, before coming to Wilder Ridge Road again, where we'd turned off the day before, onto Kings Peak Road. Descending into Honeydew, among all the wheel eating potholes, I take an unfortunate spill, washing out the front wheel while avoiding a badly potholed mixed gravel and paved section. I hit the deck hard, but fortunately, the speed is modest, and I am fortunate to come away only with some serious elbow rash, a sprained thumb, and very minor scrapes on shoulder, hip, and knee. Bike is OK, and I can ride, so we head into Honeydew, pick up supplies, (including bandaids), and we carry on to Petrolia.

After Petrolia, we head toward the coast and take in this view before heading back up the road toward Capetown.

After Petrolia, we head up the coast along the TUC course, but this time into the wind. I've seen worse along this stretch, so we survived, even with extreme fatique. "The Wall" was tough, but we got over it, and then, the "Endless Hills" are survivable, as we are now on the home stretch.

Sarah tackles "The Wall" as we leave the coast.

Just as we left Ferndale in the fog, we return to Ferndale in fog. At the top of the climb before descending The Wildcat, we put on our windbreakers and knee warmers for the descent.

Cold beers and a hearty dinner were enjoyed in Ferndale, as we remember this great journey. Day 2 was about 80 miles, and 10,500', but again, those numbers don't speak properly to the difficulty of this route. This is an extremely difficult ride, not sure we'd do it again, but we won't talk you out of it, if you want to have a go!

It was truly a great adventure, but not one for the weak of heart!