California Backcountry Discovery Trail

[skinzluch]

My girlfriend and I, and our friend Greg, were out on the California Backcountry Discovery Trail this past summer and covered about 200 miles of dirt roads, camping as we went. The trip, which led us deep into the Bigfoot-backwoods of Mendocino and Six Rivers National Forests, took us about about a week.

I posted about it on my blog West County Explorers Club. If you're interested, check out Part 1 here and Part 2 here. The posts include maps with campsite locations. The whole series will be six parts in total.

Here are some highlights:

 

[pyrate]

Fantastic! I've been looking for more info on this route. Can't wait for the other sections. Do you have a list of maps you purchased? GPS tracks? Thanks!
:smiley_drive:

 

[Lostmanifesto]

Looks great! Could this be done with a Subaru Outback? Doesn't look like high clearance was needed for anything?

 

[skinzluch]

Here's a Google Map of the whole route (http://goo.gl/maps/3grmc). It's only an approximation though.

What you'll need are two National Forest maps, one for the Mendocino N.F. and one for the Six Rivers N.F.. The CBDT is marked on both maps as a yellow, highlighted route.

It's a pretty nice route. Ruth Lake is beautiful as well. I'll post all our campsites in upcoming posts. We found some nice ones.

 

[skinzluch]

Yeah, I think you could do it in an Outback. The road is a little rough up Hull Mountain (6" rocks) and on the back side of Ruth Lake but it's not bad. As I wrote, a CRX made it up behind us on Hull Mountain.

 

[dmXJ159]

whats the first photo shot with?

 

[@just_rich_young]

Yeah, I think you could do it in an Outback. The road is a little rough up Hull Mountain (6" rocks) and on the back side of Ruth Lake but it's not bad. As I wrote, a CRX made it up behind us on Hull Mountain.

A CRX? I haven't seen one of those in years?

whats the first photo shot with?

Looks like he used a tilt shift filter. Cool shot.

 

[SirCampalot]

This is awesome. I'd like to explore this trail someday. Keep the reports coming. =]

 

[Derek24]

Nice pics and close to home! Where in the county are you? I'm in Forestville. I've seen these discovery trail signs at Cow Mt. Wheelin around, would love to do connect them up. Do you think you could do your trip now with all the rain?

 

[skinzluch]

whats the first photo shot with?

My girlfriend shot that with her Canon Powershot using the "Minature" filter which basically reproduces a tilt shift effect.

 

[skinzluch]

A CRX? I haven't seen one of those in years?

Ha, whoops, I meant CRV.

 

[skinzluch]

This is awesome. I'd like to explore this trail someday. Keep the reports coming. =]

Thanks, will do!

 

[skinzluch]

Nice pics and close to home! Where in the county are you? I'm in Forestville. I've seen these discovery trail signs at Cow Mt. Wheelin around, would love to do connect them up. Do you think you could do your trip now with all the rain?

Hey Derek, thanks. I'm in Monte Rio. Nice to meet someone else on the forums from west county. I think there are a few trails throughout the state marked as CBDT. We didn't go through Cow Mountain but interesting to hear that the the CBDT system goes through there as well. I haven't seen a map that shows the whole system.

You probably couldn't do the trail now, more because of snow than than rain. We tried to take Forest Road M1 from Upper Lake to the Eel River Workstation last spring but it was closed due to snow. Barring that, most of the trail is pretty mild.

 

[SirCampalot]

Ha, whoops, I meant CRV.

CRX going over 6" rocks would have been cool to see. =]

 

[skinzluch]

CRX going over 6" rocks would have been cool to see. =]

Your wish is granted... http://youtu.be/IJ3XO2U5PqQ