Mattole Road Putt of Death
About 100 yards away from entrance is a wonderful, but pricey, restaurant - Curley's.
After just a few miles, you've climbed enough such that when you descend into the first valley, several switchbacks will need to be traversed.
This is the start of "The Wall." In not much more than a mile, you drop at least 1000 feet. Those poor suckers on bicycles come the other way. Paving isn't real good and frequently it's absent. If you're not flying, there's adequate notice of gravel. Yes, that is a fogbank sitting just off the coast - nature's air conditioning.
After about 10 miles of blasting up the shoreline along some of the prettiest coastline in California, it's back up into the Bull Creek valley and more switchbacks. It was along here that a couple of good ol' boys passed me about 30mph faster than I was going. I am slowing down in my dottage but these guys were insane.
About 75 miles from Ferndale are the Rockefeller redwoods which go on for about 5 miles. Very nice. Once back on 101, it's about a 50 mile blast back home.
All in all this was a great ride. It had everything: twisty bits down to first gear; sheep on the road; switchbacks; beautiful ocean, pasture, hills, and forest; crazy rednecks in pickups; less than 20 cars in 80 miles; and about 150 mile roundtrip from my house.
Excellent.