Igo-Ono

Distance: 67 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 5690 ft

(Note: Some of the recent forest fires hit this area hard.  I haven’t visited the area since, so I don’t know how extensive the damage to the ride is.  JR)

This is an out and back from a spot in the middle of a country road to the tiny town/store of Platina (pluh TIE nuh).  So why is it called the Igo-Ono Ride?  Because it goes through the tiny town of Ono, and the tiny town of Igo is one mile off the route, and it’s just tons of fun to say “Igo-Ono.”  “Halfway down Gas Point Road to Platina” just doesn’t have that ring.

I’m very fond of this ride.  It’s a lovely ride with a lot of nice climbing and descending, good vistas, little traffic, three classic country grocery stores (one of them now apparently closed, sadly), several photogenic barns, and not one unrewarding mile.  The only reasons it isn’t in the Best of the Best list is because it lacks that big Selling Point—no redwoods, no world-class descents—and because the road is a trifle wider than I like (big two-lane).

There are no unending climbs, but you will do some work.  It’s not as bad as the elevation total above (5690 ft) suggests, however—in fact I suspect that number is a RidewithGPS glitch.



(To see an interactive version of the map/elevation profile, click on the ride name, upper left, wait for the new map to load, then click on the “full screen” icon, upper right.)

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/37934123

The ride begins 12.5 miles down Gas Point Rd. from the “Gas Point Road” exit of Hwy 5 in Cottonwood, CA.  Why there?  You know my methods, Watson…  The first 12.5 miles of Gas Point Rd. are dull.  Feel free to ride them—the scenery is OK (low-rent ranches), but they’re just flat, straight, pretty trafficky, lacking a shoulder, and not good enough for this list.  The further down Gas Point you go, the less populated the area becomes and the more interesting the road contour, so you could start riding whenever it looks good.  After 12.5 miles, Gas Point takes a sharp 90-degree turn to the right, paved Foster Rd. takes off at about 11 o’clock (there’s a sign) and Gas Point is excellent from then on, a really swell, rollicking road that constantly reinvents itself.  There isn’t much parking room at the trailhead, but 20 ft before you reach the intersection there are dirt turn-outs on either side of the road, each with room enough for a couple of cars.

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Springtime on Gas Point Road

After 7 miles of perfectly charming riding on Gas Point, you enter a four-way intersection.  The road names here are confusing, because the four roads all have different names. You find you’ve been riding, not on Gas Point Rd., but on Veterans’ Memorial Drive (you’ll have just passed the cemetery).  On the other side of the intersection the road ahead of you becomes Placer Rd., and the crossing road is Platina Rd. to the L and Clear Creek Rd. to the R.  Luckily this is all clearly signed.  If you go straight onto Placer, in 1 mile you get to the tiny town of Igo.  If you’re a literalist you’ll want to know you actually went to Igo on the Igo-Ono ride, and it’s a lovely mile anyway, so I encourage you to do it.  There’s a nice country grocery store (store #1) and deli there.  But the official route goes L.  Now you just follow Platina Rd. until it dead-ends at Hwy 36.  Then you ride back.

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Looks fake, but isn’t

Once on Platina Rd, the route offers a lovely variety.  In four miles you’ll go through the  tiny town of Ono, home of the cheekily named Ono Store and International Café (store #2).  The Ono town sign claims a population of 578, but you’ll wonder where they all are.  Leaving the bright lights behind, you roll through pretty horse farms, then into wilder valleys, the rollers getting bigger as you work your way up into the foothills of the Coast Range.  About 15 miles past Ono, something happens that is unique to this ride: you do a demanding 1.7-mile ascent, burst out onto a little saddle and suddenly the road goes dead flat for the rest of the ride out (6 miles).  You can see it unmistakably in the RWGPS elevation profile.  The sense of sudden effortless riding after the work is joyous.  The vista on your L opens up for the first time in the ride and  you can see 70 miles across everything you’ve ridden, the Valley below, and Mt. Lassen and Mt. Broke-Off in the distance.   Looking north or south along the Valley, you’re probably seeing at least 100 miles.  The grand vistas continue until the turn-around. And because the terrain is quite hilly, to stay flat the road has to serpentine constantly.  Tons of fun.

With a little bump at the end you reach Hwy 36.  The town of Platina, which consists entirely of a tiny store (store #3), is a stone’s throw up 36 to your R.  It’s a great spot where they could even make you a sandwich or grill you a burger, if it’s open.

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Looking back on the first 30 miles of the ride, with Mt. Lassen in the distance—click on photo to appreciate

The ride back is a different, and better, ride than the ride out, faster and more flowing, and the five or so extended climbs coming out are now invigorating descents.   The return ride is not effortless—my computer recorded 1900 ft of climbing coming back—but you’ll only notice the work in about 3 places.

Because this road doesn’t go from or to any place in particular, it’s very car-free (about a car every five miles on my last ride), though you’ll probably share it with motorcycles.

Shortening the ride: Drive through Ono and start in a few miles when the terrain begins to look interesting.  Ride to the obvious top of the climbing; ride as much of the plateau as you like; return.

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Serious barn country

Adding miles: If you don’t like out-and-backs or just want to see some new country, you can turn L at Platina and ride east down Hwy 36 and work your way back to your car.  It’s a good ride, mostly downhill with a few large rollers on a bigger, straighter, shouldered highway remarkably free of traffic.  It’s easier but quite a bit longer—about 90 miles.

You can turn R at Platina and ride Hwy 36 west.  Hwy 36 has very little traffic for a highway, especially on weekdays, and you can theoretically ride all the way to the road’s end near Ferndale, if you’re touring.  It’s winding and beautiful, but tiring and endless (OK, only 95 miles), and there’s no natural turn-around point.

At the Veteran’s Memorial Drive/Platina intersection, the most recommended ride would be down Placer Rd, through Igo, and just straight on.  About a mile past Centerville the road forks, and you can go either way.  The best route is to go L and ride to the town ruins of Shasta on Hwy 299; then go R for ½ mile on 299 and go L on Iron Mountain Rd.  I’ll leave you to explore after that.  Clear Creek Rd to the R has a long, fun descent, then a rather pedestrian run into lower Redding.

Across Hwy 5 on the east side, starting around Anderson, is a warren of great roads, represented in our list by the Wildcat Road ride.

If you’re a mountain biker, the Redding area has developed into the one of the nation’s premier mtb trail systems.  The three main areas are the Hornbeck Trail, the Swasey Trail system, and the Whiskeytown Lake trail system.  In the first two, the tread is buttery smooth and perfect for novices.  They suffered serious fire damage recently, but should still be worthwhile.

Afterthoughts

There is no water resupply on this route other than the Platina Store and the Ono Store, which means that if you aren’t riding all the way to Platina or the Platina Store is closed you’ll be riding 40+ miles without resupply.  On a hot day you might consider carrying a third water bottle and dropping one on the ride out.  On my last ride it was a mild 75-80 degrees and I drained two large water bottles.

Don’t try this ride on a summer day unless you start around 6 am.  The Redding area regularly sees 100+ degrees in the summer, and this ride is largely without shade.   It’s more pleasant and much prettier in the spring, when the horse farms are green.

There’s some forest-fire damage on Gas Point Rd, but it doesn’t impair the experience, and you soon ride out of it.  Further on, the oaks along the route were burned but survived, and you can see how the trees are sending forth new growth.

4 thoughts on “Igo-Ono

  1. chicodavidrn

    Doing this road some years ago – one way from Platina down – as part of a longer tour inspired me to invent a new metric for rating rides – the car to deer ratio. In this case, I saw considerably more deer than cars. It’s a lovely ride – and great description of it.

    Reply
  2. Kathryn

    Thanks for all the work and love you have put into this site. For a redwood-loving, frightened-by-car beginner, it is a fantastic resource. Just wanted to note that the store at Ono was closed weekdays (and for sale @ $220k) when I visited a couple of weeks ago.

    The Igo store was great with easy-to-access restroom and the Platina store was interesting.

    Reply
  3. Bennett Shane

    This is a great ride! If you enjoy riding gravel, continue straight across Highway 36 at Platina onto Beegum Gorge Rd. and ride up to St Herman of Alaska Monastery and down the back side!!! It’s doable on 25-30mm tires.

    Reply
    1. Jack Rawlins

      I don’t know that area, but googlemaps implies you can keep riding past the monastery and eventually loop back around to Hwy 36.

      Reply

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