Distance: 13.5-mile out and back
Elevation gain: 460 ft

This is possibly the easiest, most low-key ride in Bestrides. It’s short and essentially flat. It’s a haven for casual riders on rental cruisers, and the population of walkers and their dogs on leashes is high.

So why is it in Bestrides? Because it’s the only place I know of where you can ride your bike on a paved trail along the magnificent Northern California headlands and watch the waves crashing against the seastacks below you, the harbor seals basking on the rocks, the pelicans heading in single file to their mysterious destinations to the south or north, and the seagulls wheeling overhead. It’s more a meditation than a ride, and I love it. In addition to the natural wonders of sea and headland, the ride offers a grand old wooden railroad trestle, a world-famous bridge across the Noyo River, a postcard-perfect beach and wooden boardwalk across marshes to Seal Rock (both in MacKerricher State Park), a second beach composed of glass pebbles, a marine biology interpretive center, enough informational placards scattered along the path to satiate the most info-hungry among us, and Fort Bragg’s state-of-the-art water treatment plant.

It’s a mere 13.5 miles, but you can’t ride it fast (too many walkers), and you want to enjoy the ambiance, so it’s a solid one-hour ride.

This ride traverses the shoreline just to the west of Fort Bragg. In past years the riding here consisted solely of the Old Haul Road, a rail-to-trail conversion that ran from about a mile north of MacKerricher State Park a few miles north of town southward until it crossed the grand trestle spanning Pudding Creek at the north edge of town. It was a mostly straight, fairly boring ride on poor pavement, worth doing once for Mackerricher itself and the simple joy of being on a bike by the sea. But in recent years the massive lumber mill complex that occupied the entire west side of the town, everything between Hwy 1 and the sea, was torn down and carted away, the land was turned into Noyo Headlands Park, and our lovely trail was cut along the lip of the cliff from the south end of town to the north and connecting to the Old Haul Road.

The trail itself isn’t all eye candy. Much of the time you’re riding through open grassland, with the good stuff—the lip of the cliff and the crashing waves below—out of sight a short distance to the west. But the trail has a nice meandering contour, and it’s usually only a matter of hiking (or illegally riding) 30 ft off the trail to get those matchless vistas.

The main southern trailhead, with bathrooms and maps, is at the west end of Cypress St., but you don’t want to start there. Instead, drive to Pomo Bluffs Park on the south side of Noyo Bay. This allows you to ride the leg of the trail along the south side of the Bay and cross the Noyo River Bridge. The road surface here is a little rough, but the views of the bay are great (you can see the trail continuing on the northern shore), the informational placards are interesting, and you’ll have the trail to yourself. Be sure to read the placard detailing the history of bridges over the river (there have been several) and the multiple awards the current bridge has won.

Cross the Noyo River Bridge on the clean and comfy separated bike lane and immediately pick up the trail (unsigned, but it looks just like a trail, with a bollard and a “mi. 0” painted on the pavement) at the north end—oddly, the mileage markers seem to go to 1/2 mi. and stop). Btw if you’re riding the trail backwards, picking up the trail at the south end of the bridge is challenging. It begins in the parking lot for the Noyo River Grill and wraps tightly around the back side of the restaurant. The trail entrance is small and looks like a back entrance to a trailer park.

Back on our mapped route, ride to the southern trail head parking lot, where there are bathrooms and a large map of the Noyo Headlands Park area informing you that you are on the Ka Kahleh Trail. The Pomo Indians were centrally involved in the development of the area, and you’ll see their influence throughout the ride—most notably on a harrowing trailside placard detailing the awful treatment they received at the hands of the white settlers.

On the otherwise-impeccable map, the trail is shown to have a large gap in its center. This seems to be old news—the trail is now flawless pavement all the way to Glass Beach.

The bathrooms sit at the southern end of the old sawmill airplane runway, unmissable and open to cars and bikes if you’re of a mind to do some dead flat, dead straight riding. Take a moment to imagine what it must have been like to land a plane alongside the cliffs on one of those typical Fort Bragg days with heavy fog or strong crosswinds.

Immediately past the bathrooms is a grand sinkhole on your L, Skip’s Punchbowl. For the best views, get off your bike and walk around it.

Halfway down the trail you encounter the Noyo Center for Marine Science’s Crow’s Nest Interpretive Center, complete with exhibits, tours, and a 73-ft whale carcass made from dirt. Well worth a stop.

At the northern end of the trail you pass the steps to Glass Beach, a local mecca. The beach was used as a dump for glass bottles for decades. The surge smashed the bottles and wore the shards down to smooth beads. Worth a visit if you like colored glass. You’re asked not to remove samples.

At the northern end of the trail you pass the Glass Beach parking lot. At its eastern end (by the bathrooms), take the bike path north to the Pudding Creek Trestle and cross it.

From here to MacKerricher State Park you’re on the Old Haul Road. It’s straighter, rougher of road surface, and much less scenic than what you’ve already ridden, and if you want to turn around so be it, but I encourage you to persist, because the OHR takes you to MacKerricher, which is a lovely spot. Once there, gaze at or walk on the pristine beach and walk the wooden boardwalk out to Seal Rock for a grand view of the coastline. The park is free to everyone—when the MacKerricher family gave the land to the State they mandated that no one would ever have to pay.

The trail debouches on to the MacKerricher main road, and you’d think it was over, but there’s more. Ride north 150 yds on the road and pick the trail up again. It continues north amidst the sand dunes for some time, becoming sandier and wilder, until you turn around or you start pushing your bike up and down the dunes. The benefits of riding past Mackerricher are views (the shore is in constant sight) and (relative) solitude.

Retrace your steps.

Shortening the ride: Hard to imagine wanting to, but the plumb miles are clearly those between the sinkhole and Glass Beach.

Adding miles: A sweet little loop that actually touches our route is

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/44232514

I know of no other good riding in Fort Bragg proper. Our Mendocino Coastal ride is 15 minutes to the south in Mendocino. See the Adding Miles notes of the Mendocino/Comptche ride for good riding further afield.

Hwy 1 north of Fort Bragg from town to Ten Mile Beach is a particularly beautiful stretch of Hwy 1, but it’s very trafficky and without shoulder.