[roadkill]

Stonyford is located in Northern California and is FS land that has been set aside for OHV use. The "official" OHV area is 141 square miles with 200+ miles of rated trails. You can double the miles if you want to go "off the reservation" so to speak... The fire roads in the area (Mendocino National Forest) are OHV legal. The "official" elevation is 1,600' to 6,000'+... Then again, you can go higher... such as to St. John mountain at 6,600'... yesterday, there was still lots of snow up there. Link below for additional information....
http://www.riderplanet-usa.com/atv/trails/info/california_03033/ride_1957.htm

My Memorial Day weekend did not go as planned. I had planned to camp and ride from Friday through Monday. However, Friday's and Saturday's rides were long and quite technical. My riding partner and I covered 73.7 miles just on Saturday according to his GPS and close to 35 miles on Friday afternoon. My right shoulder was toast by 3 P.M. on Saturday and was feeling worse and worse due to aggravating a previous injury from the rough terrain. I decided that it was best if I packed it in and head home... I didn't leave my buddy alone to ride... we were in a group of about 6 other riders... just that we like to ride with just the 2 of us... The others just can't keep pace with us. Perhaps I should start to ride at a pace that my age dictates... Naw, screw that, I'm not done going fast.
One thing to note here is an observation of mine... OHV areas use the same basic rating system to rate trails... green, blue and black. The thing I've noticed is that what the FS may rate as a green trail may be rated as blue by BLM. IMO, the FS kinda under rates the trails and even a trail that's rated as green can also have sections that would be blue or black.
My friend and I got busted by the rangers... Going from our staging area past other campgrounds to the trailhead, we were going way too fast for the road... they got us. Didn't bust us for the speed, but did sound check us. I passed at 92db, but my friend didn't. He was at 102db. He was fortunate in that he had a DG muffler and could remove a couple baffle plates... He did and had them re-test and he passed.
I did spot another 700xx in our camping area and went over to introduce myself... Told him about the forum, so he may be a new member soon.

The pics I am attaching are in 2 sections (postings) The first (here) is of where we'd just come down from Friday (clouds) and of where we were headed on Saturday's first ride (snow) In the "continued" will be 2 trail pics and 2 of the camp area.

roadkill

 

[roadkill]

Stonyford OHV (continued)

The first pic is of my quad and camp setup.. Yes, I travel light and camp light.
The second pic is of the other 700xx I spotted in the camping area.
The third pic is of a creek that we would usually be able to ride up... If you look, you will see a rocky section up the creek a little... that's where we'd come out to go up another "unofficial" trail. You can't see it, but the water was too deep just before the creek exit point.
The last pic is of my riding partner Mark. We were stopped on the ridge deciding on which trail to take from there. If you look real real close... Just above his right arm, you can see one of the other trails... way way down going up one of the hills. Did you see the trail? Look close.

roadkill

 

[roadkill]

Did you see the other trail? Perhaps this pic will help... either that or get your eyes checked. This pic is a section cropped out in it's original size... Do you see the trail now?

roadkill