Jackson State Demonstration Forest

Near: Mendocino
Trip Type: Hike
Elevation: 100 - 800 ft
Surface: Dirt
Distance: 2.5 miles
Vegetation: Redwoods

Presto and I joined some friends out mushroom hunting in Mendocino County on Saturday.  The mushroom hunt was a bit of bust, but it was a good excuse to visit some areas we might not make it up to otherwise.  We headed up to Jackson State Demonstration Forest with a the hope of hiking the Trestle trail, which in addition to fungus, was claimed to boast a nice waterfall.  Unfortunately, we got there only to find that the Trestle trail and the entire surrounding area has been closed off due to an outbreak of "Sudden Oak Death".  Apparently the authorities are worried about visitors helping to spread the fungal pathogen and plan to keep the area around the Trestle Trail closed for the wet season (October to May) until "the threat of spreading sudden oak death has been abated".  So don't hold you breath on that one.  So until May the only trail easily accessable by car from the Camp One entrance (most western entrance to the JSDF on CA-20).  It's a short loop with no particularly interesting views, but the forest is quite nice, thick with redwoods and ferns.  This is no destination hike, but a good stop if you're in the area and up for a light, off-leash hike.  It starts and ends at Camp One, which is itself a pleasant picnic spot, by a small dam on the South Fork Noyo River (really just a creek here).

Links:

Article on th JSDF Trail Closures due to Sudden Oak Death Blight
More hikes in JSDF

Trailhead:

Camp One, Jackson State Demonstration Forest.  Access road is about 5 miles east of Fort Bragg on CA-20.  A small sign marks the access road that is on the slightly rough side of paved but should be no problem any car.  There are several turnoffs, but they all seem to be gated, so Camp One is easy to find even though the access road seems to be missing from google maps and the interior roads in the JDSF seem to be mapped inconsistently on different sources.  Amongst hiking apps, All Trails seems to have the best maps of JSDF.

Camp One Picnic Area

The Route:

A short loop up the hill to an old logging road, then back down via another trail.  We started on the eastern half of the loop (starts from the campground area just east of the parking area, past a gate on the road).  We made it up to the road, but since we hadn't figured out where to find an accurate map of the loop and it's not well signed, we weren't sure if going down the road we get us anywhere.  We took the connector trail down to the other trailhead (Just west of the parking area) and found a nice carved map of the trail that could have been more strategically placed.  So it seem you can make a loop after all.



Access roads to the east and north from Camp One are gated for the wet season, but only block vehicle access, so the roads could make nice walking/bicycling/running routes as well.








Caltopo Map: http://caltopo.com/m/AEC0