Exploring the Mendocino National Forest

We got out of town and headed north to check out the Mendocino National Forest. Great 163 mile trail goes in at Upper Lake and out at Covelo with some side trail exploration. It felt a little like disaster tourism with all the huge fires that have burned a large part of this forest north of Clear Lake. Still some beautiful areas near the Eel River and great views along the ridge lines. I'm posting more on IG and FB lately, but I will try to put some things on YT as well.

[@bernardboudreau9534]

Really nice footage!! Love the ease in which your Earth Roamer climbs the steep hills. Awesome to see somebody else besides me picking up trash that's been left in nature. Enjoy your journeys. Peace all.

[@AnimalOverland]

Thanks for watching…glad to hear you’re leaving it better than you found it!

[@hagardoverzosa2046]

That eartroamer is a beast.

[@AnimalOverland]

Thanks…it always feels good to do something to help keep our amazing places looking amazing!

[@AmericaBound]

Love it and keep making videos....

[@tbeatles]

Great video. I met you this year in June at Howard Lake. You texted my girlfriend when you got service to let her know that I was OK. My name is Jason. Thank you, it was so good to meet you both.

[@AnimalOverland]

Yes…it was good to meet you as well. I guess we must have mentioned our yt channel. We don’t post much on yt anymore mostly just Instagram. We hope you are doing well and getting out in nature!

[@zaftranaffandiey3571]

I loved ER 🤗🥳

[@cameronmcleod7740]

I can't remember which but either Hammerhorn or Howard lake was full of bait stealing turtles last time we fished.

[@conned]

Nice!

[@AnimalOverland]

Thanks

[@co4x4]

Very nice! How do you determine that a trail is wide enough to go down with the Earthroamer? Perhaps it starts out wide enough and than gets narrower and narrower. How do you choose which trail to take and which to avoid. Must be a nightmare if you had to backup 2-3 miles because it got so narrow that you couldn't continue. Cheers from Denver Colorado!

[@AnimalOverland]

It’s always a risk when exploring places for the first time. We use lots of online resources to find easy to moderate rated trails and try to stay away from the difficult rock crawler type stuff. We don’t seek out difficult trails…just trails that allow us to explore interesting places. We can take the roamer most places our Jeep JK and 4Runner can go provided they are easy or moderate rated. I use KML files and google earth to “pre-run” our planned routes and look for anything obvious to avoid. We always keep track of turnaround points along the trail so we know how far we have to backup if necessary. We carry fat tire eMountain Bikes so we can check out parts of trails if they look sketchy. With all that said…it’s a heck of a lot easier to back up our roamer than a mid sized rig hauling a trailer with a knuckle. In the near future we will add a drone to our trail recon kit as well.

[@co4x4]

@@AnimalOverland thanx much for the reply. I to hope some day that my wifey and I do something similar. Traveling in an Earthroamer is an awsome lifestyle. Thanx again. Stay safe!

[@canmtb4676]

Enjoyed the video ! I’m an Earthroamer wannabes and have started looking into for obtaining one in future. I know Earthroamer performs great off road but I want to know how comfortable driving on freeway. I heard its speed limit is 60mph due to the tires to get overheated. How are your experiences driving on freeways. Thanks.

[@AnimalOverland]

sorry for the late response...I have been mostly on IG these day but starting to post on YT again. The speed limitation people talk about comes from the Continental MPT81 tires that are speed rated at 68mph. You don't really want to drive a 9T lifted 4WD running on 41" mud terrain tires faster than 68mph IMO anyway. I set our cruise for 65 and that's comfortable for us.

[@eastconsult]

Loud music video with very nice and interesting pictures. It would be nice if I could understand the explanations, which were unfortunately masked by the loud music.

[@firebufff8523]

That looks like the Beaver Glade Forest Service station on the main road up along the Middle Fork of the Eel River in the northern part of Covelo Ranger District. A Mendocino National Forest Battalion Chief from Willows said they couldn't save it. I posted a few "videos" of photos of the station that I took back in 2005. Do you post pictures of places and short videos (up to 30 sec.) on Google Maps? Was that one building in the video the only one still standing?

[@AnimalOverland]

I have not posted video clips to google maps yet. What “building” are you referring to?

[@firebufff8523]

@@AnimalOverland the building at 2 minutes 36 seconds. Was there a sign that said "Beaver Glade Station" at this location? I think that building was the weight room. I'll get my photo album from 2005 out to confirm that.

[@firebufff8523]

@@AnimalOverland Yes, that building that is still standing looks like the Beaver Glade fire station's weight room/spare bedroom.

[@AnimalOverland]

It looks like they tried to protect it before evacuating but the reflective drape didn’t hold up to the heat…must have been a hot one.

[@firebufff8523]

@@AnimalOverland Sad to see so much forest history being erased by fire or government demolition due to budget cuts, etc. I don't think that fire station had been used in long time. I did talk with a fisheries biologist in 2008 who stayed there. Think there are only three stations (Alder Spring, Log Spring, and Soda Creek) remaining within the national forest now when there may have been around 80, including lookouts, over the years.

[@holakokhan4377]

How much please this camping car??

[@AnimalOverland]

Your can check it out on EarthRoamer.com

[@AnimalOverland]

If you are interested in seeing some more videos and photos as we prep for Phase2 of full time exploring…check out our Instagram channel @animaloverland. We have decided to focus mostly on our IG channel now that it has IGTV so we won’t be posting much on KZbin.