Art Reeves of the Humboldt County Public Works Department just gave us a rundown of their recommendations for local travel to get around the slide. He stressed that these routes are recommended for locals and local travel only, and only when absolutely necessary. These are sketchy roads in the best of times, but they themselves have been stressed by the recent rainstorms.
Bottom line: If you’re going north, take the Garberville-Alderpoint-Blocksburg-Alton route over Alderpoint Road and Highway 36. If you’re going south, take the Myers Flat-Dyerville loop route. Maps can be found in this previous post.
Couple of caveats:
1). By no means should anything bigger than a simple passenger vehicle attempt these routes. Large trucks, Winnebagos, travel trailers — they’re banned.
2). If you’re traveling to or from the City, just take Highway 36 or 299. Hwy 36, especially, doesn’t take all that much longer than traveling down 101 in normal times. If you’re not used to backwoods driving, then maybe you want to consider Hwy 299. If you’re not used to backwoods driving, there’s no way you want to take either Alderpoint or Dyerville. Give everyone a hand and take the scenic route.
3). Don’t use the Briceland-Ettersburg-Honeydew route. That road is in bad, bad shape.