South Yuba Trail

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Hey New Pictures!! Yet another MTBR adventure. The Ogre hooked up with Steve and some others and we rode South Yuba trail up North of Nevada City. South Yuba Pictures and Mini Ride Report. South Yuba is an awesome Lower Sierra Nevada mountain bike trail, the views are awesome and the trail is oh so sweet. This is an excellent winter ride because it is almost always snow free and rideable. If you like cross country riding this is a choice trail.

PHP Contact Form Script

For some odd reason my “Contact Me” form disappeared from the Ogrehut’s web server. It was a cut and paste form and was pretty ugly but it worked. I use a contact form rather than a mailto: link because spammers glom onto mailto: links on websites. A contact form allows people to contact me while keeping me secure from spammers so I needed to replace the form.

So the quest for a replacement begins… Continue reading PHP Contact Form Script

New Front Page

I am now using WordPress for my main page. I’ve used a homegrown tool for my frontpage since the dawn of the Hut. I’m switching to WordPress because it simply has too many features which would take me too long to implement. I’m trying to bring forward all of my existing work into the new format so it will be easily accessible. Hopefully, the new features wordpress gives me will allow me to post more often and share a bit more.

Please use the Comments field below to let me know what you think.

A Change of Pace

Char at Lake Natomas

The Trail Princess and I went on a FATRAC beginners ride this weekend so she could ride with some people a little closer to her skill level. The ride was along the gravel multi use trail which paralells the American River Bike trail on the south side of Lake Natomas. We took a combination of singletrack and paved bike paths from the fish hatchery off of Hazel Avenue just east of Gold River all the way to where the trail ends abruptly at the property line for Folsom Prison. Pictures from the Ride are here.

Web Developer For Rent

It’s been a little bit since I last posted, I haven’t been idle. For starters I made some significant changes to the Trailhead Map Page. Those changes have been in place for a while but you might not have noticed there is now a “Link to this View” link on the top of the page which you can use to save the current page, including the exact map zoom and location. On top of that, what you probably didn’t notice is that my web site has move to yet another new home. The last one host was getting a bit sluggish and this one offered more space and better performance.

I’ve also been quite busy at work and I’ve picked up a lot about Oracle. In fact it was a real “Crash Course” in the most literal sense, the server crashed and I had to learn fast or die. The other thing I’ve been learning quite a bit about at work is more advanced web site techniques. I’m pretty jazzed about some of the things I’ve picked up lately and just hope I have the time to put some of them into action. The sort of thing you see on the map page is just the tip of the iceberg.

Additionally I would like to start doing independant web development. This site showcases some of the things I’m capable of but there is so much more. What I really specialize in is database driven applications and interfaces to outside applications. If you are looking for a web developer for a project or if you know someone who is looking for one, drop me a line.

Pinecrest Peak & Silver Lake

Two great epic weekends. On the first I rode The Pinecrest Peak Downhill with the trogs and followed it with a ride from the Confluence Area to Foresthill Divide. Then the next weekend I rode Bear Valley again with the trogs and on Sunday I rode Silver Lake with Gary. Pinecrest Peak is always a phenominal ride and we rode the whole tamale, starting from the store and riding all the way out to Hammil Canyon and back. That was truly an adventure. Silver Lake was a new trail for me and I always savour new trails. We took some singletrack on the back side of the lakes up then Squaw Ridge across to a killer downhill run called Horse Canyon. The Silver Lake ride is definitely a repeat.

Return to Toads + Hole in the Ground

Well this weekend we returned to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride in Tahoe (Pictures Here) and then on Monday I finally made it to Hole in the Ground Trail (Pictures – Link works now).) Rather than shuttling Toad’s we climbed up Oneidas Road to Armstrong pass and then through Freel Meadow which is a much more challenging ride. The initial climb itself is about 2500′ then you head out cross country along the Rim Trail and tack another 500+ feet to the total. That said the extended ride is well worth the effort. The scenery from the Tahoe Rim Trail at this point is absolutely incredible and the singletrack is awesome. Mostly it’s fairly buffed smooth stuff but there are a good number of challenging technical sections as well.

Originally we had planned on going to Christmas Valley but our guide flaked on us. Hole in the Ground turned out to be a great second day ride. There was still quite a bit of climbing but it wasn’t so bad that we couldn’t manage it after the exertions climbing to Armstrong Pass the day before. Rocks and granite slabs are the biggest features of Hole in the Ground trail. Everywhere you go there are chunks of granite you need to work one way or the other. If you can still stomach it there are a ton of granite slabs (California Slickrock) and boulders to play on all around the trail as well.

Cannell Plunge – Labor Day Weekend (Updated 8/30)

Y’all are invited to an incredible ride weekend for Laborday weekend. Smack in the center of the state is one of the best rides in the state, the Cannell Plunge. Imagine 25+ miles of incredible single track loaded with technical downhills, incredible scenery, screaming-fast white knuckle downhills, beautiful buffed singletrack, and even optional death marches for the criminally insane. This grand finale is an awesome 8 mile downhill that descends over 5000′.


This is a tough ride but it is truly one of the best rides this beautiful state has to offer. I’ve ridden a lot of places and very very few have the sheer variety of fun that you find on this trail. A couple years ago I met Mountain Bike Bill there and he was equally impressed.

Here’s the gameplan for the weekend:

  • Saturday Noon we are meeting at the riverside park in Kernville and will riding a trail called Just Outstanding AKA Shirley Meadows. This is a 16 mile downhill and we will be shuttling it.

  • Sunday 8:00 AM we will meet again at the riverside park to ride the Plunge. We have a shuttle reserved for 10 people plus we can shuttle up to 10 more which should be plenty for our purposes.

  • Sunday post ride (~4:00PM-???) Tri Tip BBQ, party.

  • Monday : It looks like we will have a rafting trip on Monday. Full details about the rafting trip will be available when we get to Kernville.

Continue reading Cannell Plunge – Labor Day Weekend (Updated 8/30)