Check the weather update at the bottom of the post

On September 22nd and 23rd the TROGS, the Ogre (from Ogrehut.com), and some Sonora area locals are inviting you to a get together at Pinecrest Peak. Prepare for 2 days of riding, camping, and general MTB mayhem. If you’ve never ridden at Pinecrest, this is a great chance to try out some awesome Sierra Nevada trails which are a bit off the beaten track. Anyone is welcome to show up and we have plans for any level of rider.

Location : We will be camping at Fraser Flat Campground near Strawberry on both Friday and Saturday Nights. All rides will meet at the Strawberry Store (Big Red Store on Right).

Times : Rides will meet at 10:00 AM on both the 22nd and the 23rd (Sunday’s Easy ride will start at 11AM)
The Rides: Exact rides and routes will depend on who shows up. Currently the following rides are planned.

Friday: We’re going to have a Friday night ride at 9PM along Fiona’s Favorite trail. The ride will be laid back and at a slow pace. Expect a mellow ride dodging trees through some fairly tame terrain. This is about a 9 mile loop and will be the only ride to start and finish at Fraser Flat campground. (Rain/ snow cancels)
Saturday: (none of the rides planned on Saturday are to be shuttled)
Easy Ride: Fiona’s Favorite Loop, down Ewok Trail from Strawberry, crossing the river at Spring Gap Road, then returning on the RR Grade to Strawberry. 10 miles, easy pace with very little climbing.
Challenging Ride: Climb up to Pinecrest Peak and alternately climbing up Willow Creek or Hammil Canyon then returning via Pinecrest Peak Trail.
Expert Route: This is a highly challenging ride for expert level mountain bikers, it’s a 35-40+ mile route with tons of climbing, technical cross country riding and finishes with the the killer Pinecrest Peak Downhill.

Sunday: Sunday’s plans are not set in stone yet. Here are the tentative plans for the day.
Easy Ride: 10-15 miles riding along the Flume trail above the Stanislaus River (may have a delayed start time due to shuttling Challenging riders)
Challenging Route: This will be a shuttled ride, the shuttle will drop riders off at the base of Eagle Peak and riders will climb up to Eagle Peak coming down some fresh new singletrack. At that point they can go directly to Pinecrest Peak via forest roads or drop down Willow Creek trail before climbing to Pinecrest Peak.
Expert Ride: A second day of high mileage, challenging cross country riding. The second day will likely not include Pinecrest Peak but will include 30-40 miles of challenging singletrack.

Cost: Zero $ (responsible for own campsite and food/ alcohol)
Registration: Just show up at Fraser Flat on Friday Night or meet us at the Strawberry Store on Saturday or Sunday Morning.

Saturday
Mostly cloudy with rain or snow likely. Highs 41 to 51 higher elevations…54 to 64 lower elevations. Snow level 7000 feet.

Weather seems to be deteriorating on Saturday. Still have a chance that it will blow over but I would suggest anyone day-tripping to come on Sunday rather than Saturday. The trails should be awesome post rain/ snow. I’ll be up there both days rain or shine and will likely ride on Saturday if it’s just limited to showers or a light drizzle. Friday nights ride is canceled if there is rain. Night rain rides are not fun (I’ve done it)

Also, note that Sunday’s Easy Ride will start at 11AM rather than 10AM as was listed originally.

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I’m working on updating my ride guides, one at a time like.  The first one to get a serious retinkering is my Pinecrest Peak Guide.  The format is slightly different and it’s very focused on getting you around the loop since there are so few other references out there for this trail.  I have also included some options for bonus mileage and even some simple shuttling instructions.  I’m going to try and add some maps soon as well.  Let me know how you like the layout.

The Ogre’s Guide to Pinecrest Peak

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I spend the last 5 days riding up in Oregon, 2 days on rides just with friends, and 3 days at Mountain Bike Oregon (MBO). Mountain Bike Oregon is a mountain bike get together held in Oakridge, Oregon, a no-name town in central Oregon with a trail system that is second to none. The ‘500 miles’ of trails listed on Mountain Bike Oregon’s web site is not an exaggeration, and the quality of the trails is phenomenal. Most of the trails are skinny, buffed single track, but there is a good selection of technical riding as well. Rivers and streams crisscross the unique rain forests of northwest Oregon. The technical challenges are as often made of roots and tree stumps rather than rocks and you are just as often riding on bark and pine needles as dirt on many trails. (My Pictures from MBO) Read the rest of this entry »

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Vince (Portola Vince on MTBR) had asked me to take him on a tour of some of the trails off of Highway 108. I had planned on showing him Pinball (Older Report) and a few other assorted trails but the week before Jeff Boatman was bragging about riding the lower half of Pinecrest Peak trail… hmmm, I had to get some of that action. Turns out we did ride Pinecrest but we sure payed for it (Skip to the Pictures). Read the rest of this entry »

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Well, I guess it’s not exactly stolen. This freakishly dry winter has left many of the lower elevations snow free. Even with the super cold temps the snow is fairly light at lower levels and over this weekend we were able to sneak in a January ride on Pinball, which should by all rights be under snow. Getting out on this trail this time of year was very cool. We were riding over giant frozen puddles, snow patches, and through occasional sections of mud. Definitely a unique ride. Check out the Pictures Here.

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Over the weekend I hooked up for a couple of Tahoe rides and I have to say that as great as Tahoe riding normally is it is even better right now.  The early snow we had followed by a dry weather since has made it sort of a mini spring up there.  Dust is at an all time low and even the ubiquitous sand and pulverized granite seemed much more tame than it usually is.  On Saturday hooked up with my brother from his time-share at Heavenly for a 13 mile out-and-back towards Star Lake along the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT).  TRT is as always great, this time it was better.  The trail was sticky and much less dusty.  There were some little patches of snow on North facing mountainsides and in a few places on the trail the snow crossed the trail. Generally where it crosses the trail it was thin and melted off but a few places it thawed then refroze into a slippery ice pack.

On Sunday I met up with Gary (Finch Platte) and Johnny (JFR) for a Toads run.  We my favorite Toads route up Oneidas to Armstrong Pass trail then Gary and I took a bit of a detour towards Star Lake and Johnny who’d been chasing us the whole time just kept cruising towards Toads. We hooked back up with Johnny just about in time for the DH. Then it was our turn to try and play keep up with him.

Toads was incredible. I can attest from my position in the rear of the Downhill that Toads was exceptionally dust free. The trail was also super tacky going down Toads. I’ve never bombed down those bermed out sections the way I did Sunday. Sweet!  On a personal note, I rode more of the technical sections that I even have, and I climbed better than ever as well. All in all a personal best performance all around on the climb and on Toads.

If you can get up to the Sierras before it snows… It doesn’t get any better than this.

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Wow – WOW - WOW! What an incredible trail. While the other two days of riding were great, this trail was a true gem among gems. The Middle Fork trail is a 25 mile shuttled ride that descends more than 3500’ from top to bottom and includes miles of incredible technical singletrack. The top 15 miles is an incredible serpentine trail that slithers over roots and slides past tree stumps at a lightning pace (well, it seemed that way to me anyhow YMMV). The trail is covered in bark and organic debris making traction questionable from moment to moment and tree branches and the occasional rock made it interesting. Not a big drop/ hucker trail this is the ultimate gravity assisted technical cross country trail.

After the first 15 miles or so the trail flattens out quite a bit and you are shooting through long meadows and zig-zagging over small creek crossings on logs and small bridges. The bottom of the trail is fast and fun with some small climbs thrown in to keep your heart rate up. Overall this is one phenominal trail which you should make every effort to ride if you are anywhere near here. As usual too much chatter, picture count and quality is low due to the addictive nature of this trail. Pics and more yakking about Middle Fork Trail.

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More MTB Oregon Action. Our first ride out the gate is the Alpine Loop and starts with a monster 15-18 mile climb up some forest service roads. A second group of riders took a shuttle to the top of the run, skipping the climb up. In total about 150 people rode this trail on Friday with about 100 of them taking the shuttle. After the 15+ mile climb we were rewarded with a brake burning 20 mile downhill run comparable to any of the popular Downieville rides… only the singletrack is 15” wide. Unfortunately, by the time our group started down the hill about 120 of the 150 people had already been down it so many of the corners were washed out from massive use overall though the trail was in great shape and obviously well taken care of. I would love to see this trail in the pristine condition it is normally in when it gets it’s typical 20 or fewer riders per week. Lots of super fast sections, switchbacks, some steep sections, jumps, and whoop-dee-doos. This downhill has a very high fun factor.

I rode up the hill most of the way with Impy from MTBR and Mark Gee, a Sonora local whom I had ridden with previously. After we started down the hill our group of about 15 riders broke up and when we hit the main downhill we were in a small/ fast group of 6 including Mark and Steve, one of the DoD ride guides. We kept the pace up and our group had no mechanicals so right around the half way mark we started catching the other groups coming down the hill. Mostly people who had either had mechanicals or had crashed or bonked. Overall for such a big group MTB Oregon and the DoD ride guides did an awesome job of keeping things organized and keeping folks together. This is a great ride either shuttled or ridden as a loop and is rideable by any level of rider with the endurance to handle the route.

Enough Chat. On to the Pictures!.

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