Friday after Thanksgiving the weather was great so I flew the 206 up to Grass Valley and did a South Yuba ride with a group of guys from MTBR. Unfortunately, my camera did a horrible job and the few photos I took turned out blurry or out of color balance (I’m certain the photographer had nothing to do with it). In any case… South Yuba is probably one of the best rides you can do this time of year. It’s a phenomenal trail along the South Yuba River. Not an extremely technical trail, but a great cross country route. We parked cars at Purdon Crossing and then drove up to the Omega Road drop in which is above the town of Washington. It’s actually less driving then driving into the town and you add 4 miles of downhill riding. Last time I did this trip I took some video and a few pictures which should give you an idea of how great this ride is.

Finally, today Fiona and I flew up to Rancho Murietta and rode the Latrobe Loop (link of previous ride)... or part of it anyhow. We didn’t realize it until we landed, but right now Rancho Murietta airport is closed for all night operations. We didn’t get there until around 3:00PM so we hustled as far as we could in 35 minutes then turned around and came back so we would make certain we didn’t get stuck.

I flew low and slow (130MPH anyhow) on the way back. We cruised by the Rancho Seco cooling towers. We were so close we could almost look down the top of the cooling towers. Then we were just in time to overfly the beginning of the Stockton Lighted Boat Parade. It was a very cool perspective to see all the boats lit up from the air.

The other big ride I was on was a 3 day camp-n-ride at Pinecrest Peak. Although I wasn’t surprised this time around at how great Pinecrest Peak was I was floored by some of the other incredible singletrack we found. I’m trying to do one more ride up there before the season is done. We shuttled Pinecrest Peak and Eagle Creek (Pictures) on the first day. Eagle Creek is an incredible downhill run that I’ve ridden as a loop before. It starts out slow but then there is a 2-3 mile section of some incredible technical singletrack that will leave you begging for more. Sunday we started out on Willow Creek trail, then hit Pinecrest Peak and rolled all the way back to Fraser Flat campground (Pictures). Willow Creek trail is a new trail Jeff showed us above Pinecrest Peak. It’s a tight and moderately technical singletrack downhill section that is a great warmup for Pinecrest Peak trail. We added a new section at the end of Pinecrest which I call the Secret Sauce. It’s a relatively hidden trail which I found earlier this summer the suprised even Jeff, our “local knowledge” goto guy. It’s a fun little section where you spend about 4 miles riding as fast as you can on a slight downhill dodging trees as you go. I would love to call it Endor trail after the light cycle scene in Return of the Jedi but that’s been done to death.
This coming weekend however is dedicated to saying goodbye to Tahoe for the season. As a bonus I might… just maybe be able to fly up to Tahoe on this trip. It’s a bit grey fuzzy right now because I need a checkride before hand.

Speaking of flying… I’ve been doing a ton of flying this fall. The biggest trip I’ve been on yet in fact. A co-worker and I flew to Phoenix on a business trip. On the return trip we landed in Henderson Nevada and took a rental car to the strip. We cruised the casinos until 1AM and I wound up ahead by about $100. The next morning we flew from Vegas home. The Sierra Nevada mountains are incredibly beautiful when you are flying through them at 13,500’. The Owl (that’s what we call the Plane) is a great bird to fly and cruises at 150-160 miles per hour. She’s a little thirsty but I can deal with that for all the utility we get from her. I also took my mother and my daughters up to Columbia. Then this last weekend we flew up to Sacramento to give my Gert, Mother-in-law a trip up to Auburn and Grass Valley. Flying is truly addicting… and expensive. Anyhow.

It all started late last year, we had signed up for MTB Oregon, which is a great mountain biking event in Central Oregon (how great we had yet to discover). Simultaneously, I was working on getting a friend’s plane flying. Then it occurred to me. What if we could fly to the MTB Oregon Ride? So we set our plans in to motion and the result was an adventure we will not soon forget.

For the impatient you can check out the Photos Now.

Getting ready for the trip was a huge adventure in itself since at the beginning of the year I had the use of an aircraft that had been grounded for 15 years and I lacked the rating to fly it. At the last minute… literally on the day before we were supposed to leave I got the rating. Then, I had to somehow get 5 hours of time in the aircraft logged before leaving the next day at noon. So, on Wednesday evening a mini-marathon of airport hopping ensued. I was supposed to meet Big Larry at Reid Hillview and Joe (JayDedBee) at McClellan. I flew to Reid Hillview in San Jose and Gustine (at sunset) then returned to Stockton in the Dark which took care of about 1/3 of my required hours. Realizing that my Cross Country flying was totally out of practice, I got home and did some serious cramming so I could finish my required flying the next day safely.

Woke up and got to the airport around 8AM on Thursday to finish up before coming back to Stockton to pick up Fiona. Thursday morning, flew to Reid Hillview again, then Concord (got yelled at by the tower), McClellan, overflew Auburn (and the Foresthill Bridge), Salmon Falls, then flew to Calaveras (overflying Lake Hogan), fueled up and then flew to Stockton to pick up Fiona.

Crammed some lunch while Fiona packed the plane, then it was off to Reid Hillview to pick up BigLarry. Grabbed Larry and then up to McClellan and picked up Joe. From McClellan we opted to do a bit of sight seeing en-route so we cruised up to Auburn and I showed them the Auburn Ravine, Lake Clementine, the Foresthill Bridge, and the old Auburn dam site. We then headed in a northward direction. My weak Cross Country skills were showing again as we wandered a bit off course a few times but, generally (I think) everyone enjoyed the flight and the sites. Mount Shasta was phenominal and Crater Lake rocked.

We turned for Oakridge after Crater Lake and started descending from our altitude of around 11,000’. As you all know, when you go downhill things speed up a bit… When we came over the Hills Creek Lake dam we were going about 180MPH. We flew over camp at about 3000’ and waggled our wings at our earthbound cycling brethren took one look at the airstrip and I nearly crapped. We didn’t have to worry about which way the wind was blowing because there is really only one way in and one way out of that strip.

We circled around town much like a confused duck whose favorite pond has dried up, then came in for another go, this time a little slower. The landing was pretty ugly, we bounced twice and rolled off into the dirt but we were down, nothing was broken and no one was hurt. Just as we were taxing back to parking, Shiggy’s car rolls up. Surprisingly enough Larry and Joe were both content with the landing or too afraid to speak out at that point, I’m not sure. Even more surprising neither one sought out alternate transportation for the return trip.

The riding? Oh yeah, we rode bikes this weekend didn’t we.

Holy carp, talk about your awesome trails. Friday we rode the Alpine Loop from the Covered bridge, Saturday we snuck out of camp and rode Waldo Lake with the Lemurian Guy and BikinFoolForLife, and Sunday the capstone ride, Middlefork Trail. Wow, Wow, and Holy carp that was Awesome! I’ll put another post with pics up to highlight the rides because they deserve their own special place.

Exhausted and happy we took one last dinner at Mazatlan (awesome Mexican Food with great margaritas) and spent one final night. We woke up around 7AM, packed up our camps and Impy drove us to the airport (Big Big Thanks Impster). I was a little cautious because it was overcast but it was still VFR legal and the clouds were plenty high enough for us to fly under so we took off out over the valley, cruised over camp one last time to wave goodbye and then climbed like mad to get out of that little valley of singletrack bliss.

Our first stop was to be Cottage Grove, cheapest AV Gas in Oregon I think. Unfortunately, as soon as we got over the mountains everything west of the foothills was completely socked in. We flew over Cottage Grove and there wasn’t a chance we were getting through the solid bank of clouds (legally). So we headed south. I figured roughly that we had enough fuel to make it to Redding. We set out south from there. We ran the right fuel tank down to nearly empty then switched to the left which showed about 1/3 tank on the gauge. About 5 minutes after we took the shot with the snake on the plane there was a sound that turned me white… it was the sound of wind passing by the cockpit of the plane at 160 MPH unmasked by the roar of the 285 Horsepower Lycoming engine.

The engine was restarted quickly enough by switching to the other tank and we had plenty of altitude. Once we got through the pass we might have made it to Redding on the other tank but that was a zero margin of safety thing that none of us were excited about. Cut the power way back and we enjoyed some great views of Mount Shasta and the Weed area as we slowly spiralled down and landed safely in Weed and filled up. When we landed the fuel gauge on the left tank still showed 1/3 tank of fuel. When we openned the tank it was bone dry. We fueled up and the rest of the return trip was fairly uneventful.

It’s probably going to be a while before I embark on a trip this ambitious again. It was a great trip and even with the excitement it was worth every minute and every dollar spent (which was quite a bit). Enough Yakking, Check out the pictures.

Bummer, no pictures of me flying but here’s my log book and student pilot certificate

Cleanup – May 22, 2003

I’ve spent a bit of time cleaning up a lot of broken little things on my site.
Due to the self inflicted and forced changes which this site has undergone over the last few months I had about 20 broken links internal to the site. I fixed the broken links, bad email addresses, cleaned up the html a bit and will be trying a couple of new “gee whiz effects on the site.

We went to Henry Coe a couple weeks ago but the camera failed me. All I can say is that it is a phenominal place to ride. We rode about 25 miles and did about 5,000-6,000 feet of climbing. I am hoping to return soon to give this place a proper review and lots of nice pictures.

Web Chaos – May 11, 2003

If you managed to find my site then perhaps things aren’t as bad as I think.
My web hosting provider went out of business and in the process I lost my domain name “Ogrehut.com”.
As you can see I am back on the web now as Ogrehut.net but all the other sites which link me including all of the search engines have lost track of my site.
I am working to get all outside links back online, and also to reclaim my original domain name but in the meantime Ogrehut.net is here to stay.

Thanks for sticking with me.

Rockville – May 5, 2003

It’s been tough to get dry rides in during these late season rains but we managed to have a nice warm sunny ride Saturday at Rockville. We did get rained on a little bit but only after we had gotten two hours of great riding in. Look for a ride report from Henry Coe coming soon.

Granite Bay & Pacheco Pass – April 23, 2003

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a new ride report, so I’m over due. I guess I’ve saturated most of the good rides within a couple of hours of here :) Here’s my latest report from Granite Bay which is on the north shore of Folsom Lake. I also rode at Pacheco Pass with the guys from TROGS. Unfortunately when I rode Pacheco Pass I had some problems with my camera so I don’t have any pictures of the ride.

Racing – April 17, 2003

The Prairie City Race Series for 2003 has started. Every Wednesday night they set up a different 3.5 – 4 mile course at the Prairie City OHV park for mountain bikers to race on. Beginner classes race 2 laps, Sport and Clydesdales 3 laps, and Experts race 4 laps around the park..

For the second year in a row I am competing in the beginner class. I am racing much faster this year than last, this week even with a small crash near the beginning of the race and loose seatpost I had to adjust mid-race I still managed to post a 9th place finish which is my best ever. My goal for the year is to win one beginner race and then move to the Clydesdale class.

Changes – March 22, 2003

Things are much better now, the site is about 95% fixed. Almost all of the URLs for the trail reviews have changed so I put up redirects so links from outside sites will still work. If you find problems with the site, please let me know.

Changes – March 22, 2003

I am migrating my site to a new server and there are lots of issues. Pretty much everything is broken. The site should be fully functional again by the end of the weekend. I am also implementing some major changes in the site which should result in a better website overall. If you would like to browse my trail database it in it’s “Work in Progress” State feel free to go to The new Trail Tree

SGW - March 8, 2003

I am hosting the photos Land Park Criterium and the Mather Criterium for the Sacramento Golden Wheelmen, yeah I know it’s a road bike race, sue me. The Mather Race Photos are up now.

Forest of Nicene Marks – January 21, 2003

I had to go to Santa Cruz last weekend for work so I brought my bike and invited my oldest daughter Liz along to ride with. On Friday evening I decided to ride at Wilder Ranch, we had a late start from Stockton and didn’t get to Santa Cruz until 4:00PM so I strapped on my new Headlamps and we had a fun night ride.

On Saturday we headed out for Forest of Nice Clean Parks Forest of Nicene Marks (I fixed the link). The scenery is beautiful, the trail is smooth, and the grade easy which makes this is a very popular place for the locals to take their families. If you decide to show up on a weekend expect lots of dog walking traffic.

Salmon Falls – January 14, 2003

The Salmon Falls ride report is complete, we rode the Sweetwater/ Salmon Falls double loop again last weekend so I have put the photos in from that ride and cleaned up the ride report. For those who haven’t tried it the Mickey Mouse Downhill at the end of Salmon Falls is one of the most challenging in the Sacramento area. I have also posted the pictures from our recent ride near Angels Camp on the Parrot’s Ferry Downhill. This is also a very fun ride, but was soured when my frame cracked. Right now it’s pictures only, I should have a ride report up soon.

Sweetwater – December 28, 2002

I have finally posted a ride report for the Sweetwater Trail pictures which have been up since July. The Ride report is from a recent double loop we did with Sweetwater Trail and Salmon Falls. I have also posted a ride report for Salmon Falls even though I only have one picture right now. When we rode the other day we were trying to get as much riding in as possible before it rained so I don’t have much time for pictures.

Action Alert – December 4, 2002

Please take a minute to go to this page on FATRAC’s website. Currently the State Parks are working on the Folsom/ Natoma Lake General Plan and they are currently soliciting comments. Go to the page, fill out the form and mail it to the address indicated on the form. A simple “Hi I am a mountain biker and I enjoy riding in this area, please include plans for mountain bikers in your new general plan” should be enough. We all complain about trail closures and limited trails, now is your chance to put in your two cents worth.

Also, while you are at it go to the IMBA site and fill out This internet form to send an e-mail to Sen. Diane Feinstein to tell her that you feel the current draft of the Wilderness Bill which is being rammed through Washington by Barbara Boxer is too extreme. There are better ways to protect the environment than to ban mountain biking and OHV use on huge tracts of land.

Foresthill Divide – December 2, 2002

I was going through the site and I realized that the old ride report for Foresthill Divide pretty much stunk. So based on a killer group ride I did recently which included Foresthill and the Clementine Loop I have created a New Foresthill Divide Ride Report. I hope you enjoy the ride report as much as we enjoyed the ride.

Ride News – December 2, 2002

I haven’t been posting any new ride reviews lately. This is not because I haven’t been riding, I’ve actually gotten quite a few miles recently. Mostly I have been riding places which I have ridden before. Short days, Holidays, and weather have put a crimp in my schedule. I anticipate a slew of new ride reviews in spring and early summer. I am not certain I will be able to keep up the aggressive pace I set for myself early this summer because it’s gotten a lot harder to find new (good) places to ride without driving 3+ hours.

This last week I was extremely busy because I decided with the 4 day weekend that I would ride 100 miles on the mountain bike. I didn’t have the GPS or a trip computer for every trip so the mileage is a rough estimate.

Places I rode on my 100 mile quest:

• Salmon Falls/ Sweetwater Trail – starting at Falcon Crest (~15 miles)


• Coyote Point Trail On Thanksgiving Day I went miles further than I have ever gone on this trail (~15 miles).


• I also did the Stagecoach/ Clementine double loop plus we extended the ride by doubling back after finishing the Manzanita trail to hit the Flood Trail (~15 miles)
• 10 miles at New Melones Reservoir plus about 16 miles on farm roads in one day (26 miles/ day)


• Plus about 26 miles on unpaved roads and bike trails near my house
  

So perhaps I came up a little short of my 100 mile target but if I didn’t make the 100 mile mark for the week I was damned close (and I’m going to sneak a 5 miler in tonight for insurance :).

Latrobe Loop – November 15, 2002

This ride report is from a ride I did at the end of September, but I am only just getting arount to posting it. The Latrobe Loop is a 12+ mile loop on country roads which loops around the Rancho Murieta Community. The road goes through some scenic farmland and there are a few moderate hills but overall this is a pretty casual ride. Consider riding here in the winter time when it’s rainy and you just have to get out of the house. I also found out that it makes a great night ride.

Point Reyes Trip – November 5, 2002

I’ve been neglecting the site a bit, but I haven’t been idle so this week you should see a bunch of updates to the site. First, I have this ride report from Point Reyes. If you are looking for hard core Mountain Biking you will probably be disapointed but the good news is that if you bring your bike to the point there are some fun places to ride.

Last weekend was a killer ride weekend. No new trails but we did a monster 25 mile ride including the Clementine Loop and Foresthill Divide Loop plus as a bonus we rode about 11 miles on Sunday at Elliots Crossing. Look for updates and new photos on those ride reviews soon.

Web Site Problems – October 21, 2002

I came back from a trip this weekend to find that my web site was completely broken. My Web Hosting Provider has screwed me over (again!). I have put some temporary fixes in so the site works (mostly) but many of the nice features on the site are broken until they fix this. I am working with them to resolve the problem but don’t know when they will get their act together. Update: All Problems with the site have been resolved.

Oat Hill Mine Trail – October 17, 2002

I finally finished a major rework of the ride report pages, I also created a printer friendly page where you can print out a ride report. To show off these changes I made a special trip to Calistoga and rode the Oat Hill Mine Trail. If you like the idea of climbing for 4 1/2 miles of rocky, technical terrain and then turning around and bombing down it then you will love the Oat Hill Mine trail. I also went to Point Reyes this weekend so expect a ride report from there soon.

Reorganizing – October 7, 2002

Some major changes in the way the site is structured. My menubar was getting way to complicated, so I tried to group the rides into regions. I have created a Trail Locator Map to help you sort the whole mess out. Please let me know if you are having trouble with the new layout and I will try to straighten things out a bit. While you are exploring be sure to check out the onMouseover=”document.banner.src=’/Images/Banner7.jpg’”>Penn Mine Trail Ride Report which is located in Campo Seco, a small town north of Valley Springs.

Elliot’s Crossing (Rubicon River Ride) – October 1, 2002

This weekend I managed to get out of town long enough to find a real gem of a trail. Elliot’s Crossing (along the Rubicon River) is a fun trail which offers a rare blend of solitude, awesome singletrack, and a just enough challenge to add some spice to the ride. It is not the most technical ride, but it’s not a beginners ride either. It’s also fairly strenuous so bring along an extra lung. Read more about Elliot’s Crossing here

Northstar – Mountain Bike Park – September 22, 2002

Kevin had a free pass to Northstar that he wanted to use before he was out of commision for the season so this weekend we went to Tahoe and did some serious Downhill riding. I have photos up.

Skyline Park (Napa) – September 2, 2002

This Sunday we made the trip to Napa and rode Skyline Park. Skyline is beautiful park filled with awesome singletrack and some of the most technical terrain I have ridden.

Flying – August 25, 2002

Terry, a good friend of mine from our local Linux Users Group (CVALE) offered to take me and my family on a short flying trip. His plane is a Taylorcraft two seater so we took turns. While we were flying I managed to get some photos of our house and some trails that I ride on at Lake Hogan. He also offered to let us fly the plane while we were airborne. Check out the photos we took