The most recent storm dumped 6”-8” of snow up top. Limited shuttles this weekend. The snow may melt off. Call for most up to date information. We will post an update to the snow conditions as soon as we are clear if it is sticking or melting. If this melts off, it will go straight into the ground for the best dirt conditions of the season.
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Fall is upon the Downieville Downhill, and some of the best conditions of the season are upon us. The fall rains pack down the dust, the trails get tacky like velcro and the fall colors entertain the eyes.
We are posting bi-weekly conditions reports for Downieville, so riders can squeeze every possible day of high country riding into the end of the season (which has gone into December on some years!)
Current conditions: All trails are open. After a few rains: tackyness in spots, bone dry in others. Dust is low to minimal.
For more info check out the Downieville Outfitters Trail Conditions page.
Char and I picked up a Tandem from Morgan about a month ago and we’ve been slowly getting into the swing of the tandem thing. We’ve had some problems with the rack but that mostly took some time to resolve… wrestling a 60 lbs 6’+ long bike onto the roof is bound to take a little getting used to. We’ve also been getting a lot of small evening rides in. Last weekend we had a great ride with Fred-da-Trog and family and this weekend was a bit more challenging a ride, we headed for a ‘solo’ run in Auburn… unfortunately we picked a scorcher of a day to do it.
We suspected it was going to be way too hot for sane people to ride so we brought tons of h2o and other liquid refreshments. We started in the Confluence and rolled up the Clementine climb… it was a warm start but we managed to make the climb in a decent amount of time then took a bit of a break so Fiona could get her lungs back. We nibbled a little then took off down the Connector Trail Read the rest of this entry »
Lots and lots of riding lately. As you can see from our last post Fiona and I have a tandem now so we’ve been trying to use it as much as possible. It’s a little bit challenging moving it about because the rack makes our car too tall to fit into the garage. Just this week we figures a way to work it so we just pull part of the rack off which makes it much more convenient for accessing. In spite of the fact that it’s a huge bike the tandem can be a blast to ride. We’ve been riding it in the evenings on the levee routes near our house. When I first started riding I rode on the levees quite a bit for fitness but now I don’t get on them very much. Lately I’ve been on a kick to drop a few pounds so I’ve talked Fiona into doing some evening rides out on the levees and it’s been great. Riding on the tandem means we stay together the whole time and no waiting for me. Strangely I think we both get more exercise on the tandem than we did previously. She gets more miles in and I ride harder for the same distance.
I also wanted to talk a little bit about Mountain Bike Oregon (MBO). This is an amazing event, this was our third year attending and we have yet to be disappointed. You can read my previous review and of MBO. My only comment is that the popular Middle Fork ride was dramatically altered this year and the results were a bit disappointing. So a huge thumbs up to the event… but next year I will likely skip the extra $$ for the Middle Fork ride and just enjoy the closer in rides.
After MBO we spent a day riding the North Umpqua Trail (NUT) which is south of Oakridge along the North Umpqua River. This is an amazing trail filled with some spectacular views, long flowing downhills, it’s simply an amazing trail. Pictures and a more detailed review here.
Finally, I’m on a big push to get my weight down and my fitness level up right now (some people call this training) for a big ride coming up in September. As part of this I’ve been trying to get some longer rides and doing a little exploration in the Pinecrest area. We’ve discovered some great routes, and explored some really interesting areas over the last few weeks. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to share some of that on the site shortly. Not a lot to share yet, but I should have some GPS mapped routes up soon. Here is a route we did (motion based) that took us up to Eagle Peak and Pinecrest Peak. Some absolutely amazing views from those trails. I pretty much blew up early on that ride and never recovered so it was a looong day for me. I didn’t bring a camera but here are some older pictures of Eagle Peak and Pinecrest Peak
Riding bikes seems to be a forever evolving thing. You start by learning to ride, then try to acquire some skills to improve your riding experience. With each skill mastered, comes the need to try to do something harder, more challenging. Well, how about trying to ride a bicycle built for two?
A few weeks back Ogre and I were allowed to borrow a friend’s mountain tandem to see if we would enjoy the experience. We had played with the idea of getting one for a while, but I was nervous about the discrepancy in our ride levels. I had heard that matching your cadence is really important in riding a tandem. We ended our demo ride with big smiles and a decision that a tandem would be a great addition to our bikes. Over the following weeks we began looking through ads and discussing what features we thought would be the most important to have on our tandem. I personally wanted a rear suspension. The demo bike had a Thudbuster seatpost, but I felt like more suspension would be a better option. We talked about the tandem for a couple more days and finally decided to plan to get one for our anniversary in July.
Then this past week he comes home with the news that another friend has a mountain tandem that he’s getting ready to put up for sale. Want to try it out, he asks. Why not. He makes the arrangements, we get up Saturday morning, load our gear, and head out. Morgan has the garage open and is setting up the bike so we can try it as we pull up. He lives close to Joaquin Miller Park and has an idea of a route we can use to demo the bike. He rode along with us giving us hints and preparing us for anything tricky up ahead. The funniest part was him telling us how he rides this section or that one with his son so we should be ok. We manage to complete the route without any carnage and return to his house again wearing big smiles. What a blast!
Ogre turns to me with one question, so we doing this? Oh, yeah! So now we have our own tandem mountain bike to hit the trails. It’s going to take a little while to learn how to ride the tandem together. Other tandem riders we’ve spoken to have given us lots of great advice. The one thing that keeps coming up is that the captain and stoker must learn some commands. Everything from which foot to start pedaling with to when to coast have to be communicated back and forth. It’s going to be interesting learning all new skills, but I definitely think I’m up to the challenge.
Riding the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT) is always a blast. It’s an amazing trail system, probably one of the best in the Nation, possibly in the world. The views are spectacular and the riding is awesome. Over the weekend of the 4th I managed to snag 2 great rides.
On the 4th I met up with rocket scientist and all around great guy Big Larry and another good friend Kathleen who coaches a high school mountain biking team in the Bay Area. We rode the section of the TRT from Mount Rose down to the Tunnel Creek trail. At that point we split up, Fiona rode the Flume Trail while Larry, Kathleen and I rode down to Red Flume Trail then around to the TRT over Marlett Peak. All in all a great ride. The TRT from Rose to Tunnel Creek is a great section of trail for beginning and intermediate riders to get a handle on the decomposed granite and rocky technical riding the characterizes the riding on the east and south shores of Lake Tahoe. Spooner to Red Flume Pictures and Ride Report here.
Saturday I had some slightly more ambitious plans. Last year some of the guys and I pioneered a new (to us) route going from Spooner Summit to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. It’s brutal 40 mile ride starting on the east side of the lake and going all the way around to Meyers. It includes some brual climbs and a few amazing technical descents. Since this route was based on the classic “Punisher” route we dubbed it the Punsher Plus.
I’ve also rewritten my main Tahoe Rim Trail Guide to include information about more rides in the area, including these two.
There was a 40 acre fire in the Auburn SRA. Here is the story from News 10. From the buzz I’ve heard on MTBR it sounds like the fire started near the OHV/ Mammoth Bar area so likely the Confluence Trail and maybe the Culvert trail are affected.
Update: Sounds like there is a bit of trail damage near the culvert but that most of the trails are Ok and the damage is primarily in and around the OHV area.
If you haven’t noticed yet the Sierra Nevada is open for business. Trails pretty much everywhere are rolling, I’ve ridden Pinecrest Peak and Grouse Ridge. I’ve heard about people riding in Downieville, I think both Butcher and Paulie Creek are open… probably about everything. I’m not sure about Tahoe and Hole in the Ground yet but I think everything below 9000’ or so is probably open unless it has a lot of South facing slopes. So… head east my friends!!
Update: Check the comments below, looks like Toads is mostly open now too!
Update 2: Just heard from someone that Hole in the Ground is still partly covered in snow and tough to ride.
Update 3: Hole in the Ground is Open as is Freel Pass right now… If those trails are open pretty much everthing is.
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