Over the summer I’d heard about a new trail system, just south of Cool on Highway 49, called Cronan Ranch. This weekend we finally had a chance to explore the trails there. Fiona and I met my brother and we headed up there this weekend.

The trailhead for Cronan Ranch is almost on highway 49 and the trails drop down to the river from there. Expect mostly fast buffed singletrack through meadows with some light tree cover.  With all the exposure summer riding is bound to be hot plus there is a lot of thistle and foxtail growing in the park so now is a great time to get out there before it gets too hot and dry. Of particular note was the West Ridge trail. It’s a fun fast section of singletrack that follows along a ridgeline.  You can easily put together some 10-15 mile rides at this park with lots of single and doubletrack.  What you won’t find at Cronan ranch is any technical MTB riding.

This park system is slated to be expanded and the plan is to eventually connect these trails up to the Salmon Falls bridge and Sweetwater/ Salmon Falls.  Kevin and I explored some of the trails which will likely connect these two systems and it looks like there will be plenty of great views and good riding along the American River.

Hopefully I’ll get the chance to return there and put together some nice routes. I have some pictures but none came out very well, I might post them a little later on. For now here is a Map of Cronan Ranch from the Coloma Valley Recreation Page for Cronan Ranch.

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I stumble into the RV, my brain isn’t working quite right, I know I need to get out of my sweat soaked clothes, eat, and wake up my brother before I go to sleep. I start to change but get distracted by hunger and start to prepare some food. Before I make much progress there, I look at the clock, it’s 3:30AM. I set the alarm for 6AM so I can wake up in time for my next lap. Clothes are hanging all over the RV, mostly air drying stuff I’ve already worn. I chase down my clean, non-riding clothes and start to put them on but decide I’d better eat something first. Pour myself some chocolate milk and chug a little before my numb right toe reminds me I need to get out of my wet clothes. This time I manage to finish changing. Then I scramble up some eggs. I put some seasonings on them and too much salt but it doesn’t bother me one bit. Scrambled eggs have never tasted so fluffy and good. Drink a little Gatorade and some chocolate milk. The adrenalin is finally starting to drain out of my system. I’m getting tired fast. Read the rest of this entry »

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Well, actually Auburn seems to have many sides. Last weekend Ogre and I went to the Russell Rd. trailhead to ride. It was overcast and threatened rain so we figured that we’d play it by ear, but brought the rain gear along in our packs. We dropped down the road to Manzanita and rode that until it hit Stagecoach. Climbed back up Stagecoach to where Upper Stagecoach hits it and then rode Upper Stagecoach back down to Stagecoach and then continued down to the Confluence. Ogre wanted more miles and I needed a break so we decided I’d hang where I was and he’d go ride a loop on the other side of the bridge. He expected to be gone for 1-1 1/2 hours and we planned for me to start climbing back up Stagecoach after he’d left me for 30-45 minutes. Just 30 minutes later and I feel a couple of drops. Hmmmm… 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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This afternoon Fiona and I headed out to Lake Hogan (Trail Guide) which is our local goto trail when we have some spare time in the evening. I’ve been ramping up my riding this spring so I was feeling pretty good on the trail. Fiona was riding better than ever and took the upper trail which is aggressive for her. Usually, we split up, but today we were sticking together, so I had a lot of down time to do some light trail clean up. This was also the first time I was able to ride a section that we had cleaned up a couple weeks ago and I was pretty happy with the results. Read the rest of this entry »

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So you’re a bit short of time and you want to get a long ride in. You’re local trail is fun but… short. What to do? Blow it out, ride it every way possible and the good ones twice that’s what you do. Read the rest of this entry »

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From everything I’ve heard making the adjustment from Geared to SS is generally supposed to be a rough adjustment, this hasn’t turned out to be the case for me. My commuting has been on flat ground so the 34×13 gear ratio I run during the week keeps me cruising at about 20-22MPH with a nice cadence, my commute time is equivalent or often better than it was on my road bike. On the trail I did a pretty big 36 mile ride out of Columbia and this weekend I did a ride at Salmon Falls. On both rides I did wind up walking in a few places where I would normally ride but on the singlespeed I just can’t help but ride faster. Technical riding is the biggest challenge so far. The 29″ wheels help a lot but I just can’t quite ride up to the level that I was able to.  We’ll see how things progress.

One of the biggest reasons I did this was to have an interim bike while I got the fork repaired on the Titus.  The thing is I’m having so much fun I haven’t even taken the fork off the Titus yet

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No, it wasn’t some sort of Viagra induced medical nightmare, I just finished up my first full weekend of riding on a new rigid single speed. My road bike was stolen a while ago and I needed a replacement commuter bike. I’ve been using my Titus for commuting but the fork has been slowly bleeding out over the last few months and the 8 mile commute on a full suspension bike is a bit much. So I sold a Giant AC2 I had sitting in my garage and with the proceeds I bought a Redline Monocog 29er. So while my Titus is down, I’m going to be a single speed only guy. This weekend (Jan 27-28th) was my first real trial on the trails and it was quite the initiation.

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