Fall in the Lost Sierra

Time is running short, the days keep losing minutes and the sun keeps creeping lower into the horizon, an adventure was long overdue. A plan was hatched. Whit Johnson, a newly arrived Foresthill resident by way of the high mountains of Colorado and I would ride from home into the vastness of the Sierra Nevada Mountains by means of our own power and will.

The route was both familiar and unfamiliar to me, a combination that intrigued and also worried me.

Was it too hard?

Too easy?

Would a Colorado boy who is used to the wide open spaces of the great Rocky Mountains be challenged enough?

Would I physically be able to do it?

All of these thoughts danced around my mind in the days leading up to our departure. We discussed the route and how much we would ride daily. After a year of training for races that would not be completed, I was in no mood to be in race mode. It was decided we would ride only during the daylight, stop when we wanted, take pictures and generally move at a fast but leisurely pace.

Excellent!

Day One. Foresthill to  the Emigrant Trail.

Whit and I decided on a Tuesday morning departure, work got in the way a bit for me and the later date was welcome. We met promptly at 7am at the end of Whits street above Foresthill for the ride out Foresthill Rd to Soda Springs. The road above town had just reopened from the American Fire in August and neither of us had been able to find the time to explore the destruction that had taken place.

We were both surprised and saddened at the changes that had happened to the place we call home. Landscapes had been changed that would not recover in our lifetimes.

Survivors from the last fire that went through here

Natures course

Never the same again...

We rode on up to Robinsons Flat where a final stand was made and the fire was stopped. It was nice to be out of the burn area and headed for greener environments as we headed up Foresthill Rd to Soda Springs Rd. and the descent down to the Cedars.

The view into the Cedars and the headwaters of the North Fork of the American River

Unknown Peak above Royal Gorge

Meadow below the Cedars.

Riding past the namesakes of the Cedars

Onion Valley

We made our way down to the through the Cedars and up to Soda Springs and on to the Donner Lake Rim Trail for some singletrack goodness. Topping out at the top of the Donner Lake Rim Trail Whit and I split up on the Alder Creek Trail as my shoulders were starting to feel a little worked.
( A little note should be made that I crashed really hard on my Cross bike the Fri. before we left and likely separated my already very separated shoulder a bit more and bruised a bunch of ribs.).
I met back up with Whit at the Emigrant Trail and we followed it a bit to finish off the first day at the backside of Prosser Reservoir.

Welcome lunch stop!

Whits ride, unlike most of us, Whit builds the bikes he rides. F-ing Awsome!

DLRT

Whit on DLRT

Grinding up the DLRT

Whit on DLRT

Alder Creek Trail Bridge?

Cool artwork

We finally arrived at a suitable spot for camp in a grassy meadow near Prosser Creek and settled in for the night amidst the growing clouds of a cold front that was due to hit the next day. Still a beautiful night to be out in the woods.

View from camp.

Home for the night.

  The days totals: 81 miles and 12,500' of climbing. Countless calories burned and memories added.


Day Two. Prosser to Graeagle.

Today's route was mostly dirt roads that generally consisted of Henness Pass Rd, which was the original emigrant route from Virginia City to Marysville in the late 1800's. We woke to clear skies and a cold bite to the air, but the anticipated snow had held off for the night which made breaking camp much easier. We headed off for the 10 miles of singletrack of the Emigrant Trail to Stampede Reservoir. About 15 minutes in it started to snow, well now isn't that special!
We continued on to Stampede Res. and decided to stop and put on all the foul weather gear we had. I hadn't done any of the route out past Stampede and got us a little lost as we searched for a dirt road around the lake. I could tell Whit was starting to suffer a bit as the temps really had started to drop, likely in the low 30's, I wasn't in a very good place either. As we made our way back to the paved road around the lake I dropped my bike and told Whit we were making a fire, right here, right now. I didn't get any grief about it so I set off to continue my streak of being able to make a fire in any conditions, even snow....

That's a real forced smile...

Brrrr.

Captain Firebug

Toasty hands and happy faces!

We sat around that fire for damn near an hour, drying out gloves and generally trying to get to a better place. There was talk of bailing back to Truckee, but that was quickly nixed as the snow stopped and our spirits were warmed by the fire.

We forged on into the unknown on our way to Graeagle. We decided pretty early that it was going to be a long cold slog and that we deserved a motel for the night. This gave us a little kick knowing we wouldn't be camped in sub freezing temps tonight. We made our way along Henness Pass Rd towards Jackson Meadows Res. and Yuba Pass Rd. and the eventual 3000' drop into Bassetts Station on Hwy 49 and Gold Lakes Rd.

Sardine Valley

Fall colors on Henness Pass Rd.

Yuba Pass Rd.

Great plaque

Whit's bitchin ride

First glimpse of the Sierra Buttes

The day was cold and the climbs long, but we eventually made it to Bassetts Station and treated ourselves to garlic cheese fries and coffee, a strange, but oh so satisfying combination.

I'm not a coffee drinker, but I made an exception....

Bassetts Station

From Bassetts Station we made our way up the Gold Lakes Hwy for a little Gold Lakes Basin singletrack. We finished up on the Graeagle Creek trail that landed us in Graeagle and our home for the night, the River Pines Resort.

Graeagle Creek Trail

Whit blurring up the Graeagle Creek Trail

Graeagle Creek Trail

Rocky goodness

Our home for the night.

We finished up the day with showers and a big Mexican food dinner at the motel restaurant. All in all a fairly short day mileage wise, but a long day on the mental toughness side of things.

Day Two totals. 81 miles and 8,300' of climbing.

Day Three. Graeagle to the Middle Fork of the Yuba River.

Day three started off with a bitchin breakfast at the Graeagle Restaurant, I cant believe I didn't get any pictures of the massive French Toast pile Whit pounded down in true bikepacker fashion!

Sweet shot!

Old company housing put to new and eccentric uses.

We were headed out of Graeagle and up Johnsville Rd to the A-Tree and the big drop down Lavezzolla Creek Trail to Downieville. The morning air was still brisk and the previous days totals were certainly weighing heavy on my mind, ribs, shoulder and more importantly my legs. I could tell Whit was feeling the 3rd day blues as well as his left knee was starting to bother him. We stopped at the Plumas-Eureka State Park for a quick dose of pharmaceuticals and headed up the 2500' climb to the A-Tree.

Lets see, what were the pink pills again....

Whit bombing up Johnsville Rd.

Johnsville Rd.

Johnsville Rd.

We crested Johnsville Rd and the crossing of the PCT and Lavezzolla Creek Trail. We dutifully ignored the PCT and set out the somewhat torn up upper section on LCT. Whit was bombing this section, I was somewhat timid as I didn't want to get hurt way out here in the middle of nowhere and ruin our trip. We finally hit the creek but were a little confused as to where we supposed to be. I had thought I had been on this trail before but had confused it with the Empire Creek Trail. The track showed up as being on the other side of the creek, which I had remembered it to be, too bad I was thinking of the wrong trail. We crossed the creek a few times looking for a sweet piece of singletrack, only to be turned back by the steepness and brush. I finally found a place where I could get across the creek and found that the track was indeed off and there was no trail on that side of the creek. After an hour and a half of screwing around we proceeded down the moto section of the LCT until it did finally cross the creek and turned into a bitchin piece of sweet sierra singletrack.

LCT

LCT

LCT looking towards Downieville

Whit disappearing into the lushness.

LCT

Lavezzolla Creek Trail rolled out in spectacular fashion. The temps were rising as were our spirits as we made our way past the mighty Empire Ranch and onto First Divide Trail

Don't fall right....

First Divide Trail.

We finally made our way into Downieville for a much needed lunch break. Unfortunately the entire town seemed to be either shut down or woefully understaffed. We were confined to the bleakness of the grocery store and gas station for food for the remainder of the day, certainly not the pizza I had been craving for hours....

We downed our pathetic lunch and headed for the North Yuba Trail and the eventually the town of Forest City high up on the Pliocene Ridge. The North Yuba Trail was spectacular as usual, such a great trail. We descended down into the little town of Goodyears Bar and made our way past the next leg of the North Yuba Trail for the 2000' climb up Mountain House Rd to the top of the Pliocene Ridge.

North Yuba goodness

Goodyears Bar.

We crested the Pliocene Ridge for yet another stretch of Henness Pass Rd, man that thing is everywhere! We really had no plan for today's camp, we figured we would make it to the South Yuba Trail for the evening, but the flailing around on the Lavezzolla Creek Trail had put that out of reach. It was decided that a run down into the Middle Fork of the Yuba River was going to be the ticket, and man was it a screaming 4000' descent down Tyler Foote Rd. to the bridge over the Middle Fork where we made or camp for the evening.

Our home for the night.

We had a nice evening. The temps were certainly starting to rise, and even though we were in the river canyon we were comfortable for the night. It had been a rough day on the bike though. Both of us were pretty beat, and with the lack of real food in Downieville we were certainly lacking in the calorie department for the day.

Day Three totals. Pretty short mileage wise at 57 miles, but nearly 11,000' of climbing for the day....

Day Four. Footes Crossing to Foresthill.

Day four started as had the prior days, a quick breakfast of oatmeal and maybe some cookies if I had managed to save some from the previous day, pack up the bikes and head out. We really didn't have an expectation of how today was going to go. We knew we had some big climbs, a lot of singletrack and the possibility of having to make it all the way home for lack of a place to camp as we got closer to the civilized world and all of it's trappings.

 I had never been out this way and it was all new to Whit as we headed up the climb out of Footes Crossing towards the South Yuba River drainage. The descent down to the bridge had been brutal, the thought of having to climb that same amount to get over the hill to the South Yuba was a bit daunting for both of us. Luckily the climb was no where near as bad as the descent from Pliocene Ridge, only about 2000' in about 4 miles. Whit's knee was really starting to bother him and my shoulder and ribs had been giving me fits since I started the tour on Tuesday. We were starting to ration and share drugs as we got a feel for what would work for us. Aleve was the drug of choice for Whit, lucky for me the Ibuprofen and occasional Vicodan were doing the trick for me. It was pretty funny watching us go through the bag of pills picking out our dose for the day....

The first one is free.....

Note the irony....

We crested the climb out of the Middle Fork and headed down some sweet dirt roads until we suddenly came to the intersection of North Bloomfield Rd and the South Yuba Trail. Damn that was fast, now were really starting to move! Of course that all comes to a stop when you hit the South Yuba Trail. It's an absolutely stunning piece of singletrack, but turning a fast average speed is out of the question on this beauty. That's alright, this is one of my favorite trails and no matter how many times I ride it I'm always amazed at the sights, sounds and smells this piece of the earth provides.

Don't get no better

Big country out here.

South Yuba Trail

Yeah, pretty decent stuff...

Don't fall to the right....

Dorks on bikes....

Shitty light, but really pretty in person. 

We had a great time on the South Yuba, spirits were high and even though it was taking a bit longer than expected, we were still making good time, lunch in the Republic of Washington was close.  For those of you who have never been to the town of Washington, I really have no words to describe it. We sat on the picnic bench outside the general store and took it all in. The sights, sounds and smells of this place are one of a kind, really no other place I know of that competes with the otherworldlyness of it. 

Dowtown Washington

The steeds...

Classic.

The climb out of Washington up to the Pioneer Trail is not easy, but we kicked it's ass and made our way down the Pioneer Trail to the Five Mile House for a quick late lunch/dinner. We really were at a crossroads. We could either saunter our way down the new Scotts Flat Trail(which was awesome) and camp at Scotts Flat Reservoir, or push on home and our warm beds. It was 4pm as we crossed the Scotts Flat Dam, I guess the decision had been made..... homeward bound we were. This was a bit unnerving, we were essentially looking at a 100 mile day and likely what I thought to be well over 12,000' of climbing if we were to make it to the confines of our homes. We had lights and taillights, we could in essence do it, did we have the muster to do it was another thing.

The route home was a mix of flume trails, dirt roads and paved roads that took us through Nevada City, Grass Valley, Colfax and Meadow Vista and eventually to the bottom of the North Fork of the American River at Yankee Jims for the 2,500' climb to home. We crested the paved climb out of the Bear River into Meadow Vista just as the sun was setting. It had been a absolutely great day, top 20 on the bike for me with great trails, great sights and great company.

Flume crossing.

Flume trails.

Our last stop.

We set our meager lights up and headed off into the darkness for the eventual make or break climb up Yankee Jims Rd. It wasn't pretty, there were a couple of stops, just the two of us sprawled out in the middle of that lonely dark road, looking for that extra bit of strength to make the final climb home.

We crested the very last bit of Yankee Jims at about 8:30. We said our weakened goodbyes and headed into the darkness alone for our respective home and the reality of life that we had managed to allude for the past 4 days.

Day Four totals. 102 badass miles and 15,300' of climbing to bring it home.

Totals for the trip. 323 miles and 49,730' of climbing and likely the same amount of descending. 

All in all a great trip!

Much Thanks to Whit for most of the stellar pictures. I launched my camera into a tree on First Divide and Whit was the lone photographer for the remainder of the trip.

Map of the route