I managed to get in on a Global Biorhythm Event shuttle finally. An e-mail had been kicking around for a couple of days. I'd get home and stare at it for a couple of minutes and blow it off because it was essentially a downhill shuttle, not my cup of tea. Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against shuttlers, it's just that I prefer to ride to the top of any hill I go down.
The saving grace was that the list of riders were decidedly not downhillers, in fact they were some of the best technical riders I know on top of just being good people. It would be cool to see a few guys that I hadn't ridden with in over a decade. The fact that they were all about my age or older made it a no brainer, I'm in.
I met Jim in Auburn at 5:20 am... ouch. The trip involved about 6 hours of driving for what I figured would be about 4 hours of riding, not optimal but it is what it is. Pinecrest Peak is outside of Sonora between Yosemite and Mono Lake on Hwy 108. I'd never been to the place so it was all new to me.
We managed to get everyone loaded up and on our way by 7 am in El Dorado Hills, no small feat with 9 riders. We would pick up Jeff Glass in Strawberry for the final drive to the top, good thing, it was tight with 9, 10 would have been over the top.
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| The GBE van with a buttload of money strapped to it. |
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We arrived in Strawberry, picked up Jeff and wound our way up to a flat area a couple of miles below the peak. We rode the dirt road up to the trailhead and dropped in. This area has been maintained basically by one man, he has built miles of trails over the years, most of it very primitive, think following cairns in the granite. The trails are on the down low, there are some secret squirrel maps with descriptions like" 400' past the top look for 5" red fir tree" for directions.
This is what we would be using today, amazingly, we were never really lost as Jeff Barker had been there before and done what was likely a ton of leg work figuring out how to connect up the various trails, Thanks Jeff!
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| A Motley Crew |
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The riding was nothing short of amazing. Pinecrest Peak Trail and the various offshoots were really fun with some fast technical chunk combined with steep drops and pitches.
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| Craig dropping off into Pinecrest Lake |
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| The view from Pinecrest Peak. |
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| Doug noodling along a face with some pretty good exposure, yeah these were the guys I was riding with.... |
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| Yeah, it's like this. This is not even steep by the rides standards. |
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We all rolled along hooting and hollering our way back down to the van. A little blood was spilled, nothing too much. I was in full survival mode, no way can I afford to get hurt right now, way too much work to get done.
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| John making his way down the hill. |
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| Dropping in on the little bit of dirt on the route |
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| Lots of this kind of stuff, that's a 90 degree turn at the top and a lot steeper than it looks. |
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| , Hey, a picture of me on some easy stuff |
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| River crossing |
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| Greg rolling under Pinecrest Peak |
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Thankfully I avoided Rob's fate.
Our second trip up the mountain would involve some of the more secret and toughest trail on the top of the peak. They weren't particularly long, but they were some of the toughest sustained riding I've done, made areas like Grouse Ridge or the Lakes Basin look tame in comparison.
Once again I managed to keep it upright, mostly due to watching Doug save himself in miraculous fashion from a certain life flight trip out of there, I kid you not, it was really scary. These trails were super primitive, super technical, a little unflowy but spectacular nonetheless. It would be really cool to spend enough time up there to memorize the lines and roll into sections in the correct place, something that eluded me on a number of drops.
In the end we all made it down with huge smiles on our faces, I was as worked as I've ever been for such a short amount of trail. All in all a really cool day with great riders.
Edit. Most of the above pictures came via the lens of Jeff Barker.
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