Nevada City to Sierraville

Edit. Too much stuff going on to get to this till now. This was in April 2015. Going to try and make up for lost time!


Hooked up with Jeremy Noble for a nice trip from downtown Nevada City to Sierraville and back over the weekend. We had been playing a bit of e-mail tag but finally made it happen. I had no idea what Jeremy had in mind, but knowing his sense of adventure and how strong of a rider he is, I was up for whatever he had on his mind.

I had not been riding much as of late. A new relationship and a general need to take a break had me re-evaluating my priorities as to how I spent my time. I wasn't too worried, you don't lose a lifetime of fitness in 6 months. I knew however that whatever route we took, at some point we would be climbing over the crest of the Sierras, never an easy task!

We left NC bright and early on Saturday morning. The weather forecast was for a slight chance of rain up high, but the day was looking pretty dreary from the start. We headed out along HWY 20 on the lower Pioneer/ Harmony Ridge trail system until we reached Five Mile house and the Pioneer Trail.

Jeremy on Pioneer Trail

The weather had been co-operating for the most part, a few hit and miss showers had me rethinking my sleeping choice for the night, but we continued on nonetheless. Going up Pioneer is a wonderful experience. The upper sections of the trail up on Burlington Ridge are some of my favorite pieces of trail in the lower Sierras and the drop down to Bear Valley is just good old fashioned fun.

Jeremy looking down on Bear Valley

Upper Pioneer

Dogwoods on Upper Pioneer.

As we made our way down to Bear Valley the weather decided to take a turn for the worse. A light rain became steady which became heavy as we finally made it down to Bowman Lake Rd. I stupidly had not really taken into account this much rain, likely now near 3/4" had fallen. I pulled out my bag and sleeping clothes which I had not weatherproofed and found them to be pretty damp, not ideal for a night that would likely be below freezing! I was ready to pull the plug a dn I could tell Jeremy was on the fence as well. The plan had been to ride to a hot springs resort just outside of Sierraville for a soak and then disappear into the woods for the night.
 I decided to make a call up to the resort to see if there were any rooms available, sure we'd be dragging our gear up there for nothing, but it beat the hell out of freezing our asses off that night. Sure enough, two "dorm" room beds were secured and we headed off into the rain back on track.
The rain finally let up as we were headed out Blue Lake Rd. It wasn't warm, but the route is so technical and involves a decent amount of pushing that soon enough we were pulling off layers.

Looking down into the South Yuba River

Headed to Blue Lake

Jeremy on the Blue Lake trail

 Jeremy's route kept pushing us up the towards the crest and the terrain became increasingly tougher. I'd been out this way many times, but not in many years and never on a loaded bike. The views were incredible as we approached the crest of the Sierras above the Grouse Ridge area.

Starting to get up there!

Pretty

Jeremy trying to keep his feet dry!

Chunking along on Baltimore Lake Trail

Spaulding Lake in the foreground

Pretty marsh/meadow

Headed for the crest.

Starting to get a little colder.....

Not much riding towards the top.

Baltimore Lake?

The crest of the Sierras.

We finally made the top of the crest. Some snow had fallen and some of it was still left over from what little winter we had. Good thing Jeremy knew where we were headed because I had no idea where to go.

Yeah, lets go that way......

Its' pretty amazing how much easier the riding gets after you get to the East side of the crest. We rode mostly dirt roads down past Meadow Lake, around Webber Peak and towards Jackson Meadows. Eventually we made it to Yuba Pass Rd. for the climb up to Bonta Summit. I'd done this route many times so I knew what we were in for. Normally it's not a big deal, but after riding over the terrain we had during the day, it made for a tough go. At Bonta Summit we made the right turn and the 3000' dirt road decent down into the Sierra Valley. It was nice to feel the warmth return to my fingers and toes as we lost elevation. I was looking forward to being done with the day, we had made pretty good time considering the weather and terrain but it was going to be nice to be off my ass finally

Sierraville.

Our home for the night.

We settled in to a huge Mexican feast at a local restaurant, Jeremy managed to do a couple of shots of Tequila after downing a 1/5(?) of whiskey, something I certainly would not have had the ability to do, impressive to say the least. My beer and shot of Tequila had me wondering if I would have to sleep at the restaurant...... :)
We managed to make it to the resort before dark. A strange place it was... It had been taken over by a group of college students from Davis, wannabe hippies that were really pissing off the old school hippies that I imagine rule the roost most of the time.
The "dorm" beds were just that. Really, "hostel" would have been a better term. It was comprised of 6 beds in what I am sure was an attic space in the original hotel. No worries, I just needed a place to sleep and a shower, of which I had both available to me. After a few weird exchanges with some other guests, I realized I was the odd man out and headed off to bed while Jeremy went off for a soak. The scent of burning Tofu from the cafe downstairs mixed with patchouli oil from the hippies as I drifted off to sleep will be forever seared into my senses.....

Morning broke all too early. The problem with hostel sleeping is you get to witness everyone's weird sleeping habits. The snoring lady, the girl who goes to the bathroom every other hour.... you get it. The plan was to be on our way by 7am and I'll be damned if we didn't make it. Today's route would be a pretty direct shot back to Nevada City. We would make our way out past Jackson Meadows and Bowman Lakes on our way through Graniteville and eventually into North Bloomfield above the South Yuba River.

Dirt roads headed out towards Henness Pass Rd.

Jackson Meadows Res.

Bowman Lake

Bowman Peak, good trail up there!

Making our way to Graniteville.

Historic town of North Bloomfield.

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Although the route is mostly downhill, we still managed to climb nearly 9000' on top of yesterdays 11,000'. Today's route had been much better for me. I suffered pretty good in the cold and wet the previous day and it was nice to have that energized feeling today, hills were made small and the legs felt good. Jeremy and I sat around a bit in North Bloomfield knowing that the climb out of Edwards Crossing lie before us. It's paved and it's completely ride-able, but man it's steep when you are 70 miles in.

Edwards Crossing

We finally crested the climb on North Bloomfield Rd. and said our goodbyes. It had been a great route with a great company. We had made really good time today so I just figured I would go ahead and ride to Amy's house outside of Grass Valley instead of having her come get me. A quick call to Amy finds that she is out on a road bike ride and is 3 blocks away! We mange to find each other through a comedy of errors and hit the road back to her house. At this point I'm about 80 miles in and just want to ease my way back home. Amy seems to forget that I'm on my MTB with 1x11 gearing and proceeds to push 30 mph all the way home! I think that last 15 miles trying to hold her wheel was the hardest part of the day!

Whew, finally made it!

All in all a great trip on trails I had seen and some I had not. Perfect weekend!