About 50 miles. Here's a partial GoogleEarth GPS track: 2007-09-13 track.kml (Damn GPS12, it keeps turning itself off -- it's due for a replacement)
Click a picture to see a larger view.
Maybe one of the last (mountain) rides of the 2007 season. :( Met Dana and KTM Steve at the Stove Prairie trailhead. The weather threaten rain, but scattered clouds and sun was reassuring. Old Flowers Road and Monument Gulch was uneventful, just some fast riding over relatively easy terrain.
The day's adventures got interesting as we decided to tackle the Donner Pass single track. The lower section is the easiest of the three sections. However, there is a spot which requires non-expert riders to dismount and walk their bikes around a couple of switchbacks while repositioned the bike along the way. In giving Dana a hand, I found that her bike was really light. NCTR's engineering on the new bridge made the second stream crossing a breeze. (I had done this section once before and the previous bridge was in ruins).
Exiting the lower section and made a few wrong turns in searching for the trailhead to the upper section. (It's my understanding that the middle section of Donner Pass trail is extremely advanced terrain and is typically done as a downhill ride rather than an uphill -- I wonder what's lurking in there?)
Found the trailhead to the upper section and it was more difficult than the lower section. It had numerous rock steps and its difficulty level was sustained -- what an arm workout it was. Upon encountering what seemed to be an old lumber operation, fatigue got the best of me and I wiped out. Got the bike up and rested while waiting for Steve and Dana, then it begun to snow! Regrouped and decided to head back down -- even we were probably within a half of mile of the top. Also, on the way up, we encountered about a dozen mountain bikers who walked their bicycles up and then rode them down.
Due to the rapidly changing weather, we opted against climbing West White Pine Mountain and headed down Buckhorn to do Moody Hill. It seems that each time I do Moody, it gets harder, but easier. On one of the big steps, I decided to hit it almost head on -- wrong answer. The front reared up and dumped me over. Bruised my wrist a bit but Steve fared a bit worse -- he lost his momentum and sprung a gasoline leak. He got it fixed and found the easier line. We topped out and could hear thunder nearby and we hightailed it back down to the road. I certainly didn't want to be descending this trail when it was wet.
Upon reaching the road, it began to rain pretty good and we were only about five pavement miles from the cars.
Even with the shitty weather, this was a great ride. Explored some new territory and took a few spills. Can't wait to complete Donner Pass at a later date!
| Last Update: October 22, 2008 | mooredan@suncup.net |