The first unofficial club road trip happened over the weekend of July 26th and 27th. Six members met on Sunday in Downieville to do the famous Downieville Downhill, a 21-mile ride that is mostly downhill and technical. There were actually two groups that joined together there. The first was Caroline Murphy, myself, and our friend Scott Seery, who volunteered at the Gray Whale day and Sea Otter (Scott has not yet been convinced of the importance of joining our group). The second group was Keith Kelsen, Dawn Weathersbee, Doug Nolan and Rob Berkowitz.
The weekend actually began Friday and Saturday, when both groups separately rode Mr. Toads Wild Ride trail, in South Shore, Tahoe. For those who have heard of the trail, but never ridden it, it´s an awesome trail with something for every rider and a lot of something many riders choke on miles of sick downhill technical sections. Not that set of roots or rock garden you may pick your way through around Santa Cruz. We´re talking big baby head rockstrewn singletrack that goes on for half a mile at a time, steep root dropoffs with powder dirt and submerged roots just waiting to show you a new direction to send your front wheel. It also had some of the most magical clearings filled with unbelievably beautiful wildflowers, views of the lake from several thousand feet above, and bermed corners and roller coaster trails that seemed to just go on forever.
The ride starts with a shuttle ride up to Luther Pass on Hwy 89. We parked at Grass Lake and got onto the Tahoe Rim Trail (this section is open to bikes to the east past Heavenly Ski Resort). From here we climbed 2,600 feet to the beginning of Mr. Toads (actually called the Saxon Creek Trail). From there, you drop over 3,000 feet to the little town of Myers where we parked the other vehicle. If you¼re feeling good when you get to the top of Mr. Toads, continue on up the Tahoe Rim Trail about three miles until you get almost to Armstrong Pass (If you start to drop steeply, you went too far). There`s an incredible view of the lake, just off the trail to the left. The three miles you climbed are about the best three miles of roller coaster downhill singletrack I`ve ever ridden. Each dip let us pick up sillygrininspiring speed, followed by rises that reached zerogravity levels. All in all, it was an experience that´s hard to beat.
After Mr. Toads, expectations were high for Downieville. We all met at Coyote Adventures in Downieville for our shuttle ride to the top of the run. With a description of the landmarks from the guys at Coyote and a cheap map from their catalog, we set off down the road. The guide had said there was less than 1,000 feet of climbing. The views were great, and we were all excited about the sweet singletrack to come.
The guide was just a bit off on the landmarks. Pretty soon, no one could agree about where we were on the map (as it turned out, we were all wrong, except that we all agreed that the map sucked and that we were lost). We took a wrong turn while searching for the Pauley Creek Trail that the guide recommended as being more rideable than the technical Butcher Ranch Trail. We ended up doing a big loop back around on unmarked fireroads to the start of Butcher Ranch, and headed on down, convinced that we were on the Pauley Creek Trail.
We passed numerous waterfilled sections before we came to the really sick technical stuff. We were all saying, "If this is the easy trail, I wonder what Butcher Ranch is likeä". Now I`m wondering what Pauley Creek was like.
It was when we reached the end of Butcher Ranch Trail where it joins with Pauley Creek Trail that we saw the sign and figured out we had been way off. On the up side, no one really cared, because the trail we rode was epic, to say the least. We dropped another thousand or so feet, alongside a steep cliff along Pauley Creek, careening off rocks and rising up the sides of the bermed corners. As we continued, the trail went into a series of switchback turns, leading down to the creek and a large footbridge.
We stopped to eat lunch, and to dip in the cold mountain water. Eating and basking on the rocks and in the water, we watched as several motorcycles slowly passed by us on the footbridge on their way up the trail. We had left our bikes on the bridge, leaning on the near rail, and I was a little worried they might sideswipe them as they passed, but they were good riders and cautious.
After lunch, we continued on down the trial, doing miles more singletrack before we poured out onto a downhill fireroad called Lavezzola Creek. We searched for the final short stretch of singletrack off Lavezzola, but weren`t able to confirm where the trail started for lack of signs.
We finally rode into Downieville, having ridden every terrain from powder dirt to rock gardens to hardpack to soft, loamy soil. I stopped in to talk with the guys at Coyote about the lack of signs and found out that they resign them regularly, but that some of the more crimsonnecked hill residents regularly shoot the signs with large-caliber projectile weapons, and that new maps based on USGS topos were being printed up. I can hardly wait to go up and try again.