Thursday, November 06, 2014

Third Stop: Downieville, Califoria

On somewhat of a last minute trip planning whim we penciled in Downieville, California. It was a logical stop between Oak Ridge, OR and South Lake Tahoe, CA our next planned ridding destination. After our great ride near Waldo Lake up to Twin Peaks we packed the van for the next leg, a seven or so hour drive into the mountains to a town that was not on any maps. I knew we were in for a treat.

The weather has been great with clear skies, warm air and vibrant fall foliage. The driving has been beautiful, I hardly spend any time with the normal distractions of phones and fidgeting, afraid I will miss out sights that fly by in furry. We also are trying not to do much driving at night and taking scenic by ways. Stella is happy at 55 mph, much more is asking a lot of her. So the less time we spend on interstates the happier we all are.

We climbed up highway 49, over Yuba pass, through lovely Sierra City and down into Downieville, California. Downieville, an active and once very prosperous mining location, is now a tourist destination, pretty typical "buy some shit in a pretty place" sort of feel to the area. We tried not to hit a tourist as we tried to get out of the town as fast as we could. There is a pretty epic race, The Downieville Classic, held here every year which puts this town on the radar for many mountain bikers. We pulled into town, over a one lane bridge and went straight to Downieville Outfiters where Greg was warm to show us the trails, epic camping and the low down on the town (and lack there of) and sign us up for a shuttle for the morning.

We high tailed it out a forest service road where we set up camp on a river and had instant access to trail. I can't believe the camping that we had. Right on the trail, next to a river and gorgeous forest all around. We spent the early afternoon playing (bathing) in the river and gearing up for a spontainous and inspired pedal right from the camp site. Our ride that afternoon was up second divide and down third divide. I was skeptical at first, the trail was skirting along a steep side hill with a lethal plunge to the right. It was loose and had lots of punchy steep rocky climbs, not my cup of tea. The riding was unlike anything I had done and far exceeded my comfort levels for the afternoon, I was ready to turn back with the dog (whos water bowl we forgot and Lucy is scared of drinking from the trickle that our hydration pack spits out). a few miles into it the trail. As soon as I wanted to turn around the trail wound back into enourmous pine forests, through valid mining camps, and followed a river. The riding was interesting and fast, the climbs were "engaging."

I rode up at John one point in the second divide trail where he had waited for me to show me this epic pine tree that had to be at least 10 feet in diameter. The pine cones were probably 18 inches long. We see lots of big ceder trees but we had never seen a pine tree this big. Second divide trail tied into third divide and proved to be a wild fun good time. A rare dynamic, John followed me down the entire trail which turned out to be really fun for me. The trail ended right at our van, down by the river.

The next day we rolled out of camp right on to the start of first divide trail which was quick 30 minute rip into Downieville where we hopped a shuttle at Downieville Outfitters. The shuttle took us to the top of Packers Saddle and we were able to ride some epic downhill for 12 miles. The shuttle was amazing, fast, technical in spots, chunder fest in others and epic in length. I would highly recommend it.






2 comments:

  1. Kick. Some. Ass, girl!
    Your mountain biking amongst those beautiFULL redwoods?
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    However, if I can't here, we definitely will in Seventh-Heaven.
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    -our Lord Jesus to Saint Gertrude

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kick. Some. Ass, girl!
    Your mountain biking amongst those beautiFULL redwoods?
    So wish I could join youse.
    However, if I can't here, we definitely will in Seventh-Heaven.
    Looky...

    I’d looove for you to peruse our 25 blogs;
    however, lemme first explain sumtin:
    My solemn duty, dear, is to serve and honor you…

    I also looove to giveth unto thee ideas,
    thots you never thot of:
    the picturesque protagonist, par excellence,
    the non-perishables, the luxurious ditzy-glitz:
    the generous, undiluted expansion of d’bizarre;
    the epic endoorphins – an open door to an
    onomatopoeia Vernacular,
    from the high-flying, barnstorming,
    toxic firewurKS from yeee-haw KS
    taking you in a completely new direction
    than where you originally planned!!
    O! the mind doth boggle, girly-whirly!!

    Why else does a moth fly FROM the night
    than to a bold, attractive candle Light??
    Don’t let His extravagant Brilliance be extinguished.
    You’re creative, yes?
    Then, fly-away with U.S. to the antidote…

    Whether you obtain morality4mortality to wiseabove
    or just glean tantalizing specimens for thy next best seller,
    you shall find in our blogs a lotta (subliminal) moxie
    which has taken this sinfull mortal yeeeeers to compile:
    I lay it ALL out for you, dear, with All-Star-Oxygems:

    Wouldn’t ya love an endless eternity
    of aplomBombs falling on thy indelible cranium?
    An XtraXcitinXpose with no zooillogical-expiration-date?
    An IQ much higher than K2?
    An extraordinarily, anti-establishment-victory
    with both sardonic, satirical wit Who’s savvy
    and avant-guarde-humility??
    Here’s what the exquisite, prolific GODy sed
    (with a most-excellent-detector of bull§ht):

    “Faith, hope, and love,
    the greatest of these is love –
    jump into faith…
    and you’ll VitSee with love”
    Doesn’t matter if you don’t believe (what I write);
    God believes in you.

    Meet me Upstairs, girl, where the Son never goes down
    from a super-passionate, lucrative iconoclasm where you’ll find
    nonillionsXnonillionsXnonillionsXnonillionsXnonillionsX…
    of deluxe-HTTP [<- pi] opportunities for excitement BTW.

    Do it. Do the deed, dude. Sign into the Big-Zaftig-House.

    PS “It is impossible that anyone should NOT receive all that they have believed and hoped to obtain; it gives Me great pleasure when they hope great things from Me and I will always give them more than they expect”
    -our Lord Jesus to Saint Gertrude

    ReplyDelete

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