Ash Canyon Trail Report

Posted on November 18, 2010 by Jeff Moser

The Ash Canyon Trails are in fantastic condition right now! There is plenty of traction and no mud. There is high visibility on the Creek Trail, as the leaves have mostly fallen from the trees, and the grass has started to die back. With little sun reaching the bottom of the canyon though, it’s chilly down there, and the ground is frozen in parts.

Jesse and Cortney headed towards the Creek Trail

Don’t wait too long to enjoy the great trail conditions though! Looks like we got a “significant winter storm” headed towards us this weekend. You never know when your last ride on the Creek Trail for the season is going to be, so get out there.

Ash Canyon Night Ride

There is also a night ride scheduled for Thursday, November 18th at 6:30 PM. Denis at the Bike Habitat wants to help get you out on the trails, and has a great selection of lights available. Call the Bike Habitat at 267-5053 if you’d like to reserve a demo light for tonight’s ride.

A map to the Foothill Road Trailhead off Winnie Lane can be found HERE.

Harvest Moon Ride & Beer Swap

Posted on September 15, 2008 by Jeff Potter

Harvest Moon Ride

Monday September 15, 2008

If you would like to join us for the Harvest Moon mountain bike ride, meet at

6:30 p.m. on the V & T bike path behind WNC.

Our journey will take us to the Great Wall and Skid On This. We will also ride the new M.O.T singletrack (Mike’s Other Trail).

There is no entry fee, but if you would like to be involved in the beer swap, it would be a good idea to bring along one brew for the exchange.

Lights should only be necessary for the ride home on city streets.

Dazed and Confused…

Posted on June 30, 2008 by xdscott

Last Saturday, my buddy Scott and I met in Downieville to ride the XC course for the upcoming Classic on July 12th. I got there first and got a map from Yuba Expeditions. The map was just the centerfold from the Downieville Classic newspaper. I looked at it, folded it up, and stuck it in my pocket, the first of many times that day. The area was smoky, but better than it had been from the sounds of it and certainly not as bad as Carson City earlier in the week. It was plenty warm though, in the high-80s, by the time we got back to Sierra City where the XC course begins. We launched around 11:45 with full hydration packs, 2 bottles each, gels, bars, and spare tubes.

The climb to Packer Saddle started out nice enough but after a couple miles, it got steep and loose and definitely grabbed your attention. In the full sun and heat of mid day, it really gets your attention.

About five miles in, the road flattened out and we had a couple miles of easily pedaling before another short climb to the start of “Sunrise Trail”, a fun, fast section of twisty single track. We rode this to somewhere along where the Butcher Ranch section starts and then headed up a fire road to the beginning of what’s known as the Baby Heads. This section, a very rocky jeep road descent, keeps you on your toes. It’s notorious for crashes and flats and with the exception of one minor digger when I unclipped and still went down, overall it went OK.

The baby heads section segues into the Pauley Creek trail which was another fun section and a bit of a reprieve after the boulder hopping bedlam. Multiple smaller creek crossings were more than welcome cool downs from the day’s heat.

Pauley Creek itself was a nice wide splash over smooth free-stone and a good opportunity to get off the bikes and soak our heads. This would’ve been as fine a place as any to spend the remainder of the day drinking beer. Provided we had beer and not another 12 or so miles to Downieville.

Not long after this, things sorta went south from a navigation standpoint. Numerous times throughout the ride we stopped to consult the map at various intersections and up to this point, we’d made all the right choices. We came to a fork in the trail, a trail going up and a trail going down. Thirty yards down the low side, the trail split again. None of this quite seemed to jive with the map and our semi-confused state. Long story short, instead of taking the 3^rd Divide trail, famous for it’s “Star Wars like speeds, magic carpet tread, bermed corners and lofty airs” we took the 2^nd Divide, equally famous (in our book) for some extra suffering in the name of more up than down and enough hairy, rocky, hike-a-bike sections to convince us that this couldn’t be the race course anymore. That, and the Sleestaks.

The 2^nd Divide eventually meets up with the Lavezzola Road and a mostly downhill run into Downieville. Somewhere along the way, we must’ve also missed the 1^st Divide trail but we got 30 miles in nevertheless and were plenty cooked for it too. We capped the day off with some Boulder Brewing’s Hazed and Infused, purchased at the market across from the parking lot. A perfect end in more ways than one.

Kings Canyon to Ash Canyon Loop

Posted on June 24, 2008 by Jeff Moser

On Saturday, I got to do something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. A ride up into the Carson Range, starting from Carson City. I’ve done all the pieces of this trek, but never all together in one ride. I was tired of hearing about how great it is from friends, and decided to go see for myself.

Leaving Carson City on Kings Canyon Road

Scott R and I left Carson City from my front door at 8:45 AM. We met up with Lester on the west side, and then picked up Ryan and Christine at the Kings Canyon trailhead.

Looking Towards Carson Valley

I really haven’t done many longer rides this year, usually only riding for one to two hour durations. I was wondering how I’d do on the long ride. By spinning a low gear and taking our time, I found that the hills went by quite nicely. I would’ve been cooked early on at our usual pace.

Kings Canyon Road

Kings Canyon gains a lot of elevation up front, but then provides a pretty gentle ride for several miles after that. The views along the road are outstanding, and it is safe to stare off into the distance while riding. Well mostly…just about all of us washed out in the sand at one point or another while gawking at the scenery.

Break Time at Flume Trail Bikes

Getting to the top of Kings Canyon was a mental milestone for me. Once at the top of Spooner Summit, I felt good and knew I could do the rest of the climb. This was probably the scariest part of the ride, as we had to ride along the shoulder of HWY 50 for about a mile. The roadside construction cones pushed us a little too close to traffic. I can’t imagine doing an around the Lake tour. It was a relief to get off the road and enter Spooner Lake State Park.

We stopped off at Flume Trail Bikes at Spooner Lake State Park for some cold beverages, and topped off all the Camelbaks and water bottles before leaving for North Canyon.

Indian Paintbrush in North Canyon

The higher we climbed, the more lush the vegetation got. North Canyon was a stark contrast to the lower elevations we had climbed from. Down below, the greenery is starting to fade, but things up here seemed to be just getting started. The sights, sounds, and smells of nature were sublime.

Final Grind up North Canyon

When we regrouped at the top of North Canyon, we talked about the route that we’d finish the ride on. As we did this, it started to rain a little bit. The Flume Trail seemed like a bad idea, none of us wanting to be stuck on a cliff wall during thunder and lightening! We chose to head towards Hobart via Sunflower Hill.

Marlette Lake

The road along Marlette Lake took us through an Aspen Grove. This was one of the most peaceful sections of trail. A couple riders commented that it felt like they were back East.

Crossroads at Marlette Lake

The peacefulness ended, and it was time to climb again! And quite steeply. Everyone was back down to the granny gear for the climb up to the saddle beneath Marlette Peak.

Another Grinder up Marlette Lake Road

We finally reached the highest point of our ride for the day, somewhere around 8,500 feet above sea level. We took a break on the granite boulders, and enjoyed the view of Marlette Lake and Lake Tahoe below.

Marlette and Tahoe

We ran into construction as we neared Sunflower Hill. There was a big sign on the side of the road that read, “NO SMOKING”. It seemed wildly out of place for where we were at. Big trucks have been using the road, so it was freshly graded, and pretty silty. Not the best for riding.

Photographers on Sunflower Hill

After descending through a dark and dusty section of the woods, we came out upon the area known as Sunflower Hill. The “sunflowers” are actually Mule’s Ear, and grow all over the eastern Sierra; however, this hillside has a high concentration of them. The scene stopped us dead in our tracks, and we all had to get the cameras out.

Sunflower Hill

After descending a few switchbacks through the Mule’s Ear, we came to an intersection that gave us the choice of a downhill to Lakeview or more climbing to Hobart and Ash Canyon. We chose more climbing!

Hmmm…Which way today?

There were lots of large trucks and other heavy equipment parked around the area. A big sign advertised the “Marlette Gas Project”. There were more “NO SMOKING” signs here too. Ahh…explosive vapors. The signs made more sense, although none of us were sure why there was a gas line being put in.

Discussing the Marlette Lake Gas Project

We stopped for an extended break at Hobart Reservoir near a nice little campground and restroom. Since you can drive up Ash Canyon to within a relatively easy walking distance to the reservoir, there were quite a few fisherman and other visitors here. It was strangely noisy. Not what you would expect from such a secluded spot.

Hobart Reservoir

After a nice break, we continued to climb to get to Ash Canyon. We were all getting pretty tired at this point, and were all looking forward to some downhill. Just when we thought it was time to descend, another little hill would be presented to us.

Do We Really get to go Down Now?

Normally I would go down Lakeview, but I haven’t seen the top of Ash Canyon for over a decade. I remember it being terribly steep, and even remember crashing on it. Still, I wanted to get an updated visual of the area, since we ride the lower areas of Ash Canyon daily.

Carson City

We had another jaw dropping moment when we came out of the woods and saw Carson City below. Wow! We had done a lot of climbing!

Dropping into Ash Canyon

Once we were done soaking in the view, we began the final descent down Ash Canyon. This road is probably one of the steepest roads I’ve ever been down. Even with disk brakes, my arms required rest breaks at a few points during the descent. Lester and I both experienced rear brake fade. The lever was spongy, and you could pull it all the way back to the bars! Boiled brake fluid? Not sure…

It was almost a bummer to drop elevation so quickly. After so much climbing, a more relaxing descent would have been nice. Next time we will take the Lakeview route for sure!

Almost Home

We finished off the ride with a trip down the Creek Trail. We were all pretty fatigued, and took it much slower than normal. I felt like a pinball.

After saying farewell to the other riders, Scott R and I made it back to my house around 4:15. What a day we had had, and what a great feeling to have done such a great ride without the use of a car for a shuttle. I can’t wait to do it again!

More pictures of this ride can be viewed on our Flickr site by clicking HERE.

Bike to Work Week is Coming

Posted on April 20, 2008 by Jeff Moser

At January’s Muscle Powered meeting, Jeff P and I took on Carson City’s Bike to Work Week as one of our main projects for the year. After months of discussions, research, and meetings, we are pleased to announce that we finally HAVE AN EVENT PLANNED!

Thanks to all of our generous sponsors, there will be Bike Clinics, a Movie Night, Social Rides, Free Coffee at commuter stations, Free Bus service on JAC for multi-mode transportation, and a final event with live music and a prize raffle, including a brand new commuter bike!

You can help us promote this event by distributing the Bike to Work Week Flier and Brochure found on our Bike to Work Page. Post these documents at work. Share them with your friends and coworkers. Help us make this event BIG!

Resources

Bike Carson’s Bike to Work Week Page

Bike Carson’s Interactive Event Calendar

The Muscle Powered Blog. Check the MP blog for further information on Bike to Work Week, and stay tuned for a Bicycle Commuting series.

Lumpy Gravy – A Ride in the Pine Nuts

Posted on March 10, 2008 by xdscott

Saturday, my buddy Scott (the one working on the Bike Carson logo) and I met at the Pine Nuts for a ride. It was sunny and clear with a decent breeze; perfect riding weather. We headed out from the main parking area where they stage the races and followed the road for about a mile before splitting off for some single track. In no time, we hit snowy sections and mud. Lots of it. Recent motorcycle traffic meant it was muddy and rutted. The undulating terrain was such that even non-north facing areas had snow and mud and just when it seemed we were on a good section, we’d turn a corner and be staring at snowfields and mud. It was very distraughtening.

A mile or two of this and no improvement in the conditions, we took the next jeep road which was dry and rode up that for awhile on a slight climb. After a lot of slogging and stop and plops thru snow, this was nice and it cleared the tires. We followed the road uphill for a mile or two and tried to figure out where some drier single track might be. Where the road split we found an impromptu landfill and stopped to consider the route options.

Unfortunately, the rear bumper on this old Ford was missing/was buried in trash, otherwise I might have found a Keep Nevada Rural bumper sticker. You could however catch up on the Febrary ’05 issue of Mountain Bike Action if you missed it.

Scott knows the trails out here quite well and thought if we continued on either fork of the road, up into the canyon, we’d likely run into more snow and mud, even on the road. So we turned around and backtracked until we reached Pine Nut road, hung a right and about a half mile up, crossed to the other side and picked up a narrow double track that segued into a good long, dry section of single track with great flow. This was a fun section, fast and packed with tight turns, rollers, whoop-de-doos, short climbs and some fast downhills.

We followed this all the way back to Pine Nut road, directly across from the parking area. By now, the bikes were mostly mud-free and put away when a heavy thirst set it. This was slaked by a brace of Dale’s Pale Ale and a Frank Zappa’s Lumpy Gravy ale from the Lagunitas Brewing Co.

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