Stewards of the Sierra National Forest members only ride July 10/11

[mediaguy 0]

Hey, it was great to see many of SDAR up here for the ride, Crawdaddy brought a bunch and it was great. Nice weather, fun trails and we raised a lot of money to fight the impending closures of our public lands. Thanks guys, most appreciated.

Saturday

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?...8&id=781184431

Sunday

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...1&l=437a0afcef

[mediaguy 0]

And a video

[hoss314 0]

great video........and an awesome time up there riding!

Big thanks for putting on this ride!

Too bad it wasn't one of us that took the spill

[hoss314 0]

Notice the new avatar

Just doesn't get any better

[Crawdaddy 96]

Hey, it was great to see many of SDAR up here for the ride, Crawdaddy brought a bunch and it was great. Nice weather, fun trails and we raised a lot of money to fight the impending closures of our public lands. Thanks guys, most appreciated.

Thanks for hosting us Larry......some things never change…….the Bass Lake area is STILL my favorite place to dual sport ride in CA……we rode ~400+ miles Friday through yesterday on some sweet single track through trees, across streams, over rocks………awesome trails/magnificent scenery…….I’ll sort through the pile and post up some choice pictures on SDAR as time permits……but for now, here’s a teaser pic shot with my phone at Whiskey Falls……

[Zoot 0]

I KNEW I shouldn't look at this post. Grrrr. I WILL be there next time come hell or high water!

[mediaguy 0]

Hey, it was great to see many of SDAR up here for the ride, Crawdaddy brought a bunch and it was great. Nice weather, fun trails and we raised a lot of money to fight the impending closures of our public lands. Thanks guys, most appreciated.

Thanks for hosting us Larry......some things never change…….the Bass Lake area is STILL my favorite place to dual sport ride in CA……we rode ~400+ miles Friday through yesterday on some sweet single track through trees, across streams, over rocks………awesome trails/magnificent scenery…….I’ll sort through the pile and post up some choice pictures on SDAR as time permits……but for now, here’s a teaser pic shot with my phone at Whiskey Falls……

Chris, it was great to see you and your "gang", you guys are riders! Looking forward to seeing more of your pics.

[DigDug 0]

Great ride! Miles and miles (yes, literally miles at a pop!) of awesome, tight singletrack. Just when you think it can't get any better, the trail takes a turn and leads you into another section that yanks a grin out of your helmet!

It'll be a shame if the man takes it all away from us! Best of luck in the fight. Let us know what else we can do to help.

I've got a few good photos to post up when I get back from my conference and into some decent bandwidth to upload.

[Crawdaddy 96]

……I’ll sort through the pile and post up some choice pictures on SDAR as time permits…

Snaildarter, Joliet, Hoss314, DigDug and I headed up to Fresno Thursday night so we’d be able to roll into the Oakhurst/Bass Lake area by mid morning on Friday……Gil met us at Russ’s house and we were off and on our way around noonish on Friday……we rode UP the two bottom sections of the always fun “007” trail then cut left through Central Camp on a series of fire roads I threw together that would lead us over to the Whiskey Falls hardways tracks (we dodged the upper part of 007 because I’d heard from Larry that the water crossing up top across the rocks had fast moving water and slippery moss (a rider, his bike, and his buddy (who’d jumped in to help him with his bike), all went over the small waterfall section a few weeks earlier and it took them hours to remove the bike with the aide of a quad – yikes – Larry said to skip it so we did)…….once we got over to the Whiskey Falls area we rode the Sat hardways sections in reverse order……Doug and Gil were up front so I didn’t get many pictures of them…….I swept in the back……

Day One, Friday afternoon:

The first mechanical breakdown/stop took place about 15 YARDS into the ride when Fred discovered he had no rear brake …….a quick fluid flush/brake bleed and we were on our way

No pictures heading up 007 on Friday……too busy hooting/hollering and riding up…...we really didn’t stop much for photos on Friday until we started into the Whiskey Falls hardways…..as stated, we rode them backwards……..we also freelanced a bit…..at one point we turned up a steep rock climb that was clearly NOT on the tracks ….that’s OK…..looks fun!…..let’s “do it”........so we rode up.......snaped some photos.........and rode back down.....

Looking down

Looking up at Mike sitting high above (yes, it was a steep climb/descent….do NOT stall!)

The standard bike/waterfall pic at Whiskey Falls (the WR250R performed flawlessly for the entire ~400+ miles we covered this past weekend )

I walked over behind the falls to cool off……took a picture from behind looking out…..

Again, very few pics taken on Friday…….we had 3 more days……Friday was a day for riding!......I did snag a final photo of Fred and Ken crossing through a downed tree near the end of the day…

Ken

Fred

Friday evening we rolled into Larry’s place directly from the trails so we could check in and pick up our registration packets with roll charts, GPS Tracks, T-Shirts, etc…….then we jetted back to Russ’s (a friend renting us his guest house) and settled in for the night…….we also decided that we oughta just ride the Sat “event” tracks on Sunday so we didn’t have to share the trails with so many other riders …….so we free lanced a bit on Sat……Gil and I looked at Sunday’s event tracks and merged them together with some other hardway tracks we had in our library from years past……

Day Two, Saturday

Gil, Doug, Mike and I rolled out towards Sierra Sky Ranch to pic up some trails we’d ridden as recently as last summer…….unfortunately, we quickly found out that many of our favorites had been lost to commercial logging operations……which forced us to freelance a bit (which can also be fun)….

Here’s a shot of Mike riding through a Meadow….

Along a ledge

Through some thick foliage

Mike and I stopped at Beasore meadow on our way to Jones Store

We arrived at Jones Store around 1ish……lot’s of riders milling about from the organized ride which also led them to the same destination for gas/lunch….

Jones Store is a neat old compound out in the middle of nowhere…….this gravity fed gas pump is pretty cool…….it was built in 1936……you pull the handle on the right side and pump the gas up into the glass cylinder which will hold up to 10 gallons which are individually marked/identified with lines on the tank……then gravity feed the gas down out of the container watching the glass cylinder to note how many gallons you’re taking…...I can't imagine there are too many of these antiques in daily use…..

Here’s a pic of event organizer MediaGuy (Larry Langley in baseball cap) filling up someone’s gas tank

Day Three, Sunday

We left Russ’s early on Sunday to ride the ~150 mile “Sat” hardway event tracks……nice to have the area to ourselves……unfortunately Ken was under the weather and Fred wasn’t feeling much better……Fred started and finished the day with us taking a break in the middle to recoup……..so once again we rode as two pairs – Gil/Doug and Mike/Chris…….that worked out pretty well……we rode the ~20 miles of slab over to the Chevron in North Fork, topped off…….and jumped on the event tracks……..this time in the opposite direction from the way we rode on Friday……let’s get into the photos….

Meadow singletrack leading up to the first Whiskey falls hardway….

Some cool singletrack through BIG trees on the first hardway to Whiskey Falls

It’s tradition for the new guys/gals to get soaked at Whiskey Falls……so I “encouraged” Fred and Mike to head back behind the falls to cool off……

A few obstacles out in the middle Whiskey Hardway section…..here’s Mike emerging from under yet another tree

Came across a lot of cows while riding……here’s a pic of a herd in a Meadow we rode by…..

The “Man Eater” mud pit……the picture does this mess no justice…….it’s a ~10(?) yard square “pit” that's 2’ deep in spots (luckily I knew about the cheat through the trees…….Daddy’s no dummy……I haven’t ridden through that mess in years )

Lot’s of stream crossings……..I was riding point so I was always able to radio back to Mike to hold up so I could snag a photo…….so here’s an assortment of pics I took of Mike crossing various streams…….all were a nonissue and none were as deep as anticipated…

We came to one section that had us ride up a long rock wall……I’d noticed a lookout on our way down this same rock wall on Friday……..I rode up first and radioed back to Mike to ride up past me, hang a left, and ride up over to the lookout……it was a great diversion from the tracks……..great rest stop/viewpoint…….a few photos in this area

Mike climbing up the rock wall towards me

Riding up around me and over to the viewpoint

ZOOM in on Mike up top

Killer View

Once we finished with the Whiskey Falls Hardways we headed over to the Original Dualsport trail…..so named because the remains of an old (1930’s?) vehicle can be found along this trail…..this ~2 mile trail is always overgrown with Manzanita but it seemed especially nasty this year……hard to keep the goggle on as you bash your way through the branches……here's a pic of Mike emerging into one of the few open areas along ths trail

I pulled over at a clear spot to wait for Mike to make his way through the branches (tough assignment for a big dude with a camera hanging off the side of his helmet)……there was a rock out cropping with a pretty cool view…..

We pulled into Jones Store once again in the early afternoon and Fred joined us for the remainder of the ride……

Fred making his way across some water

Fred and Mike climbing up a cool singletrack……splitting logs along the way……

More cows….this time in the middle of the trail…..

Fred and Mike climbing up some rocky crap in the middle of section of 007

The boys at the bottom of the middle section of 007

And at the very bottom of 007

Day Four - Monday

On Monday morning we set out as two pairs once again to tackle a few trails in Miami OHV (Russ lives right on the edge of the OHV park) and also tackle a couple of my personal favorites on the west side of Hwy 41 – the Big Rock Trail and the Tree Trail….

We left Russ’s place around 7:30 and we were up in some sweet single track in no time at all

Some BIG trees as we made our way over towards the Big Rock Trail

We also rode along some cool ledges

A coupe of pics along Big Rock (Mikes HID is BRIGHT)

Once again we encountered some commercial logging right smack in the middle of our planned track

No sweat, we re-routed to get around them and picked up the track again near the upper end of the Tree Trail…….I’m kicking myself for not stopping on my way down this AWESOME trail to snap some pics……the name is well deserved……there are literally HUNDREDS of downed/cut trees across this trail…….Russ, Ed, Larry, etc. really go above and beyond in maintaining this trail (and others) for the enjoyment of others ……I can only imagine how many hours they “logged” with their chain saws to clear the various trails so others can ride……thanks guys……

After the Tree Trail we headed along a series of high speed fire roads and one very cool Manzanita “Tunnel Trail” over to the Triangle Store…….unfortunately the restaurant is closed on Monday’s but we were still able to grab some cold drinks/snacks at the store…….then we headed back to Russ’s on some more sweet track on the fringe of the Miami OHV area, dropped down to Russ's, showered up/loaded up and hit the road for San Diego before 2pm…….

What a great trip……

Many Thanks again to Larry, Russ and the Stewards of the Sierras for all the hard work……

Keep up the good fight - NO MORE TRAIL CLOSURES!!!

Mike and Doug have some more great pics to share……..bring’em on boys……

[ShocknAwe 0]

I KNEW I shouldn't look at this post. Grrrr. I WILL be there next time come hell or high water!

Ditto - nice pics and video

[toofast4uu 0]

Looks like another epic ride!! Those granite moubtain tops are amazing!!! I noticed your all running trials tires....i'll have to try that out....

[hobiee 28]

Man i missed a good one

[christi20 0]

Awesome photos! Beautiful.

[zracing 0]

……I’ll sort through the pile and post up some choice pictures on SDAR as time permits…

……let’s get into the photos….

Thanks for the great report and great pictures!! I will add this to the ever lengthening list of places I need to ride someday...

[mrorange 0]

Great posting. Now I know why I didn’t use my camera much. You did all the work.

[Crawdaddy 96]

Great posting. Now I know why I didn’t use my camera much. You did all the work.

Stay tuned Ralph - The other guys snapped some good ones too!

[dirt dame 559]

Great pix so far!

[hoss314 0]

Pretty hard to follow Chris in writing a report.....

This has been the best ride as of yet in CA.........4 days of the best scenery, single track combination riding. I think I spent most of the day on Monday riding side saddle because of a sore butt.

But here goes some pictures....

(Disclaimer: I have already been informed that I take crappy pictures....so I have been pondering on another way to keep my camera more accessible to take time on snapping pictures)

Ken coming up the first section of 007

Fred popping out

Then over to a mountain topped with nothing but rock. A few of us had an issue with some of the rock "steps".

The next 2 photos are courtesy of DigDug

One pic for perspective: the trees on the upper right were a final resting spot for my first attempt

Resting Spot

View from the top

Last guys to make it up

2 bikes missing from the pack at the top.....on their way!

Then cruising up more mountains to see some great scenery

That day wasn't my tribute to Strega day......but close (noticed that almost all my gear is black)

Score! perfect landing

For us Honda lovers.....(and Kellymac )

one of the two guys in the group with hair

Crawdaddy taking a picture of me taking a picture

Meadow with a island of trees

Crawdaddy on one of the "wider" trails

Fresno Dome??

Crawdaddy on a downhill

Proceed to next post

[hoss314 0]

Meadow picture

Good Stuff!

Crawdaddy going..........Anywhere

Mud boggin

More HONDA

Fred and I cooling off under the falls

Brain Freeze!

MOO

This is how a WR splits logs

ANNNYYYWHERRRE

??got me......but it looked cool

Great single track! (GoPro...does not come off)

on the edge mid manzanita original dualsport trail

Mammoth Ponds from mile high curve

Waiting on Vern for fuel

Fred rolling through a water crossing

OK now some play photos.....

not too bad for Blackberry

Borrowed a couple from DigDug

Honda sees a camera and wants to play....either it will be a good photo....or a good photo of a crash

Thank you very much Larry for putting this ride on......had an awesome time...can't wait to go again!

Also thanks to Russ for the very nice accomidations and especially Chris for putting together some of the best tracks ever!

BTW.....Doug has some of the best pictures (and videos)....stay tuned!

[Strega 0]

Really really really effing pissed I was unable to make this ride. =\

[Crawdaddy 96]

Crawdaddy going..........Anywhere

I'm NOT the one that typed it (this time) :blum3:

[Strega 0]

That day wasn't my tribute to Strega day......but close (noticed that almost all my gear is black)

I applaud the effort sir!!

[Crawdaddy 96]

THIS is the video I suggested Larry post......tight woods riding around Whiskey Falls....good stuff.....

[motocrazy 0]

THIS is the video I suggested Larry post......tight woods riding around Whiskey Falls....good stuff.....

I was just about to post it, looks like you beat me to it. What a fantastic ride!

[Strega 0]

I was just about to post it, looks like you beat me to it. What a fantastic ride!

Welcome to the group, now go introduce yourself in the New Members section!