Pictures at 11:00 - Downieville Content

Posted by Charles Tue, 29 May 2007 19:45:00 GMT

Well, pictures at some point later, maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow, but I just got back from the Sierra’s. I re road the course of the 2001 IMBA Epic on the South Yuba River Trail in Nevada City, and the next day did my Downieville favorite, Big Boulder to Third Divide.

The South Yuba ride was fantastically beautiful, including 17 miles of river trail in the middle of a 34 or so mile epic ride. The slide show from our 2001 ride is here http://www.imba.com/epics/slideshows/yuba_index.html. We had a group of 18 that started the ride from the campground at Malakoff Diggins State Park, and about half of that group stuck it out for the whole Epic. At the mid point of the big ride, there is great swimming hole and an easy shortcut back to camp, and those who chose the shortcut still had a great ride with most of the river trail singletrack.

The next day we drove up to Packer Saddle and launched into a Big Boulder ride around noon. There is still a fair amount of snow on the ground at and near the saddle, so much so that we decided not to do the Sunrise Trail on our way in. While we didn’t see it, we were told there was so much snow on the ground in parts as to take the fun out of that route. That may change shortly. We did pass a few remaining snow drifts on our way to the traditional Downhill start, and there was was snow encroaching on the road in parts, but the upper parts of the Gold Lake OHV Road were mostly clear, and we stopped seeing snow at trail side completely before we got to the baby heads above Pauly Creek.

The climb up to the top of Big Boulder started much steeper and slower than normal, due mostly to my heavy legs from the prior ride day’s ride, but the pace picked up as we warmed up to the effort. The second half of the climb went surprisingly quick, and then we got to enjoy lunch and the spectacular views from the upper vista point. The trail traction on the way down was as good as I have ever seen it, but one rider, who had been riding in Downieville all Winter, noted things were starting to get a little dusty. We all felt fortunate to be able to ride these trails in the month of May. I have been able to get up there in June in an early year, but never in May, and usually not until July 4.

The river was freezing, and the beer was colder. We got a chance to enjoy both when we got back into town, and also got a tour of the new bike shop in town. Yuba Expeditions is now the Downieville Adventure Company, and is in a huge new location across from the grocery store. http://www.yubaexpeditions.com/downieville/downieville.html Stop in when you get a chance and drop a buck or two into their donation jar. They are working hard to make sure the trails stay open and accessible to cyclists.