Going the Distance, Going for Speed
Ok, these rides aren't exactly epic in the classic sense of all-day affairs, but they are certainly kick-ass night rides. This time of year it's hard to do an all-day MTB ride due to daylight and weather constraints.
We call this the bear trail because a few years ago, on 2 separate occasions, we saw a bear during our nightriding festivities. It's actually a lower section of the Western States 100 trail upstream of the quarry at Cool, which as you know is off limits to bikes during the day.
For this ride, we went in reverse of the normal direction, for the first time. To begin with, we parked at the confluence and headed out the quarry road (Used in the movie "Breakdown"). After a few miles of rolling fire road, we came to a trail climbing very steeply to the right, just past a creek crossing. In daylight hours, I believe there is a "no bikes" sign visible, but I'll be danged if I know if it's there at night. Usually we're coming down this hill at the end of our ride. Now I know why it's such a steep downhill. It's also a steep (I mean butt-ass steep) uphill.
We climbed straight freakin' up, taking periodic breaks to ride through muddy creek crossings, up through some rocky rutted stuff, and finally reached the left turn acros the bridge that begins the real singletrack. From here on, the trail is very gently rolling, real twisty, and fun as hell. since we'd never ridden it this direction before, it was like discovering a brand new trail. Notable landmarks along the trail include the "Cliff-memorial cliff", where a brain-damaged cyclist named Cliff Tsukuda rode off the trail (for no apparent reason) on one of the rides that had a bear. We also passed the memorial to the young jogger who was killed by a mountain lion a few years back. Usually we blow by pretty fast in the other direction, so I'd never noticed it before.
All along the trail there were little puddlets of mud, generally right in the apex of a corner, causing massive drifting through all the turns. Happily enough, it didn't seem to be the kind of mud that wants to jump off the earth and besmirch the happy rider, it was content to stay on the ground and play havoc with our steering.
We continued having a ball for 5-6 miles, until the trail crests out in an open area near Aubrn Lake Trails estates (named for the fictional lake behind Auburn dam). Then we turned down, following the western dates, then made the right turn halfway down the hill towards Sliger Mine road. This was new terrain for us at night, adding to the fun. Also adding to the fun was the fact that Keith, who's normally a pretty amazing bike handler, flailed at a little creek crossing and fell into the moss and ferns, still clipped in (obviously he didn't read the VeloSapiens reviews and so he doesn't have speedplay Frog pedals. He wept and wailed, all upside down for a while, while dan and I laughed so hard we were almost in tears.
More totally bitchen' trail, More fun. One long, rocky, barely rideable uphill, then a left turn onto what we call "The Giant Rut Trail." The giant rut takes you back near the end of the quarry road, and is so named because the bottom part consists of well, a giant rut, with 12 inch drop offs every few feet for several hundred yards. If you're not careful, you can bend your handlebar on the rut edge on the way down.
Once we reached the quarry road, we pretty much high-tailed it back to the car, visions of in-n-out cheeseburgers dancing in our heads.
Note: VeloSapiens strongly disapproves of getting caught riding illegal trails.