How To Get There From Here: Riding Out Of Pioneer

[WoodsChick]

I've been pretty busily lately so it's taken me a long time to get started on this ride report...but here it is!

In June Eric and I staged out of our friend's place in Pioneer in the Sierra with the intent of finding a dirt route from HWY 88 to HWY 4. We didn't actually find what we were looking for, due to a case of temporary myopia on my part, but we had fun playing around in the mountains. It also happened to be a weekend when a cold front was blowing through. We dealt with lots of fog and cold temps on the first day...

This road was more well-traveled than the previous ones, but it was apparent that these forest roads were pretty lightly-traveled...

We ran into our fair share of this stuff...took a few photos before dismounting to help...

Getting mine under was much easier. Like my bald street tire? Eh, it's only a rear...

Eat the world...

I picked up this furry friend after bushwhacking through some fluffy greenery...

The fog was beautiful on the ridges...

Nice little pond...

Lots of downed trees dropping down into the canyon. Got tired of going through/over/around them so we turned around and scouted another route...

Sometimes being forced to re-route can bring unexpected rewards...

Guess what? Another downed tree re-route...

Awaiting my turn...

Love the way the roads are numbered up here. Thank you, private logging companies!

More later...

 

[PC.]

Nice report. As usual!

I'm in the eastern Sierra's for the month of August. Planning on riding the sweetwaters, Downieville, White mtns and local stuff around Bishop/Mammoth/June. If you (or anyone esle) is in the area and wants to ride then let me know. I'm not plated and I'm after the single track.

What else is around that I should check out?

 

[WoodsChick]

We continued down into the canyon and spotted this flume running alongside the road...

It carried a tremendous amount of water...

When I'm dead I think I should have myself stuffed into this pose. This is what I look like probably 90% of the time This is my life...

Glorious roads surrounded by massive granite; it does not get any better than that, my friends...

The ever-present water...

Lunchtime...

And a gorgeous spot for it...

No, it's not a bird...

Supermoto singletrack...

More flume action...

Our fantastic day of riding ended with a knock-out meal in the sun-splashed flower garden here...

The rest of the night was spent soaking in the hot tub and talking about the next day's ride, which will be coming up shortly.

 

[WoodsChick]

Nice report. As usual!

I'm in the eastern Sierra's for the month of August. Planning on riding the sweetwaters, Downieville, White mtns and local stuff around Bishop/Mammoth/June. If you (or anyone esle) is in the area and wants to ride then let me know. I'm not plated and I'm after the single track.

What else is around that I should check out?

I'm not sure, but I know there's a ton of stuff outside of Bishop to the west (the Buttermilks are fun) and up near Mammoth. It's so much easier out there with a plate. If you're planning on riding the White Mts you might want to avoid the weekend on Aug 2-5. It's the annual WMRS ride where the gates are open and you can ride all the way up to the White Mountain Research Station. It's cool to do, I guess, but there's going to be a ton of bikes on the roads and it can get a little hectic out there.

Downieville is cool! Have you ever ridden there? Better put some rock-climbing shoes on your bike

 

[PC.]

Nice part 2 of the report too!
Seeing your reports makes me want a plated bike, but I wouldn't use it at home and I dont like 4 strokes on dirt, so that kinda spoils that idea.

I've never been to Downieville.... the closest I've been is Tahoe and that was without a bike. My buddy who lives here says its probably the best riding in the state, so I hopes its as good as he says. I've got the 300 and some fresh Bridgestones, so bring on the rocks!

Thanks for the heads up on the organized ride this weekend. It's also the Blues and Brews fest in town, so its gonna be a madhouse around here, including the trails. I'm not a big fan of crowds or dust, so this would be a good weekend to check out some remote locations.

Of course I forgot a camera (brought 2 helmet cams though ), so looks like a run to Kmart is in order for a cheapie.

I'm here til 8-24 or 8-25, so if you get a bug and want to go riding let me know.

 

[Coffee]

Nice Report!

 

[ray_ray]

Very good looking pics of the area ..

Where is that water being routed(flumed) to? Any fluming here is used for drinking water or maybe just rice fields ...

 

[WoodsChick]

We woke up to sunny skies and no fog so we were out the door pretty early...

The granite up here just never stops...

Wish I could say the same for myself...

This skid plate has served me well. So has the rear tire, apparently

Eric is really digging his TE610...

Arrgh...this was much steeper than the photo lets on, and I spit myself off the trail and fell into the tree to the left of the bike....

A different angle. You can see the nice brown dirt exposed beneath the rocks that were flung off the trail by what's left of my rear tire...

It was getting pretty warm, what with all that Husky heaving going on, so we decided to make our way back to the swimming hole we'd found the day before...

That little trip involved some relatively intricate route-rinding and we were happy to hear the water long before we saw it...

These perfectly round holes were everywhere, although most of them held water...

We spent the entire day at the swimming hole before reluctantly packing up and heading for home...

Even though we didn't reach our goal we still somehow managed to have a good time, especially staging out of our friend's house in Pioneer. It was nice to have a comfy home to come back to at the end of the day, and the hot tub was a super nice feature, too I'm sure I'll be enjoying it again in the near future

 

[WoodsChick]

Very good looking pics of the area ..

Where is that water being routed(flumed) to? Any fluming here is used for drinking water or maybe just rice fields ...

View attachment 18104

I don't know where that water goes. I think it might be going from Salt Springs Reservoir down to Tiger Creek Reservoir. Don't know why they'd do that, but it looks like that's sort of where it ends. The flume was originally for moving lumber out of the mountains but I don't know what it's for now.

 

[michaelyogi]

I don't know where that water goes. I think it might be going from Salt Springs Reservoir down to Tiger Creek Reservoir. Don't know why they'd do that, but it looks like that's sort of where it ends. The flume was originally for moving lumber out of the mountains but I don't know what it's for now.

Wow, I grew up in the canyon above Tiger Creek Res. The flume takes water to the power house at the head of Tiger Creek Res. I forget how beautiful it is in this area... so many people though... Nice ride!

 

[ghte]

Hi Woodsie, been in Perth, West Australia for a few days and missed my installments. Just have to say as usual great shots and excellent commentary. You and Eric get into some wonderful country. Never heard of a flume before, just called an aquaduct over here wonder where that word came from. Glad the 610 is going well, hope it doesn't get discarded by the Katoom.
As always, looking forward to the next Woodsie and Eric saga