So, I have this thing. I want to connect Hwy 50 to Hwy 80 somewhere in the mountains, mostly dirt if at all possible.
I bought GPS Kevin’s Route for what he calls the Great Pacific Divide Route and if you zoom in close enough it appears that it could be done!
I had a free weekend, the bike was ready but couldn’t find anyone to ride with. For safety’s sake I always want to ride with a partner, but I do have a SPOT and the wife was leery but encouraging so I made the plan to go. My idea was to go up 50 then head north.
Friday night at Calicraft we had beers with Tomm and Kevin. I asked Kevin if he was heading up to his store in Columbia this weekend and if so, if I need a place to pitch a tent, could I. He said yes, so my route changed to starting in Truckee and heading south so I was moving closer to Columbia as I went.
DAY 1:
I woke up, had some coffee and then packed. Wheels up just after 9:00 am. I packed everything in either the little tank bag, my backpack, or my Mosko Backcountry 40 duffel strapped to the top of my rack. I also had a 1 gallon Rotopax of gas on the right, and water on the left. (for making hot chocolate LOL!)
I had enough gas to get up to Cordelia where I filled up. It’s a 170 miles of slab up to Truckee on Hwy 80 and I made the best of it, listening to music and staying out of the way of trucks. The bike with stock gearing does pretty good at 70 MPH. In the Sierras I hummed along passing slow trucks here and there with no issues.
I got off the freeway at the 1st Truckee exit and got gas. I was following the blue line in Gaia from GPS Kevin which he does as a map, not a route or track. It worked great as I could meander off the route and easily navigate my way back. I headed west up and over Donner Summit alongside Donner Lake. My first turn was a left somewhere near Soda Springs. There was a couple of shops on the left, I saw an old guy sitting in a rocker and waved at him. Then I looked down at my iPad and that was the turn I should have made. Easy to fix, u-turn and wave at the old guy again and we were back on track.
The road led back into some pretty nice neighborhoods I hadn’t ventured before. The pavement suddenly ended and started a gravel road.
The gravel road gradually turned into a fire road with some small, medium and MASSIVE cabins built alongside the road. There were a few oncoming cars but that stopped with the last of the cabins (about 5 miles in).
For a long time I was just cruising down nice, forested roads.
As the trail followed along with the ridgelines it also became a little more rustic, but still nicely graded. You did have to be careful of the random babyhead sticking up here and on the outside of turns there was a good deal of silt that would grab the front tire if you weren’t careful. Technically speaking I’d say it was a trail I wouldn’t hesitate to bring a beginner on.
I took my time and stopped often to take a picture or view a valley. The further I got down the road the less smoke and haze I was in. There was some great viewpoints too!
Somewhere along the top of a ride I ran into a Tevis Cup Wellness Stop. The Tevis Cup is a 100 mile horse race from Squaw Valley to Auburn. I stopped to talk to them for a while. Back on the bike I turned the corner on a ridge and the dirt changed to paved and dropped down to a gorgeous lake. I looked at my map and could see it was called French Meadows Reservoir and had a few campgrounds.
It was somewhat early in the day (maybe around 3pm) but I had already done a few hundred miles. There was another lake down the road (Union Lake) so I had plenty of options.
The 1st campground was full but the Camp Host called over to the other side of the lake and found that they had a few spots available still. The camping was $12 a night but the camp host said that the spot I was taking was prepaid and they had left early so it was free!
The campground was shady, quiet and there was a good base of wood chips that were perfect for putting a tent on.
Knowing that I would be out of cell range, I had told the wife when I stopped to camp I would send her an “OK” message from SPOT which I did.
This whole thing “solo” thing for me works ONLY if I’m not needlessly causing the wife to worry. I want SPOT to be able to give her the ability to track me and see if I am moving or stationary and if so, for how long. The problem was that while I thought the message had gone out, she had not gotten it.
I set up my camp and then sat around drinking as much water as I could. I had a hydration pack on and drank at least 1.5 liters of it along the ride but I was thirsty. I found out because of the low water level that there was not water access from the campsite and had to go down a miles or so the boat ramp.
So with flip flops, shorts, a tshirt (and a helmet) I rode the bike down to the ramp and jumped into the lake. The water was a little murky – it wasn’t Lake Tahoe crystal clean – but the perfect temperature! I dried off in the sunshine with a little help from a hand towel, and the rode back to camp.
Back in camp I sat around, drank some more and waited. Honestly I was bored. What I should have done was gone back to the water and just watched the sun go down or something. It was very serene but without friends or family, it was too serene and I just didn’t know how to occupy myself. It was a very strange feeling.
For dinner I brought 2 old dehydrated camp meals with me. One was a Vegetarian Mountain Chili, the other was a Vegetarian Lentils and Rice. I waited as long as I could to start my JetBoil because I knew as soon as I was done with dinner I’d be back to being bored again.
I cooked up the Mountain Chili as the package suggested and I cannot honestly say it was good. It wasn’t bad, as in spoiled, but it was just blah. I finished half of it and the decided to cook up the second pouch I had brought, the Lentils.
The Lentil and Rice also had pieces of fruit (mango, lime) and tasted a little better. Even so, it was pretty blah as well. I finished half of that too and then cleaned up everything, tossed the garbage in the bear proof garbage cans and headed to bed sometime around 8:30. The sun had set but it was still pretty light out. the weather was warm enough that I had no rain fly on the tent and layed just on my sleeping pad.
DAY 2
California, preaching on the burning shore
California, I’ll be knocking on the golden door
Like an angel, standing in a shaft of light
Rising up to paradise, I know, I’m gonna shine
– Estimated Prophet, The Grateful Dead
With all the water I downed I woke up pretty much every 2 hours that night and peed. I woke at 5 but forced myself to stay in bed till 6:30. I got up and boiled a full JetBoil of water. I made 2 packages of oatmeal and while that was sitting I then took some of the hot water and did a little sponge bath with the hand towel, then changed into clean clothes. I filled the Jet up 1/2 way and made a mocha with 2 packs of StarBucks and 2 packs of Hot Chocolate.
With everything packed up I headed out down the blue line on my map. This part was all paved but still a beautiful mountain road. I got about 30 minutes down the road from camp and sent my wife another “OK” Spot message. That way she would know I was on the move and away from camp.
At around 10 or 11 am, as I’m riding along a ridge my phone started getting text messages. I pulled over to read them and was dismayed to see this…
ABANDONING THE BLUE LINE
The gas station she mentioned was way back at the start in Truckee. So this meant that she had no idea where I was since I started. I tried to call and text her but my phone said zero bars. I looked at the GPS Map and saw that I was coming up on a road. That road dropped down into Georgetown so made the decision to abandon the blue line and get a message to her.
Somewhere short of Georgetown I got cell reception. I pulled over and called her to let her know I was ok. She had received the SPOT check in I had sent 30 minutes out of camp, so she knew I was on the move. Even so, that’s not ok by me. If I’m going to be doing this, I need to have SPOT working properly so that she can always see where I am.
In Georgetown, I filled up on gas and headed south on 193 to Placerville. I also called Tomm and let him know where I was but we were instantly cutoff as I was riding and all of that area is shady cell reception.
In Placerville I stayed south on Hwy 49 until I reached to Hwy 4. I headed East on 4 for a bit, then south on Parrots Ferry Rd into Columbia. I parked right in front of the St Charles Saloon. The plan was to pop into Teresa and Kevin’s Columbia Mercantile, grab a pizza from the saloon next door (good pizza!) and then zip home via Hwy 4.
Kevin took a break and joined me.
The pizza was great as usual. (It was the Islander) I hugged Teresa goodbye and headed back up 🦜 ⛴ to Hwy 4 and home.
RESULTS
According Gaia, I did 75 miles from the gas station in Truckee to where I abandoned the Blue Line.
I did map from the point where I abandoned to Pollock Pines so I’m all set and ready to complete the quest next time.
RECAP
Total mileage was 515 miles driveway to driveway. No crashes, no falls although I did jab the bars into my gut when my foot caught the high duffel as I was dismounting for a picture. Refilling gas was pretty easy with the duffel on back. I would loosen the straps just enough to push it back off the tray enough to clear the filler. The new gas filler worked well too.
Overall, the bike was did great. It was so nice and quiet when I wanted it to be. I do need to replace the back tire though but I already have one in the garage. It’s a Tusk. I’m going to give it a try.
GPS worked flawlessly. I really loved the blue line on the map and only needed to glance down at it from time to time. I added a zip tie to the back side of the ipad holder and that seems to have taken some of the load off of the ram mounts.
In the camping department I either need to stop later on in the day, or bring something to entertain myself. I also need something of flavor other than water. I really could have brought a bottle of wine, I just didn’t think of it. I also found the need for a simple washcloth in addition to the hand towel. For dinner I am happy I got rid of these packages and maybe ask my daughter what she has recently tried and liked. My coffee / breakfast routine is perfect.
He's an avid hockey fan, rides a mountain bike, sometimes rides a road bike, has a few motorcycles (he had a really fast one, had a big cool orange one, rode a really slow one, and is currently building a perfect "BDR Weapon"). If that isn't enough, he makes cheese and sourdough bread, loves strong beer and good red wine, and poorly plays the Mandolin.
- My Pre Nor Cal BDR Settings - September 15, 2024
- New Pump, No Pressure, What Did I Do? - September 9, 2024
- Studs > Bolts for the Rear Rack - September 5, 2024