Sacramento Riders Thread DS & ADV

[ravlin]

Hello,
New to the forum rider here. Finally bankrolled a proper adventure bike and anxious to get out and "adventure" away from the frequent crotch rocket haunts and get (reasonably) dirty. Anyone want to go get lost, I'm probably down for it if I am not working.

[Vinz Clortho]

I went for a short ride from Squirrel Creek Rd to Deadman's Flat to Rex Reservoir Rd today. Unfortunately I had to cut it short but I'd like to go back and explore the area more after the rains are done next week.

Deadman's Flat


Start of Rex Reservoir

[Hobbes950]

If you head out on Thursday or Friday PM me if you want company.

[St.Stan]

Bumping up this thread because I'm curious about Chalk Bluff road in the Grass Valley area. Way back on page 6, around post 87, SierraJeep organized a group ride that started out on hwy 174 going out red dog / you bet road to Chalk Bluff. I recollect a "No Motorcycles / private property" type sign where Chalk Bluff turns off from the road that goes down to the washout on the river. Has anyone had problems with the property owners in this area?

It looks like there's some interesting rding in the area between 174/20/80 but I've only skirted around the area twice. I definitely want to do more in depth exploration next year when it starts to dry out.

[oldtrucks]

Originally Posted by St.Stan

I recollect a "No Motorcycles / private property" type sign where Chalk Bluff turns off from the road that goes down to the washout on the river. Has anyone had problems with the property owners in this area?

It looks like there's some interesting rding in the area between 174/20/80 but I've only skirted around the area twice. I definitely want to do more in depth exploration next year when it starts to dry out.

That sign has been up for years, I think the property owners put it up to keep ATV's and motorcycles that were riding in the creek from exploring up Chalk Bluff.

It seems to work, I've heard a number of people that stopped there from the threat. It is a county road and the upper section is a forest route, as long as you have a street licensed vehicle you can ride through to Hwy 20. I rarely see another vehicles passing through, and never any problem from any of the property owners

[brieninsac]

Hey guys,

I live in Sac and would like to do some bike camping trips this spring and summer. I've been following this thread for quite some time and have seen many great pics from rides in the foothills. I was wondering if you could help me identify some possible locations.

Admittedly, I'm a novice trail rider so I don't want to find myself facing gnarly trails or swift moving water. I will also have my bike packed for camping so I won't be very nimble. I'd like to find somewhere I can ride in a few miles, setup camp and then ride around the area exploring. Close proximity to water would be a plus.

Thanks in advance for your help. I look forward to reading the replies.

[St.Stan]

It worked on me. Generally when I'm tooling around a remote area and run across a thicket of No Trespassing signs, I steer clear. Could be an absentee landowner, or a nut waiting up the road, never know. But if it's a county road, that's another story.

My other run through the area was down Lowell Hill Road from 20 to Dutch Flat, with a side run down to the bottom of the road where there was a washed out bridge one way and a gate the other. I was checking out the upper part of Lowell Hill because I stumbled across a panoramino of the Zebright mine headframe on Google Earth. The spur roads to the mine property were gated and signed but I think the mine has been closed for years. Looks like there's a lot of old minig stuff out in that area.

That sign has been up for years, I think the property owners put it up to keep ATV's and motorcycles that were riding in the creek from exploring up Chalk Bluff.

It seems to work, I've heard a number of people that stopped there from the threat. It is a county road and the upper section is a forest route, as long as you have a street licensed vehicle you can ride through to Hwy 20. I rarely see another vehicles passing through, and never any problem from any of the property owners

[St.Stan]

I live in Sac and would like to do some bike camping trips this spring and summer. I've been following this thread for quite some time and have seen many great pics from rides in the foothills. I was wondering if you could help me identify some possible locations.

Admittedly, I'm a novice trail rider so I don't want to find myself facing gnarly trails or swift moving water. I will also have my bike packed for camping so I won't be very nimble. I'd like to find somewhere I can ride in a few miles, setup camp and then ride around the area exploring. Close proximity to water would be a plus.

A fun spot would be the campground by the Yuba River, at Washington. A good day trip would be the dirt road from Washington to Malikoff, up to Graniteville, and back down the ridge to Washington.

If you really want to get out there, theres the campgrounds at French Meadows or Hell Hole.

The El Dorado nat'l forest near where I live has 1700 miles of rideable roads but it's all logging roads with a shortage of good overnight spots. Maybe Silver Fork campground, or airport flat.

[Ronin ADV]

Just a quick shout out to the local guys / gals. I'm planning on selling my 2010 Ducati Hypermotard to make more room in my garage (thinking KTM 500 exc - like I really need another enduro bike).
I bought this thing for roads like Mosquito ridge and it always puts a smile on my face.
Anyway if you want a cornering machine check out my thread in the flea market or PM me.
Happy holidays.

PS I did a quick ride up to the Foresthill area today on my GS and damn it got cold recently. I was farther up there riding dirt a couple days ago and it was fine but this last cold snap really changed things. I dont mind a little winter, but I could stand another 20 degrees I think. I have truly become a soft Californian.

[dixonk]

New member out of Elk Grove here. Currently riding a K1600 but just plopped down some money at A&S for a new GS. RCB member as well.

[Idle]

Originally Posted by WW Ronin

PS I did a quick ride up to the Foresthill area today on my GS and damn it got cold recently. I was farther up there riding dirt a couple days ago and it was fine but this last cold snap really changed things. I dont mind a little winter, but I could stand another 20 degrees I think. I have truly become a soft Californian.

Ha! I rode up there yesterday..

Finning Mill Rd.

[oldtrucks]

Originally Posted by St.Stan

It worked on me. Generally when I'm tooling around a remote area and run across a thicket of No Trespassing signs, I steer clear. Could be an absentee landowner, or a nut waiting up the road, never know. But if it's a county road, that's another story.

A wise decision in the foothills. The area East of Grass Valley/Nevada City, North of 174 and South of 20 has a great deal of private lands. I stay on the main roads, use it more as a means to access the North side of 20 where there s some great riding

[SierraJeep]

Originally Posted by oldtrucks

A wise decision in the foothills. The area East of Grass Valley/Nevada City, North of 174 and South of 20 has a great deal of private lands. I stay on the main roads, use it more as a means to access the North side of 20 where there s some great riding

Good advice, but here are some clarifiers:

The first sign referenced above was actually posted on Lowell Hill Road (this is the one where the bridge washed out in the mid-1990s) and today the only way to go across is over private property and the land owner clearly doesn't want folks to do that.

There are also a ton of signs posted at the Red Dog Road crossing of Greenhorn Creek. This area is also private property that is owned by Hansen Brothers Enterprises. HBE is an aggregate mining company and they do activily skim gravel in this area. For years they were NOT mining in the area of the Red Dog Road crossing so they didn't mind folks playing down there, but today it's a liability issue for them.

The tricky part in this area is with the Federal Lands. The Federal Lands include both BLM and USFS. BLM essentially has a no vehicle-access policy and they post their lands accordingly. The USFS is (currently) using an open-roads only policy. The tricky part is that you need to have a license plate and the road has to be open for travel, then you're okay. Green stickered bikes apparently are now being more regulated. The exceptions to this rule are up near the top (Burlington Ridge) where there is a designated OHV area.

The BLM lands are mostly in the vicinity of the old hydraulic diggings areas at the western side (closer to Greenhorn Creek). Up into the woods, private property is inter-mixed with USFS lands up along the Chalk Bluff Road area and the lines between the two are not always clearly marked. The largest private land owner is Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) who is the largest private land owner in Califoria. SPI is a timber company and their agenda is to log their property - that's what they do. In the past they used to "look the other way" when signle track trails skirted across their lands. Those trails are not legal trails and are NOT connected to the Burlington Ridge Trails. No, really...

The "big bike" ride I put on last time mostly used legal public roads. I seem to recall that at one point (because the roads were really bumpy) we may have accidently bounced off the public road and we could have landed on a short single-track section but that was mearly a fluke that happened to catch everyone by surprise. No, really...

The big bikes don't do well on those single track trails (that exist only in rumor up there). "Don't do well" in this case means that most of the trails out there will have a few obsticles that a 500 lb bike will find impracticle to get around - and most of those don't have a bail-out option. Notwithstanding, many of those open roads on USFS lands have water-bars and go up and down hills that make them fun on the big bikes (and even sorta fun on the small bikes).

Finally, the art of riding that area is picking the time of year. In the summer the roads get talcum-powdery dusty and if you have a group of more than one or two it will not be fun for those in the back. In the wet season, some of the roads are rather greasy (red clay) and the puddles in the roads often have surprises in them (ruts, roots, or rocks) - and they're deep. Winter covers them in snow. So the best times are those in-between seasons where rain had recently occurred, and then a little bit of dry weather before the ride.

So there's the skinny on this area.

[2manyrides]

Hey Tod how ya been? Good info. Certainly clairifies what I presumed in my travels. And yes...the talcum can be so deep as to hide submerged obsticals right in the road bed. The red water pools can be a shock going deeper and deeper into four wheel ruts.

[St.Stan]

I found out all about that talcum powder when I went down Lowell Hill road this last July. Also Henness Pass, miles of it and pooled pretty deep in a few places.

The roads in that area must get a lot more vehicular use than down here in the EDNF, because here it's mostly hardpack all the way through the season.

I was astounded by the size of the gravel bars along the sides of the creek past Red Dog. I'm assuming thats all eroding runoff from old hydraulic workings. Almost 150 years later and it's still there, amazing how destructive hydraulic mining was.