Author Topic: Go deep, go big, and go have some fun (or pain?) at Coe  (Read 5741 times)

mudworm

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Go deep, go big, and go have some fun (or pain?) at Coe
« on: June 12, 2012, 01:21:13 PM »

Oh Bear Mountain, where do I begin? People who have visited Bear Mountain speak of it as if it was a giant beast hidden deep in Henry Coe. You can't quite tell whether it is excitement, or fear, or joy of survival in their voice. I'm intrigued. This weekend, despite having not done any long rides for a while, Mr. Mud and I will go pay a visit to the beast. I found one of plymmer's tracks, but we decide to add the Jim Donnelly Trail, a climb right out of the parking lot. 9:40am start. We are not young chicken any more.

Here is the route: Hunting Hollow Parking Lot >> Jim Donnelly Trail (up) >> Spike Jones Trail (dh) >> Anza (up) >> Jackson Trail (up) >> Elderberry Spring Tr / Rock Tower Tr >> Jackson Rd >> Kelly Lake Tr (dh) >> Coit Rd >> L: Willow Ridge Rd >> L: Eagle Pines Tr >> R: Bear Mtn Rd >> R: County Line Rd (incl. side trip to Mississippi Lake for water filtering) >> L: Turkey Pond Tr >> R: Kaiser Aetna Rd >> Dowdy Ranch Visitor Center (deserted but has water) >> R: Burra Burra Tr >> L: Center (NOT) Flats >> Wagon Rd >> Wasno rd >> Tule Pond Tr >> R: Grizzly Gulch Tr >> Gilroy Hot Sprint Rd >> Hunting Hollow Parking Lot. (49.9 miles / 11,190 ft / 8:01 Riding / 3:03 Resting)

As of today, ten days before summer solstice, Henry Coe is dry and hot. The blue sky is always pleasing to the eyes. Tall grass every where. Coe is a raw beauty. But today, it's also a tick city.

I feel the leg cramps on the wall right before the summit of Willow Ridge Rd. The sensible thing is to turn around then, but I have not seen the beast yet. Head filled with the craze to see my star, all sense is out of the window. I give the two trunks below me a good rub and we drop down Eagle Pines Trail. We are committed, except ... where exactly is the trail?

Here is me checking and double checking the track on my GPS not understanding where the trail is that plymmer took last time.

But Mr. Mud is ready to take the plunge.  

As it turns out, much of the riding on the upper portion of this trail is a silent pissing match between you and the bushes. Either you are more determined to push through, or a bush is more determined to stop you. I'm surprised with my own determination many times and we push on through... Oh, then there is that tale in which the private property own points his gun at a trespasser to force him to turn around and go back up. I admit I did lie awake at night thinking about strategies should I get caught in that situation. I plan to cry.

As we all know, photos can never capture the steepness of the trails well, but I'll post a couple any way. The lower portion of the "trail" is mostly riding through tall grasses. Occasionally, you get surprised with a downed tree branch or trunk hidden deep down that threatens to throw you OTB.

Bear Mtn Rd is right below this drop.

While still higher up, we have a good view of the surroundings. Not knowing where exactly we are going, I whisper to Mr. Mud in horror if Bear Mountain is this mountain in front of us, which means we drop all the way down only to climb straight up. There is a structure at the summit. I whisper for fear of waking up the gun bearing property owner. Mr. Mud refuses to look at the mountain I point at and says he will be in denial until he can't any more.

His denial is effective as it turns out Bear Mountain is much mellower than I have just feared. I was looking at a wrong mountain. Here is a peek at the beast sunbathing.

As we get closer, we can feel the hot breaths from the beast.

Talk about hot breaths, 100+ degrees is recorded on our bike computer for a good three hour duration and at one point, it reaches 113 degrees.

Engulfed in the hot breaths of the beast, you wonder how much longer you can go on.

But finally, it's over. You've seen the beast and he has spared you. You dry off the sweat (or is it tears?) in your eyes, and suddenly, you are greeted with an expansive view. You feel that you are at the top of the world. You've lived to tell the tale.

Oh, yes, the Mississippi Lake. Always the kind-hearted fairy. She supplies abundant water for any visitor to replenish and refresh. I immersed my legs in the pleasantly cool water while operating the filter. That feels good!

But the ride is only half over at Mississippi. We move on and make our way to Dowdy Ranch Visitor Center. It is deserted, but the facilities there are operating and they are appreciated. We take a picture to remember the hospitality of this quiet corner out in no where.

We take Burra Burra Trail out of Dowdy to reach Center Flats. After a long climb, we suddenly are descending. Maybe it's the sweat that blurred the vision, Mr. Mud did not see a rut hidden in the grass, and it stopped his front wheel cold. He tells me while he was rolling down the hill, he was wondering if it would dump him right in the center of Center Flats Rd. It did! Nothing is broken, not even the water bladder. But he is not happy to have to walk back up the hill to fetch the bike. It is quite comical. I laugh even though laughing hurts.

The rest of the ride is mostly uneventful except for my progressing leg cramps. Finally, at the last wall on Center Flats (pffft!), both my legs lock up. It takes Mr. Mud some vigorous rubbing to bring them back to life. Thankfully, by then, all the hard climbing is over. This is the final photo taken on the trip when Mr. Mud is coming down Grizzly Gulch Trail with all the climbing behind him by now. We will be back at our car in no time.

Related or Unrelated Links


Roy's track
My ride on Strava with comments
Mr. Mud's ride on Strava with comments
My ride on Garmin Connect
Mr Mud's ride on Garmin Connect
My Ride on MtbGuru
Photo Album
Inch by inch, I will get there.

F4?

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Re: Go deep, go big, and go have some fun (or pain?) at Coe
« Reply #1 on: June 12, 2012, 07:35:34 PM »
nice, now drag me out.
I'm not worthy.

mudworm

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Play with the Bear this time in the Solstice Heat
« Reply #2 on: June 18, 2012, 09:54:17 AM »
It was hot indeed — this hot.


The temperatures were recorded on Mr. Mud's Garmin 800 on today's ride:


Here is the route (the best way to follow the route is to go to my my ride on MTBGuru and click on OSM mode in the map and zoom in): Hunting Hollow >> Jim Donnelley Trail (up) >> Spike Jones Cutoff >> R: Spike Jones >> L: Steer Ridge Rode >> L: Wilson Peak Trail (DH) >> R: Grizzly Gulch Trail >> L: Wagon Rd (incl. a single track bypass by Wasno Pond, and a few fun single track cutoffs) >> Fish and Game Trail >> Coit Rd >> Coit Lake Trail >> R: Coit Dam Rd >> L: Coit Ridge Trail (up) >> Coit Rd >> L: Pacheco Ridge Rd >> R: Phoneline Trail (dh) >> Coit Rd >> L: County Line Rd >> L: Mississippi Lake Trail >> R: Bear Spring Trail (up) >> L: Bear Mountain Rd (DH) >> Blue Ridge Rd >> The Narrows Trail >> L: Mahoney Meadows Rd >> R: Lost Spring Trail >> R: Mahoney Meadows Rd >> Coit Rd >> R: Cross Canyon (dh) >> R: Grapevine Trail (dh) >> Anza Trail >> L: Cullen (skip it if you just want fun) >> R: Grizzly Gulch Trail >> L: Spike Jone Trail (up) >> R: Spike Jone Cutoff >> L: Jim Donnelly Trail (dh) (42.6mi / 9,320' ascent / 7:29 riding / 2:30 resting - Strava stats)

See, everybody has one weekend in a year when people around says, "it's your weekend, and you can do anything you want." So, this is my weekend. Mr Mud suggested Downieville for a long weekend. Hmmm, tempting, but I have something else in mind. I wanted to go play with the beast, Bear Mountain, and have a good time this time. That's my riding assignment. The problem is on last weekend's painful Coe ride, Mr Mud already told me he was ticked out. So, I played nice — I offered to spend Saturday rock climbing at Pinnacles. (See, I like rock climbing, and I like mountain biking, but unlike somebody, I like to keep them separate. ;)) Little did I know that it was not very nice to take another person to Pinnacles when it was 105 degrees hot — that was the temperature we arrived in. It was hot even in the shade and drained energy out of me. Tired by the end of the day.

Then… Sunday arrives. Having stayed in Hollister the night before, we managed an alpine start — 8:45am, a whooping whole hour earlier than last ride! I have studied the map and mtbguru to come up with the above route. I tried to maximize the fun single track riding. For that reason, effort was made to take all the single track bypasses and cutoffs that Skyline35 and others have shown me on previous rides. I included a detour to Phoneline Trail too, which is a fun downhill.

The toughest part on today's ride is lack of wind, which makes it feel especially hot. But in contrast to the steep climbs we encountered on our last Coe ride, the climbs on today's ride are all mellow. If you don't count Cullen Trail, the entire route is very mellow — the hardest climb is the Mahoney Wall, which many of us are familiar with and have no problem cleaning, even near the end of the ride. A couple of single trail climbs (that we normally don't get to) are Coit Ridge Trail and Bear Spring Trail, both at a moderate grade and in a surprisingly good shape considering how remote they are.

Cullen is on its own — I included it only because it's on plymmer's Solstice route, and I have not gone this way (from Anza to Grizzly) before. There are some very steep bits on it both uphill and downhill. I ride what I can and push when I have to. I have a grin on my face even when pushing though because I have absolutely no leg cramps today, which makes the hike-a-bike not big of a deal. Last weekend, my legs cramped with every step when pushing the bike, which made it even more painful than riding. Anyway, I strongly recommend anyone interested in following this route take Cullen (and subsequent Grizzly) out because it changes the characteristics of the whole ride unless you don't mind some pain on a fun ride.

Having done the ride, I say proudly that I reached my goal — my goal was to create the route that involves Bear Mountain in a fun way and makes TahoeBC want to get out there. The upper part of Bear Mountain Rd is a roller coaster ride — lots of downs and ups. But don't worry because the ups are never long or steep enough that require hard pedaling. I really felt that I was playing with the beast on the fun roller coaster. The lower part of Bear is a steep and loose down hill. If I didn't have to focus on maintaining traction while descending, I would have had an evil grin on my face just because being able to ride Bear Mountain without any pain gave me a lot of satisfaction. Even if you choose never to ride UP Bear Mountain, when you are descending it, make sure you think of the crazy few who have chosen to go the other way. I'm sure you'll feel some pleasure, albeit maybe guilty pleasure.

Since there is not a lot of hike-a-bikes on this ride, I didn't take many photos. Here are a couple.

The two tired but happy bikes bonding at the top of Bear Mountain.


Guess the bond collapsed.


In hindsight, we were lucky we found the best water hole after descending Bear Mtn. We were surprised how fast the water level dropped in that creek.


Oh, we are officially ticked out and burred out. Will probably not return to Coe until October 13 or later. Bowing out.

Related and Unrelated links

Track on MTBGuru (click on OSM mode and zoom in)
My ride on Strava
Mr. Mud's ride on Strava
My ride on Garmin Connect
Mr. Mud's ride on Garmin Connect (it shows the temperatures)
Report on MTBR
Riding assigment? Oh, writing assignment!

Inch by inch, I will get there.

squiddo

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Re: Go deep, go big, and go have some fun (or pain?) at Coe
« Reply #3 on: June 18, 2012, 10:02:57 AM »
UGH, brutal. I did a LONG ride once there in July. Started at 7...drank nearly a gallon of water.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Every climb gets 3 stars from me until I climb it.
-Anonymous spirited climber

mynameismud

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Re: Go deep, go big, and go have some fun (or pain?) at Coe
« Reply #4 on: June 18, 2012, 11:40:08 AM »
I drank more than a gallon and I can still feel it today.  I suppose it is good wall training.
Here's to sweat in your eye

F4?

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Re: Go deep, go big, and go have some fun (or pain?) at Coe
« Reply #5 on: June 18, 2012, 02:09:27 PM »
Quote
Oh, we are officially ticked out and burred out. Will probably not return to Coe until October 13 or later. Bowing out.

Great, then it's off to Monterey diving!
I'm not worthy.