nachomc

We did 21 miles off road. We started out with our normal warm-up trail, Connector, which is about 4 miles. We decided to do the normal loop, Foresthill Divide Loop, clockwise. It was cold this morning, and not many people were at the parking lot, so we figured it would be OK. Most people ride the loop counter clockwise so you can have a lot of oncoming traffic on busy days. Unfortunately, we were wrong and everyone decided to start at the top of the loop today. We got about two miles in to the loop, said **** it, and turned around to do the whole loop counter clockwise. It added four miles to the ride, which was nice, but I really like the clockwise direction

We took a bunch of breaks to take pics and chat. Today was the first ride back to dirt for my friend Joe (since November), and none of us have ridden together since January:



A little climbing:



Joe having some fun:



Me:



Our friend Randy. Dude is 64 this year and still kicks ass:



It's purty:



Me again:



This part of the trail is pretty sweet. You come flying down this hill, usually 20-25mph, it gets chattery as **** - the drainage through here sucks, brake bumps like a mother. Then all of a sudden there's a tree in the middle of the trail, which used to be wrapped by a garbage can but I'm not sure where that is now :dunno: Tough economy, I guess. Anyway, then you duck and fly under the tree. Behind where I'm taking the picture, the trail has a looonggg sweeping right hand turn through a small meadow:



All in all, a kick ass day. Felt so good to mountain bike again

rydaddy

Nice pics! I love Auburn...

kster

Very nice trails; makes my want to take my mtn bike out.

Spiduhman

Yesterday, Honeyrun - Neal Rd. loop, 50 miles https://www.chicovelo.org/honeyrun.html, Friday, Cohasset run https://www.chicovelo.org/keefer.html ("straight" option), 30 miles, today, limp around the house...

Great pics! I'm off on the mtb for a "recovery," thanks for sharing (and inspiration)!

ROJA

That ride looks awesome! Want to lead a NorCal group dirt ride sometime? We don't have much singletrack in the Bay Area. How far is the starting point from Sacramento?

VaultGuru

That is a great loop. Haven't ridden it in years. My back won't let me. We used to start at the top of stagecoach, ride down to the bridge, turn left and ride up to the typical start area. Makes it a few miles longer. You can just go back over the bridge and turn left to get back to the start (if you don't want to climb stagecoach again.

rumbutter

Great trails and great pictures. That should be then next BF ride. Count me in with my retro hardtail.

nachomc

I could definitely do that. We ride up there all the time. The start point is just outside of Auburn; it takes about 40 minutes to get there from downtown Sacramento.

vault - We all hate the climb up Clementine, so usually we do the Divide Loop twice for the extra miles . I have been wanting to ride manzanita trail though - I rode it once when I was just starting out mtb and had a lot of trouble with it. I'd like to give it another shot. I may have to do a Russel Rd., down manzanita, up clementine, connector, FDLT, connector, fuel break, mossy rock, up stagecoach epic here soon

rydaddy

Manzanita is one of my favorites. We usually park at the confluence, go up Stagecoach, then down Manzanita. Back up Stagecoach to Upper Stagecoach, then Mossy Rock back to the confluence. Then it's Clementine. If we're feeling it, we'll do Connector and back. If we're really feeling it we'll do Connector, FHDL, then back down the Connector. After that it's time to rip down the Culvert and Confluence Trails... a great way to end a ride!

Here's a map for those unfamiliar with the trails. FHDL is not shown here....

redspoke

I've been kind of jonesing for some off-road riding lately. Now that the running nonsense is over I can focus on pedaling more... My bike needs quite a bit of work though, but if you plan a Nor-Cal MTB ride it will motivate me to get it up and running. JDI!!!

VaultGuru

Come on Nacho. I have ridden with you, and I know you are an animal. Stagecoach and Clementine (I haven't ridden it so long, I forgot the name) is a walk in the park for you :-) (Gotta give you a hard time).
VG

nachomc

Yeah I can do em I just don't like them. Unfortunately, it's getting to the point where I'm going to have to start riding them to get any variety in. I love the confluence trail but rarely ride it since I start at connector. Guess I'll have to suck it up

redspoke - get your bike working. I could set up a dirt ride for early April