Spring Tour in the Sierra 05-06 June 2006
Summer came late this year with plenty of rain in April and May. On
average, temperatures have been cooler than usual as last spring.
This time I wore long sleeves for the whole trip.
Richard Mlynarik and I headed for Sonora on Tuesday, 30 May, to stay
at the Sonora Gold Lodge motel as these trips often have over the many
years that I have undertaken them. Sonora lies at the base of the
Sierra at about 1800ft elevation and is on the intersection of HWY49
and HWY108, convenient to making a loop over Ebbetts, Monitor and
Sonora Passes. After a good nights rest at the Sonora Gold Lodge we
got on the road at 06:00 as planned.
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Wednesday 31 May 2006
At 06:00, with little traffic we headed up the hill to Columbia
(2143ft), a historic gold mining town with preserved gold rush
buildings, from which Parrots Ferry Road descends into the canyon of
the Stanislaus river to connect to HWY4 at Valecito. We stopped to
take pictures of the "new" Parrots Ferry bridge that spans the high
waters of high bridge, (not shown on the attached map) at Parrots
Ferry (1100ft) spans the backwaters of the New Melones reservoir that
inundated this beautiful white water river.
The bridge is worth mention because, after it was built, the center of
its graceful arch broke and hung there from it's reinforcing steel
about five feet below where it was designed to be. It was repaired by
splicing huge reinforced concrete beams under the arch that now has a
flat dip in its center. This time swallows that built mud nests under
the bridge were already busy collecting insect out of the early
morning sky.
We climbed up the other side past moaning Cave Rd. so named after the
Moaning Cavern that makes a low groan when large atmospheric changes
make the cave exhale through its oddly shaped mouth. At Vallecito, a
wide spot in the road, we turned east on HWY4, the Ebbetts Pass route,
back up at 1800ft. We were still in the foothills of oaks with pastel
blue-green foliage and willows that marked the abundance of water.
While most of the grasses in the valleys to the west were already
turning golden, here in the hills they were still green, with small
swamps and springs in the middle of fields under the trees. From the
bird calls, I detected robins, grosbeaks, woodpeckers, and my
favorite, the hermit thrush that warbles with a built in echo, as it
were in contrast to its silent winter when they often live in my back
yard.
http://www.caverntours.com/MoCavRt.htm
At Murphys we began the long gradual climb up the western slope of the
Sierra. The forest changed from oaks to conifers as we passed through
Murphys (2172ft),Hathaway Pines, Arnold, Big Trees, and Camp Connell.
Above Arnold (3960ft), the trees are a lovely mix of Red and White
Fir, Ponderosa, Sugar and Jeffrey Pine, Incense Cedars, Douglas Fir
and many Dogwoods blooming in the shade of the big trees.
The road breaks out of the forest along a ridge near Black Springs
(6400ft) that gives a panorama across the North Fork Stanislaus Basin,
a huge rugged area called Hells Kitchen and crisscrossed by many roads
remaining from logging and mining, including Hell's Half Acre Road
that crosses to HWY108, the Sonora Pass road. The faint aroma of
Mountain Misery, reminiscent of artichoke was everywhere.
We stopped at Hells Kitchen Overlook (6778ft) to take pictures of the
expansive panorama with the Dardanelle Minarets across the gorge near
the Sonora pass road that we would see from closer tomorrow. The
meadows around Bear Valley (7073ft) were mostly covered with snow with
Canada geese, as usual, getting ready to continue migrating north. We
stopped at the general store for a hot pastrami sandwich and soda pop
to carry us over for the next three climbs, there being no other
services en route until HWY395.
A short climb brought us past the Mt Reba (HWY207) ski area, now
called Bear Valley ski area from where it's a cruise to Lake Alpine
that was still completely frozen but melting fast. The 30 foot snow
pack we read about in the papers was nowhere to be found. It was an
average snow pack, the big piles (if they existed) apparently having
melted the previous week.
At Alpine lake the road becomes narrower loses its center stripe as it
makes the short steep climbs to Pacific Grade Summit. These are first
indications that this is no longer an average state highway and it
soon gets reinforced by the 24% grade signs farther on.
Nothing exciting happens until Mosquito Lake and Pacific Grade Summit
(8087ft) with a breathtaking view over Pacific Valley and Pacific
Creek. The road dives downward through a set of steep ess bends that
cross many contour lines in short order. We stopped at the bridge
where Pacific Creek looks as though it might jump over the road as it
cascades over huge boulders between snow banks.
Although less steep, the road makes some wonderful whoop-de-doos that
can be taken in true roller coaster fashion on the way down to the
Mokelumne river (7069ft) that drains Pacific and the much larger
Hermit Valley. From here the road climbs gradually, with a beautiful
view to the south into Hermit Valley, to Ebbetts Pass (8731ft) that
itself has no view to either side. Oddly, it has a cattle guard as
though there were range cattle here in the midst of this high forest.
We met many bicyclists who were "training" for the Markleeville Death
Ride, something I suppose would beat be done by going for bicycle
rides in places of interest. None of these riders had any baggage, so
it was obviously not a tour they were making.
A swift descent got us out of the woods with a view across Kinney
Reservoir and the rugged canyons beyond. Kinney Creek joins Silver
creek and both raging cascades find their way quickly to the floor of
the canyon far below as the road stays high before finally descending
in a set of four large traverses with sharp hairpin turns to end the
unusually steep section. No signs warned of the hairpin turns with
their precipitous drops to Silver Creek, far below.
Much of HWY4 in from Alpine Lake to the bottom of Silver Canyon has no
center stripe or warning signs for such curves. One of these (at the
Noble Lake trailhead) is known by locals as "Cadillac Curve" for the
car at the bottom of the cliff that was too fast for the curve. A
pickup truck joined the Cadillac some time later. Of course this has
all been cleaned up years ago.
We descended along the now docile Silver Creek to its confluence with
the East Fork Carson River, that like all major rivers in Nevada,
flows into the desert to evaporate. We had blue skies and pleasant
temperatures with a pleasant breeze from behind most of the way.
We turned up Monitor Creek on HWY89, an oddly small stream for such a
large drainage. In contrast to former years, it was visibly clear
water although probably unfit to drink for all the runoff from the
mines along the canyon. The road levels off at Heenan Lake (7084ft),
from which Monitor Creek flows.
Toward the top of the climb, we left the sparse conifers and rode
through groves of aspen. I remembered to check my altimeter at the
false summit and again at Monitor Pass summit (8314ft) to find that
the two summits are not the same height as they appear, but differ by
about 100 feet and are about 3/4 mile apart. This broad nearly flat
summit has Leviathan Peak (8942ft) overlooking the plateau as in the
old days, when these fire lookouts guarded against wildfires,
something done today by satellites.
We took pictures of the stone summit marker in the grove of aspen
before heading down across the broad gently sloping plateau to the
Mono county line a mile and a half away. With the brisk tailwind this
and the lower part yielded high top speeds as it often does. We saw
few birds, probably because the pleasant tailwind kept them in the
bush. I found a brilliant mountain bluebird that appears to have its
own light source, but it had been killed by a passing car. Clear air
gave us a broad panorama of Antelope Valley below, framed by snow
capped mountains at the county line.
On this steeper long runs heading east high speeds were reached with
the wind that was more apparent on the opposing runs into the wind
than here. It was a swift run to the narrows of Slinkard Creek just
before reaching HWY395 (5084ft). Here our tailwind became a side wind
on the nine miles on HWY395 up the valley to Walker (5400ft). Where
we stayed at the Toiyabe Motel that I especially like because the
front and back windows can be opened to let the cool mountain air blow
through. We had unit 11, the one farthest from HWY395, with its many
trucks.
We got a great night's rest after a great pizza and salad dinner
washed down with a couple of beers.
119 miles, 13600ft climbing.
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Thursday 01 June 2006
In the morning we got a great breakfast with an all around omelet that
had the whole kitchen in it, with spinach, potatoes, sausage, olives
and other goodies. From here it was 14 miles up the canyon of the
West Walker River with a fairly stiff downstream slope-wind, typical
of mornings. When we reached Sonora Pass JCT (6909ft), the wind was
gone as we rolled downhill to cross the Walker river again. On that
stretch, we were not disappointed in that there were many yellow
headed blackbirds in the marsh as we had hoped.
From here we passed the Marine Mountain Warfare base and began
climbing the steep whoop-de-doos of Sonora Pass to get to Levitt
Meadows. After tanking up on drinks we attacked the 26% curve just
above the Pack Station and cranked on up the hill. Anyone who tells
me one should spin up this grade in low gears hasn't tried it. I have
never seen anyone spin or come close to that description in the 50
years that I have ridden that pass with all sorts of great local
racers.
After following the north side of the valley, the road abruptly heads
up Leavitt Creek with some bumps of 18% grade, leveling out at the
site of the former Leavitt Meadows Store. Just past the Leavitt
Meadows Pack Station the road makes a sharp right turn into its
steepest grade of 26% and lets up to about 20% for another quarter
mile. The half mile from the curve is probably the most challenging
part of this side of the pass, the rest being a moderate grade between
steep sections and a couple of descents.
About three miles from the top, the road heads up Sardine Creek with a
jolt. A sign at the junction warned of 26% grades and one of these is
a surprise bend for descenders, an ess curve hidden behind a verge for
downhill traffic. I had encountered this one years ago between snow
walls that were melting onto the road. No one crashed but we were
close to it.
This curve is not trivial even from below because unsuspecting uphill
traffic should get into low gear and doesn't. Because this section is
short it probably doesn't leave the bicyclist with a lasting
impression as does the section at Leavitt Meadows or the last
half-mile to the summit. However, descending this curve is memorable.
As was the case on Ebbetts pass, there was little snow on Sonora Pass
until we reached 8000ft and then it wasn't anything unusual for the
time of year. At the summit, snow walls were as high as 15ft in a few
places. Pavement was surprisingly good compared to some for the
disintegrating places on the other passes.
This last section crests a small apex, in a curve and descends through
a dip that appears to be the maximum 26% grade on either side, from
where it relaxes to a 12-15% grade to the summit. Descending this
section is the only place where I have exceeded 50 mph without wind
and had to brake hard while coasting up a 26% grade to safely round
the curve at the top. It's an exciting road in both directions.
After a photo session the summit of Sonora Pass (9624ft) we descended
toward Dardanelle. The road descends gently for about a mile next to
Deadman's Creek before it dives down the Golden Stairs past the 9000ft
marker and around a pair of ess bends to level off at 8000ft briefly
before the next steep section. The road was in excellent shape with
little traffic. We were down to Kennedy Meadows (6500ft) in no time
as we passed the uphill challenges of the west slope at speed.
Kennedy meadows lies at the bottom of the steep climbs from where the
road makes a few rollers along the Stanislaus River before the
Dardanelle Store (5265ft). We stopped for some eats and drink before
continuing to Clark Fork JCT where the road suddenly looks like a
regular state highway again with gentle curves and mild grades. I
made a point of photographing the powerful reel-type snow plow whose
plow and blower motor was about twice as large as those of large
bulldozers.
From Clark Fork JCT (5671ft) a gentle two and a half mile hill got us
to Donnells Vista Point (6291ft) with a 1500ft near vertical drop to
the surface of Donnells Lake (4800ft) on the Middle Fork Stanislaus
River. Across the valley, the Dardanelle Cones (9524ft), ancient
volcanic formations, stand high above with large skirts of scree.
From here, the road climbs to 6500ft and levels off again at about
6000ft with a few more ups and downs before a two-mile descent to
Strawberry (5100ft). We stopped at the store for a snack before
crossing the South Fork of the Stanislaus up to Pinecrest Junction and
on to Cold Springs (5720ft).
That's about it for climbing; the rest was mainly downhill to Sonora
with a few little bumps before Twain Harte where we turned off down
Tuolumne Rd to the city of that name. So we turned west on Tuolumne
City road that climbs to Ralph, the former junction of the Sierra
Railroad and Pickering (logging) Railroad that had its shops at a huge
mill in Standard a bit farther down. The Pickering climbed to Twain
Hearte before descending into the Middle Fork Stanislaus crossing
Beardsley Dam to the forests on the north side of the river.
To get 9off HWY108, that has a lot of afternoon traffic, we turned of
onto Tuolumne City Road at Twain Harte and at the bottom made the
short climb to Ralph, where the Pickering Logging RR joined the Sierra
RR. From here it is mostly downhill to Sonora as we passed Wards
Ferry Rd and and got back to the start in Sonora where we loaded our
bicycles in the car for the uneventful ride back home.
Day one 119 miles, 13600ft climbing.
Day two 99 miles, 7300ft climbing
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Jobst Brandt