Spring Tour in the Sierra 04-05 June 2005
Weather this year has been wetter than usual giving us wonderful
wildflowers and green hills that are turning brown now, similar to
what we had in 2002. On average, temperatures have been cooler than
usual but not enough to require long sleeves.
Brian Cox, Ray Hosler, John Woodfill and I headed for Sonora, that
lies at the base of the Sierra at about 1800ft elevation and is on
the intersection of HWY4 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 and
headed north.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday 4 June 2005
At 6:00, 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 through the canyon
of the Stanislaus river to connect to HWY4. 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. It was repaired by splicing huge
reinforced concrete beams under the arch that now has a flat dip in
its center. As we crossed, white throated swifts darted past doing
what they are best as... being swift and graceful. Not visible on the
pictures we took, were 30-40 turkey vultures that were circling over
the road at the north end of the bridge for some carrion that we could
not see.
We climbed up the other side past the turnoff to Moaning Cavern. 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 and
woodpeckers, the others being too shy to make a showing.
http://www.caverntours.com/MoCavRt.htm
At Murphys we began the long gradual climb up the western slope of the
Sierra, and the forest changed from oaks to conifers as we passed
through Hathaway Pines, Arnold, Big Trees, and Camp Connell. After
Arnold (3960ft), there was still some snow between the trees that were
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 that gives a view
across the North Fork Stanislaus Basin, a huge rugged area called
Hells Kitchen and crisscrossed by many roads remaining from logging
and mining. Although we had a cool tailwind, the warming sun brought
out the scent of pine pitch and dried needles emerging from receding
snow. The faint odor of Mountain Misery, reminiscent of artichoke,
could also be found.
The meadows around Bear Valley were completely covered with snow with
Canada geese waiting to continue their migration north. We stopped at
the general store to stock up on food 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 over. Here the road becomes narrower
loses its center stripe as it makes the short steep climbs to Pacific
Grade Summit. These first indications that this is no longer an
average state highway 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 to 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.
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.
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. Blue skies and pleasant
temperatures were predicted to change as a cold front with strong
winds was approaching. Although wind was picking up, this is common
for afternoons in the mountains and in this case, it was a tailwind.
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. 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 at the stone 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. We didn't see many birds probably
because the pleasant tailwind we had. I have seen many here, among
them the brilliant mountain bluebird that appears to have its own
light source. Unusually clear air gave us a broad panorama of
Antelope Valley below was framed by snow capped mountains as we
approached 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 the tailwind became a headwind
or at least a stiff side wind on the nine miles on HWY395 up the
valley to Walker (5400ft).
On the way we saw two Highway patrol cruisers writing speeding
tickets on the northbound side of the road. Then the two went
cruising by and after a couple of miles they had again stopped cars
heading north. We saw this three times and realized that they were
radar measuring speed of approaching traffic, making a U-turn and
pulling them over. I interviewed such a patrol since and was told that
the computers are so good at deciphering speed taken by radar through
the windshield that there is no doubt.
We stopped in Walker, a favorite stopping place on these rides for
comfortable accommodations, at the West Walker Motel and the hearty
food offered in several eateries. Our room had front and rear windows
so we had a cool desert breezes blow through the room. That breeze
got stiffer during the night and was less friendly as we started after
breakfast.
That was 113mi and 13340ft climbing.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday 05 June 2005
After a good night of refreshing air we had a generous hot cakes and
syrup breakfast before getting on the road and heading into the West
Walker River canyon where a 20-30mph wind was in our face as we
climbed the 13 miles to Sonora Junction (6950ft).
We turned onto HWY108 and headed west across marshes with blue iris,
waterfowl but saw no yellow headed blackbirds that we usually find
there. The road descends to the West Walker River before climbing to
Pickel Meadows and the USMC Mountain Warfare training center. The old
main entrance was apparently not secure enough and was blocked by
concrete barriers. The new entrance is steep up-hill and is a zigzag
between highway divider slabs.
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 have encountered this on 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.
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.
Fortunately the wind that plagued us in the canyon seemed to go
overhead as we climbed.
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.
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). Down here there was hardly a trace of
the rain and wind that was approaching.
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.
We passed Wards Ferry Rd and descended back to the start in Sonora
and loaded out bicycle in the car for the uneventful ride back home.
98mi and 7300ft climbing
-------------------------------------------
[email hidden]