Where to start? Well, I rolled out of Monterey at about 9:30am on Thursday the 19th of June. Made it up to Auburn in pretty decent time, and with what appeared to be good fuel economy with the truck camper on. Overhead display was reading 14.9, doing mostly 60-65. Haven’t hand calculated yet, but, it is usually within 0.7.
Picked up Steve from mtbr.com in Auburn and made it up to the campground for the Downieville Summer kick-off by about 4:30 in the afternoon. Being that downieville is shuttle intensive…I booked a shuttle for Friday at what I thought was 11 am. So, I left camp and did the climb to where the shuttles drop you off.
I had no idea really what to expect. Just went off the verbal directions of a couple of other folks and set out by myself.
Man did it SUCK! Camp was at about 6000 feet of elevation. Ended up climbing up to 7000 feet in about 2.6 miles. It was all paved, but there were some super steep pitches and my heart rate was well into the 180’s for most of the climb. Luckily, at an intersection, I saw some guys shuttling up in trucks…so that kept me from going the wrong direction at the intersection.
I caught up to the same folks at the shuttle drop off and tagged along with them for the first ride of the day. Bunch of pretty cool guys from Orange County. We did Sunrise, butcher, 3rd divide and 1st divide. There were some sections that my hands went numb from holding on to the brakes and bars too hard. It was a good run…4000 feet of descent in about 15 miles?
I checked in at the shuttle company and they told me I had a spot at 12 instead of 11, so I grabbed some food in town and hung out on a park bench for a while. This was right next to the river, which runs through the center of town. Anyway, I managed to score another shuttle run at 4 pm (both shuttle companies were virtually booked the entire weekend).
So, leaving about noonish from downiville, the shuttle dropped us off at pack saddle to start another ride. I hit sunrise and then before hitting butcher, I stopped to adjust my rear hub. I just did the complete overhaul on it Wednesday night, and it had started to loosen up from the intial preload set up after the overhaul. Then, I ended up hooking up with a couple of guys…all from SoCal. One from Kernville, and a couple near LA. Actually, I think one guy might have been NorCal. Anyway, this time we decided to hit 2nd divide instead of 3rd. Good call. It was fun, yet different. Added 2 more miles to the ride, was more rolling/flowy, and seemed to have a bit more exposure. Also more sun, and it was getting warm. I ran out of water (despite starting with a full 3 liters) before we hit 1st divide on the way back into town.
Caught another shuttle back up to the campground, grabbed some dinner, a few well deserved beers, a shower in the camper, and hit the sack.
Saturday, I rode with Erwin, one of the SoCal guys from the second run of the day on Friday. We decided to do the Big Boulder trail. Ended up hooking up with two guys, Mack and Mike from the bay area-ish that wanted to do Big Boulder as well. So, at the bottom of Sunrise, we headed off on fire roads to find the top of Big Boulder. Hit some really fun fast rocky sections that reminded me a lot of the wide rock strewn sections coming down from the viewpoint at Porcupine Rim in Moab. It was SWEET! Then, the climb up to the top of Big Boulder. There is a great viewpoint up there, again to rival the magnitude of the view from Porcupine Rim in Moab.
The view was well worth it. However, I was stung by a wasp on the back of the knee while up there. By the time Saturday night rolled around, I couldn’t bend my knee.
Riding down Big Boulder was pretty damn sweet too. FAST, flowy, at times less than 12” wide single track on a semi-buffed, semi-loomy surface. It was a great ride down, and fast too! From there we intersected 3rd divide, I think. Rode back up it a short ways to hit 2nd divide and then down to First. I ran out of water again, about 2/3 of the way down 2nd. It was pretty damn warm too…the warmest it has been on my trip. Made it to town and caught a shuttle back up. 27 or so miles for the day, and despite being a shuttle served ride…I think something like 2300 feet of climbing….most of it while in the neighborhood of 6000 feet of elevation (Monterey on the other hand is sea level…so the altitude was really hurting).
Saturday night, the raffle/swag giveaway from the organizers of the gathering was pretty entertaining. Beer chug races and an inner tube blow up race for nice components like X0 and XTR shifters/derailleurs. I think there was 1 beer chug contest for a Fox 29er fork. Then, there was bike sumo for a Fox TALAS 32 fork. That was entertaining as hell. 2 guys on kids bmx bikes trying to knock each other off the bike without removing a hand from the handlebar or putting a foot down. Turns out Erwin, a guy I rode with twice already, won the bike sumo and the TALAS. After taking a benadryl for the wasp sting, I slept like a rock.
Sunday, I ended up riding with Erwin again and we did Sunrise-Butcher-3rd-1st. The was sting still bothered my knee a bit, and the sking was still hot to the touch. But, there was riding to do.
Got back into town, caught the shuttle back up to camp, broke camp and headed out of town. Overall, Downieville was a great place to ride, lots of good folks riding out there. Kind of like a smaller version of Moab in that regard. But, the town is SO small it is a bit ridiculous. I couldn’t even get a cell phone signal in town. My only regret is not spending more time in town after each ride to lounge in the river a bit…though I did take a dip in Packer Lake after Saturday’s and Sunday’s ride.
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