Well – that was fun. Plans never really solidified, but at the end of the day, it was Dan and me riding epic Sierra single track. As always, Downieville was a blast. As Wayno said…”we pretty much have June conditions up here.” As yes – conditions were fantastic. Little dusty in spots on lower Butcher, but overall…wow.
So Friday got off to a curveball start – Dan decided to roll up and smoke a poison oak joint the day before, so he had to get a steroid shot. Which meant separate cars on the way up. Dude did not look good when he rolled into Dville. Eye was still swollen, arms and legs were red with oak…just a great rally on his part though. Things worked out well and we both pushed our shuttle back to 2pm. Needless to say, the Prius did alright.
Not exactly a "shuttle."
Big Moe made the trip up as well. He’s pretty much my staple when it comes to road trips to Downieville.
The old guy just chilling...
The obligatory "Top of Sunrise" shot - I need to lose 10lbs..or the lycra top.
First run was sick. We figured since Jah Mon was rolling up that night, that we would do Pauley Creek. This way, we could do the Dville DH with Jah Mon the next day on the 8:30am shuttle. Well, unfortunately, that never materialized since Jah Mon was unable to make it. Only mech we ran into was a flat tire by Dan. The fact he only got one all weekend was amazing, since he is running XC, lightweight, 2.1 tires.
Say "tubeless on 3!"
Loving the Blur set up
After a quick swim in the ice cold river, Dan and I grabbed beers/food over at the Mexican place (surprisingly good). Great food, great beers, great patio overlooking the river.
As Dan likes to say..."chill-axing"
Yum yum yum...
Saturday consisted of an early 8:30am shuttle out of Yuba. What was supposed to have been a Big Boulder ride, turned into another Pauley ride for Stone. The spring in my rear derailleur, come to find out, was shot. This became apparent about 3 turns into the climb to BB. Dan continued on, met up with Dr. Wheels from MTBR (Patrick), while I got to do another Pauley ride. My broken rear derailleur became official right after the Butcher intersection, when I took a rock off the rear part of my frame, shearing off my derailleur altogether. Couple guys stopped to help me rig up the single speed, which worked fantastically. I hammered back to town, and right over to Yuba, who fixed me up with a new rear mech, a new chain, and a new rear hanger. 30 min turn around time and I was back on the trail…after some hot wings and a Fat Tire, which turned out to be a bad idea. The 10 mile out/back on N. Yuba was a little painful/gassy, although the ride back into town after the turn around point was actually super fast, fun, swoopy singletrack.
Before...
After!
So ya, just another great weekend in Downieville. I actually wussed out, and decided to get home early. Dan rolled up to Tahoe and did the Flume Trail/Marlette on Sunday. I think next trip will have to be a HITG, Toads, Dirty Harry trip, or some combo of the three.
We even got a couple short videos of Dan and Stone on a fun section of 3rd divide (might be 1st not sure). The two guy rolling through before Dan work at Santa Cruz. We rode the shuttle with them on Friday.
And like always…I can’t wait to go back.
