Truckee Trails

Talk about Trails. Got a good one? We want to know!

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GrizzlyGuy
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Truckee Trails

Postby GrizzlyGuy » Wed May 14, 2008 10:06 pm

rockslayer wrote: where are all these trails you guys talk about near truckee? the only place i know of is prosser pits
OK, here are the 2 trailheads closest to TahoeDonner:

Sagehen Hlls/Prosser Hill - Leave TD going down Alder Creek Road, stop at Carpenter Valley Road, unload right there. Ride down Carpenter Valley Road about .5 miles, a trail turns off to right. You will go by a meadow, down a steep hill, then be cruising along Prosser Creek. There is a left that takes you across an actual paved/asphalt bridge crossing Prosser Creek and this will take you to the good stuff including all the way to the top of Carpenter Ridge. Or, skip the left and cruise out to Prosser Hill.

NOTE: If not coming from TahoeDonner, you can just head north on 89 and unload at the first paved OHV parking area you see on the left. This brings you in through the "official" front way, while the way above is kind of a back entrance.

Video: Sierra Spring

Coldstream Valley Area - Go down Northwoods to town, go to Donner Memorial State Park (maybe 1/4 mile west of Chevron station). Drive into park, then through park on dirt road. When you see the park boundary sign, unload. Head generally SW. Can cross under or over the RR tracks. Best stuff is motorcycle-only, goes up to the Sierra crest, but there is plenty of fun for a quad on roads and trails. Can get all the way up to the shoulder of Mt. Lincoln.

Video: Tracks and Trails

Other good ones:

Little Truckee Summit - If you can only go to one trailhead, this is the one. Tons of options. Ride over to Bear Valley OHV, Meadow/Bowman Lake Areas, Gold Lake/Valley, Plumas NF, Verdi, NV, wherever... all within riding range. From Truckee, take 89 north towards Sierraville, look for turn to Jackson Meadows (paved road). Turn left, the big asphalt parking lot is right there, unload.

To Bear Valley OHV: From Little Truckee Summit, ride straight across Hwy 89, onto Cottonwood Road (dirt), go about 5 miles to 4-way intersection. Hang right, official trail beginning is about 150 ft down road. Trails wander all over from there. Once you learn the system, no need to ride those 5 miles. Can cut in at various points along the way, but some of the trails are practically invisible from Cottonwood Road.

Video: Fresh Tracks

To Meadow Lake: From Little Truckee Summit, ride FS 05 (Treasure Mountain Road) that heads north out of the parking lot, up and over Treasure Mountain. Ends in T intersection on FS 15. Turn left, climb up to 4-way intersection with FS 12 at Bonta Saddle. Turn left, ride to paved FS 07 (the very same road that you parked next to). Solve "ethical dilemma", somehow, usually by turning left and blazing down about 200 feet of pavement (I have a magic and top-secret levitation device that I use :roll: ). Anyhoo... Turn right at Webber Lake. Ride that road by Webber Lake to intersection with Meadow Lake Road. Turn left, follow Meadow Lake Road to... Meadow Lake.

Video: Get Ready

FS 12 is an ATV "superhighway", gravel, 3 lanes wide. Back at Bonta Saddle, turning right instead of left takes you to Bassetts (town with gas and ice cream on Hwy 49), or on to Yuba Pass, and on from there to Gold Lake, Gold Valley, Plumas NF, around Quincy, Mt.Hough, Indian Valley, past Susanville, and on to Oregon (a few more ethical dilemmas in there here and there). ;-)

Lots and lots and lots and lots more, but I'm out of steam for now. :)
Last edited by GrizzlyGuy on Thu May 15, 2008 1:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Truckee Trails

Postby GrizzlyGuy » Thu May 15, 2008 1:17 pm

GrizzlyGuy wrote: Lots and lots and lots and lots more, but I'm out of steam for now. :)
Got a bit more steam, here is another good one:

Boca Springs - Head east on I-80 toward Reno, exit a few miles later to go to Boca Reservoir. When the reservoir starts to narrow on your left, watch for a dirt road on the right with a sign that says 'Verdi Peak', 'Boca Springs' or something like that. Park in the wide dirt area a couple hundred feet up the dirt road. Or if camping, continue on to Boca Springs CG (bear left, follow signs).

From here, you have the power line trail (riding under the high tension line), some other trails, plus roads to Verdi Peak and/or out to Henness Pass road and points beyond (Toiyabe NF, Verdi NV, Peavine, etc.). Following the power line trail all the way up to Beacon Point is fun, there are more trails up there too:

Image

Parked at Verdi Peak:

Image

Or, you can keep driving by Boca Reservoir on the pavement until it hits Henness Pass road. There is a smaller parking area there, can unload there if you are mainly heading north or into Toiyabe on your ride.
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Postby Loppy » Thu May 15, 2008 1:18 pm

GG, I'd love to tag along with you one of these days on the LTS/BV area if you were so inclined. You should run a tour for us. When are you gunna dig the Griz out and be ready? :D
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Postby rockslayer » Thu May 15, 2008 1:24 pm

wow, just WOW i would have never known about any of those and ive searched google like 3 times just looking for atv places to ride. THANK YOU mr grizzly that is valuable information you have shared, i have a lot of trails to check out apperantly hehe :D :lol:

i need to hurry up and get a rim and a gas cap :roll:

if you ever need a hand with anything let me know im right down the road, ive got an arc welder/grinder/chop saw and a bunch of basic hand tools if you ever need anything, quite a few carpentry tools too.

thanks again :D

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Postby GrizzlyGuy » Thu May 15, 2008 1:48 pm

Loppy wrote:GG, I'd love to tag along with you one of these days on the LTS/BV area if you were so inclined. You should run a tour for us. When are you gunna dig the Griz out and be ready? :D
Let's do it, Loppy! I've now got the Grizzlies out of their den and into the garage. :D

But I tweaked my back a few days ago so I'm not at tip-top riding shape right now. FishHallic was here this morning to pick up a dishwasher (long story) and I couldn't even help him load it into his truck. :oops:

Oh well, the best Bear Valley trails probably still have snow on them anyway, and I doubt you could go very far west from Little Truckee Summit either (snow up at Bonta Saddle and probably even lower).
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Postby FishaHallic » Thu May 15, 2008 2:34 pm

I would love to go to, but now.......my back hurts :lol: .
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Postby GrizzlyGuy » Thu May 15, 2008 2:41 pm

rockslayer wrote:if you ever need a hand with anything let me know im right down the road, ive got an arc welder/grinder/chop saw and a bunch of basic hand tools if you ever need anything, quite a few carpentry tools too.
Hot dang, Rockslayer. I may have to take you up on that some time. Me and mechanical things, like tools, just don't get along. :(

More good news for you: Besides that rim and gas cap, pick up some gas cans. As in... at least a couple. Because it is real-REAL easy to do 100+ miles in a day around here.

OK, I forgot about one more downtown Truckee trailhead. Head out "old 267" toward the airport, hang a right at the stoplight by the 7-eleven out there. Wander through the subdivision heading SSW until you come to the FS gate (open) where the road becomes dirt (FS 06). Not too far past the gate is a parking area on the right. Lots of mountain bikers come here.

This is all easy stuff, but scenic. Ride FS 06 up (south, you go right by the west edge of Northstar) until you come to a T intersection with a narrow 2-lane paved road. Not sure if we're OK on that paved road or not. If you were to hike down that road to the left, you'd come to Watson Lake. Boring lake, barely worth the hike.

But let's say you turned right for some reason, and were watching your GPS as you zipped down the pavement, and knew where to turn left onto a narrow kind of steepish dirt road that is more like a skid trail. Or maybe you trailered to that spot (where there is nowhere to park). Who knows how you got there, but you did.

Anyhoo... you would now be climbing toward to the top of Mt. Watson (OK, to the top of a shoulder of Mt. Watson, but practically the same thing).

WoW what a cool view when you get to the top of that one. Not too many years back, you used to be able to ride up through the rocks to the very tip-top for the best photo op ever. Quad on top, blue sky above, snowy mountains behind, and Lake Tahoe directly below you. Some time later, that route up through the rocks got closed, so now you have to walk the last 100 feet or so.

There are also a few other easy logging roads from FS 06 (before the T intersection) that will take you out toward 89 South, but I don't know of any that bring you all the way down to 89.

TIP: Go down to the ranger station and pick up a TNF map, it shows lots of these major trailheads/routes on there. :)
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Postby GrizzlyGuy » Fri May 16, 2008 7:46 am

FishaHallic wrote:I would love to go to, but now.......my back hurts :lol: .
LOL! Aw man, I'm sorry about that Dave. In case you wondering, washing down a Soma, Vicodin and an Advil with a strong margarita doesn't seem to help. I tried that last night. :lol:

Since I'm stuck in this chair, here's a few more trailheads for Rockslayer that are about a 1/2 hour from our houses:

Cisco Grove - Take 80 west to that exit, turn right (north) after coming off the freeway, then turn left to go to the private campground. Park in the paved parking lot, pay them $5 for parking in the store, ride up the road that is across the street from the parking lot. All kinds of stuff up there, including lots of interesting 2-track stuff that is spread out all around the area. Flyin Boy and I did a 3-day trip in there and never ran out of stuff to ride.

Indian Springs - Go one exit further west on 80 (Eagle Lakes exit), turn right (north) after coming off the freeway, then turn left and follow the road until you see the sign and right turn into the trailhead (maybe 100 yards or so off the road). This is the south end of Fordyce Creek trail but there is plenty of easier stuff to ride as well. Just running down to Eagle Lakes and back is fun, or maybe zip over to South Fork Yuba River and splash around.

The access "road" up to Signal Peak is fun too, and going up and over Signal Peak connects you to Cisco Grove. I say "road" because the rocks are decent size and it is as fun to ride as most trails. So go slay a few of them. :)

See the ATVObsession Photos and Videos sections, there is a ton of cool stuff from this area. Here are some of my videos of riding the easier stuff from Indian Springs:

Granite and Grunge

Finally Riding Baby

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this one for Bear Valley OHV, shows more of what some of the easier trails look like there:

Born to Wander
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Postby FishaHallic » Fri May 16, 2008 9:36 am

GrizzlyGuy wrote:
FishaHallic wrote:I would love to go to, but now.......my back hurts :lol: .
LOL! Aw man, I'm sorry about that Dave. In case you wondering, washing down a Soma, Vicodin and an Advil with a strong margarita doesn't seem to help. I tried that last night. :lol:


I don't care if it works or not, it sounds fun, I think I will try it. :D
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Re: Truckee Trails

Postby traildad » Sun Aug 10, 2008 3:59 pm

GrizzlyGuy wrote:

Little Truckee Summit - If you can only go to one trailhead, this is the one. Tons of options. Ride over to Bear Valley OHV, Meadow/Bowman Lake Areas, Gold Lake/Valley, Plumas NF, Verdi, NV, wherever... all within riding range. From Truckee, take 89 north towards Sierraville, look for turn to Jackson Meadows (paved road). Turn left, the big asphalt parking lot is right there, unload.
Is this what looks like a snow mobile staging area? Bathroom, paved parking lot and what looks to be big fire rings to keep the snow mobilers warm. Real close to the road into Meadow Lake if you are driving in.
To Meadow Lake: From Little Truckee Summit, ride FS 05 (Treasure Mountain Road) that heads north out of the parking lot, up and over Treasure Mountain. Ends in T intersection on FS 15. Turn left, climb up to 4-way intersection with FS 12 at Bonta Saddle. Turn left, ride to paved FS 07 (the very same road that you parked next to). Solve "ethical dilemma", somehow, usually by turning left and blazing down about 200 feet of pavement (I have a magic and top-secret levitation device that I use :roll: ). Anyhoo... Turn right at Webber Lake. Ride that road by Webber Lake to intersection with Meadow Lake Road. Turn left, follow Meadow Lake Road to... Meadow Lake.
I think I understand the left turn and ethical dilemma you are refering to. On the tracks you sent me it shows you going east from Weber lake and taking another road towards FS 15. It starts out heading straight towards Lake of the Woods and then you go right and end up back at FS15. How is that road, and is it also an "ethical dilemma" to go that way? Thanks
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Postby GrizzlyGuy » Sun Aug 10, 2008 6:26 pm

Yes, the paved parking lot is immediately after you turn off Hwy 89 on FS 07 which is the paved road that goes to Jackson Meadows reservoir. FS 05 (Treasure Mountain Road) takes off from right next to the little restroom.

I don't know of any way to avoid the ethical dilemma. The dilemma is minimized if you ride FS 12 until it ends at the paved FS 07 (the same road that you turned onto to get into the parking lot at Little Truckee Summit). If you turn east on FS 07 from that FS 12 end point, it is only a few hundred feet to the dirt road that goes by Webber Lake. If you follow that road, it ends where it intersects with Meadow Lake Road.
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