Carpenter Ridge Ride (FAIL on Meadow Lake Ride)

[GrizzlyGuy]

So... Pete and Eric (on bikes) and I unloaded at our local trailhead on the backside of Prosser Hill OHV yesterday, planning to ride out to Meadow Lake and check it out. Unfortunately, our friends at the Forest Service had closed a key road that gets us from Prosser Hill OHV across Sagehen Creek to Sagehen Road. Without that road, we can't get to Henness Pass road and westward without taking a 2-ish mile long speed run up Highway 89. Undaunted, we hung a left and decided to climb through the Sagehen Hills trail system to Carpenter Ridge.

The brush has really been growing in the hills, yes there is a trail directly ahead of me. We had to brush-whack for a good quarter mile on this one:



We took a break along the way to check out this view of Carpenter Valley in the foreground, with the backside of Castle Peak visible on the skyline to the left side of the photo. Devil's Oven Lake is perched up on the volcano-like granite peak that is just right of center and not quite on the skyline (can't see the lake):





Lots o' purple flowers and bees where we stopped:





After a quick run over to Sagehen Campground, we started the climb up to the top of Carpenter Ridge. We started hitting snow drifts at 8000'. They were easy for me on the Grizzly, but the biker-boys had to do quite a bit of pushing and muscling to get their skinny-tired machines up and over the bigger ones that were higher up (rat's, didn't think to take pictures of those):



Up on top at 8400', Pete strikes a pose while Eric looks on. That is Mt. Lola across the valley behind Eric's head (Independence Lake is behind and w-a-y down the steep side of the ridge below Pete):



Closer looks at Mt. Lola (9148'), White Rock Lake is down behind the ridge to the left of Lola (can't see the lake):




Eric and Pete had never been up this route so even though we couldn't head for Meadow Lake, it was still a successful mission.

[hemingray]

OMG - yes, the brush, story of my life too! I almost want to buy a gas powered hedge trimmer for all that crap. A couple of weeks ago I just said to heck with it and stood up and just tried to watch for logs in front of me while the stuff bristle-cleaned the quad.

Cool pix - I'd love to see those views someday. Is the road closure new, or a forgotten "open it in spring" kinda thing? Foresthill Road still has all the "Road Closed 5 Miles Ahead" stuff in place, nobody's flipped the signs.

[GrizzlyGuy]

Yeah Dave, I flippin' hate that brush! Not only does it grow like mad, but it seems to be the only plant in the known universe that I am allergic to when it is flowering (like now). There is a ton of it around our house and I just had to pop a Zyrtec. There isn't as much of it over at the new place, but I'm still planning a search-and-destroy mission to take it out. That overgrown trail section was completely clear when I shot my Sierra Spring video along that same trail in 2007.

The road that is now closed had been closed continuously every year except for last year and maybe the year before. I have no idea why they opened it and have now closed it again, but when open that road lets me ride all the way out to the Meadow Lake area from the trailhead that is just 5 minutes from my house. With it closed, I'd have to trailer all the way to Sagehen Road (an entire 25 minutes, unacceptable!), or ride all the way up to Carpenter Ridge to cross Sagehen Creek, adding about a 2-hour rough and brushy ride to get 3/4 of a mile further north.

The bridge across Sagehen Creek is starting to wash out along one side and actually is a little dangerous if you are blasting along and don't notice the washout. Put a wheel in that and you'd be having a really-really bad day. Maybe that is why they have closed it off again.

[EigerMike]

nice pics GG! like how we are starting all our pics with flowers!!!!! i do it just so my wife will look at the pics when i get home beautiful mountains!

[Kendo]

That is exactly what the end of the Bear Valley Loop looks like. The trail literally disappeared into a tangle of manzanita and mules ear. I turned around and just went out to Cottonwood Rd to get back to the trailhead. I guess the Diablo Wheelers stopped there, because the rest of the trail had been cleared and was pretty good. No more butt pucker spot for you GG, instead there's a nice canyon down the middle of the trail that you have to avoid. Exciting!