3-Day Plumas/Tahoe Expedition (Days 1 & 2)

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3-Day Plumas/Tahoe Expedition (Days 1 & 2)

Postby GrizzlyGuy » Mon Aug 29, 2011 9:56 am

Flyin Boy was up for 5 days of riding including a 3-day exploration of some areas of Plumas and Tahoe NF's that I hadn't ridden before. We stumbled across a few great trails that we need to ride again in the future. Here is the blow-by-blow:

We unloaded northeast of Quincy on Mt Hough Road with camping gear on board. No freeze dried food on this trip, we decided to go all in and bring everything including a kitchen sink (a folding one, but unfortunately I forgot it at home). We ran into some nice ladies riding horses and they gave us some tips on where to find streamside campsites. A half hour later we arrived at a great looking site along Tollgate Creek:

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First order of business - setup the Zodi shower. We pumped right out of the creek so no need to haul our shower water.

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With our amazingly large loads of crap now dumped, fire pit constructed and hot showers ready to roll, we saddled up and headed out. Nice view of Quincy from the road to our campsite:

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We zoomed up to Mt Hough to checkout the view. The best view was from the Crystal Lake overlook point (also a hang glider launch) that is just below the lookout:

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Here is Flyin Boy standing on the hang glider launch and looking down at the lake. This launch is only used early in the morning when there is no wind, since the prevailing wind blows from behind. With no wind, you take about four steps and plunge over the edge of the cliff before the glider has enough airspeed to actually fly. If things work out well, gravity takes over, you quickly pick up flying speed, and fly away over the lake and out into Indian Valley. If things don't work out well... well, let's not go there.

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There is a 4x4 road down to the lake. The water really is crystal clear:

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Looking back across the lake at the overlook and hang glider launch above:

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Two forest service people drove down to the lake while we were there. They told us that a hang glider pilot died this year. RIP fellow pilot. :(

My ride-to-Oregon route goes through this area so we rode down to Taylorsville (a gas stop for that future ride) just to make sure it is doable. The China Grade road hits pavement on the outskirts of town:

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We headed back to camp for hot showers and dinner. Steaks, potatoes, Black Forest Cobbler and margaritas were on the menu:

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At around dusk we heard a rumble, looked up, and two big fire bomber planes popped over the edge of the canyon. Our guess is that the person manning Mt Hough Lookout must have seen our fairly dense campfire smoke, thought it was a forest fire, and called these guys in. I waved at the bombers and they veered off in another direction without dropping their payloads. Dang, the grizzlies were real dirty and a load of borate would have cleaned them up in a jiffy! :P

The next morning we decided to see where our campsite road (25N73) ended up. It ends here, a radio tower site up on Indian Falls Ridge with an impressive 360 degree view:

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Looking west:
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Indian Valley down below us:
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Lake Almanor and Mt. Lassen in the distance (NNW):
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We rode back out to Mt Hough Road, headed for the higher country and started on our primary mission of the day: see if we can find a trail up onto Grizzly Peak. Flyin Boy was in the lead and we started up a nice smooth road that gradually got narrower, rougher and steeper. It finally got to the point when turning around would be very-very tough and I was praying that Flyin Boy would recognize this and do the right thing. He did, he kept the GAS ON until we popped out on top. Victory!:

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Indian Valley:
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Genesee Valley, the trail comes up to the right of the tree on the right edge (rats, forgot to take a picture of it):
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Our next stop was lunch at Brady's Camp Campground and then up to Argentine Rock Lookout (abandoned). More outstanding views:

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Note the firm grip on the handrail. When not hooked into a hang glider I'm scared of heights!
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Time to head back to camp and my map showed that we could make a nice loop out of the ride instead of having to backtrack. Things were going as expected until the nice road turned into an epic-licious and rarely used jeep trail running right up the side of Lower Taylor. Gas on baby, gas on!:

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We popped out on top, continued on per my map, but ran into this gate:

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How odd, the "Keep Out" signs were on the OTHER side of the gate and we hadn't seen a single sign on the way there! We were locked IN and not out: #-o

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Whoever built the gate knew what they were doing. There was no way around, no way under, they even have a pit-of-death awaiting any poor suckers who try to ride over the berm and log:

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We briefly considered building a ramp out of the logging residue and doing some Evel Knievel action OVER the gate... [-o<

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...but decided that we both sucked too much as riders to pull that off safely. [-X

After riding around a bit to try and find another way out (fail - there aren't any), back down the jeep trail we went and again confirmed that there were NO SIGNS, GATES OR ANY INDICATION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY along that route. We circumnavigated Little Taylor on real roads and found the road leading to the gate from the other side. Criminey, if you can afford to put up this many signs you'd think you could just hang ONE sign on the other way in:

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The ride back to camp was uneventful. We grabbed hot showers then cooked dinner: spaghetti, garlic bread sticks, corn on the cob, more margaritas and a vanilla apple cobbler for dessert:

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Two successful riding days in the bag. I'll post later about day 3.
Last edited by GrizzlyGuy on Mon Aug 29, 2011 10:30 am, edited 6 times in total.
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Re: 3-Day Plumas/Tahoe Expedition (Days 1 & 2)

Postby Mr. Green » Mon Aug 29, 2011 10:12 am

very nice, i have never seen that area looks like i may have to now. I love the panoramic pics you have. Did you stitch the pictures together or just a nifty camera feature?

How did you like your propane water heater? Ive heard what makes or breaks people opinion on them is if the water pump is fast/strong enough.

leaving us hanging on day 3.
so is that 2 successful days and one not so successful day?
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Re: 3-Day Plumas/Tahoe Expedition (Days 1 & 2)

Postby GrizzlyGuy » Mon Aug 29, 2011 11:53 am

Yeah Brian, the area turned out to be much cooler than I expected. I'd easily go back and ride some of those trails again.

FlyinBoy's camera does the panorama shots. Neat feature. I updated my post above to include larger versions of those.

The Zodi shower gets plenty hot but there is an issue with the pressure/flow like you say. The first night we took showers standing with the nozzle up in the tree like in the photo. The flow was low, we had a few vapor locks, and to clear them you are supposed to suck on the nozzle while the pump is running. Getting a mouth full of hot water was less than fun. :(

The second night we yanked the nozzle out of the tree, sat on the mat, and did the showers that way. Since the little pump didn't need to pump as high, the flow was better. It still isn't great but I thought it was plenty good enough for a hot shower out in the woods. The pump runs on 4 D-cells (6V) and I bought a 6V voltage regulator and heat sink so that I can also run it off of the ATV's 12V system once I install them. I might instead swap out the regulator for a variable one and see if the pump will put out a bit more water at higher voltages. Then again I might not, since I could end up frying the little pump.

Based on the reviews it sounds like this model might do better on the pressure/flow:

http://www.amazon.com/ZODI-Outback-Gear ... B000RYWQP6

Day 3 was a good one too, I just got tired of writing and needed a break. :)
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Re: 3-Day Plumas/Tahoe Expedition (Days 1 & 2)

Postby EigerMike » Mon Aug 29, 2011 4:58 pm

awesome GG! looks like you guys ate good and were clean at the end of each day! :D you better be carefull and not get to spoiled camping like that! :lol:
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Re: 3-Day Plumas/Tahoe Expedition (Days 1 & 2)

Postby GrizzlyGuy » Mon Aug 29, 2011 6:45 pm

EigerMike wrote:awesome GG! looks like you guys ate good and were clean at the end of each day! :D you better be carefull and not get to spoiled camping like that! :lol:
I know! Pretty soon we'll be hauling so much camping crap that we'll look like these guys: :roll: :lol:

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Re: 3-Day Plumas/Tahoe Expedition (Days 1 & 2)

Postby hemingray » Mon Aug 29, 2011 7:54 pm

Nice nice nice! Great pix of the area, the looking down shot on Crystal Lake is cool. Take me on some day trips over there!
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Re: 3-Day Plumas/Tahoe Expedition (Days 1 & 2)

Postby blm510 » Mon Aug 29, 2011 9:08 pm

Nice pics thanks for sharing. I liked the one of Mt. Lassen in the back lets me see how close we are . By the way which pic is Grizzley Guy I didn't recognize any one with out Hardware hope to meet you in a couple weeks.

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Re: 3-Day Plumas/Tahoe Expedition (Days 1 & 2)

Postby hemingray » Mon Aug 29, 2011 9:16 pm

He's gripping the railing for dear life while describing hang gliding. He's also the one smiling over the food that almost doesn't look like a bear just left it there.

That gate is, er, interesting. The big loop of chain is the weakest link and it's weird how long the chain is. Something tells me someone only measured once.
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Re: 3-Day Plumas/Tahoe Expedition (Days 1 & 2)

Postby GrizzlyGuy » Tue Aug 30, 2011 9:19 am

hemingray wrote:Nice nice nice! Great pix of the area, the looking down shot on Crystal Lake is cool. Take me on some day trips over there!
It’s kind of a hike for a day ride, but I guess it’s doable. We had to drive an entire *1.5 hours* just to get to the trailhead. Oh the horror! :P

Seriously though, we could hit all those spots in a single day now that I know the ins and outs and have my GPS maps updated with what we found. If you bring your chainsaw, there might even be a shortcut between Mt Hough and the tower on Indian Falls Ridge. There was a downed tree on each end of a road that might connect the two and we were too lazy to haul out the Sven saws and find out. Plumas recently released their record of decision regarding route designation and that road is shown as an approved trail.
blm510 wrote:By the way which pic is Grizzley Guy I didn't recognize any one with out Hardware
Isn't it obvious? I'm the handsome one! :lol:
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Re: 3-Day Plumas/Tahoe Expedition (Days 1 & 2)

Postby EigerMike » Tue Aug 30, 2011 10:17 pm

man GG you are getting closer to our riding grounds! :D
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