FR-19 in the snow

[hemingray]

Well, just 3 days shy of a year - another snow ride on FR-19. Access is virtually guaranteed, so it was a no-brainer for some snow today.



Climbing on the road in about 8-10 inches of snow, the truck tracks stopped and turned, one by one. Most of the way up from Lake Valley to the ridge saw the last one stop and at the top there were no new tracks.



On the way up, I played with power high/low range while watching the speedo and the GPS speed. 13 mph in low range is the sweet spot for me. More than that and the wheels are spinning. Less and it's lugging. I just held it constant and it climbed like a mountain goat. Before I got in the thicker stuff, I locked the front diff and kept the same speed and power and it still climbed like a mountain goat.

Glad I know the roads - snow changes everything up there. Went up to Quartz Mountain, hoping for a view. Not today, lots of cloud.



Looking west.



Looking southeast.



Looking north.



I love the character change of the mountains with the coming of the snow.





Last tracks of the season maybe.



Looking toward Cisco Butte.



Lake Valley Reservoir.



Signal Peak - what you can see of it!



Huysink Lake.



Nice view down towards Big Valley Bluff.



I was amazed how much melt had happened in just a couple of hours on the lower road. Anyway, fun trip, even if it wasn't a sunny day.

On the way back, I found the South Yuba had a lot of water in it again after the rain and snowfall.



Nice late afternoon view from the vista point into the Bear Valley and South Yuba Canyon.



Oh yeah - found the signs for the favorite land owner in the Pierce OHV area.

[EigerMike]

=D> awesome dave! love the last tracks and the river shot is beautiful! thanks!

[Rubicon_Rider]

we must have been riding the same day (Saturday the 12th) because the conditions you are discribing is exactly what we had at Bowman across 80 from where you where riding. i am thinking it is the last ride of the season up there as well. i wont be able to ride again until after thanksthanks giving and i am sure another storm will dump lots of snow before then.
Nice job with the pictures.

[Rubicon_Rider]

i have a group that wants to ride this weekend, where would be a good area to stage to ride these trails?

[hemingray]

Coming from Sac'to, exit I-80 at Yuba Gap. Turn right at the top of the ramp. Follow the road (it makes a left as soon as you turn off the ramp) and stay right at the fork with the sign for Kelly Lake (there's a big tree there). Go about 1/2 mile or so. You'll pass a road on the right with a FS gate - ignore it, it's a stub road that goes essentially nowhere. The road will come to the junction of Forest Road 19 (begins here) - this is the start. GPS: N39° 18.230' W120° 36.416' Don't continue going towards Lake Valley Reservoir campground, it's gated with no turnaround.

FYI, technically there is no parking on the paved roads. If you have to, you can go back to the wide spot back near the gate for the stub road - there's a wide spot across the road. Anyway, FR-19 is where you want to go (hope it's not too deep in snow yet.) It runs along the lake for about 2 miles, then begins to climb. After about 1.5 miles, there's a turnoff for FR-38. You can turn there for Huysink Lake and eventually Sugar Pine Point, especially if you can't make it up FR-19 from this point. If you can continue, FR-19 continues a steady climb and tops out on Monumental ridge. Following the main road will take you all the way out to Big Valley Bluff (there's a side road at N39° 14.280' W120° 35.215' that leads to the bluff) and eventually to Texas Hill.

Shortly after you get to the top of Monumental Ridge and start down, there's a side road ( N39° 16.474' W120° 34.615' ) that leads out to Quartz Mountain and a good view to the west, if you can follow it (more of a trail). Maybe my tracks are still visible from a couple of weeks ago...

Good luck!

[Rubicon_Rider]

Thanks. I was actually there on October 22nd after we rode a little bit of the Fordyce trail, we parked on the dirt road FR19 next to Valley Reservoir and then rode to see some friends that where bear hunting. I will see if my group wants to go there, they love the Crytal Basin - Wentworth Springs area since i took them there. i want to explore new places.

[GrizzlyGuy]

Very cool! That shot of Huysink Lake is calendar quality. It's pretty gutsy of you to head out into that much snow by yourself.

[hemingray]

Wish I'd gone further that day, since I could not get up there yesterday! On this thread's trip, it was 8 to 10 inches - not bad at all.

I also make sure someone knows where I am going, I have two radios and emergency goodies in the bags on the quad and I'm in an area I am intimately familiar with. Also, I'm really careful about how the snow is as I am riding along This trip in this post was a breeze, no traction issues at all. But the trip yesterday was different with varying snow. When I finally bogged down, I was careful to not dig in and I walked the quad backwards to a good spot for a turnaround.

Now that winter's got things locked up, time to play radio. 10 meters is heating up - bagged a station in French Polynesia on 10 meters this morning!

[GrizzlyGuy]

Now that winter's got things locked up, time to play radio. 10 meters is heating up - bagged a station in French Polynesia on 10 meters this morning!

Nice! Well what do you know, I just this afternoon hauled my antenna up into the pine trees (Carolina Windom). The 10m contest was going on so I figured that would be a good way to test it. I hopped on CW and worked a dozen guys out in the pacific over the span of about 15 minutes. The usual suspects: VK, ZL, JA, KH2 and YB. That's Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Guam and Indonesia for the non-hams out there.

I was about to shut down and go make a margarita when my receiver overloads. It was my local contesting buddy Jim, W6EU up the band about 10 kHz. I zip over and find out he is calling ZK2V, the one-man DXpedition to Niue. There is a pileup and Jim hadn't got through after a few calls. I figure what the heck, Jim has a tribander on a tower and probably running a kW, all I've got is a wire in the trees and 200W, so I'll call too and see how long it takes me to work him after Jim does.

I bagged him on my 3rd or 4th call. Jim was still calling. I make the margarita and wander back into the shack about 10 minutes later and... Jim is *still* calling. LOL! He might have a tower and power, but I've got terrain.

P.S. - I'll bet we can work each other groundwave on 10m. During the contest I worked Jack (KF6T) down in Auburn no sweat.

[Ken]

I heard about that contest yesterday. My contractors father in law, is in Curacao for this....I guess he's done well in it or something....I think he name is Martin Green.

[hemingray]

I heard about that contest yesterday. My contractors father in law, is in Curacao for this....I guess he's done well in it or something....I think he name is Martin Green.

Working the contest from an exotic location like that must be fun. You're the hunted instead of the hunter.

Eric - we'll have to give that a shot sometime. Supposedly the loop radiates skyward, but I'm working on putting up a Gap Eagle that I got from a friend. Should do better groundwave.

[GrizzlyGuy]

I heard about that contest yesterday. My contractors father in law, is in Curacao for this....I guess he's done well in it or something....I think he name is Martin Green.

Cool! I don't recognize his name but I'd probably recognize his call. If he is from this area then he is probably in my club (Northern California Contest Club). PJ2N is one of the big super-stations down on Curacao so maybe he was operating from there.

I heard about that contest yesterday. My contractors father in law, is in Curacao for this....I guess he's done well in it or something....I think he name is Martin Green.

Working the contest from an exotic location like that must be fun. You're the hunted instead of the hunter.

Eric - we'll have to give that a shot sometime. Supposedly the loop radiates skyward, but I'm working on putting up a Gap Eagle that I got from a friend. Should do better groundwave.

Yeah, being the DX is fun. I still remember my expedition to SV8 (Santorini) and the pileups were crazy.

Give me a ping when you get the antenna up and we'll give it a shot. Yesterday I dusted off my IC-706 "manpack" setup, tossed it on the floor, connected to my main antenna and was working all kinds of guys with just 5W on both CW and SSB. When 10m is open, it's really open.