The Ogre's Guide

Tahoe Rim Trail on the 4th of July

Ogre — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 06:35:43 +0000

Riding the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT) is always a blast. It’s an amazing trail system, probably one of the best in the Nation, possibly in the world. The views are spectacular and the riding is awesome. Over the weekend of the 4th I managed to snag 2 great rides.

On the 4th I met up with rocket scientist and all around great guy Big Larry and another good friend Kathleen who coaches a high school mountain biking team in the Bay Area. We rode the section of the TRT from Mount Rose down to the Tunnel Creek trail. At that point we split up, Fiona rode the Flume Trail while Larry, Kathleen and I rode down to Red Flume Trail then around to the TRT over Marlett Peak. All in all a great ride. The TRT from Rose to Tunnel Creek is a great section of trail for beginning and intermediate riders to get a handle on the decomposed granite and rocky technical riding the characterizes the riding on the east and south shores of Lake Tahoe. Spooner to Red Flume Pictures and Ride Report here.

Saturday I had some slightly more ambitious plans. Last year some of the guys and I pioneered a new (to us) route going from Spooner Summit to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. It’s brutal 40 mile ride starting on the east side of the lake and going all the way around to Meyers. It includes some brual climbs and a few amazing technical descents. Since this route was based on the classic “Punisher” route we dubbed it the Punsher Plus.

I’ve also rewritten my main Tahoe Rim Trail Guide to include information about more rides in the area, including these two.

Fire in Auburn SRA

Ogre — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 05:35:52 +0000

There was a 40 acre fire in the Auburn SRA. Here is the story from News 10. From the buzz I’ve heard on MTBR it sounds like the fire started near the OHV/ Mammoth Bar area so likely the Confluence Trail and maybe the Culvert trail are affected.

Update: Sounds like there is a bit of trail damage near the culvert but that most of the trails are Ok and the damage is primarily in and around the OHV area.

Sierra is Open

Ogre — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 23:55:10 +0000

If you haven’t noticed yet the Sierra Nevada is open for business. Trails pretty much everywhere are rolling, I’ve ridden Pinecrest Peak and Grouse Ridge. I’ve heard about people riding in Downieville, I think both Butcher and Paulie Creek are open… probably about everything. I’m not sure about Tahoe and Hole in the Ground yet but I think everything below 9000’ or so is probably open unless it has a lot of South facing slopes. So… head east my friends!!

Update: Check the comments below, looks like Toads is mostly open now too!

Update 2: Just heard from someone that Hole in the Ground is still partly covered in snow and tough to ride.

Update 3: Hole in the Ground is Open as is Freel Pass right now… If those trails are open pretty much everthing is.

May By The Bay - Annadel Park and Boggs Demo Forest

Ogre — Thu, 29 May 2008 03:01:21 +0000

Every year the weekend before Memorial Day there is a gathering of people from the MTBR Norcal Forum called May By the Bay. This year there were 6 rides, with the final three days rides at Annadel Park, Boggs Mountain, and Oathill Mine Trail. It’s an informal gathering with no official sponsors and it’s 100% free, even the camping at Boggs is free.

Fiona and I went to the Annadel ride on Saturday and rode at Boggs Demonstration Forest on Sunday and Monday. Both Boggs and Annadel are amazing mountain bike friendly parks with miles and miles of awesome trails. If you like fast buffed singletrack you can’t go wrong at either place. I’ve been riding at Boggs for 5 years and every year there are more and more trails there.

Downieville Conditions Report: Butcher Ranch is open

Downieville Trail Conditions — Wed, 28 May 2008 21:03:33 +0000

Here is a pic from doing trail clearing on the Butcher Ranch trail on May 23rd before the shuttles started rolling. Fallen logs were removed and the entire trail was raked of debris. Besides some remaining snow drifts up top, Butcher Ranch Trail is like a magic carpet.

For more info check out the Downieville Outfitters Trail Conditions page.

Coolest 24 Race Report

Ogre — Mon, 05 May 2008 21:08:43 +0000

I don’t race much, the plan is 2 races this year, the Lemurian and this last weekend the Coolest 24. For some reason 24 hour races are a fascination with me. The last few years I’ve done 4 man and 5 man team 24 Hour events. This year I decided to step it up a notch and race on a 2 man team, a big step up actually going from 3 hour breaks between laps to 1 hour and going from 5-6 laps for the race to 9+. At 12+ miles and 1500’ of climbing per lap, that’s a lot of riding. My team mate was a friend of mine I’ve been riding with for about a year now named Seth. I’ve been quite anxious about this race and my personal fitness and weight over the last few months. Not seriously training, just focusing on getting long rides in on the weekends and riding 8 miles to and from work every day.

Seth is faster than me and as such I had him do the first lap. Overall a great choice. Seth managed to be in the top 10 of the team riders out of the gate and then got back in 5th overall at 55 minutes, giving me a traffic free first lap. We managed to stay ahead of most of the traffic, leaving the dust and constant passing to the other teams. My times were about on par with the second place team but Seth continued cranking out amazing lap times, putting 10 minutes per lap on the second place team. By sunset our team was 30 minutes ahead of the second place team. (more…)

Downieville Snow Melt Conditions Report

Downieville Trail Conditions — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 18:39:48 +0000

End of April 2008:
Here are the most recent photos taken 4/26/08. The snowpack is between 2-5ft. depending on sun exposure. This includes from Berger Campground to Butcher trail. Our estimated time for shuttling is still Memorial Day weekend.

For more info check out the Downieville Outfitters Trail Conditions page.

Easter 2008

Ogre — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 04:57:49 +0000

Well long delayed but here are my pictures from Easter this year. Try out the slide show or you can go to the regular Gallery Page.

(more…)

Performance, Downtime, etc UPDATED!

Ogre — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 05:31:21 +0000

Well my web host’s performance has been quite disappointing lately and I’ve gotten quite frustrated with it so I decided this last time the host just slowed to a crawl for a day solid to just switch web hosts. We’ll see how this one works out. Right now I’m still working the kinks out of the new webhost so please bear with a few bumps and bugs. If you notice any problems please use the contact form or email me at mtbogre at gmail.

Update 4/14: D’oh! So my Contact Form was one of the things that was down. Turns out I thought I had most of my site back online I still have a long ways to go. Thanks for being patient! The Contact Form is now working so please accept my apologies. Still broken is my newer image galleries/ ride report along with the Trail Map. If you find anything else let me know.

Grass Roots Racing: Shasta Lemurian Classic

Ogre — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:59:06 +0000

One of the Premier MTB races in Northern California the Lemurian Classic is a great race held annually in June. There is a long course which is a single 26 mile long lap, a shorter 20 mile loop, and the beginners loop is 8 miles. There is no sandbagging at the Lemurian, you chose which course to race on and a Pro class but otherwise it’s just simple age sex categories. Even better, the Lemurian course is mostly singletrack.

The real kicker that makes this the king of Grass Roots racing is the fact that the proceeds from the race all wind up going directly to improving the trails in the Whiskeytown/ Mt Shasta Area. Combine this with a great great atmosphere, awesome trails, and a laid back group that puts on the event and the $35 entry fee is dirt cheap.