Dirty Goodness On Trail 6 At Foresthill

Eric and I headed up to Foresthill last Saturday to break in his new Husky WR250. This was also my first real ride on my Husky WR144 with the magic carb/needle/powervalve set-up a friend so graciously sent me. I figured this ride would be a good test of whether this motor was really going to do what I wanted it to do when I wanted it to do it. We were joined by our good friends Glenn (Husaberg) and Dan (riding his YZ250F til his new `11 TE310 gets here.)


I like the look of the fraternal twins...



We got to the China Wall staging area and were in kind of a hurry to get on the trails til this guy showed up...



We'd all heard him coming from a mile away...what a sweet sound! And this is why...

(Get a load of that aluminum frame made by Alcoa Aluminum)


We had a good time ooh'ing and aah'ing over the sweet machine...



Why is it that big ol' "all business" brakes excite me? I swear that's why I went with the SM610 instead of the TE...



Anyway, Trail 6 was on the menu today. In my opinion it's the best trail at Foresthill. It goes up and down ridges, crosses some pretty creeks, has lots of exposure, switchbacks and high-consequence areas...it's just a blast!


















The outside of one of the many switchbacks. Don't know if you can tell or not, but it's a loooong way down...



Heading down towards Lower Bridge...



What it looked like from Dan's persspective...



It was really beautiful down here...











More to come...




WoodsChick

We goofed around on the bridge, semi-planning to come back on a bike-camping trip in the future...













Then headed up the trail. The rubber strip you see would be a harbinger of things to come...



Gaah...what a mess...torn up rubber strips, and the cables they were once woven onto for traction/erosion control, are now scattered all over the place...



The usual disclaimers apply here: steeper than it looks, slick rocks, etc. It took Glenn a few tries...



And Dan kept getting the rubber and cables stuck in his wheels on his attempts...



This is the beginning of my attempt (take note: that's "attempt" as in singular)



The key was to get up on what was left of the chickenwired rocks and stay out of the rip-rap on the edges, but there was a decently slick lip
there...






Victory is mine...



Here is Eric's attempt...
















Now, I'm not the type to gloat over personal victories, but they don't come along too often with this crowd I ride with so I took a few moments to bask in the glow of my stunning victory and to wallow in the glory of their collective defeat. We then continued on and they continued to kick my butt...as usual. And to be fair, Eric was riding his brand new bike for the first time with no suspension set-up, crappy tires, super-rich mixture for his first tank of gas, couldn't rev it the way he wanted to, etc. He's a much better rider than I am, that's why I had to take full advantage.



WoodsChick

Yaaaa! Another Woodsfolks thread!

Cereal KLR said:

Yaaaa! Another Woodsfolks thread!

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You sure you got enough popcorn, there, Killer?




WoodsChick

These switchbacks reminded me of the ones I rode up at Gifford Pinchot NF in WA summer before last, except these were golden orange instead of green...





Breaktime...















The dirt was like delicious hot cocoa...



One of the few wide flat spots on this trail...



Upper Bridge...





More to come...




WoodsChick

Right after the bridge comes some more switchbacks...


Can't wait til Eric gets his bike dialed in


Eric going so fast he's blurry



Was Dan waiting for me to cross the little tree in the trail?



Done! Too bad he didn't catch my pretty wheelie...






Heading into another set of switchbacks, this one had a log pounded into the ground with rebar, presumably to keep riders from cutting the switchback. The rebar was sticking out from 3 to 8 inches in about 6 places. A piece can be seen right behind the wheel on the left. Not a good thing to fall over onto, so Glenn took it upon himself to pound them down with a big rock...





There was a tiny bit of snow left over from last Sunday's dump...


We headed back to China Wall, where we sat around and shot the breeze while Eric tried to run out his first tank of gas. We watched the sun go down...





Then loaded up and headed home...




These guys followed us all the way home...



We had a great time riding great bikes on a great trail with great friends. It doesn't get any better than that, does it? Thanks for coming along with me




WoodsChick

Great pics.

Trail 6 is one of my favorites.

Are you going again anytime soon? I'd like to check that place out.

Ditto!

Thanks again WC!

Cereal KLR said:

Yaaaa! Another Woodsfolks thread!

Click to expand...

I like the blue smoke

little_twin said:

Great pics.

Trail 6 is one of my favorites.

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Me, too! I hadn't been there in years til I went about a month ago. I rode all the lower stuff (kinda sucky) and Trail 5 (good!) but ran out of daylight before I could get to 6.

SVJ said:

Are you going again anytime soon? I'd like to check that place out.

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I'd like to get up there one more time before the snow flies. I want to do 6 in the opposite direction.




WoodsChick

Jeffrey Jay said:

Ditto!

Thanks again WC!

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Hey, Jeffrey Jay! Glad you enjoyed the photos. I had a blast taking them
I wish I wasn't the only one taking photos. I have about 3 photos of me on a motorcycle

Butch said:

I like the blue smoke

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Yeah, I do, too...up to a point This was Eric's maiden voyage on his new WR250 and he was running a pretty rich mixture. 2 strokes rule in this kind of stuff




WoodsChick

Where is this Trail 6? OMG that looks f*cking fun....I wanna try this kind of riding. Is there a beginner trail? I didn't know trails like this exist for dirt bikes. Please PM me with more info. Thanks in advance.

Great pics! I haven't done 6 since I dumped my WR450F off one of those steep switchbacks a couple years ago. Took us over 8 hours to finally get it back up.

These days I just stay on 5 or the lower trails if my daughter is with me.

rrrdbw said:

Where is this Trail 6? OMG that looks f*cking fun....I wanna try this kind of riding. Is there a beginner trail? I didn't know trails like this exist for dirt bikes. Please PM me with more info. Thanks in advance.

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It is really f*cking fun There are beginner trails there, but they don't look like Trail 6. It's still a beautiful area, though. Where do you ride now?

-Gilly- said:

Great pics! I haven't done 6 since I dumped my WR450F off one of those steep switchbacks a couple years ago. Took us over 8 hours to finally get it back up.

These days I just stay on 5 or the lower trails if my daughter is with me.

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Yeah, I was doing everything in my power to keep my tiny little lighweight bike on the trail, even if that meant swallowing a huge gulp of pride and walking it around a few of those high-consequence switchbacks. It just isn't worth the hassle to get it back on the trail. We always carry rope, though, and have honed our bike recovery skills on the scary sidehill trails in Idaho I railed one of those switchbacks, though, and somehow pulled it off with uncharacteristic precision. I was patting myself on the back for a job well done and when I put my left foot out there was nothing but air under my boot. I fell over the edge and tumbled a little ways but at least my bike stayed up on the trail. Ended up with a bent radiator tab. That was embarrassing, even though I was the only one that knew (until right now, anyway ) what a spode I'd been

I rode Trail 5 about a month ago and it was awesome! The lower stuff...not so much.




WoodsChick

WoodsChick said:

It is really f*cking fun There are beginner trails there, but they don't look like Trail 6. It's still a beautiful area, though. Where do you ride now?



WoodsChick

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I have my 450 EXC converted to SM so most of my riding are in twisties/trackdays or I slap the stock rims/tires and ride Carnegie, which really doesn't interest me as much as these trails I see in your pics. I am a newbie in the dirt.
I have no idea where this is as long as they have beginner trails I am down. Is this in Ca? Im located in bay area.

rrrdbw said:

I have my 450 EXC converted to SM so most of my riding are in twisties/trackdays or I slap the stock rims/tires and ride Carnegie, which really doesn't interest me as much as these trails I see in your pics. I am a newbie in the dirt.
I have no idea where this is as long as they have beginner trails I am down. Is this in Ca? Im located in bay area.

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Yes, it's in the Tahoe National Forest up off of 80 near Auburn. The TNF's website is http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/tahoe/recreation/arrd/ohv.shtml

There are beginner trails near the Sugar Pine and Parker Flat staging ares. It's about ready to get closed down due to snow, but there are lots of places to ride on your public lands. You should definitely take advantage of it while you still can. Mendocino National Forest has a few riding areas, too, and they tend to stay snow-fee a little longer than the Tahoe. These are not OHV parks like Carnegie and Hollister.




WoodsChick

Trail6 is some of the best riding around. Good pics

I really need to find some good woods singletrack around my area. Thanks for sharing, as always

PhoS said:

Trail6 is some of the best riding around. Good pics

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Thanks! I agree, Trail 6 is really good stuff, especially considering it's within a pretty popular trail system. I think the fact that it's the furthest loop from the main staging areas has something to do with it. It doesn't get over-ridden and hammered like the lower stuff.

Z3n said:

I really need to find some good woods singletrack around my area. Thanks for sharing, as always

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I would think the Los Padres NF would have some good stuff not too far from you, no? The best stuff I can think of that's somewhat near you ("near" being a relative term...) is on the Kern Plateau up in the Sequoia NF. It is really good stuff! Also known as Kennedy Meadows, it is all high-elevation singletrack in the southernmost end of the Sierra, tons of alpine meadows and one of the most beautiful places in all of CA. That can't be too far from you, right? How far is Bakersfield from you? It's many hours drive for me but it's so worth it. I go every year. Here's a ride report I did when I met my friend Mimi down there last 4th of July...

http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=339874




WoodsChick