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ADV/DS ride Lake Berryessa/Knoxville OHV/Rayhouse Rd.

SFMCjohn said:
:thumbup

on the fence, depending on the weather ... there may be some route intel by the first week of February, too.

If there was 12" of rain up there over all our recent storms, I'm thinking there may be an issue or two with the road being there at all. :laughing

at least I think the bridge is done on the Hwy 16 side, so there's a chance to approach from either side. :dunno

maybe we can get someone to scout it out for us on their way to/from Stonyford, you know ... if they were heading up that way. :toothless
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Ask and you shall receive. We went up today and it’s a fucking mess. Entered from 16 and it took us 2.5 hrs just to get to Knoxville. It’s greasy nasty mud with ruts making it even more challenging. There were about 6 large obstacles in the road including three downed trees.

I like to think of myself as a experienced rider and this took it out of me. It was raining, it was snowing and it never let up. As I lay in my bath tub right now trying to regain body temps, I appreciated the obstacles and the challenge but if you’re wanting the road like how it’s been the last few years, it’s going to be a while before it gets back to normal.

Only 4 of the water breaks had water in them and was to my axle.

We don’t stop to take pictures as often as others but trust me, it was a mess especially on big ADV bikes.
 
XXshawnXX said:
Ask and you shall receive. We went up today and it’s a fucking mess. Entered from 16 and it took us 2.5 hrs just to get to Knoxville. It’s greasy nasty mud with ruts making it even more challenging. There were about 6 large obstacles in the road including three downed trees.

I like to think of myself as a experienced rider and this took it out of me. It was raining, it was snowing and it never let up. As I lay in my bath tub right now trying to regain body temps, I appreciated the obstacles and the challenge but if you’re wanting the road like how it’s been the last few years, it’s going to be a while before it gets back to normal.

Only 4 of the water breaks had water in them and was to my axle.

We don’t stop to take pictures as often as others but trust me, it was a mess especially on big ADV bikes.
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No surprises, and thanks for the report.
 
Yeah that’s some special blend of mud up there. I’ve seen it lock up front wheels and rip low fenders off adv bikes. One of my favorite rides was up there in the mud but I was on a thumper and it wasn’t cold or wet that day.
 
wow, sounds like an epic day, thanks for the intel Mr XXshawnXX!

I’m trying to think where water might be up to your axel on Reiff/Rayhouse, or was it that deep in the crossings on Knoxville-Berryessa Rd? never seen it that deep in either place, and I’d have been afraid that I’d be swept off the road by fast water on K-B Rd. :wow
 
Sounds like a challenge for me on my DRZ, but I'd try it with good company who could at least point the authorities to my last known location :laughing

Given our weather in recent years the closest I have ever seen to mud up there was a few mud holes, everything else has always been pretty dry / rocky. i have found that the DRZ gets tired easily in mud and wants to lie down and sleep.
 
SFMCjohn said:
wow, sounds like an epic day, thanks for the intel Mr XXshawnXX!

I’m trying to think where water might be up to your axel on Reiff/Rayhouse, or was it that deep in the crossings on Knoxville-Berryessa Rd? never seen it that deep in either place, and I’d have been afraid that I’d be swept off the road by fast water on K-B Rd. :wow
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Mud on Reiff was above my swing-arm and water on knoxville on the water crossings was equal to the axles.
 
Alrighty then - we have another Saturday coming up soon! Anyone? I have a new way-too-big tent that's itching to be tested out, and Fiske Pond would be perfect (if there are no semi-permanent residents in the area). If there are no takers yet then I'll just flip a coin for IVR or Panoche.
 
I could be convinced, the DRZ needs some exercise beyond being a dumpling retrieval device.
 
So actually, I didn't take into account that this weekend is the end of beer week and there are some events I wanna take in, so I'm probably a flake yet again.
 
Hah! Well, I broke my bike. Then fixed it. Think I'm going to take advantage of the long weekend to go sleep in Olancha or Trona Pinnacles, and check out spot #25 at Panamint Springs to make sure there will still be room for two others if I take my new, huge tent to the Death Valley Noobs Rally.
 
Maybe I'm gonna ride some version of this on Sunday on the 300 Rally.
 
Cabrito said:
Maybe I'm gonna ride some version of this on Sunday on the 300 Rally.
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Report back on Rd40 conditions if you go, please - want to ride it, but don't really want to wrangle the Tiger if it's really torn up/impassable.
 
bananachunks said:
Did you get to check things out?

Fiske Pond was my target this last Saturday (via 16), but due to my copilot's tire issues we ended up at IVR instead.
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Nope, I've been working too much and the only riding I've been doing is to work. : |
 
Rode this ride again and a lot has changed.

Rd-40 is pretty fucked from the rains, a ton of ruts, ruts everywhere. It is also much more rocky then i remember maybe from some mild landslides?

We went to buck island and the downhill segments are pretty split with ruts as well. It looks like a lot of land shifts mixed with the weather last year. For anyone that has ridden down to buck island, has it always been fucked with ruts? I was not looking forward to coming up but the AT was a tractor and we got up quickly. Wasnt the easiest hill ascent but curious of its previous condition.

HOWEVER! Knoxville looks completely different. Looks like a dozer came through, smoothed everything out and added either water breaks or speed breaks as now there are pretty decent sized jumps every 200 yards. The actual road to knoxville has quite a few deep potholes so be careful or practice your obstacle avoidance tactics.
 
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