Another Day In the Sierra Buttes

Another weekend in Downieville.

Andrew went up Friday night to do some volunteer trailwork with the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship. Kim, Aaron, Yvette and I headed up early Saturday morning and took a spin on the North Yuba Trail in the afternoon. North Yuba was much more challenging than we expected -- think Second Divide Trail minus the exposure. With the regroups, bonks, two flats (guilty) and a broken chain (me again) a seven and a half mile jaunt turned into a three hour odyssey. Reality quickly set in and we rode downriver on the highway to the car. We met up with Andrew, who told us about the new re-routes he built on Pauley Creek, and drank free beer at the volunteer post-work party. We bought too much beer at the store, ate too much dinner at the Grubstake, built a campfire at our cabin and fell asleep to the sound of the river.

After a late start we drove up to Sierra City on Sunday morning. We parked at the Wild Plum campground and headed uphill. Two and a half hours later we reached the top.

The Perfect Cycling Trail is really "open" to mountain bikes about the first two weeks of June -- late enough for the approach to be (mostly) free of snow yet early enough that hordes of hikers have not yet descended upon it.

It's only seven miles from the top back to the highway. It took us nearly three hours to descend. The trail was admittedly too technical for Yvette and Chad. But that's mountain biking, isn't it? You get thrown into precarious situations; you go slow, survive and do it all over again.