2. ATVs

5 Days of Riding with Flyin' Boy (Aug 2014)

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The mining camp at the end of Plumas NF road 23N60D. We ended up here because the Plumas MVUM is wrong: nearby road 23N60 doesn't cross Willow Creek as the map indicates. Instead, it dead-ends in the timber and brush a few hundred feet short of the creek. We were hoping that 23N60D continued across, but it just ends at this mining camp. With no way to get across the creek and continue our planned loop, we decided to abort, head back to the Hummer, and trailer back to Bucks Lake so as to take a shot at the trail going up to Bald Eagle Mountain (SOTA summit W6/CN-012).
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The mining camp at the end of Plumas NF road 23N60D. We ended up here because the Plumas MVUM is wrong: nearby road 23N60 doesn't cross Willow Creek as the map indicates. Instead, it dead-ends in the timber and brush a few hundred feet short of the creek. We were hoping that 23N60D continued across, but it just ends at this mining camp. With no way to get across the creek and continue our planned loop, we decided to abort, head back to the Hummer, and trailer back to Bucks Lake so as to take a shot at the trail going up to Bald Eagle Mountain (SOTA summit W6/CN-012).

  • We did our day of riding in the Prosser/Boca/Stampede reservoir area. Thanks to our drought, the water level at Stampede Reservoir is way down below normal. At normal levels, Flyin' Boy would be parked in water up to his waist. See also <a href="http://www.grizzlyguy.com/ATVs/Boca-Fire-As-Seen-from-Boca">this album</a> that has shots of the Boca Fire that we watched from Boca Hill later that day.
  • We spent the next 3 days riding in the Buck' Lake/Quincy area. This is Claremont (SOTA summit W6/NS-250), south of Quincy. It is near the beginning of Plumas NF's trail 9M31 (a.k.a. "Little Volcano Mine 4x4 Trail") that drops down into the Feather River canyon, and also near the beginning of trail 9M61 that runs eastward along the top of Bachs Creek Ridge. We rode both of those. 9M31 is rough and steep, while 9M61 is easier and reminds me of the run out the ridge from A-Tree to the top of Gold Valley.
  • Flyin' Boy admiring the view from Claremont.
  • Flyin' Boy coming up a section of 9M61 east of Claremont, which is the high point along the skyline.
  • On 9M61 near what the topo map shows as East Clarmont.
  • Flyin' Boy at East Claremont.
  • Looking down on Quincy from East Claremont. This was apparently an old radio site as well, but there is nothing left but an old foundation.
  • Looking southwest from East Claremont.
  • The campsite at the end of trail 8M07 (a.k.a. "Butte Bar 4x4 Trail"), deep in the Middle Fork Feather River's canyon at an elevation of 3520 feet. The trail begins up at an elevation of 5663 feet. Most of the 2143 feet of elevation drop occurs in a section of the trail that is less than 2 miles long, so it is quite steep.
  • View from near Mt. Ararat along Plumas NF road 23N62X.
  • An old Subaru down off the bank below a switchback on trail 8M05 (a.k.a. "Little California Mine 4x4 Trail"). See Flyin' Boy near the left edge of the shot, I think I screwed up and used the trees as my guide to level this shot. If you rotate the photo to the right until Flyin' Boy is standing straight (which he was) you can better appreciate how steep the terrain is in this area. I turned around here, because I almost rolled my Grizzly just above this point. Flyin' Boy's Grizzly is parked on the slope to the left of this shot, and it took both of us to turn it around (him maneuvering it while I was hanging off the high side catamaran-style to keep it from rolling)
  • Flyin' Boy crossing Willow Creek on Plumas NF road 23N56Y.
  • The mining camp at the end of Plumas NF road 23N60D. We ended up here because the Plumas MVUM is wrong: nearby road 23N60 doesn't cross Willow Creek as the map indicates. Instead, it dead-ends in the timber and brush a few hundred feet short of the creek. We were hoping that 23N60D continued across, but it just ends at this mining camp. With no way to get across the creek and continue our planned loop, we decided to abort, head back to the Hummer, and trailer back to Bucks Lake so as to take a shot at the trail going up to Bald Eagle Mountain (SOTA summit W6/CN-012).
  • Sign at the mining camp.
  • The 24N89X "road" up to Bald Eagle Mountain ended up being a fun one. It requires a high-clearance 4x4 vehicle and reminded me a lot of the trail that runs from Indian Springs staging area out to the beginning of Fordyce Creek Trail and on to Eagle Lakes. This is a shot of the old military "hut" on top of the mountain, which was apparently a radar site or communcations facility at one time.
  • No radios or radar inside, just wood and junk.
  • Cable feedthroughs in the wall.
  • Old pipes, probably part of an antenna mast.
  • Flyin' Boy on Bald Eagle Mountain.
  • Another shot from Bald Eagle Mountain.
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