Spring Tour in the Sierra 19-21 May 2007
Winter weather this year was drier than most so not much snow fell on
the mountains and the roads were open long before the traditional
Memorial Day weekend. Because most folks are traditionalists, many of
them did not take advantage of the earlier access to the high country,
but motels on the west side (Sonora) were filled for other events. In
spite of little rain and snow, temperatures were cool and this
weekend, high overcast muted the sunshine slightly, making good
"climbing weather".
Ray Hosler and I headed for Sonora, that lies at the base of the
Sierra at 1826ft elevation and is on the intersection of HWY4 and
HWY108, convenient to making a loop over Ebbetts, Monitor and Sonora
Passes. After a nights rest at California Inns we got on the road at
06:00 as planned and headed north.
http://tinyurl.com/26vb97 (map)
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Saturday 19 May 2007
At 6:00, with no traffic, we headed up the hill to Columbia (2143ft),
a historic gold mining town with preserved gold rush buildings and
from which Parrots Ferry Road descends through the canyon of the
Stanislaus river and climbing back up to connect to HWY4 at Valecito
(1745ft). We took pictures of the water level of the Melones
Reservoir under the Parrots Ferry bridge (1100ft) that spans the high
waters of the Melones reservoir (not shown on the attached map).
We were too early for the white throated swifts that nest under the
bridge but to make up for that there were many swallows at work fly
catching.
It isn't easy to compare descents with climbs but Valecito is not as
high as Columbia. Just the same, we were on our way up the Ebbetts
Pass highway just beyond Moaning Cave road that is a destination for
spelunkers, at Vallecito, a wide spot in the road,HWY4, the Ebbetts
Pass route, back up at 1800ft. We were still in the foothills of oaks
with pastel blue-green foliage and willows that marked the abundance
of water in spite of the predicted drought. From the bird calls, I
detected robins, grosbeaks and woodpeckers, and Orioles.
http://www.caverntours.com/MoCavRt.htm
At Murphys we began the long gradual climb up the western slope of the
Sierra, and the forest changed from oaks to conifers as we passed
through Hathaway Pines, Arnold, Big Trees, and Camp Connell. Above
Arnold (3960ft), we were in a lush forest of Red and White Fir,
Ponderosa, Sugar and Jeffrey Pine, Incense Cedars, Douglas Fir and
many Dogwoods blooming in the shade of the big trees.
The road breaks out of the forest along a ridge that gives a view
across the North Fork Stanislaus Basin, a huge rugged area called
Hells Kitchen and crisscrossed by many roads remaining from logging
and mining. We had a cool tailwind, when there was any and could
discern the faint odor of Mountain Misery, reminiscent of artichoke.
It gets its name for its sticky leaves that cling to hikers boots and
socks.
http://tinyurl.com/dda2u
http://tinyurl.com/2skebn
The meadows around Bear Valley, that are usually covered with snow
were dry and turning green. We stopped at the general store to stock
up on food for the next three climbs, there being no other services
between here and HWY395 on the other side of the mountains.
A short climb brought us past the Mt Reba (HWY 207) ski area, now
called Bear Valley ski area after which the smooth wide state highway
loses its center strip and turns into a slightly lumpy road as it
passes Lake Alpine, that although cold, looked ready for summer
swimming. There were still patches of snow in the shade of the forest
but not much. From here it is a few short steep climbs got us to
Pacific Grade Summit (8087ft). These first indications that this is
no longer an average state highway gets reinforced by the 24% grade
signs farther on.
Nothing exciting happens until beyond Mosquito Lake and the Summit
with a breathtaking panorama of Pacific Valley and Pacific Creek. The
road dives downward to a set of steep ess bends that cross many
contour lines in short order. Although in years with deep snow,
Pacific Creek looks like it wants to jump over the road as it cascades
over huge boulders between snow banks, this year it was just another
cascading creek behaving well.
Although less steep, the road makes some wonderful whoop-de-doos that
can be taken in true roller coaster fashion on the way down to the
Mokelumne river (7069ft) that drains Pacific and the much larger
Hermit Valley. From here the road climbs gradually with a beautiful
view to the south into Hermit Valley to Ebbetts Pass (8731ft) that
itself has no view to either side. Oddly, it has a cattle guard as
though there were range cattle here in the midst of this high forest.
A swift descent got us out of the woods with a view across Kinney
Reservoir and the rugged canyons beyond. Kinney Creek joins Silver
creek and both raging cascades find their way quickly to the floor of
the canyon far below as the road stays high before finally descending
in a set of four large traverses with sharp hairpin turns to end the
unusually steep section.
Much of HWY4 from Alpine Lake to the bottom of Silver Canyon has no
center stripe or warning signs for such curves. One of these (at the
Noble Lake trailhead) is known by locals as "Cadillac Curve" for the
car at the bottom of the cliff that was too fast for the curve. A
pickup truck joined the Cadillac some time later. Although these
artifacts cleaned up years ago, there is a new wreck several hundred
feet, nearly vertically below, jammed against a large tree.
We descended along the now docile Silver Creek to its confluence with
the East Fork Carson River, that like many major rivers in Nevada,
flows into the desert to evaporate. The afternoon wind was picking up
as we reached Monitor Creek where we turned onto HWY89, along an oddly
small stream for such a large drainage. The flow was less than usual
and full of orange rusty chemicals that are in the ground here. After
climbing this barren canyon the road levels off at artificial Heenan
Lake (7084ft), from which Monitor Creek flows.
Toward the top of the climb, we left the sparse conifers and rode
through groves of aspen. I remembered to check my altimeter at the
false summit and again at Monitor Pass summit (8314ft) to find that
the two summits are not the same height as they appear, but differ by
about 100 feet. This broad nearly flat summit has Leviathan Peak
(8942ft) overlooking the plateau as in the old days, when these fire
lookouts guarded against wildfires, done by satellite today.
We took pictures at the stone marker in the thin grove of aspen that
were just sprouting leaves, before heading down across the broad
gently sloping plateau to the Mono county line a mile and a half away.
We didn't see many birds probably because the pleasant tailwind we
had. Unusually clear dry air in contrast to the hazy west slope gave
us a beautiful panorama of Antelope Valley far below, framed by snow
capped mountains.
On this steeper long runs heading east high speeds were reached with
the wind that was more apparent on the opposing runs into the wind
than here. It was a swift run to the narrows of Slinkard Creek just
before reaching HWY395 (5084ft). Here our tailwind changed its
direction a few times as we started the gradual rise on the nine miles
on HWY395 up the valley to Walker (5400ft).
We stopped in Walker, a favorite stopping place on these rides for
comfortable accommodations, at the Toiyabe Motel and took advantage of
the Walker Burger bar with its pleasant outdoor tables and garden.
Over the years, the eating possibilities have dwindled here but there
is not need to starve, yet. Our room had front and rear windows so we
had a cool desert breezes blow through the room.
That was 113mi and 13340ft climbing.
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Sunday 20 May 2007
After a good night of refreshing air we had to settle for a grocery
store breakfast at the Walker Trading Post (5418ft) and gas station
before getting on the road and heading into the West Walker River
canyon where a 15-20mph wind was in our face as we climbed the 13
miles to Sonora Junction (6950ft).
Turning onto HWY108, we headed west across marshes with blue iris,
ruddy ducks and yellow headed blackbirds that usually hang out there.
The road descends to the West Walker River, that took a shortcut
through a narrow canyon, making the road do a bit more climbing. From
here, it's a short climb to Pickel Meadows and the USMC Mountain
Warfare training center where there was no sign of life other than
many small tracked vehicles ready for some exercise.
After following the north side of the valley, the road abruptly heads
up Leavitt Creek with some bumps of 18% grade, leveling out at the
site of the former Leavitt Meadows Store. Just past the Leavitt
Meadows Pack Station the road makes a sharp right turn into its
steepest grade of 26% and lets up to about 20% for another quarter
mile. The half mile from the curve is probably the most challenging
part of this side of the pass, the rest being a moderate grade between
steep sections and a couple of descents.
Just above the 8000ft marker, the road heads up Sardine Creek with a
jolt. A sign at the junction warned of 26% grades and one of these is
a surprise bend for descenders, an ess curve hidden behind a verge for
downhill traffic. The curve is not trivial even from up hill because
it is a tight, steep piece of road for which one should get into low
gear. Because this section is short it probably doesn't leave the
bicyclist with a lasting impression as does the section at Leavitt
Meadows, or the last half-mile to the summit. However, descending
this curve is memorable.
This last section crests a small apex, in a curve and descends through
a dip that appears to be the maximum 26% grade on either side, from
where it relaxes to a 12-15% grade to the summit. Descending this
section is the only place where I have exceeded 50 mph without wind
and had to brake hard while coasting up a 26% grade to safely round
the curve at the top. It's an exciting road in both directions.
After a photo session the summit of Sonora Pass (9624ft) we descended
toward Dardanelle. The road descends gently for about a mile along
Deadmans Creek before it dives down the Golden Stairs past the 9000ft
marker and around a pair of ess bends to level off at 8000ft briefly
at Chipmunk Flat, before the next steep section. The road was in
excellent shape with little traffic. We were down to Kennedy Meadows
(6500ft) in no time passing the uphill challenges of the west slope at
speed.
Kennedy meadows lies at the bottom of the steep climbs from where the
road makes a few rollers along the Stanislaus River before the
Dardanelle Store (5265ft). Being here before the start of the summer
season, left us with a closed Dardanelle store, so we continued to
Clark Fork JCT over the last steep whoop-de-doos where the road
suddenly looks like a regular state highway again with gentle curves
and mild grades.
From Clark Fork JCT (5671ft) a gentle two and a half mile hill to
Donnells Vista Point (6291ft). We road the trail to the overlook from
which it is a near vertical 1500ft drop to Donnells Lake (4800ft) on
the Middle Fork Stanislaus River. To the east, the Dardanelle Cones
(9524ft), ancient volcanic formations, stand high above with large
skirts of scree and to the north, across this huge rocky valley, lies
Ebbetts Pass road.
From here, the road gradually climbs to 6500ft before dropping down to
about 6000ft where it levels off with a few more ups and downs before
a two-mile descent to Strawberry (5100ft). We stopped at the store
for "lunch" before crossing the South Fork of the Stanislaus, climbing
to Pinecrest Junction and on to Cold Springs (5720ft). The sky had
high humidity haze with great thunder heads passing just south of us,
but casting shadows as we descended through cool air.
That's about it for climbing; the rest was mainly downhill to Sonora
with a few little bumps before Twain Harte where we turned off to
follow old highway 108 through Twain Heart, a pleasant woodsy road
that returns to the new highway with no significant climbing.
98mi and 7300ft climbing
Back to the start in Sonora we loaded our bicycles in the car for the
uneventful drive home.
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Jobst Brandt