Sierra Spring Tour

Spring Tour in the Sierra 05-06 June 2006

Summer came late this year with plenty of rain in April and May. On
average, temperatures have been cooler than usual as last spring.
This time I wore long sleeves for the whole trip.

Richard Mlynarik and I headed for Sonora on Tuesday, 30 May, to stay
at the Sonora Gold Lodge motel as these trips often have over the many
years that I have undertaken them. Sonora lies at the base of the
Sierra at about 1800ft elevation and is on the intersection of HWY49
and HWY108, convenient to making a loop over Ebbetts, Monitor and
Sonora Passes. After a good nights rest at the Sonora Gold Lodge we
got on the road at 06:00 as planned.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday 31 May 2006

At 06:00, with little traffic we headed up the hill to Columbia
(2143ft), a historic gold mining town with preserved gold rush
buildings, from which Parrots Ferry Road descends into the canyon of
the Stanislaus river to connect to HWY4 at Valecito. We stopped to
take pictures of the "new" Parrots Ferry bridge that spans the high
waters of high bridge, (not shown on the attached map) at Parrots
Ferry (1100ft) spans the backwaters of the New Melones reservoir that
inundated this beautiful white water river.

http://tinyurl.com/clw2y

The bridge is worth mention because, after it was built, the center of
its graceful arch broke and hung there from it's reinforcing steel
about five feet below where it was designed to be. It was repaired by
splicing huge reinforced concrete beams under the arch that now has a
flat dip in its center. This time swallows that built mud nests under
the bridge were already busy collecting insect out of the early
morning sky.

We climbed up the other side past moaning Cave Rd. so named after the
Moaning Cavern that makes a low groan when large atmospheric changes
make the cave exhale through its oddly shaped mouth. At Vallecito, a
wide spot in the road, we turned east on 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.

While most of the grasses in the valleys to the west were already
turning golden, here in the hills they were still green, with small
swamps and springs in the middle of fields under the trees. From the
bird calls, I detected robins, grosbeaks, woodpeckers, and my
favorite, the hermit thrush that warbles with a built in echo, as it
were in contrast to its silent winter when they often live in my back
yard.

http://www.caverntours.com/MoCavRt.htm

At Murphys we began the long gradual climb up the western slope of the
Sierra. The forest changed from oaks to conifers as we passed through
Murphys (2172ft),Hathaway Pines, Arnold, Big Trees, and Camp Connell.
Above Arnold (3960ft), the trees are a lovely mix 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 near Black Springs
(6400ft) that gives a panorama across the North Fork Stanislaus Basin,
a huge rugged area called Hells Kitchen and crisscrossed by many roads
remaining from logging and mining, including Hell's Half Acre Road
that crosses to HWY108, the Sonora Pass road. The faint aroma of
Mountain Misery, reminiscent of artichoke was everywhere.

http://tinyurl.com/dda2u

We stopped at Hells Kitchen Overlook (6778ft) to take pictures of the
expansive panorama with the Dardanelle Minarets across the gorge near
the Sonora pass road that we would see from closer tomorrow. The
meadows around Bear Valley (7073ft) were mostly covered with snow with
Canada geese, as usual, getting ready to continue migrating north. We
stopped at the general store for a hot pastrami sandwich and soda pop
to carry us over for the next three climbs, there being no other
services en route until HWY395.

A short climb brought us past the Mt Reba (HWY207) ski area, now
called Bear Valley ski area from where it's a cruise to Lake Alpine
that was still completely frozen but melting fast. The 30 foot snow
pack we read about in the papers was nowhere to be found. It was an
average snow pack, the big piles (if they existed) apparently having
melted the previous week.

At Alpine lake the road becomes narrower loses its center stripe as it
makes the short steep climbs to Pacific Grade Summit. These are first
indications that this is no longer an average state highway and it
soon gets reinforced by the 24% grade signs farther on.

Nothing exciting happens until Mosquito Lake and Pacific Grade Summit
(8087ft) with a breathtaking view over Pacific Valley and Pacific
Creek. The road dives downward through a set of steep ess bends that
cross many contour lines in short order. We stopped at the bridge
where Pacific Creek looks as though it might jump over the road as it
cascades over huge boulders between snow banks.

http://tinyurl.com/nl8yp

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.

We met many bicyclists who were "training" for the Markleeville Death
Ride, something I suppose would beat be done by going for bicycle
rides in places of interest. None of these riders had any baggage, so
it was obviously not a tour they were making.

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. No signs warned of the hairpin turns with
their precipitous drops to Silver Creek, far below.

Much of HWY4 in 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. Of course this has
all been cleaned up years ago.

http://tinyurl.com/7lstf

We descended along the now docile Silver Creek to its confluence with
the East Fork Carson River, that like all major rivers in Nevada,
flows into the desert to evaporate. We had blue skies and pleasant
temperatures with a pleasant breeze from behind most of the way.

We turned up Monitor Creek on HWY89, an oddly small stream for such a
large drainage. In contrast to former years, it was visibly clear
water although probably unfit to drink for all the runoff from the
mines along the canyon. The road levels off at Heenan Lake (7084ft),
from which Monitor Creek flows.

http://tinyurl.com/7cowp

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 and are about 3/4 mile apart. This broad nearly flat
summit has Leviathan Peak (8942ft) overlooking the plateau as in the
old days, when these fire lookouts guarded against wildfires,
something done today by satellites.

We took pictures of the stone summit marker in the grove of aspen
before heading down across the broad gently sloping plateau to the
Mono county line a mile and a half away. With the brisk tailwind this
and the lower part yielded high top speeds as it often does. We saw
few birds, probably because the pleasant tailwind kept them in the
bush. I found a brilliant mountain bluebird that appears to have its
own light source, but it had been killed by a passing car. Clear air
gave us a broad panorama of Antelope Valley below, framed by snow
capped mountains at the county line.

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 became a side wind
on the nine miles on HWY395 up the valley to Walker (5400ft). Where
we stayed at the Toiyabe Motel that I especially like because the
front and back windows can be opened to let the cool mountain air blow
through. We had unit 11, the one farthest from HWY395, with its many
trucks.

We got a great night's rest after a great pizza and salad dinner
washed down with a couple of beers.

119 miles, 13600ft climbing.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday 01 June 2006


In the morning we got a great breakfast with an all around omelet that
had the whole kitchen in it, with spinach, potatoes, sausage, olives
and other goodies. From here it was 14 miles up the canyon of the
West Walker River with a fairly stiff downstream slope-wind, typical
of mornings. When we reached Sonora Pass JCT (6909ft), the wind was
gone as we rolled downhill to cross the Walker river again. On that
stretch, we were not disappointed in that there were many yellow
headed blackbirds in the marsh as we had hoped.

From here we passed the Marine Mountain Warfare base and began
climbing the steep whoop-de-doos of Sonora Pass to get to Levitt
Meadows. After tanking up on drinks we attacked the 26% curve just
above the Pack Station and cranked on up the hill. Anyone who tells
me one should spin up this grade in low gears hasn't tried it. I have
never seen anyone spin or come close to that description in the 50
years that I have ridden that pass with all sorts of great local
racers.

http://tinyurl.com/quvbc

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.

About three miles from the top, 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. I had encountered this one years ago between snow
walls that were melting onto the road. No one crashed but we were
close to it.

This curve is not trivial even from below because unsuspecting uphill
traffic should get into low gear and doesn't. 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.

As was the case on Ebbetts pass, there was little snow on Sonora Pass
until we reached 8000ft and then it wasn't anything unusual for the
time of year. At the summit, snow walls were as high as 15ft in a few
places. Pavement was surprisingly good compared to some for the
disintegrating places on the other passes.

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.

http://tinyurl.com/ceo7b

After a photo session the summit of Sonora Pass (9624ft) we descended
toward Dardanelle. The road descends gently for about a mile next to
Deadman's 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
before the next steep section. The road was in excellent shape with
little traffic. We were down to Kennedy Meadows (6500ft) in no time
as we passed 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). We stopped for some eats and drink before
continuing to Clark Fork JCT where the road suddenly looks like a
regular state highway again with gentle curves and mild grades. I
made a point of photographing the powerful reel-type snow plow whose
plow and blower motor was about twice as large as those of large
bulldozers.

From Clark Fork JCT (5671ft) a gentle two and a half mile hill got us
to Donnells Vista Point (6291ft) with a 1500ft near vertical drop to
the surface of Donnells Lake (4800ft) on the Middle Fork Stanislaus
River. Across the valley, the Dardanelle Cones (9524ft), ancient
volcanic formations, stand high above with large skirts of scree.

From here, the road climbs to 6500ft and levels off again at about
6000ft with a few more ups and downs before a two-mile descent to
Strawberry (5100ft). We stopped at the store for a snack before
crossing the South Fork of the Stanislaus up to Pinecrest Junction and
on to Cold Springs (5720ft).

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 down
Tuolumne Rd to the city of that name. So we turned west on Tuolumne
City road that climbs to Ralph, the former junction of the Sierra
Railroad and Pickering (logging) Railroad that had its shops at a huge
mill in Standard a bit farther down. The Pickering climbed to Twain
Hearte before descending into the Middle Fork Stanislaus crossing
Beardsley Dam to the forests on the north side of the river.

http://tinyurl.com/adnk2

To get 9off HWY108, that has a lot of afternoon traffic, we turned of
onto Tuolumne City Road at Twain Harte and at the bottom made the
short climb to Ralph, where the Pickering Logging RR joined the Sierra
RR. From here it is mostly downhill to Sonora as we passed Wards
Ferry Rd and and got back to the start in Sonora where we loaded our
bicycles in the car for the uneventful ride back home.

Day one 119 miles, 13600ft climbing.
Day two 99 miles, 7300ft climbing
-------------------------------------------

Jobst Brandt

wrote:
.......
Nice report

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.

There are range cattle all over that area. Sometimes that high up. I
was stopped once by cattle in the road near the small lake half mile
downhill from Ebbetts Pass.

Tom

writes:

wrote:
.......
Nice report

You're welcome.

... 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.

There are range cattle all over that area. Sometimes that high up. I
was stopped once by cattle in the road near the small lake half mile
downhill from Ebbetts Pass.

Interestingly three or four such cattle guards on Monitor pass have
been removed or paved over.

There are no small lakes near the top of Ebbetts Pass, although Kinney
Reservoir is about two miles down. It is that two mile stretch that
gave us the "Death Ride" in response to one of my rides in the early
1970's when I took a bunch of local bicycle racers over the pass from
Markleeville, before it was completely plowed. On that Sunday we
found two snow plows parked at the reservoir with a five foot wall of
snow in front of them. From there I lead the hike over spring snow
these last two miles to the cattle guard, the county line, where the
road was plowed from the west.

If you do something like that, be aware that even though the road is
not clear or its trace readily visible, you must stay on it because
going cross country, you will encounter a creek with vertical snow
walls and no way of crossing. I first discovered that on my first
Sierra ride in 1957, as we crossed Luther Pass from Tahoe to
Markleeville. This requires careful assessment of where the trees
stand and from that, where the road must lie.

Having never hiked over snow on a bicycle ride, riders came back to
Palo Alto telling wild tales of a death march, which inspired various
folks to make a project of such a ride, finding it a catchy name. I
am dismayed how many people do this for the "merit badge" aspect
rather than the beauty of the land through which these roads pass.

Just ride bike, and if you didn't like it, don't tell me about it. We
have had years in this newsgroup when writers would try to outdo each
other with arduous tales of freezing cold, rain and deprivation.

Enough!

Jobst Brandt

wrote in message
...

Spring Tour in the Sierra 05-06 June 2006

Summer came late this year with plenty of rain in April and May. On
average, temperatures have been cooler than usual as last spring.
This time I wore long sleeves for the whole trip.

Richard Mlynarik and I headed for Sonora on Tuesday, 30 May, to stay
at the Sonora Gold Lodge motel as these trips often have over the many
years that I have undertaken them. Sonora lies at the base of the
Sierra at about 1800ft elevation and is on the intersection of HWY49
and HWY108, convenient to making a loop over Ebbetts, Monitor and
Sonora Passes. After a good nights rest at the Sonora Gold Lodge we
got on the road at 06:00 as planned.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday 31 May 2006

At 06:00, with little traffic we headed up the hill to Columbia
(2143ft), a historic gold mining town with preserved gold rush
buildings, from which Parrots Ferry Road descends into the canyon of
the Stanislaus river to connect to HWY4 at Valecito. We stopped to
take pictures of the "new" Parrots Ferry bridge that spans the high
waters of high bridge, (not shown on the attached map) at Parrots
Ferry (1100ft) spans the backwaters of the New Melones reservoir that
inundated this beautiful white water river.

http://tinyurl.com/clw2y

The bridge is worth mention because, after it was built, the center of
its graceful arch broke and hung there from it's reinforcing steel
about five feet below where it was designed to be. It was repaired by
splicing huge reinforced concrete beams under the arch that now has a
flat dip in its center. This time swallows that built mud nests under
the bridge were already busy collecting insect out of the early
morning sky.

We climbed up the other side past moaning Cave Rd. so named after the
Moaning Cavern that makes a low groan when large atmospheric changes
make the cave exhale through its oddly shaped mouth. At Vallecito, a
wide spot in the road, we turned east on 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.

While most of the grasses in the valleys to the west were already
turning golden, here in the hills they were still green, with small
swamps and springs in the middle of fields under the trees. From the
bird calls, I detected robins, grosbeaks, woodpeckers, and my
favorite, the hermit thrush that warbles with a built in echo, as it
were in contrast to its silent winter when they often live in my back
yard.

http://www.caverntours.com/MoCavRt.htm

At Murphys we began the long gradual climb up the western slope of the
Sierra. The forest changed from oaks to conifers as we passed through
Murphys (2172ft),Hathaway Pines, Arnold, Big Trees, and Camp Connell.
Above Arnold (3960ft), the trees are a lovely mix 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 near Black Springs
(6400ft) that gives a panorama across the North Fork Stanislaus Basin,
a huge rugged area called Hells Kitchen and crisscrossed by many roads
remaining from logging and mining, including Hell's Half Acre Road
that crosses to HWY108, the Sonora Pass road. The faint aroma of
Mountain Misery, reminiscent of artichoke was everywhere.

http://tinyurl.com/dda2u

We stopped at Hells Kitchen Overlook (6778ft) to take pictures of the
expansive panorama with the Dardanelle Minarets across the gorge near
the Sonora pass road that we would see from closer tomorrow. The
meadows around Bear Valley (7073ft) were mostly covered with snow with
Canada geese, as usual, getting ready to continue migrating north. We
stopped at the general store for a hot pastrami sandwich and soda pop
to carry us over for the next three climbs, there being no other
services en route until HWY395.

A short climb brought us past the Mt Reba (HWY207) ski area, now
called Bear Valley ski area from where it's a cruise to Lake Alpine
that was still completely frozen but melting fast. The 30 foot snow
pack we read about in the papers was nowhere to be found. It was an
average snow pack, the big piles (if they existed) apparently having
melted the previous week.

At Alpine lake the road becomes narrower loses its center stripe as it
makes the short steep climbs to Pacific Grade Summit. These are first
indications that this is no longer an average state highway and it
soon gets reinforced by the 24% grade signs farther on.

Nothing exciting happens until Mosquito Lake and Pacific Grade Summit
(8087ft) with a breathtaking view over Pacific Valley and Pacific
Creek. The road dives downward through a set of steep ess bends that
cross many contour lines in short order. We stopped at the bridge
where Pacific Creek looks as though it might jump over the road as it
cascades over huge boulders between snow banks.

http://tinyurl.com/nl8yp

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.

We met many bicyclists who were "training" for the Markleeville Death
Ride, something I suppose would beat be done by going for bicycle
rides in places of interest. None of these riders had any baggage, so
it was obviously not a tour they were making.

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. No signs warned of the hairpin turns with
their precipitous drops to Silver Creek, far below.

Much of HWY4 in 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. Of course this has
all been cleaned up years ago.

http://tinyurl.com/7lstf

We descended along the now docile Silver Creek to its confluence with
the East Fork Carson River, that like all major rivers in Nevada,
flows into the desert to evaporate. We had blue skies and pleasant
temperatures with a pleasant breeze from behind most of the way.

We turned up Monitor Creek on HWY89, an oddly small stream for such a
large drainage. In contrast to former years, it was visibly clear
water although probably unfit to drink for all the runoff from the
mines along the canyon. The road levels off at Heenan Lake (7084ft),
from which Monitor Creek flows.

http://tinyurl.com/7cowp

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 and are about 3/4 mile apart. This broad nearly flat
summit has Leviathan Peak (8942ft) overlooking the plateau as in the
old days, when these fire lookouts guarded against wildfires,
something done today by satellites.

We took pictures of the stone summit marker in the grove of aspen
before heading down across the broad gently sloping plateau to the
Mono county line a mile and a half away. With the brisk tailwind this
and the lower part yielded high top speeds as it often does. We saw
few birds, probably because the pleasant tailwind kept them in the
bush. I found a brilliant mountain bluebird that appears to have its
own light source, but it had been killed by a passing car. Clear air
gave us a broad panorama of Antelope Valley below, framed by snow
capped mountains at the county line.

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 became a side wind
on the nine miles on HWY395 up the valley to Walker (5400ft). Where
we stayed at the Toiyabe Motel that I especially like because the
front and back windows can be opened to let the cool mountain air blow
through. We had unit 11, the one farthest from HWY395, with its many
trucks.

We got a great night's rest after a great pizza and salad dinner
washed down with a couple of beers.

119 miles, 13600ft climbing.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday 01 June 2006


In the morning we got a great breakfast with an all around omelet that
had the whole kitchen in it, with spinach, potatoes, sausage, olives
and other goodies. From here it was 14 miles up the canyon of the
West Walker River with a fairly stiff downstream slope-wind, typical
of mornings. When we reached Sonora Pass JCT (6909ft), the wind was
gone as we rolled downhill to cross the Walker river again. On that
stretch, we were not disappointed in that there were many yellow
headed blackbirds in the marsh as we had hoped.

From here we passed the Marine Mountain Warfare base and began
climbing the steep whoop-de-doos of Sonora Pass to get to Levitt
Meadows. After tanking up on drinks we attacked the 26% curve just
above the Pack Station and cranked on up the hill. Anyone who tells
me one should spin up this grade in low gears hasn't tried it. I have
never seen anyone spin or come close to that description in the 50
years that I have ridden that pass with all sorts of great local
racers.

http://tinyurl.com/quvbc

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.

About three miles from the top, 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. I had encountered this one years ago between snow
walls that were melting onto the road. No one crashed but we were
close to it.

This curve is not trivial even from below because unsuspecting uphill
traffic should get into low gear and doesn't. 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.

As was the case on Ebbetts pass, there was little snow on Sonora Pass
until we reached 8000ft and then it wasn't anything unusual for the
time of year. At the summit, snow walls were as high as 15ft in a few
places. Pavement was surprisingly good compared to some for the
disintegrating places on the other passes.

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.

http://tinyurl.com/ceo7b

After a photo session the summit of Sonora Pass (9624ft) we descended
toward Dardanelle. The road descends gently for about a mile next to
Deadman's 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
before the next steep section. The road was in excellent shape with
little traffic. We were down to Kennedy Meadows (6500ft) in no time
as we passed 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). We stopped for some eats and drink before
continuing to Clark Fork JCT where the road suddenly looks like a
regular state highway again with gentle curves and mild grades. I
made a point of photographing the powerful reel-type snow plow whose
plow and blower motor was about twice as large as those of large
bulldozers.

From Clark Fork JCT (5671ft) a gentle two and a half mile hill got us
to Donnells Vista Point (6291ft) with a 1500ft near vertical drop to
the surface of Donnells Lake (4800ft) on the Middle Fork Stanislaus
River. Across the valley, the Dardanelle Cones (9524ft), ancient
volcanic formations, stand high above with large skirts of scree.

From here, the road climbs to 6500ft and levels off again at about
6000ft with a few more ups and downs before a two-mile descent to
Strawberry (5100ft). We stopped at the store for a snack before
crossing the South Fork of the Stanislaus up to Pinecrest Junction and
on to Cold Springs (5720ft).

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 down
Tuolumne Rd to the city of that name. So we turned west on Tuolumne
City road that climbs to Ralph, the former junction of the Sierra
Railroad and Pickering (logging) Railroad that had its shops at a huge
mill in Standard a bit farther down. The Pickering climbed to Twain
Hearte before descending into the Middle Fork Stanislaus crossing
Beardsley Dam to the forests on the north side of the river.

http://tinyurl.com/adnk2

To get 9off HWY108, that has a lot of afternoon traffic, we turned of
onto Tuolumne City Road at Twain Harte and at the bottom made the
short climb to Ralph, where the Pickering Logging RR joined the Sierra
RR. From here it is mostly downhill to Sonora as we passed Wards
Ferry Rd and and got back to the start in Sonora where we loaded our
bicycles in the car for the uneventful ride back home.

Day one 119 miles, 13600ft climbing.
Day two 99 miles, 7300ft climbing
-------------------------------------------

Jobst Brandt



Do you ever ride on flat roads?

In article ,
"Ron Wallenfang" wrote:

wrote in message
...

Spring Tour in the Sierra 05-06 June 2006


snip

Day one 119 miles, 13600ft climbing.
Day two 99 miles, 7300ft climbing
-------------------------------------------

Jobst Brandt

Do you ever ride on flat roads?

Jeez, Ron, learn how to pare down quoted material so there aren't three
hundred lines of quoted text and a one line comment.

wrote:
There are no small lakes near the top of Ebbetts Pass, although Kinney
Reservoir is about two miles down. It is that two mile stretch that
gave us the "Death Ride" in response to one of my rides in the early
1970's when I took a bunch of local bicycle racers over the pass from
Markleeville, before it was completely plowed. On that Sunday we
found two snow plows parked at the reservoir with a five foot wall of
snow in front of them. From there I lead the hike over spring snow
these last two miles to the cattle guard, the county line, where the
road was plowed from the west.

I have heard about this ride before, and while it was certainly an
adventure, it is not the origin of the Markleeville Death Ride.

(The distance from the top of Ebbetts Pass to the far end of Kinney
Reservoir - by the dam - is just under 1 mile, not 2. It would seem
that cycling lore, like fish tales, have lengths that increase as the
story ages.)

The Markleeville Death Ride was inspired by a single day of a two week
cycling tour called SuperTour. SuperTour evolved out of a series of 3
day "long weekend" rides held in 72, 73, and 74 by the now defunct
Diablo Wheelmen. In 75, Carter Squires organized the Diablo Wheelman's
first multi-day cycling event, during which people would ride centuries
(100 miles) day after day for 8 days. When asked how the tour went,
Carter responded, "SuperTour was a failure--everyone finished." If the
75 tour was so easy everyone could finish, GrandTour/SuperTour 76 would
be so hard that only a few had the gall to sign up for both rides. In
this regard Carter was completely successful--each of the two weeks was
1,000 miles (140 miles/day for the Grand Tour, 127 miles/day for
SuperTour) and only 5 of the 27 who had signed up for both tours were
able to ride Every *Fine Inch (EFI). (*The "F" does not really stand
for "Fine.")

One of the interesting features of the early SuperTours were the
narrative route descriptions provided by John F. Scott, professor of
Sociology at the University of California, Davis. John was an active
cyclist beginning in the Dark Ages (before the 1960s) and had either
ridden or driven essentially every mile of the route. John wrote the
descriptions in sequence order, and despite becoming somewhat inured to
the relentless suffering each day represented, he was stopped cold when
he saw the route sheet for Day 5 of SuperTour--from Indian Grinding
Rock State Park outside Jackson up CA Route 88 over the triple summits
of Tragedy Springs, Carson Spur, and Carson Pass followed by an ascent
of Monitor pass enroute to Markleeville. 140 miles, 14,000 feet of
climbing. It was the absolutely worst day of an extraordinarily awful
event. John immediately christened the stage "Der Grosse Totenmarsch
nach Markleeville" (The Great Markleeville Death March) and scrawled
the runes of the dreaded SS along with the motto on the gates of
Auschwitz ("Arbeit macht frei," or "work makes one free") on the
gradient map.

One of the riders on SuperTour 76 was Wayne Martin. A few years later
Wayne had moved to Markleeville, and inspired by that day's ride,
created a route that rode up 5 different passes (Kingsbury, Luther,
Carson, Monitor, and Ebbetts). He gathered together about 15 other
delirious souls, charged them $1 for organizing the affair, and
proceeded to climb all 5 passes. Support was supplied by stopping off
at the Cutthroat Saloon and replacing body fluids with dubiously
helpful assorted liquids. As Wayne says: "Well, about half of us made
the damn thing...and The Death Ride was born."

The route has changed over the years (now only Carson, Monitor and
Ebbetts are ridden, the latter two are climbed from both sides so there
are still 5 passes) and Wayne long ago turned over the ride to the
Alpine County Chamber of Commerce, but it was that fateful day on
SuperTour 76 that provided the origins for the Markleeville Death Ride.

Another famous ride in California - the Climb to Kaiser - also has its
origins in SuperTour. It was originally conceived as a training ride
for SuperTour. Some members of the Fresno Cycling Club did SuperTour
and felt a long, well-supported mountainous trianing ride several weeks
before SuperTour would be welcomed by the cycling community.

Amazingly, given its complete lack of formal organization, SuperTour
has continued to put on a tour every year (obligatory disclaimer - I am
one of the organizers for this year's tour). You can see details of
this year's trip at supertour.home.att.net.

Wayne Martin now runs low cost, low support trips (cycling, hiking, and
kayaking) and his website is www.nomints.com (obligatory disclaimer 2 -
I'm a friend of Wayne and have done many of his trips).

Jeff,

Thanks for your writeup about the 1976 Death Ride. I rode this
particular SuperTour, and your presentation was factual and accurate.

Regarding Dr. Scott, I rode on and off with him during the 1960's-80's
and never tired in listening to his cycling stories, many of which had
sociological twists. Besides being an excellent writer, John is an
interesting and entertaining individual; the fact that through the
years he has acquired many nicknames, some being unprintable, is a dead
giveaway as to his colorful (some might say outrageous) personality.

I wonder if John's cycling career/stories will ever be formalized into
a book? It would make great reading.



Jeff Orum wrote:
wrote:
There are no small lakes near the top of Ebbetts Pass, although Kinney
Reservoir is about two miles down. It is that two mile stretch that
gave us the "Death Ride" in response to one of my rides in the early
1970's when I took a bunch of local bicycle racers over the pass from
Markleeville, before it was completely plowed. On that Sunday we
found two snow plows parked at the reservoir with a five foot wall of
snow in front of them. From there I lead the hike over spring snow
these last two miles to the cattle guard, the county line, where the
road was plowed from the west.

I have heard about this ride before, and while it was certainly an
adventure, it is not the origin of the Markleeville Death Ride.

(The distance from the top of Ebbetts Pass to the far end of Kinney
Reservoir - by the dam - is just under 1 mile, not 2. It would seem
that cycling lore, like fish tales, have lengths that increase as the
story ages.)

The Markleeville Death Ride was inspired by a single day of a two week
cycling tour called SuperTour. SuperTour evolved out of a series of 3
day "long weekend" rides held in 72, 73, and 74 by the now defunct
Diablo Wheelmen. In 75, Carter Squires organized the Diablo Wheelman's
first multi-day cycling event, during which people would ride centuries
(100 miles) day after day for 8 days. When asked how the tour went,
Carter responded, "SuperTour was a failure--everyone finished." If the
75 tour was so easy everyone could finish, GrandTour/SuperTour 76 would
be so hard that only a few had the gall to sign up for both rides. In
this regard Carter was completely successful--each of the two weeks was
1,000 miles (140 miles/day for the Grand Tour, 127 miles/day for
SuperTour) and only 5 of the 27 who had signed up for both tours were
able to ride Every *Fine Inch (EFI). (*The "F" does not really stand
for "Fine.")

One of the interesting features of the early SuperTours were the
narrative route descriptions provided by John F. Scott, professor of
Sociology at the University of California, Davis. John was an active
cyclist beginning in the Dark Ages (before the 1960s) and had either
ridden or driven essentially every mile of the route. John wrote the
descriptions in sequence order, and despite becoming somewhat inured to
the relentless suffering each day represented, he was stopped cold when
he saw the route sheet for Day 5 of SuperTour--from Indian Grinding
Rock State Park outside Jackson up CA Route 88 over the triple summits
of Tragedy Springs, Carson Spur, and Carson Pass followed by an ascent
of Monitor pass enroute to Markleeville. 140 miles, 14,000 feet of
climbing. It was the absolutely worst day of an extraordinarily awful
event. John immediately christened the stage "Der Grosse Totenmarsch
nach Markleeville" (The Great Markleeville Death March) and scrawled
the runes of the dreaded SS along with the motto on the gates of
Auschwitz ("Arbeit macht frei," or "work makes one free") on the
gradient map.

One of the riders on SuperTour 76 was Wayne Martin. A few years later
Wayne had moved to Markleeville, and inspired by that day's ride,
created a route that rode up 5 different passes (Kingsbury, Luther,
Carson, Monitor, and Ebbetts). He gathered together about 15 other
delirious souls, charged them $1 for organizing the affair, and
proceeded to climb all 5 passes. Support was supplied by stopping off
at the Cutthroat Saloon and replacing body fluids with dubiously
helpful assorted liquids. As Wayne says: "Well, about half of us made
the damn thing...and The Death Ride was born."

The route has changed over the years (now only Carson, Monitor and
Ebbetts are ridden, the latter two are climbed from both sides so there
are still 5 passes) and Wayne long ago turned over the ride to the
Alpine County Chamber of Commerce, but it was that fateful day on
SuperTour 76 that provided the origins for the Markleeville Death Ride.

Another famous ride in California - the Climb to Kaiser - also has its
origins in SuperTour. It was originally conceived as a training ride
for SuperTour. Some members of the Fresno Cycling Club did SuperTour
and felt a long, well-supported mountainous trianing ride several weeks
before SuperTour would be welcomed by the cycling community.

Amazingly, given its complete lack of formal organization, SuperTour
has continued to put on a tour every year (obligatory disclaimer - I am
one of the organizers for this year's tour). You can see details of
this year's trip at supertour.home.att.net.

Wayne Martin now runs low cost, low support trips (cycling, hiking, and
kayaking) and his website is www.nomints.com (obligatory disclaimer 2 -
I'm a friend of Wayne and have done many of his trips).

Jeff Orum writes:

There are no small lakes near the top of Ebbetts Pass, although
Kinney Reservoir is about two miles down. It is that two mile
stretch that gave us the "Death Ride" in response to one of my
rides in the early 1970's when I took a bunch of local bicycle
racers over the pass from Markleeville, before it was completely
plowed. On that Sunday we found two snow plows parked at the
reservoir with a five foot wall of snow in front of them. From
there I lead the hike over spring snow these last two miles to the
cattle guard, the county line, where the road was plowed from the
west.

I have heard about this ride before, and while it was certainly an
adventure, it is not the origin of the Markleeville Death Ride.

(The distance from the top of Ebbetts Pass to the far end of Kinney
Reservoir - by the dam - is just under 1 mile, not 2. It would seem
that cycling lore, like fish tales, have lengths that increase as
the story ages.)

I think you'll find it to be closer to 1.5 miles according to USGS:

http://tinyurl.com/cd9r7

Since the ride reports from those days were lost when rec.bicycles
broke up into ..tech, ..misc, ..rides, etc, I don't have the article
or the year but you can be assured that my rides in 1957 ad later were
before any death ride was organized. Peter Rich's Tour of California
race in the Sierra was in those days and there was no inkling of
century rides of any sort.

The Markleeville Death Ride was inspired by a single day of a two
week cycling tour called SuperTour. SuperTour evolved out of a
series of 3 day "long weekend" rides held in 72, 73, and 74 by the
now defunct Diablo Wheelmen. In 75, Carter Squires organized the
Diablo Wheelman's first multi-day cycling event, during which people
would ride centuries (100 miles) day after day for 8 days. When
asked how the tour went, Carter responded, "SuperTour was a
failure--everyone finished." If the 75 tour was so easy everyone
could finish, GrandTour/SuperTour 76 would be so hard that only a
few had the gall to sign up for both rides. In this regard Carter
was completely successful--each of the two weeks was 1,000 miles
(140 miles/day for the Grand Tour, 127 miles/day for SuperTour) and
only 5 of the 27 who had signed up for both tours were able to ride
Every *Fine Inch (EFI). (*The "F" does not really stand for "Fine.")

The talk of a "death march" was spread by Kieth Vierra, Dave Perry,
and another racer who had never tried the Sonora Pass - Monitor -
Ebbetts tour before. That was before super tour.

One of the interesting features of the early SuperTours were the
narrative route descriptions provided by John F. Scott, professor
of Sociology at the University of California, Davis. John was an
active cyclist beginning in the Dark Ages (before the 1960s) and had
either ridden or driven essentially every mile of the route. John
wrote the descriptions in sequence order, and despite becoming
somewhat inured to the relentless suffering each day represented, he
was stopped cold when he saw the route sheet for Day 5 of
SuperTour--from Indian Grinding Rock State Park outside Jackson up
CA Route 88 over the triple summits of Tragedy Springs, Carson Spur,
and Carson Pass followed by an ascent of Monitor pass enroute to
Markleeville. 140 miles, 14,000 feet of climbing. It was the
absolutely worst day of an extraordinarily awful event. John
immediately christened the stage "Der Grosse Totenmarsch nach
Markleeville" (The Great Markleeville Death March) and scrawled the
runes of the dreaded SS along with the motto on the gates of
Auschwitz ("Arbeit macht frei," or "work makes one free") on the
gradient map.

Among the rides over those roads was one that was done at that time by
Bill Henner, Jim Westby, Tom Ritchey, and me which we called "the big
loop" and one that I have taken on three occasions, one of which is
chronicled he

http://www.bicyclinglife.com/Recreat...erraSpring.htm

One of the riders on SuperTour 76 was Wayne Martin. A few years later
Wayne had moved to Markleeville, and inspired by that day's ride,
created a route that rode up 5 different passes (Kingsbury, Luther,
Carson, Monitor, and Ebbetts). He gathered together about 15 other
delirious souls, charged them $1 for organizing the affair, and
proceeded to climb all 5 passes. Support was supplied by stopping off
at the Cutthroat Saloon and replacing body fluids with dubiously
helpful assorted liquids. As Wayne says: "Well, about half of us made
the damn thing...and The Death Ride was born."

That may be so but the concept arose from the tour that I described.

Jobst Brandt

Jobst,

No one doubts that you called your heroic 1957 adventure a Death Ride.
The question before us is, what inspired the current Markleeville Death
Ride? The answer is easy to ascertain, since the participants are alive
and well and all within range of a computer with email. Wayne Martin
was 11 or 12 years old when you did your famous ride--I cannot imagine
that an event that occured before he (probably) took up cycling
inspired him to start the Death Ride--especially when you ask Wayne
"What inspired you to start the Death Ride?" his answer is always "That
awful day 5 on the 1976 SuperTour."

As to the broader notion that you can "invent" the Death Ride concept,
which gives you some sort of (I guess) trademark rights, I disagree as
well. Cycling has been big since the mid 1880s, and there have been
cyclists doing the absolutely impossible for over 120 years. Would not
6 Day Racing in its original format (12 hours a day for 6 days) qualify
as a Death Ride? Or the original Tour de France courses? Or
Paris-Brest-Paris, for goodness sakes? "Death Ride" is a natural
appellation for any tour of extraordinary difficulty; I cannot accept
your "trademark" claim.

Perry Stout


One of the riders on SuperTour 76 was Wayne Martin. A few years later
Wayne had moved to Markleeville, and inspired by that day's ride,
created a route that rode up 5 different passes (Kingsbury, Luther,
Carson, Monitor, and Ebbetts). He gathered together about 15 other
delirious souls, charged them $1 for organizing the affair, and
proceeded to climb all 5 passes. Support was supplied by stopping off
at the Cutthroat Saloon and replacing body fluids with dubiously
helpful assorted liquids. As Wayne says: "Well, about half of us made
the damn thing...and The Death Ride was born."

That may be so but the concept arose from the tour that I described.

Jobst Brandt

Perry Stout writes:

No one doubts that you called your heroic 1957 adventure a Death Ride.

I never called my ride a death ride. Don't put words in my text. I
clearly stated that riders who crossed the Sierra over unplowed
Ebbetts Pass with me returned to Palo Alto and told tales of a death
march from that ride. to my dismay sponsors of organized rides soon
touted their tour as a death ride. Talk of a "Death Ride" was rife in
the years after our ride.

The question before us is, what inspired the current Markleeville
Death Ride? The answer is easy to ascertain, since the participants
are alive and well and all within range of a computer with email.
Wayne Martin was 11 or 12 years old when you did your famous ride--I
cannot imagine that an event that occured before he (probably) took
up cycling inspired him to start the Death Ride--especially when you
ask Wayne "What inspired you to start the Death Ride?" his answer is
always "That awful day 5 on the 1976 SuperTour."

You can call it what you want, but the term of "Death Ride" took
shape immediately after our ride with the hike over unplowed Ebbetts
Pass starting from Markleeville. This sounds much like the claims of
who started the Mountain Bike. You might want to argue that one as
well:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/mtb-history.html

As to the broader notion that you can "invent" the Death Ride concept,
which gives you some sort of (I guess) trademark rights, I disagree as
well.

Whoa! What's with rights and trade mark? Get off it! I ride bike
for the fun of it and not for any other reason. I don't care what
people call their ride. My point is that the idea arose from a ride
that I recall clearly and the riders comments afterward.

Cycling has been big since the mid 1880s, and there have been
cyclists doing the absolutely impossible for over 120 years. Would
not 6 Day Racing in its original format (12 hours a day for 6 days)
qualify as a Death Ride? Or the original Tour de France courses?
Or Paris-Brest-Paris, for goodness sakes? "Death Ride" is a natural
appellation for any tour of extraordinary difficulty; I cannot
accept your "trademark" claim.

I think you have a peculiar perspective of bicycling.

Jobst Brandt