May « 2008 « Vlogonaut

Isn’t this how the Donner Party started?

May 21, 2008

On May17th, our band, Vibemosphere, played a spring party atop a mountain knoll outside of, or I should say above, Downieville CA. The party was great and we played well and had a good time. (more on that in another post). Since I love to mountain bike and Downieville is a well known destination, I packed my bike stuff and cycle, along with the drum kit and headed down.

We played until 2:30 AM, and other people jammed until 4:30 or 5 AM. It was Spearhead I heard blaring through the sound system at 4:20 AM, cranked to 11. A little extreme, but who am I to judge?

Anyway at around 10:30 AM on Sunday I finally got my drums dusted and packed. With help form the rest of the band (Brett Kendall on bass and Matt Etchison on guitar, I got my drums back in Jeep and off I went down the hill. Did I mention it was a 3 mile, 1500-2000 ft climb on a one lane dirt track to Anders’ and Mary’s place? So down the road I go, past the little punk who commandeered the mic for some nu metal vocal stylings, (i.e. screaming) after being told twice by me that it was not OK to sing. Needless to say, he did not get a ride.

I went to town to confer with Brett and Ernesto (friend of the band, or FOB) about a ride plan. It was already about 85º at 11 AM and with the presence of Brett’s two dogs, Malcolm and Plainie, Brett decided it was too hot for all parties concerned. I was feling alittle bleary but not willing to give up that easily, so I wandered around the parking lot checking out who was getting ready to bike and I struck up a conversation with a guy with an eastern European accnt. He said he was hopingt o do the Downhill, but that the shuttle was not running yet, due to snow at the top. I had e-mailed Downievill Outfitters and received the same information. I was mentally prepared to do an out and back up the trail as far as I could before I felt like turning around, but my new friend Detelin was far more optmistic: We have two vehicles now, and enough room on my rack, so let’s shuttle” he exclaimed. “well, I demurred, “what about the snow at the top, the bike shop guys said it was still snowed in…” “Ah, he said, we talked to them too and they said some people are doing it, so how bad can it be.” Needing only a little encouragement to throw caution to the wind, we loaded up the bikes and his friend ,Jivko or Jick for short, and Detelin’s son Martin loaded up. These gents are from Fremont, CA, and represent the whole of the Bulgarian community in Fremont. They were quick to make a joke and really loved to ride downhill, as they claimed 20 or 30 trips last year for the ride.

Detelin is around 50 on a Cannondale Jekyll, Jick a little older on a 5 yr. old Stumjumper hardtail, Martin 18, on a Schwinn Rocket, and me 46, on my Intense 5.5.

We talked about riding and such as we climbed 49 towards Bassetts and Packer Saddle, the jump off point.

When we made the turn off at Bassetts, it’s still a thousand feet of car climbing to the Saddle. It wasn’t long before the dirt gave way to 4 foot snowbanks. I know from my one time on the trail that it is very shaded, and travels along the Yuba River corridor for almost its entire length. This led me to believe that there would be plenty of snow, but these guys kept dismissing it, so I kept my fears to myself. At the saddle, the lot was free of snow and the trail sign showed an inviting brown ribbon to us. 10 yards later (literally), the trail disappeared under a blanket of white about 2 feet deep. There were some old tracks (snowshoe I think), but no bike tracks. We floundered around at the top trying to follow the trail by the small sections that peaked out between the snowdrifts. We made it back to the road and towards Butcher Ranch. It was muddy where it was not snow, and much deadfall littered the trail . We hiked mostly after attempting to ride in the soft snow and going over the bars several times, laughing the whole time. Our feet were wet, but it was so hot, that it felt OK (to me anyway). After losing the trail a few times, we crossed the Rock Garden, where I promptly slipped and fell walking the bike over the torrent. I nailed a sharp rock with my left tricep. it’s still a lovely bluish green today. After the rock Garden and a couple of patches of snow, the trail was wide open and dry.

Nice and tacky and fast. Detelin and I led the charge, bunnyhopping the rocks and roots with abandon. We hauled ass as the river hauled snow melt in the gorge, providing a nice visual and auditory display of beauty and power for us to have in the background. We made the whole trip in three hours, with about and hour and a half of snow slog. It was well worth the effort in the end. Here are a couple of related videos (one of the Rock Garden during the race) and some stills of the boys.