Kernville/Sequoia Trip Day 2: Summit Trail

Day two of the trip dawned early, and we got underway relatively quickly to head from Kernville to the campground at Quaking Aspens. The drive was about an hour and a half, and we made excellent time. In fact, we even had a chance to stop for a bit at a tourist spot on the way called the Trail of 100 Giants. It was a giant sequoia grove, and was worth stopping for. I may post some pictures from that hike in a different post later.

We arrived at the Quaking Aspens campground around 2:00, and spent a little while getting settled. Once again I was thankful for the RV.

It was very peaceful and remote; we didn't even have cell coverage. This was the view of a nearby meadow from our campsite.

We met up with a good sized group of STR guys who had come up from LA for the weekend to ride. Jeff (from Kernville) and his family were there as well, and we had about 10 or so people that were planning to ride over the next couple of days.

We didn't waste any time, and decided to ride a portion of the Summit trail that Jeff and some others had been doing some significant trailwork on for the last few months. Apparently the trail was once well traveled, but in recent years had been all but abandoned. Jeff had spent several weekends both maintaining the actual trail and building an impressive array of stunts and jumps that proved to be a ton of fun for many of the guys who came prepared to huck.

From the campsite, we threw the bikes in Sean's trailer and hooked it up to Jeff's truck.

All 10 of us piled in and we drove the short distance up the paved and dirt roads to the trailhead.

Once we got to the top, everyone was ready to get riding, and after a few minutes getting geared up, we headed out.


The trail was fun from the get go, and it was clear that it hadn't been very popular in recent years. Even so, Jeff knew where he was going, and even when we couldn't see the trail that well, we always seemed to be heading in the right direction. There were some points where the trail was marked as well.



We quickly reached the first stunt that Jeff had built, which was a gnarly log roll with a medium drop at the end. Jeff nailed it with no problem:

The standard operating procedure for the day became as follows: ride the trail for a couple hundred yards, and then stop and session the most recent crazy stunt for about 15-20 minutes. It was clear Jeff had put tons of hours into the trail features, and the look on his face as many of the riders attempted and cleared his creations was really neat to see. He was definitely enjoying seeing others reap the benefits of his labor, and his pride and excitement were fun to witness.

I skipped all of the stunts and log rolls. My inexperience, combined with my lack of skill and the proximity (or lack thereof) of medical attention made me decide discretion was the better part of valor. And while watching almost everyone else session stuff and have a good time was a little embarrassing (and sometimes boring), I just enjoyed the fact that I wasn't struggling to keep up with the group on the trail and basked in the peacefulness of the surroundings.

Here's another example of one of Jeff's creations:

Sean did several of the stunts, including the one illustrated in the following photo sequence:



Impressive. And he was doing it on his 4" XC 29er, which really impressed everyone on their 7" travel DH bikes.

After almost two hours of sessioning new stuff every few hundred yards, someone realized that it was getting dark, and we were still about four miles from camp. From then on, we rode a little more purposefully, and stopped less.

We did, however, stop at one particularly crazy stunt that consisted of a log roll spanning a small creek. The log was about 8 feet above the ground, and the penalty for failure was steep. Everyone who tried it made it, however, which was amazing.

On the way back to camp we passed through a gorgeous fern grove, and Sean was thoughtful enough to stop ahead of me and take some pictures. They don't even do the scenery justice, it was breathtaking.



Also on the way back, near camp, we ran into a herd of cows that apparently have free reign of the area. One of the guys in the group yelled at them and caused a stampede. In the opposite direction.

We finished with a short road ride back to camp, and I was feeling pretty good. The frequent stops made keeping up with the group easy, and once again the surroundings and scenery were awesome. I did feel a little like an outsider as one of the few that didn't do the stunts, but that's just not my thing, and there wasn't anything I could do about it on this trip, so I decided not to worry about it.

I did have a minor mechanical on the ride that I couldn't explain or adequately fix. My drivetrain started ghostshifting, and despite Sean and Brent looking at it, didn't stop for the latter part of the ride. Whenever I would try to pedal hard, it would shift, which became frustrating. I hoped that it was simply the result of a dry chain (though I had lubed it that morning) and figured I'd look at it later that night.

After getting back to camp we cooked chicken on the grill and Sean made an amazing pasta dish that was delicious. I didn't even mind the sun dried tomatos. We went to be relatively early and dreamt of the rides we'd done and the rides to come.

Here are the stats for Ride #3, Summitt Trail:

Total Distance: 7.03 miles

Total Time: 2:27:26

Ascent: 2126 feet

Average Speed: 2.9 mph

Top Speed: 9.0 mph

Bike: Specialized Enduro Elite

Map:

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