Kernville/Sequoia Trip Day 3: Bear CreekTrail

Saturday brought the marquee ride of the day: Bear Creek. It was billed as an epic ride, with sweeping views and an amazing downhill that descended six thousand feet in only a couple of miles. Sounded great to me. The only problem was the beginning. Which was billed as two hours of solid climbing. And that was a concern.

I spent the morning a little anxious. We had a group of nine guys, and the last thing I wanted was to be the anchor. There were no stunts on the way up, so it was going to be solid riding all the way to the top. I had hung pretty well so far on this trip, however, and was determined to keep a good attitude, ride as hard as I could, and not stress about the rest. And once I got riding, that worked.

We got a bit of a late start, but with the altitude and the fact that the trail was mostly under tree cover, heat wasn't really an issue. It was the riding uphill that was the problem.

We started out from camp, and the uphill began almost immediately.

One of the rider's sisters was thoughtful enough to drive down earlier in the day and drop a shuttle vehicle at the bottom of the trail so that we could drive back up to camp. I began looking forward to seeing that shuttle vehicle very early on in the ride.

I actually handled the climb OK for the most part. I HAB'ed literally 70% of the trail on the way up, which meant I hiked about 5 miles pushing the bike. I tried to get back on and ride several times, but my legs and lungs would have none of it. I was at the back, but could see riders ahead of me almost the whole time, except when we were in a section of trail that included tight switchbacks or dense trees.


The scenery was universally beautiful, and despite the fact that I was dragging my bike up a mountain, I kept a pretty good attitude. It was just too pretty around me to allow me to get upset. And I was on my first vacation in years, a fact that I kept reminding myself.


I didn't take many pictures during the climb, because I was too busy pushing the aforementioned bike up the mountain. But about halfway up the entire group stopped at a lookout for a short rest, and I snapped a few shots while trying to get my heart rate to return to a healthy pace.




Eventually, after about two hours and 25 minutes of climbing/hiking, we reached the top. I was tired, but not wrecked, and was looking forward to the downhill. We had a snack and most of the guys got geared up in preparation for the features to come. This was the view from the top.

I had been warned that there were several stunts and jumps on this trail as well, but there were generally bypass trails that people like me could ride. That turned out to be generally true, but since we stopped to session almost all of the trail features, the bypasses were irrelevant. I always stopped to watch the show, so there was little flow to the downhill. But the show was impressive.



Sean once again exhibited his courage and ability by taking on several of the stunts. He cleaned this one, and most of the others. He also had a couple of nice crashes.


Eventually the stunts became less frequent, and the trail began to have some flow. I had to watch my speed in several sections, but generally had a blast flying down the portions that I could handle.



As we descended, the scenery became even more beautiful, and we started seeing some giant sequoias.




We did stop at one ridiculous wall ride/drop that no one in our group elected to hit. Good call.

The last 3/4 of a mile or so of trail was the most fun section of the day. It was just the kind of riding I enjoy most: tight quarters, lots of tight turns, slightly off camber with switchbacks and small drops. I didn't stop for any pictures, as this was the most flowy and enjoyable part of the ride by far. After not enough time, the fun section ended and the trail section of the ride came to an end.

After regrouping for a minute, we rode across a cool log bridge and made the short pavement ride back to the truck.


This was definitely the "big ride" of the weekend, and I was almost totally spent at the end. I ran out of water in my pack right at the end, and was getting pretty hungry by the time we hit the truck. There were times during the ride that I wanted to be off the trail and back at camp, but for the most part I tried to enjoy myself, even during the difficult sections. I never felt like too much of an anchor, and enjoyed the camaraderie and socialization of riding in a big group.

As I rode in the truck back to camp, I felt a sense of accomplishment and joy, knowing that this was "real" mountainbiking. And I was on vacation.

Here are the stats for ride #4, Bear Creek Trail:

Total Distance: 11.56 miles

Total Time: 5:30:06

Ascent: 4597 feet

Average Speed: 2.1 mph

Top Speed: 25.9 mph

Bike: Specialized Enduro Elite

Map:

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