RR: Kernville/Sequoia Trip Day 1: Just Outstanding/Dutch Flat

Once we filled up w/ more water and ate a snack from the Unal ride, it was time to begin the descent to Keyesville. It was already 3:30pm, so midday heat wasn’t going to be a factor towards the bottom. But we’d be pushing it on light by the end as we would find out. Just Outstanding is signed, so picking it up was easy off the south end of the Meadows.

Not having any rain for a while made for some dusty and powdery conditions since this is also a dirt bike trail.

The descent was sustained and awesome, with tight turns, rocky patches, and steep white-knuckle sections.

There was even a gorgeous Manzanita archway that we rode through.

After a while, my hands started to hurt from gripping the brakes and holding on during the downhill.

Eventually the sustained downhill abated, and the trail dumped us out on to Wagy Rd. Doug wasn’t feeling well, and the next section promised some sustained climbs according to Sean, so Doug and I decided to descend the fire road to Sawmill Road and wait for Sean and Brent to ride Wagy Ridge.

Doug and I made it to the bottom of Sawmill Road in about 15 minutes, and spent the next hour or so waiting for Brent and Sean. Just as we were really starting to worry, and even considering heading on down to the bottom of the trail by ourselves, they appeared. Apparently Wagy Ridge had been a really rough section, and I was ultimately glad I had skipped it.

At that point we were chasing daylight, and had some real concerns about getting to the bottom of the trail before dark. After meeting back up with Sean and Brent, we continued to push on and up a 4x4 trail until more singletrack bears off.

Although we made our way to towards the final ridge line, it took much longer than we expected. There were several moderate climbs, many of which we had to HAB simply due to fatigue and altitude. As the sun was getting ready to set behind the Greenhorn mountains, finally we reached the ridge over looking Keyesville and Lake Isabella 2,300’ below us.

That section of trail is known as the Dutch Flat trail, and is another steep dirt bike trail with a few sections of gnar.

As we headed down, the sunset on the mountains across the lake was absolutely stunning.

Near the bottom of Keyesville is a maze of trails, but we finally snaked our way back to our finish point around 7 pm. I was wrecked, as was everyone else. It was just getting dark as we rode into the campground where we had stashed the dirtbike before shuttling up earlier that day.

Sean then had to jump on the dirtbike and ride back up the paved road to retrieve the RV, which I couldn’t have imagined doing. Once again, it was a tremendous blessing to have Sean running the show and taking care of logistics. Brent, Doug, and I stayed at the campground and enjoyed an hour or so of resting while we waited for Sean to get back. After the physical toll the ride had taken, even laying on the warm blacktop of the road felt good. I was cooked, but had hung with the group and not struggled that much more than anyone else. I had also gotten a little dinged up as I rode down Dutch Flat on some burned out timber that was jutting out into the trail:

It was just a flesh wound, and didn't really hurt, but it looked good.

Six hours of being on the trail and nearly 24 miles of combined riding was over the top in terms of what I had expected, but it proved to be an epic day. Sean’s GPS (Edge 305) showed us having done just over 7,000’ of descending total. Amazing.

One unfortunate post script to Day #1 was that Doug ended up having to go home because he had been getting progressively sicker over the course of the ride. Apparently his entire family had been sick the prior week, and it looked like it was about to be his turn, at the worst possible time.

After Sean returned with the RV we headed back into Kernville to spend the night. We found a neat campground that had coin operated showers and a campsite right next to a babbling brook. We BBQ’d chicken and had chicken Cesar salad for dinner, and cooked s’mores over the campfire. It was a great end to an awesome first day of riding.

Here are the stats for ride #2, Just Outstanding:

Total Distance: 14.49 miles

Total Time: 3:56:09

Ascent: 1559 feet

Average Speed: 3.7 mph

Top Speed: 24.7 mph

Bike: Specialized Enduro Elite

Map:

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