Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

Cannell Trail & Cannell Plunge
Kernville, CA
October 28, 2006

With the impending time change and the end of the riding season in the high Sierras fast approaching, I called for one more ride on the Cannell Trail and Cannell Plunge, and about a dozen folks responded. The Cannell Trail starts at 9,200 ft., about two hours east of Bakersfield, California. After about 20 miles of some pretty fun riding at up to 9,500 ft., with a few really gnarly sections, you reach the top of the Cannell Plunge, which then drops 5,000 ft. in about eight miles. However, sometimes people first ride in the opposite direction from the shuttle drop-off to do a "bonus loop", an out and back of several miles to 9,900 ft. Sherman Peak.

Since most of the group wanted to do the bonus loop and this was my 12th Plunge trip, I decided to tag along. With some pretty steep climbing and lots of narrow, rocky, rugged singletrack, the trail up to Sherman Peak was pretty tough. And of course the altitude made it that much more difficult. I think most everybody did a good bit of hike-a-bike on it. It's nice to have set a new personal riding elevation milestone for myself, but other than that I don't think it was worth all the knee pain. We expected it to be near freezing at the shuttle drop-off, but it was a fairly reasonable temperature, and once we started climbing a good bit of our layers came off. About mid way through the ride it became short sleeves weather.

Once on the Cannell Trail we eventually split into two groups. Clip'd In led one group while Cooters, Marty W, Robnfl, Bret and Jen hung with me. We had a great time but because of the extra time spent on the bonus loop, I was a bit concerned about getting back before dark. So I kept us down to shorter breaks than normal and we finished the Cannell Trail/Plunge ride about an hour faster than usual. There were more mechanicals on this ride than I've ever seen. Lots of flats, blown tire sidewalls, broken spokes, broken chain, a broken derailleur hanger, and a leaking front fork. Ironically, the previous night I told Cooters I've been carrying a spare derailleur hanger with me for years but I probably wouldn't know how to put it on. Apparently someone was sight seeing near Big Meadow and they collided with Cooters, breaking his derailleur hanger. He took out his spare hanger and replaced the broken one in about the time it took me to replace a slow leaking tube.

Great meeting and riding with everyone! Sorry, but Clip'd In and Scottay are about the only names I recall from the other group. By the way, I really suck on The Plunge without the helmet cam. I guess I think too much about the steep drop-offs. I had two endos off the trail into gnarly brush, one because I grabbed too much front brake in deep sand and one I just went over for no apparent reason, and landed on my head. Here is the elevation profile courtesy of Cooters

Click on an image to enlarge it

Lots 'o bikes	A few of us	Sherman Peak Trail	From 9,900 ft  Sherman Peak	Sherman Peak Trail
From 9,900 ft   Sherman Peak	Near big Meadow	Cooters replaces derailleur hanger	Jen	Marty W
Cooters	On the trail	Jen and Bret	On The Plunge	Lake Isabella
Bret on The Plunge	Jen on The Plunge	Robnfl on The Plunge	Cooters on The Plunge	On The Plunge
On The Plunge	On The Plunge	On The Plunge	On The Plunge	Where's Marty W?
On The Plunge	Marty on The Plunge	On The Plunge	Bret kicking up dust	Almost home

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