Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

Cannell Trail & Cannell Plunge
Kernville, CA

June 17, 2003

About two weeks ago I heard about a ride called the Cannell Plunge, in which you descend 5,000+ feet in about 8 miles. Although it sounded a bit scary I had to check it out. The Plunge itself is at the end of the Cannell Trail east of Kernville, California. Since I didn't want to do such an intimidating ride by myself, and the shuttle from Mountain and River Adventures requires a minimum of four people, I sought fellow riders on a mountain biking forum and I also emailed everyone I knew asking if they would join me. Since I got no takers I had just about given up. However, Dennis, of the Ogrehut, was on vacation and he was going through that area so he decided to join me. When I arrived in Kernville the night before and saw those towering, seemingly bare rock face mountains I began to question my sanity. Even the drive up to Sherman Pass at 9,200 ft., was a little bit scary. The drop offs from the side of the narrow road had to be in the thousands of feet. 

From Sherman Pass you head out on the Cannell Trail for about twenty miles on fantastic, sometimes smooth and sometimes very rough, steep, rocky singletrack through beautiful conifer forests and across several giant meadows. However, a good bit of decomposed granite (sand) scattered about tended to temper our speed on a number of occasions. Once I got my "sea legs" and warmed up I did surprisingly well, going down steep rocky trails faster than I've ever gone before. This is the first time I can claim to have "bombed down" some pretty rocky stuff. Despite this being the longest and toughest ride I've ever done, I didn't have to get off the bike very much. Dennis pulled me along fairly quickly and when he got ahead he stopped to take photos. 

After about 20 miles and a few thousand feet of alternately climbing and descending, you reach Pine Flat and just beyond it you get a fantastic view of Lake Isabella about 5,000 feet below, which marks the start of the Cannell Plunge. I think we both enjoyed the ride to the plunge much more than the plunge itself. The plunge is indeed a plunge on often very narrow singletrack with drop offs several hundred to perhaps a thousand feet or more, but with relatively few technical spots that Dennis could probably otherwise make. However, on a few occasions I asked him not to try them since I had no plan for helping him should he take his own personal plunge down the mountain. The plunge can be roughly divided into thirds with the top third being quite rutted and several sections had deep sand which slowed us considerably. It would otherwise be a great ride. I had one foot out for much of it. The second third, smooth hard singletrack, was fantastic and we "bombed" down it surprisingly fast considering how dangerous it could be. The bottom third had numerous steep, rutted switchbacks, nearly none of which I even tried. It was slow going. Although the mountain sides looked to be bare rock from below they were actually fairly lush and there were often fields of  beautiful flowers. Despite being over 100 degrees (F) in Kernville, the temperature on most of the trail was a perfect 75. We began to run into the heat only during the last few miles of the plunge. 

I took the helmet cam along but one disadvantage of it is that it is fairly easy to hit a button and shut it off, or pull out the video connection while boxing it up and/or stuffing it into a full pack. I got good footage of much of the Cannell Trail and I changed the tape just before the plunge. Unfortunately I managed to shut it off while repacking it! Needless to say I am quite disappointed. Fortunately, Dennis took many photos and they are posted on his site. 

We were on the trail for about 7 1/2 hours and accounting for short breaks, photo sessions and changing video tapes we put at least 6 1/2 hours in the saddle. My Specialized Epic brain shock performed magnificently. I often get a sore back (from a degenerated disc) on two hour rides at New Melones (GH), but not even a hint of a problem on this ride. I lost my granny gear about a third of the way into the trip but my knees held up surprisingly well and one day later they still aren't too bad. We were both quite happy to reach the end of the trail but I felt surprisingly fresh. I've never been fast but I seem to be able to go all day. I've put together some decent video footage of some Cannell Trail singletrack. I can't believe I'm actually already thinking of going back just to get some footage of the plunge! If you are interested in sharing a shuttle to the trailhead please email me. We can part company if I'm too slow for you. I went back a few weeks later, read about it here.

I put together a 1:25,000 topo map from Topozone.com and for the most part it worked quite well. The trail is fairly well marked but there were a few confusing parts. I'm sure Dennis will post more detailed route information. Here are 1:100,000 maps: Cannell Trail, for printing purposes I have cut the map in half. Download the top and bottom separately, print out and tape together.

What an adventure!

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