Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

Mammoth Mountain, California
September 9-10, 2006

Take me to the video. 29erchico accompanied me on my now annual two day visit to Mammoth Mountain, CA for some "gravity assisted" XC. I can rarely ride even twice a week, but since it is a long drive and "mostly" downhill, I take a chance and do two consecutive days of riding with lots of ice and drugs in between. Except for the cool and windy gondola drop-off point at a bit over 11,000 ft. the weather was absolutely perfect! We met fgiraffe, a first timer at Mammoth, on Saturday morning and he accompanied us down the mountain on our first ride.

It always takes me a while to adjust to altitude and to get my "sea legs", so I wanted to take it a bit easy on the first run from Off The Top. But we immediately went flying down the very narrow singletrack flanked with very deep volcanic pumice on both sides, often steep drop-offs to one side, and many switchbacks. Instead of going all the way down for a warm-up as I suggested, we cut across the mountain on Gravy Train for some lung busting XC. As usual, after a while I adjusted, but fgiraffe found it pretty tough going so he set out on his own. Fgiraffe is a great guy and I sure give him credit for doing three solo days of riding at Mammoth with no experience whatsoever. We look forward to seeing him on some of the Bay Area rides in the future. Below is what I recall doing with 29erchico, but we often backtracked a bit looking for some trails. I think it totaled about 60 miles:

Saturday 9/9:
1. Off the Top, Gravy Train, Brake Through, up and down Paper Route quite a bit looking for Follow Me, unmarked trail we thought was Follow Me but turned out so bad we went down Downtown
2. Skid Marks, Paper Route, Downtown
3. Off the Top, Beach Cruiser (29erchico also did two quick runs on Trail Home)
Sunday 9/10:
1. Skid Marks, Paper Route, Juniper
2. Brake Through, Seven Bridges, up Uptown
3. Downtown, Paper Route, Big Ring
I was a bit apprehensive the first time on the black diamond Skid Marks but it was nothing compared to Downieville or some Tahoe Trails I ride. Just a bit steep, with scores of tight switchbacks, moderate sized rocks and tons of deep pumice. The first time I made about half the switchbacks. The second time I made most of them by learning to stay off the front brake after a fall. Beautiful views however! Seven Bridges was pretty cool and it had a mild bit of technical stuff. Since I took the helmet cam and we were flying most of the time, I took very few photos. Great trip and thanks 29erchico!

Click on an image to enlarge it

img_3022.jpg (127876 bytes) img_3009.jpg (108812 bytes) img_3010.jpg (164245 bytes) img_3011.jpg (137368 bytes) img_3012.jpg (147985 bytes)
The Mammoth Fgiraffe,  29erchico
at 11,000 ft. +		 Gravy Train Nice views Fgiraffe,
The Mammoth
img_3016.jpg (154637 bytes) img_3017.jpg (144434 bytes) img_3018.jpg (182106 bytes) img_3026.jpg (159524 bytes) img_3027.jpg (207836 bytes)
Getting easier
for me		 Top of
Skid Marks		 Skid Marks Reds Lake Skid Marks
img_3031.jpg (211463 bytes) img_3034.jpg (137652 bytes) img_3037.jpg (219543 bytes) img_3040.jpg (146379 bytes) img_3042.jpg (184863 bytes)
Downhiller
Skid Marks		 Downhillers
Skid Marks		 Can't remember
which trail		 Twin Lakes 30 bikes every
half hour
img_3025.jpg (147152 bytes) img_3048.jpg (123045 bytes) img_3028.jpg (198360 bytes) img_3051.jpg (172431 bytes) img_3052.jpg (230662 bytes)
Another view Scenery Scenery 29erchico
Seven Bridges		 29erchico
Seven Bridges
 

[ Home ]