Summer Road Trip in 4 Parts - PARTS 3 and 4 up

Yes, mostly biking related TR - some hiking/caving as well.

2 bike parks attended, so some solid DH action in later parts.

Yes, lots of kid shots.

There… you've been warned.

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Summer trip 2013.
4 weeks.
5,227km.

Itinerary (location and camping):

1. Portland/Sandy, OR - Milo McIver State Park
2. Oakridge, OR - Blue Pool NFS
3. Lava Beds Nat'l Monument, CA - Lavabeds CG
4. Lassen National Park, CA - Summit Lake South NP
5. Downieville, CA - Rocky Rest NFS
6. Lake Tahoe, CA - Sugar Pine Point SP
7. Shasta Lake Nat'l Rec Area - Lakeside East NFS
8. Sandy/Mt. Hood, OR - Milo McIver SP

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Part 1 in mostly images.

1. Portland/Sandy, OR:

Estacada Lake right at the campground… post ride cooldown

Sandy, OR - great network of buff fast trails with great climbing access for all.

Why people really camp:

Sandy day 2:

2. Oakridge, OR - up-and-coming MTB mecca of other-worldly goodness and long long long rides and even longer shuttle runs

By far and away one of the friendliest shops I've ever been to - Marcello rocked it out and stoked the kids on riding in unimaginable ways; we made the Willamette Mercantile a daily pre-ride stop for info.

Heading up to the irresistable 17mile, 13 of it downhill, Alpine Trail:

Riding shots from Alpine Trail, Larison Rock Trail, Lawlor, and Hardesty Trail:

Old covered bridge with separated bike/ped lane:

Epic post-ride swimming holes along the North Fork of the Willamette:

3. Off to Lava Beds - an amazing adventure worth at least 2 days - the caves are basically 'undeveloped' other than entry points, so you just point and shoot with the headlamps - some are as long as 2.5miles.

107F on arrival:

We explored 11 caves and lava tubes over 2 days, some requiring knee pads, headlamps, and crawling in mud… others merely running shoes:

High desert, lava cones, and plant-life:

Lava does amazing things:

Gaining confidence and going deeper - this was 2.3miles of pitch black creepiness:

Sunset hike up to Schonchin Butte fire lookout:

Toward Tule Lake and Klammath Falls:

Shasta standing guard:

Until Part 2:

What an awesome family! I have two girls under 3 that have already been on some epic trips. I aspire to keep them interested and active in the outdoors. Good on you and great pics so far.

Great trip report so far.

Your kids will remember these trips for the rest of their lives.

OK… Part 2 for anyone viewing…

4. Lassen National Park, CA:

Lassen is a super cool place… sort of like a mini, less busy, less chaotic Yellowstone with no Old Faithful Geyser. Instead you get amazing scenery, tons of lakes that are thermally warmed, and some amazing Fumaroles and Bubbling Pools. No riding, since it's a National Park, but great hiking.

With the advice of the info folks, we took the "back way" into Bumpass Hell area, which provided spectacular hiking along ridgelines at over 10,000 feet. With amazing views of Lassen Volcano and several lakes.

Cold Boiling Lake - constantly bubbling with gas from vents, but cold from snowmelt:

Crumbaugh Lake:

Mt. Brokeoff - supposed to be great spring ski touring when the roads re-open:

Bumpass Hell and the thermal pools - sulphur gagaciousness:

Double double toil and trouble:

fire burn and cauldron bubble:

Lake Helen below Lassen:

Terrace Lake - so nice and warm for an evening swim after a short 1 mile hike:

Shadow Lake - another mile along and another nice dip:

5. Downieville, CA.:

I've been to Downieville before, but was stoked to bring the kids to ride the famous 15 mile Downieville Downhill. Doesn't matter what shuttle service you use, Yube or Downieville Outfitters - both are great. I've always thrown my $$$ to Downieville Outfitters as the owner and staff are pretty laid back.

That's my girl… she knows what daddy's after:

The beauty of any of the three main descents is the diversity. They all go from buff singletrack, to converted OHV road with rolling jumps to technical rock and jumble to the fastest flowiest finish humanly imaginable (all trails converge on 3rd Divide)… Mrs. WH and I each did some solo shuttles as well, as well as the Yuba River trail from the campground to Downieville for an uppy/downy ride.

Ready to drop 5,000' vertical over 15 miles.

ok ok… there may be the odd rolling climb.

Always try to pick a campground with a watering hole! Rocky Rest is perfect, with a big 'ol bridge across the North Yuba to a sandy beach and deep hole for swimming and cliff jumping:

6. Lake Tahoe, CA

All in all, Lake Tahoe is a bit of a mountain bike destination with anything from amazing 30 to 50 mile all mountain rides in a spectacular setting on glorious endless ribbons of buff singletrack, to surprisingly technical rocky downhills, to bermed spectaculabus akin to Silver Star, to chunder and dust at the Northstar Bike Park. It's sort of like Whistler, but with a better lake, more driving on crappy roads between trailheads, and (believe it or not) even more crowds. Tahoe in September would be brilliant!

Following our trip mantra of finding campgrounds near watering holes, might I recommend Sugar Pine Point State Park - it's not quite on the water, but there's a paved bike path leading the 5 minutes to the beach.

And at the beach you find this piece of epicness:

And a lagoon separated by a sandbar to boot! Who would need more???

To put icing on the cake, this ribbon of singletrack goodness, the General Creek to McKinnon Creek trail, goes out the back of the campground:

The next day found us at Northstar Bike Park, where the kids did a full day program with Alex, a young kid who was stoked on Whistler, but even more stoked on helping kids have a great day on new trails. Northstar is NOT Whistler, but Northstar IS fun. Super soft and sandy, but somehow more forgiving. Trails like Livewire and Gypsy live up to the billing of good times flying through the air and on wood berms. Trails like Pho Dogg and Sinuous fill the need for Karate Monkey stylings, and trails like Karpiel and Dog Bone pretty much offer up the Northstar version of the Garby zone. Dog Bone might take on Goat Gully for the king of un-maintained gnar.

Times were good enough that we did 2 days at Northstar.


Not too many trail shots from Northstar - we just hammered laps and fixed flats:

The next day was a rest day for the kids, so Mrs. WH took them to Pope Beach, and dropped me at Oneidas Road to do a 20 mile loop - Fountain Place, Armstrong Connector, Armstrong Pass, Tahoe Rim, Mr. Toad's. Truly one of the finest loops I've done in a long time. Brilliant scenery, at least 8 miles of perfect 32 tooth 1x10 climbing, and another 8+ miles of descending ranging from moderately fast technical to plain old flowing goodness and ripology.

Unfortunately, I was solo, so only a couple self-timer and view shots and none of the DH..

Given that we were 8 days in Tahoe, here ends Part 2 and the first part of Tahoe.

Thanks for hanging in there."/>

Just awesome pics and story. I really hope to do similar trips with my gromlets as they get older.

Second Last Episode in this one month saga.

6. Lake Tahoe Con't.

The Mrs. and I swapped solo half day rides and did several great rides including Toad's, Hole in the Ground, and a couple in the north shore that we were shown that I don't know the names of. With the kids we also had a great time ripping laps at the Oneida's/Fountain Place area. Well marked, good access, fast bermy flowy and jumpy trails. Many laps over a couple of days were undertaken of Armstrong Connector, Upper/Lower Coral, and Sidewinder. Images:

Another fun event is tubing/rafting down the Truckee River from Tahoe City to Truckee; about a five mile run of mostly shallow water and continuous current and some riffles, maybe class 2 water. Perfect for a mid-grade inflatable and a floatie! I ran shuttle monkey.

mini-Whistler copy in the middle of South Lake Tahoe:

A "banger" new ride opened last year is the VanSickle trail that connects the upper Nevada side of Heavenly ski resort right into the new village area of South Lake Tahoe. We parked up at the Stagecoach lodge mid-mountain on Heavenly, rode up the Tahoe Rim Trail for a couple miles, then connected onto VanSickle for the five mile scenically stunning rip back to town. I departed from the wife and kids at the ice cream shop and climbed the trail back to the car… a barely tolerable climb on the 1x10 42 pounder…. calories were burnt.

Last day was a hiking and swimming day:

Emerald Bay:

Eagle Lake:

4th and FINAL part!!

7. Shasta Lake National Recreation Area:

4 hours north of Tahoe and back on the I-5, we hit Shasta and the Lakeside East Campground. Temps were 38 degrees when we arrived. But when this is the view from the campsite, you know salvation is close at hand:

Teach 'em young how to stay cool and refreshed:

This trail might only be 8 miles (13km), but it is epic cross country with views riding:

They offer free tours of the Shasta Dam, one of the top 10 terror-watch sites in the US, as it provides all the power for the "breadbasket of western USA - the Sacramento Valley". Getting access is worse than US customs at the airport, but well worth it. It is the second largest damn by concrete volume in the US, with Hoover Dam being 4th. There's enough concrete in this damn to build a sidewalk 3' wide and 4" thick around the entire equator.

The views from the top don't suck:

Back to riding - this time Water's Gulch and Fisherman's Loop combo - a little more aggro than Clickapudi and just as much fun:

The last day in Shasta we rented a lake cruiser with a cooler, bathroom and full BBQ on board. All this for 9 hours for $180. No better way to see all the amazing and largely inaccessible arms of the lake than from the lake.

8. Mt. Hood, OR and Sandy, OR

Our last couple of days were supposed to be spent ripping the enduro trails of Mt. Ashland. However, the huge forest fires raging between Grants Pass and Ashland render daylight non-existent and air quality worse than Beijing. As such we drove through the stench and haze to Mt. Hood.

The sky is burning:

Fortunatley, not burning in Mt. Hood:

Mt. Hood is a small bike park with only 4 real runs and the DH they use for the WC Cup series, which is closed unless you know where it is - it is BURLY. But what they are lacking for in runs, they make up in amazing enthusiasm and an all in one lift ticket that lets you destroy the 1.5 mile long alpine slide as many times as you want and play on the not-only-for-kids attractions at the East base area. You'd never get all this for $34 at Whistler.

From Mt. Hood, it was one last day of riding the amazingly well marked and built trails at Sandy - there's more than on the map, with Little Monkey and Flow Motion being the family favourites:


And with that, we left Sandy at 2:00 and made a 7 hour run for the border. And then, it was over.

Thanks for hanging in there."/>"/>

well that looked like a lot of fun, much better than processing paperwork which is all I've been doing whilst you've be on holiday…

Finally started dumping some of the GoPoo footage into a tedious edit, as the kids love laughing at themselves and are actually interested in seeing what they can do better.

So disclaimer: 15 minutes of your life you won't get back…. but if you're interested in trails in Oregon - Sandy Ridge and Oakridge area were covered this summer by the family - you might find some value. Mt. Hood as well, but we didn't do video there.

So basically 15 minutes of watching groms ride and crash edited poorly and set to bad music. But if you have kids getting into it, you might find some interest:

https://vimeo.com/http://vimeo.com/76437747

http://vimeo.com/76437747

Doing up the California half over the next few evenings.

not many pics of mrs white honky. She might be offended. I suggest posting more.

awesome trip with the kids ! We camped at lava beds national monument for one night and for some reason it was the most amazing place I think I've been too…. so serene, desolate, such a cruel history and incredible…

Next time you need to stop at Mt. St Helens on the way back. I know you had a long trip… but its worth it…

not many pics of mrs white honky. She might be offended. I suggest posting more.

This is pretty much how it is on every ride with Mrs. WH, so it'll give you an idea:

http://www.nsmb.com/she-does-it-right/