Let's begin this ride report with the road to Coe. It first began to washout in 2010. Even though there hasn't been much rain lately, some more of the road recently slipped into Coyote Creek:
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Next the Hunting Hollow parking lot....the ramada and signboard that were in the middle of the lot are completely gone with new stuff on the cold side of the lot:
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Over the last few weeks I've been doing some light brushing of the PCT but today I wanted to just do a nice long ride out to the top of Bear Mountain. In the lot I had a nice chat with Mark H who
rode out to Mustang Peak (on his third (!) replacement Tallboy frame). Early in the ride I talked with Chris K—recovering from back surgery in August 2014—and met his brother Jason who is recovering from an accident with a car (broken leg).
The Anza/Jackson/Elderberry climb began the day. At Elderberry a volunteer group was beginning a project to remove some ruts. One of my earliest Coe trailwork days was on that exact spot (October 2007). Someone invited me to join the workcrew and I said they were fixing what I did years ago!
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Here's a Horned Lizard that I spotted on White Tank Spring Trail:
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My trip up the PCT went nicely. In no time I was at Mississippi Lake. There were some fresh burn spots on the dam:
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Likely those were debris piles from this work:
[youtube=640,480]G3D78n3VHdo[/youtube]
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I say recent because a few days before I saw a crew burning the 2 year old piles of reeds on Hoover airstrip:
I expect the same crew hit Mississippi Lake.
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Going around the east side of the lake, I found the road completely blocked by this fallen tree:
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Extra bad with a bike because all those little branches get caught in the spokes and stuff. It turned out to be more difficult than it looks to do anything with it. Too heavy to move. A bunch of branches had to be cut just to get to the trunk before attempting to cut that and when I did, it pinched the saw so I gave up. Didn't want to burn a lot of time here but even so this stop was 30 minutes. In the end, there was at least a hole to squeeze through:
It looks like it might have made more sense to work on the right but like I said, I hoped to cut the trunk.
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While I'm doing that, Ranger Jenn makes a routing patrol stop at the ramada on the opposite side of the lake, roughly 1:45pm, and drives off. I ride up the Bear Spring Trail to the top of Bear Mountain. I like it, nothing steep or technical; it's overgrown but you can get through (with a lots of scratches on your arms and legs).
Arrival at Bear Mtn is 2:37pm. I didn't know it but the 2015 Coe Monstercross ride was today and they had been at this spot at 1pm. Their day was about to turn bad because one of the riders wiped-out descending the very steep fireroad down to Coyote Creek. They got him up and going, and changed their route to go directly to Coe HQ. Jenn was going their direction and came upon the group. She assessed the rider's condition:
photo Patrick
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…and decided he should go to the hospital (he had hit his head). A helicopter was called:
http://www.firescan.net/cgi-bin/playtime.cgi?ch=2&hr=14&mi=08&s=18&m=3&d=21&y=2015&t=14400&rate=56&z=playback(It takes a couple minutes to get to it.) Jenn drove him to the landing spot somewhere on Manzanita Point Road. He was examined and released from the hospital that evening.
For the complete story of their ride, see
Patrick's photoset.
Patrick's track.
Track for the guy that crashed (Ryan).
And Marco's track. The next day Marco broke his ribs crashing on the Soquel Demo Flow Trail. Tough weekend!
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My route was in a completely different direction so I missed all this while it was happening. The return trip was uneventful, I even had time to checkout the Elderberry work which I thought was a nice design:
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Ha, while there I noticed that there were 12 eyes looking at me:
Those are the 6 strays that have been in the south end of the Park since last summer.
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Start at Hunting Hollow 9:07am » Gilroy Hot Springs Road » Coyote Creek entrance » Coit Road » Anza Trail » Jackson Trail » Elderberry Spring Trail » Rock Tower Trail » Domino Pond Trail » Wasno Road » Coit Road » Willow Ridge Road » White Tank Spring Road » White Tank Spring Trail » Rose Dam Trail » Pacheco Creek Trail » Willow Ridge Road » Mississippi Lake Perimeter Road (East side) » Bear Spring Trail East Alternative » Bear Mountain Road » Bear Mountain » Bear Mountain Road » Bear Spring Trail East Alternative » Mississippi Lake Perimeter Road (West side) » Willow Ridge Road » Pacheco Ridge Road » Heritage Trail » Pacheco Creek Trail » Pacheco Camp » Coit Road » Live Oak Spring Trail (upper) » Wagon Road » Wasno Road » Jackson Road » Jackson Trail » Anza Trail » Coit Road » Coyote Creek gate » Gilroy Hot Springs Road » Hunting Hollow parking 7:07pm 45.70/7:43/10:00l6,952'
Gilroy:
Cordoza Ridge:
