For years i had always seen the sign at Paicines..."New Idria 54miles" and wondered wanted to visit New Idria to see what it was.
After hearing that Bruce Hildenbrant had a ride from Paicines to New Idria and back...I was really interested in riding the loop.
When I told my dad, he was even more interested. Infact he drove out on the New Idria road a week or so ago to recon the road for me, plus he offered to drive my support vehicle..how could I pass up the offer to share the adventure with pops. Later, he recruited my nephew who is 15 and needs to get driving hours.
Yeah, earning your driving hours on shitty roads....in my car. What can I say...Family.
He ended up logging 5 hours of driving!
I talked a bit with Bruce and he gave me his cue sheet with mileage and climb elevations. Based on his cue sheet i worked out leg times and an estimate of when Pops could meet up with me.
I also got creative....i decided to rent a fancy gravel bike for the Clear Creek Dirt leg. Bruce had noted that it was rough and loose. So i wanted wider tires for that section. The catch, it had to be returned by 6pm or it was another $50!
So, I decided to get even more creative.....bring 2 bikes. Road bike for the okay road sections and the gravel bike for the dirt/shitty road section. Now, sure I could have road all on the gravel bike, but man the saddle on my road bike and the speed.
Now, I didn't want to get run off the road by Mudworm, so I pushed the start time to 6:30am!!!
Leg 1: Paicines to Pinnacles: 18miles
Not too bad except for the traffic. I was surprised how fast this leg went.
I swear a new prius did pass me a little too close....not today.
I'm sure if it was Mudworm she would have asked "what are you doing???"
Leg2: Pinnalces to Coalinga Road turn off. 12miles
This went fast as well. And I was happy to turn off on the road. It was sad to see the Pinnalces skyline disappear.
Leg3: Coalinga/25 junction to Clear Creek OVH. 16.3 miles
Rolling hills with few cars. I had been on this section 30yr ago when we would go out this way hunting.
The road was NOT how I remembered it. Lots of holes and rough spots...still fast.
2nd meet up sport. Bike swap and water refresh.
Support Crew:
Leg4: Clear Creek to New Idria: 16.3 miles. This was to have 3,830 of climbing.
I made the mistake of going light and not taking 4 water bottles. I would later regret not taking 4x plus my camelback!!!
Now this is or used to be a off-road park or maybe still is, I was a bit confused as my buddy though they had closed it to off-roaders. But the signs I saw said road legal vehicles only. All I saw was 1 tacoma and 2 motorcycles. The road was a PITA, deep ruts, large rock and many stream crossings. The climb was not too bad, but I shuttered to think of doing it with my road bike on 35mm tires.
Love the warning sign:
Start of the real climb:
The summit was amazing as I could see all the way across to the Sierras or is it the Sierra Range.
The decent into New Idria, yes I SO wished for my full suspension bike and the decent to be 2x as long.....
The road was torn up and had nasty drainage ditches that man o man would loved to have grabbed my tire and thrown me off.
Looks like someone had an issue:
Finally my goal was insight:
Arrived!
Leg5 New Idria to Panoche: 24.7 miles
This was the hardest leg. The road was utterly crap. Locals actually drive on the dirt right median. I made it through the washed out section pretty fast. The next 20 miles or so was a grind. I just focused on the speed, making sure I kept above 13MPH as the road did have a slight downhill with rollers AND dodging potholes. The comedy was as I would come up on cows (they were on the other side of the fence), they would start running...all of them away from me. I was nervous about some rancher getting upset.
The road flattened out, improved and finally intersected with Panoche Road (Panoche Road from the east was a joke).
I was pretty worked by the time I arrived at the Panoche school where I met up with Pops.
Leg 6 Panoche to Paicines 27miles
The road kept getting better. There were some small hills, but not bad. Even better there were decents.
Home stretch, Panoche Pass
But really the term "Pass" was being overly generous as there was still some short climbs.
3:40? or 4pm? end @ Paicines
Time: 8:34 total moving time.
mileage of 112
Climbing: 7,890 (Wahoo), but Garmin says: 8,084
There was no celebration, washing or even changing of clothes as I had to get back to return the bike by 6pm.
5:50 bike returned
All in all it was a fun ride. The dirt sections were interesting and fun to a degree. The road to Clear Creek was pretty nice and fast.
Next time I'd rent the gravel bike and ride it the entire route (with my saddle and a proper fitting).
Riding un-supported, yeah do-able with enough water of about 10-12 water bottles. So maybe 2x Camelback bladders and 2x water bottles would cover it.
I see on strava that the Clear Creek does get ridden often, last ride was in February. Even in February, so maybe earlier in the year.
