Loon Lake Bike/Hike

On Forest Service Road 13N11

I recently spent a couple of weeks camping up in El Dorado County at Loon Lake. I brought my Mercian shod with 650B tires for an occasional ride. My normal ride was out to the dam on the north side of the lake, then over to an outlook on the highway for cell service then back to camp. Barely 8 1/2 miles but it kept my legs spinning. Shelly and I were doing a lot of hiking so I wasn't worried about losing conditioning. One of our hikes started at the Loon Lake Chalet and went up to Chipmunk Butte. On this walk we would pass a Forest Service road marked 13N11 and I was curious about it. Looking at a map, I noticed it looped back to Ice House Road leading to the campground so it seemed to be a nice little circuit for riding.

Loon Lake Chalet

I decided to give the road a try on the Mercian. I hoped the 38mm(1 1/2") tires would provide sufficient grip and protection from pinch flats. In the end, I would guess I had to walk about half of the dirt section. I think a mountain bike could have done more...and a skilled rider could have perhaps ridden it all on a suspension equipped bike. Neither case applies to me! I looked at this ride as similar to those of the "Rough Stuff Fellowship" type rides the English used to do before the dawn of the mountain bike!

Start of the gravel just past the Chalet.

At the turnoff for USFS Road 13N11

Small lake along the route.

The way gets rough!

Do NOT take this turnoff!

This was one of the hiking parts!

The road follows the power lines at this point. I had to skirt around this puddle to the right.

The road finally swings away from the power lines and onto the paved Ice House Road road.

As you can see from the pictures, quite a bit of this road was very rough indeed. It was in interesting ride though. I'd like to try it with a wider tire sometime. Also, it was pretty wet this year, maybe I'll have better luck in a drier year!

Still, it was a nice little ride, but only 9.5 miles! I was surprised it was so short a distance. The bike did well, no mechanical issues, but it was definitely not the perfect bike for this ride, although it was good for that last uphill grind up Ice House Road.

Three River's Century ride, 2019 edition.

Nimbus Dam, from the American River Parkway.

I've been gradually getting in shape after a slow Spring and decided it was time for an "easy" century ride. For me, that means doing my "Three River Ride", which passes along the Feather, Sacramento, and American Rivers.

I chose the King Of Mercia for this ride.

This would be the longest ride I've attempted using the mustache bars on my KOM. I was curious how I wold like them for a long ride. The forecast high temperature was "HOT", 101-104F, so I wanted to get an early start. I did manage to get away before 7 a.m. but I should have tried to start earlier! I wore a wicking T shirt under my white jersey with sun sleeves, just like the Camp Far West ride.  This combination has proven to be pretty comfortable in hot weather.

On Pleasant Grove Road

This route starts from Loomis and goes to Lincoln, via Sierra College Blvd. and Highway 193.
After Lincoln, you take Nicolaus Road, (9th Street in Lincoln), to Pleasant Grove, turn right and then take the first left which is, Nicolaus Ave. you'll stay on this road to the Garden Highway.  These are generally quiet country roads but with occasional traffic including a large truck every so often, so you need to take care. the day I rode was a weekday, so the roads were fairly quiet, and Nicolaus seemed deserted!

Quiet day in Nicolaus

Past Nicolaus, you will cross under Highway 99 and the road then becomes the Garden Highway. Here I was treated to the sight of three deer,two young bucks and a young doe, darting in front of me! Eventually, you pass River Oaks Golf Club and ascend to the levee road which you will be on until you enter Sacramento. The levee road is generally in good condition but the shoulders can be a bit narrow. On a weekday, traffic is no problem at all, but I suspect this road could be pretty busy on weekends! Near Verona there are two stretches of very bad pavement, really rough and chewed up.

Along the Feather River

After the second stretch of bad road, a little past Verona, the pavement improves. Soon you cross the Sutter-Sacramento County line and the road is very good. You can soon see Sacramento International airport.

On the Garden Highway with the Sacramento skyline in the distance.

Eventually you'll be able to make out the Sacramento Skyline and soon you're passing under the I-5 overpass. There is a small park with a boat ramp here that makes a good stopping place for a snack and a break.

After a short break I continued on the Garden Highway, heading to Sacramento. The surrounding become more suburban than rural, soon you come to Discovery Park, the start of the American River Parkway.

On the American River Parkway

The Jedediah Smith Multi-Use Trail is the path you ride when riding the Parkway. It's a wonderful trail and it takes you through stretches that seem wild while only being yards from the city! Wildlife can be seen and there are lots of places to stop along the way which have restrooms and water available. I traveled uneventfully up until just past Nimbus Dam, where the trail follows under some steep bluffs. There I was met by a literal brick wall!

Why yes, the parkway is closed at the Bluffs! Note the path around the roadblock on the right!

There is an alternative route on the south side of the river now, I've taken that before but frankly didn't care for it; at this point of the ride I'm getting tired and don't want to have to find my way through Folsom! I noticed that there was a well worn path going around the barrier, so I decided to take a chance and try to get through the blockage.

As you can see in the picture below, there was a good reason for the closure! But again, there are paths going around these blockages as well! I again walked around the debris and continued on.

...and here's why it's closed! Note again the paths around the obstacles.

Eventually I came to the second and final wall which again had a path around it. Then I was clear! I was getting close to Negro Bar and Folsom.

I was now on the final leg of the ride. From Folsom, I rode the bike trail up to Beals Point State Park and stopped there for a break and a cold soda. It was now starting to get pretty warm. The final stretch followed Auburn-Folsom Road up to King, then King to home in Loomis. Final mileage on "MapMyRide" was 101.1 miles.

Today's ride proved to me that temperatures have a lot to do with my performance on longer rides. My legs were threatening to cramp up quite a bit on the final leg and I'm pretty sure it was because of the 100+ temperatures at the end of the day.

Equipment wise, I had two issues. One I noticed while riding; shifting was getting a little unreliable between 3rd and 4th gear. It turns out that my derailleur cable had become badly frayed and had lost several strands of material! See below:

This may have affected my shifting slightly!

Replacing the cable seems to have eliminated the problem. The other issue I did not discover until I began working on the rear derailleur; I found that I had lost the bolt connecting the right rear fender stay to the frame!

Finally, the mustache bars worked out fine. I noticed a little more, or maybe just different, pressure on my hands that I compensated for by shifting hand positions. But my neck and back felt very good after the ride, no stiffness at all.

Camp Far West Road and beyond.

On Camp Far West Road.

After a pretty mediocre Spring riding-wise, I'm finally starting to get some, (for me) good mileage in. Unfortunately an early heat wave has decided to settle over Northern California so I have to time the rides for as early in the morning as I can. I decided I wanted to take a couple of stretches of past rides and combine them for a sub-100 mile ride. I sort of succeeded, but did end up with a bit of a longer ride than I planned!

The route I planned would include about 6 miles of gravel above Camp Far West so I chose the Mercian Olympic I had modified with 650B wheels and Panaracer Col de Vie tires.

The 650B equipped Olympic was the ride for the day.

My plan was to ride to Lincoln then take McCourtney Road up to Camp Far West and ride the gravel road from there to Yeager road, then on to Smartsville road. From there I would turn west and take the long open stretch past Beale Air Base to near Linda, turning off on Griffith Avenue and going south to Wheatland, then back to Lincoln and Loomis. Here's the route:

Screenshot of my route (from MapMyRide).

I wanted to start as early as possible since triple digit heat was forecast in the afternoon. Well, the best I could do was to roll out the driveway at 7:30. But I was thinking it would be a 4 hour ride so I wouldn't be back too late!

The start was nice with nice mild temperatures and no wind to speak of. Eventually I came to Camp Far West Reservoir, which has a lot of water right now!

The very full reservoir at Camp Far West.

I haven't taken this route for some time now, maybe a few years, so I was pleasantly surprised to find the steep grade just past the campground entrance has be resurfaced! It's perfectly smooth right to the start of the gravel! It's still as steep as ever though!

New pavement on the climb past the campground!

After cresting this hill you drop a short distance to the start of the gravel. The condition of the gravel road is no better or worse than I remember. The first section tends to have a fair amount of washboard, probably due to heavier traffic on that stretch. After you finally turn away from the lake things begin to smooth out. The 38mm tires performed quite well on the road. In the past I've ridden with tires as narrow as 28mm, so the extra tire width was just gravy!

Camp Far West Road.

Eventually Camp Far West Road ends at a junction with Spenceville Road. Turning left, Spenceville Road travels a short distance to Waldo Junction at a small bridge.

Waldo Bridge over Dry Creek.

 After crossing this bridge you travel a short distance on some blacktop but that ends in about 100 yards and you're back on the gravel, grunting over a couple of testy little hills. Eventually you finish the gravel section of our ride at Chuck Yeager Road.

Turning left would take you to Beale AFB. Back before 9/11, I had been able to pass through the Airbase heading to Wheatland. Alas, nowadays you can't get in without a Military ID. So, we must turn right, continuing on a log climb heading northeast. Eventually you crest the hills and descend to "Hammonton/Smartsville Road.

Here I turned left climbing for a short while but soon I was on top of the ridge and looking down on the Northern Sacramento Valley! This is a spot where I have taken a photo every time I passed through!

On Smartsville Road, you can just make out the Sutter Buttes in the distance.

The rest of the ride was pretty straightforward. Past the Air Base you eventually will come to Griffith Avenue. Turn left here and proceed for a mile or so until you come to a "T" at Erle road. You turn left here and are on your way through rural roads, Eventually you are on your way to Wheatland. Instead of riding down busy highway 65, I turned off on Dairy Road which turned out to be a very pleasant alternative. Eventually I had to make a left turn to get back to town but it was definitely worth the extra few minutes.

I stopped at a convenience store while in town and filled my two empty water bottles and bought a large soda with lots of ice! By now it was 11:30, well past my planned finish time, and it was getting warm, probably the low 90s. I had over 60 miles done by then too, so it was going to be at least an 80 mile day.

For some reason I thought this would be around 60 miles,maybe a 4 hour ride. I underestimated the distance and ended up doing 82 miles in about 6 hours of riding!

Anyway, the rest of the ride was over very familiar territory, and I ended up at home in time for a late lunch.

So this was a pretty nice ride, I used sun sleeves and wore a wicking t-shirt under a white lightweight jersey and I was pretty comfortable for the most part. The Mercian performed very well with no mechanical issues at all.

Parting shot, looking back on Waldo Road at the end of the gravel section.

A last few Cyclist Articles.

Thanks to iBOB Craig Montgomery I have a copy of a "Tourlines" article I had lost over the years. "The Right Stuff" reminds us that it's not always about the bike!

Also I've included a couple "Snapshot" articles from Owen Mulholland; "Jacques Anquetil, party boy", I just thought was a funny episode from his career. "The Lion of Flanders" illustrated just how tough the Anciens really were.

Hope you enjoy the reads!

More "Cyclist" articles.

I thought I'd post a couple more of Ed Stiles' Tourlines from Cyclist Magazine. "The Bare Essentials" is from the May, 1985 issue.  "The Amazing Patch Story" is from June of 1986.  "In praise of Older Bikes", may be an appropriate read for iBOB's; we all seem to have picked up a used bike here and there, no?

Finally, I'm including a scan of Owen Mulholland's Snapshot piece, a vignette of Eddy Merckx and his first Tour victory. It's really an enjoyable read. Mr. Mulholland wrote many of these Snapshot segments and in 2006 published a very nice book, Cycling's Golden Age, a collection of great stories and photographs. One of the few hardback books I've ever paid full retail for, I was so excited to find his work again!

And now...a word from our sponsor:

"Cyclist" Magazine: Tourlines' take on gearing.

From August of 1985. Typically, Tourlines takes a minimalist view of gearing at a time when triples were all the rage!

Nowadays, with the advent of "1X" gearing, the views of these ancients seems very relevant. For me, I have found the most useful gearing for the kind of terrain I encounter here in Northern California is a wide geared double, almost a 1X plus granny if you will, with a big ring in the mid 40's range and a small ring of between 26 to 30 teeth. I continue to use an 8 speed cassette on the rear, these seem to provide more than enough of a gear selection for my riding.

"Cyclist" Magazine - Tourlines article on saddlebags.

Another Tourlines article, this one from the March, 1985 issue. Before I read this article, I hadn't known much about English style saddlebags. After reading it, I wanted to find one but in those "pre-internet" days, they were exotic objects I could only dream about. It wasn't until I discovered Rivendell in the 90's that I was able to get a Carradice Camper!

I now own several Carradice bags, the Camper longflap, a Nelson, a Pendle and a Junior(no longer available). They're great and I encourage every cyclist to get one, if for nothing more than to eep the wonderful Carradice company in business!