Ride

Route is largely the same as last year; a clockwise loop north and northeast from Shaver Lake around Huntington Reservoir and back through the forest down Dinkey Creek.

Sunrise over the lake cuts the overnight mountain chill, looks like it will warm up and get pretty comfortable. The lakeside packet pickup spot and tasty breakfast hosted by Lund Foundation is a nice wakeup. We roll out, slice past the very still Shaver Lake and drop from Camp Sierra down into the canyon where we get the first glimpses of the immense wall of granite looming over Big Creek. We’re going up that… and then around the reservoir on top.

Grinding up Stump Springs’ 10% gradient out of Big Creek gets a chunk of the climbing out of the way early on, leaving the majority of the ride to a nice rolling pace. Altitude is a factor, fatigue starts to press in along the angular sawtooth profile of repeated grades up the south side of Hutchington… there’s a point in here where this starts to feel like a grind.

Once up above the reservoir we finally get to dip out into the forest. An extended gravel section for this year was excellent, tracks meandering through the trees and out to some massive high-Sierra vistas. With a relatively small turnout, it’s generally pretty peaceful out there save for the heads-up dodging around massive pot-holes, the backcountry dirtbike & ATV crowd.

Great beers back at the finish from Mad Duck; Honey Pot was refreshing. Legs survived, but didn’t feel very punchy; maybe elevation, maybe fatigue. Thankfully a much mellower ride than the Heart of Gold a couple weeks prior… but there’s still the Bovine in a week.

Gear notes

• The Maxxis Receptors are basically slicks and I would have liked some tread on the looser deep-gravel sections of the forest track, or maybe more volume than my 40c. With so much of the ride on pavement probably not worth the extra drag of a tread although a 45c slick-ish tire would be an interesting experiment for next time.
• might have done too many upgrades to the bike too close to the ride; new brake pads were dragging. force chain was happy tho.

– BikeMonkey has announced 2023 was the final year for this High Sierra experience. –