May 5th, 2006

Riders: Jimmy Alan, Chris Lernihan, and Jeremy Brodhead

We set out from Shingletown in hopes of doing a monster ride. Every thing was going well until we started climbing Cabin Run trail and Jimmy got his first flat. He had blown his tube right out the side of his slashed tire. Luckily I had a tire boot on me so we were able to fix things up. However, he got a pinch flat coming down the Tussy Mountain Old Extension trail.

At this point we were running behind schedule and decided to hike a bike back up the pipeline so we could at least ride the tussy ridge trail with the hopes of surveying the fire damage.

The middle third of the ridge trail was completely burnt out. All the blue berry bushes that normally sit 1-2 feet tall and hide everything were all gone. For the first time you could see all the rocks and landscape that is normally hidden on all sides around the trail. The ash was 1 to 2 inches thick in some sections but the fire had jumped the trail leaving a distinct unburnt path through the ash. Much to my surprise the trail was almost completely ride able with only a few logs needing to be traversed.

We found a log that was still smoldering so Jimmy did his part to fight the fire.

I had a computer on my bike at the time and the bulldozed section is slightly under 1/10 of a mile long. Unfortunate, but necessary since it obviously worked in preventing the spread of the fire.

© September 6, 2008