It had been several months since I took my last bikepacking trip, an off road overnight bicycling adventure. This outing took me to Big Trees State Park via forest service roads in the Stanislaus National Forest. The plan was to get there by early afternoon and spend some time at the visitor center and spend some time wandering in said trees. As the saying goes though, adventure is what happens when things don't go according to plan. I assure you I had quite the adventure.

      I immediately made a wrong turn at the beginning but promptly corrected course to begin bouncing down a dirt forest road that was really semi technical doubletrack.  I was passed by two OHVs that ate it up without breaking a sweat. The drivers would be the only people I would see until I got to Big Trees. I did see, however, spectacular views. I worked around a gate declaring 'road closed'. I was on my bike and thought 'how bad could it be?'. Besides, I figured, it just meant less of a chance of any motor vehicles pestering me. I worked my bike around the gate and pedaled on. Not too long after I started on this road I came across a few small potholes, no big deal. Then shortly after that a small piece of road that had cracked and sunk a few inches, still nothing too concerning. Then I ran into the true reason the road was closed. A section that had been destroyed and relocated by Mother Nature. In the picture below consider that, if you look on the hill on the left side of the picture, you can see the road has slid about ten feet down from where is supposed to be, and at the edge of road closest to the viewer there is a drop of five feet.

     After I worked my way through this obstacle I continued ascending. I had been pedaling uphill since I reached a low point of about 4,000 feet. Then I reached 5,000 feet. I was a little foolish when I planned this route and hadn't bothered to check elevation stats. I climbed up and up, then up more. Sweating so much my clothes were getting soaked. Still, it was so cold there were places the ground was frozen solid, my tires breaking through the frozen layer crunching, seeking traction. 6,000 feet. Should I check my map and see how much more climbing I had to do? Nah. Why spoil the surprise? After two hours and a little over nine miles I had gained over 3,000 feet in elevation, topping out at just over 7,000 feet. At last I reached the summit, the highest point I would achieve. I surveyed the beautiful landscape around me before consulting my map to see which direction to go next. I was to go left, but the problem was my left turn was nowhere to be found.

Pretty much how it went

     I was able to reroute and make my way on forest service roads that were more rough hewn trail than road. I eventually reached a logging site and the roads became broad and flat. I descended down to Beaver Creek and pedaled parallel to it, eventually reaching the boundary of Big Trees State Park. I crossed into the park hours after I hoped to, but the road became paved and I was able to make quicker progress, but also had to face several more hills. As the day waned I saw the alpenglo on the forested hills around me, stunning and magnificent. I rolled into camp as darkness fell, leaving only time to set up camp and cook dinner before doing some stargazing and hitting the sack. Throughout the day I had crossed two bridges, saw several small waterfalls, cursed, thanked the gods, sweated, wondered why the hell I was doing this, and found the answer at the end of the day: to discover not only more of the world, but more of myself as well.

Logistics
     For this trip I used Google Maps as my primary source for planning a route. I also had a NFS map, but found it lacked a lot of roads and streets not under the jurisdiction of the forest service. After plotting my route I uploaded it to my Garmin Edge 1000 to simplify navigation. The bike I used was my Novara Ponderosa 29er, which is currently sporting a 1x11 drivetrain. My bags to carry gear were a Revelate Designs Sweetroll and Viscacha, Blackburn Outpost frame bag, and a small backpack.

My rig, fully loaded

In Closing

     Mercifully I was able to take a much shorter route back to my starting point in the morning, allowing me to cut out all the climbing I had done the previous day and make this a sub 24 hour adventure. I encourage everyone to explore the national forests of the United States. There really are some hidden gems tucked away if you are willing to seek them out.

     I'll be back in the new year, with a recap of 2017! Keep getting out there and  exploring! If you are having doubts about yourself, what you can do, or just keep making excuses as to why you're not doing the things you want to do, remember: