Summer Fun

"There is a trail leading across the canyon from Michigan Bluff to Deadwood and Last Chance over which the supplies for settlers are transported on the backs of mules. The sides of the ridge upon which [Deadwood ] stands are so steep that rocks rolled from the top...would continue their motion until they reached the bed of El Dorado Creek...a mile distant from the place where they were set in motion."

Summer is going to come and with it a whole new set of activities in which to engage: hiking, swimming, and bicycling.

It sounded like a great idea - bicycling from Serene Lakes to Foresthill and maybe Auburn, partially over the same route the miners took. My son and I were going to have lots of fun, see historical sites little changed since the Gold Rush, get exercise, and check out the geography - but wait 'til I tell you.

You would think that a trip from 7000' to 2000' would be all downhill and a piece of cake, so to speak - we'd be done and back in time for an afternoon swim - but wait 'til I tell you.

Our route followed Baker Ranch Road to Robinson Flat and then joined the Western States Trail following the only route the miners had. The trail goes through the townsites of Last Chance and Deadwood ending at Michigan Bluff (formerly Michigan City) where Leland Stanford had his first store.

The forest service has a brochure for the trail which includes the graph copied here. "...you can experience a piece of the past. The trail is largely untouched by modern development and remains much as the early day users knew it." They go on to offer advice: it's rugged, carry water, watch for poison oak, it's strenuous, and 13 miles takes all day hiking.

So what? Sounds perfect. There was no skull and cross bones in the brochure and there are both a one hundred mile horse race, the Tevis Cup, and a hundred mile foot race on the Western States Trail. If you finish running within 24 hours, you get a silver buckle.

We left the cabin at 7:30 with lunches and a couple of water bottles apiece and headed for the Cedars - all downhill and easy despite the rough road. It was after the Cedars that we began to see it would not be all downhill. There is a steep stretch and the rough road turned the lunch fruit into jelly. The fruit had to be jettisoned. Still the ride along sometimes knife edge ridges afforded spectacular views down over a thousand feet into the Royal Gorge. Robinson Flat is a good rest spot for lunch. There is a hand pump which delivers cold spring water. There we also ran into a genuine old timer who runs cattle and knows the area like the back of his hand. He had lots of stories about the middle parts of this century and he was a little amazed at what we were planning but gave us good directions.

Some bicyclists could take the paved road from Robinson Flat to Foresthill and have an easy downhill trip, with even a side trip to say, Sailor's Bar, but we joined the Western States Trail - a real trail, after all we're men. No paved roads for us!

From there the trip was all downhill, but not the way you'd expect. For 15 miles or so the trail is fine following roads going through forests, past mining claims, and over creeks. We even scared up a baby bear that ran off and tried to climb a tree to escape us but he'd get up a few feet and slip back down. Thankfully mom didn't seem to be about.

Once you hit 42 miles from Serene Lakes you hit the top of a ridge and drop precipitously 1800' down - just look at the graph. I saw why they never turned the trail into a road. I ended up running down the 18" wide trail because it was too unnerving on the bike. Even the horse riders don't ride down this, they follow the horse holding on to the tail.

The dust was as loose and light as horse hooves can make it and inches thick. Running along I began to see familiar leaves grouped in threes. You may remember a stretch of 100+ degree days last summer.... this was one of those days. Water was running out, dust was thick but there had to be water at the bottom of the canyon. There was a trickle - and mosquitoes. We didn't stay long, anyway Michigan Bluff wasn't too many more miles - was it?

It had dropped precipitously and now it rose just as fast - 1500' straight up. It was so steep, the switch backs so sharp, the dirt so loose, we couldn't ride. We pushed our bikes up through the heat trying to avoid the poison oak on the narrow trail. Equestrians follow their horses up these canyons holding on to the horses' tails. We reached the top resting every few hundred yards. The sun was going down, but we were only a few miles away.... We coasted along the trail at the top, past signs of human presence and then the trail narrowed again, another ridge top...

Then the bad news. Where I thought we'd only a few miles to go, well, I'd misread the map. We had another creek to go This time it dropped straight down again another 1800', more dust, more poison oak, we were out of water, the trail was narrower. There was no way out. Down we went, looking like those Foreign Legionnaires just stumbling out of the desert - we weren't stumbling out though - we were stuck in the middle. There was more water at the bottom, rocks to fall on exhaustedly as we stared up at the other side of the canyon - up a 1000' feet according to the topo map. Who cared about the mosquitoes?!

You might think as steep as these canyons are that it gets dark in them quickly - it does. As we started up the other side it was after 6 in the evening. We'd been at it non-stop for 11 hours and had visions of National Guard helicopters hovering overhead looking for our dead bodies - and they were - the bodies I mean. We could no longer go more than 30 yards at a time, pushing our bikes up the trail before falling into the dust gasping. Water doesn't last long - and who cares about poison oak.

Eventually we did get to the top in the moonlight - still no helicopters. The last mile into Michigan Bluff is down hill but who could notice? We dragged ourselves into the small town, which is a collection of houses, and finally our luck changed. I stumbled up to one of the nearby houses to find the nicest lady in the world.

We called home and then gratefully took her up on the offer of using her concrete porch to wait for my wife's arrival. I lay on the concrete so glad it was concrete and there was civilization and it wasn't 1850 and... And then the most miraculous thing. The kindest lady in the world brought out some soft drinks with ice (we'd already depleted the town reservoir). It was good - it was great. Then she came back.

She was sorry - she had no cheddar cheese so the cheese sandwiches were made with Monterey Jack. Was that okay? What do you think? And so, there on a concrete porch in Michigan Bluff, near where Leland Stanford had his first store, we ate the best food in the world. It was 10:00 at night and we hadn't eaten since noon and that hadn't been much and we'd been traveling since 7:30 that morning and…

The house the nicest lady in the world lives in is also the oldest building in Michigan Bluff, made of big square rocks. It was built in 1851 and served at various times as the post office, a house, a restaurant, a speakeasy, and hotel. Downstairs is the original post office for Michigan Bluff.

Eventually my wife found Michigan Bluff and picked up two filthy, smelly, re-hydrated mountain bike pushers. On the way back we stopped in Auburn for all the McDonald's french fries, then on to Jack in the Box for combination meals, ice cream.... and I don't remember everything else. There would have been more too, but they close at 11:00 and we only just made it.

Remember how I said, who cared about poison oak? Crawling up the trail at some point when I really didn't care, somehow I didn't just get into the poison oak, I got a splinter of poison oak embedded... Now that could make another interesting story - but for the medical journals.

Now I truly appreciate a quote from The World Rushed In, the diary of a man who came to California in 1850 and his experiences there. Wm. Swan said, in a letter home, "...I tell you this mining is a dog's life. A man had to make a jackass of himself packing loads over mountains that God never designed man to climb...." (pg. 317). That was putting it mildly but then a lot of his book was understated. Nevertheless, I recommend it - his book - but not our trip - NEVER!

Summer Fun - but Wait 'til I Tell You