A Mountain Bike Ride to Pacheco Falls

Today's patrol was a social affair over some nice trails and some major dirt roads in Henry W Coe to the very spectacular Pacheco Falls. We began our ride a little after 0900 from Hunting Hollow, and rode up the 2 miles of Gilroy Hotsprings Rd, just yakking away the entire time.



Super Stoker, Diesel, Plymmer, Fattire400, Ratpick, and I all started out together. Our first thing to do was ride up the Timm Trail and up Spike Jones to the top of Willson Peak.

After riding up to the summit of Willson Peak we split, and regrouped later, up at the Wasno and Wagon Rd junction. Some went down Willson Peak Trail and up Tule Pond, while some went down Serpentine and up Wagon Rd. I wanted to check on how Serpentine was doing and it is pretty fine except for a double rut section, which I don't mind so much, and do not think it is worth pushing the paperwork through for a nice reroute(it would take years). There many higher priorities in the huge park.



On the other hand, I think Fattire400's tights are beyond repair and that he should really get himself some new clothes. He looks like a mountain biking street person for crying out loud.

The ride along Wagon Road to the Live Oak Trail was pretty as usual with it's long views into distant areas of the park.



There's a sign along the way for the Pliny Missing Marker Contest.



On the Live Oak Road and on Pacheco Falls Trail I got out my saw and helped remove a few trees. The guys obliged with swamping them out of the way.






We first stopped at the falls overlook to check things out.




Here's a small BB phone video of the scene:



Like I said earlier Tom really needs to update his wardrobe. I mean for crying out loud any second now we'll see his gammy toes poking out!



Back to the falls, the next photo contains two notable oddities within it. One is that one of the pools is heart shaped. The other is towards the bootom of the frame in the bottom of the canyon. There's a rectangular object there. This has bugged me for two years now! It is still there. The location is inaccessible without a rope and some climbers. Until now I thought this was one of those foam sleeping pads that fold up into a block. However, I had binoculars with me, and it turns out to be a cammo soft-sided rifle-case folded in half. We have some climbing friends (I used to be an avid climber too and I have a good rope still and some equipment). I want to organize a trip out here to fetch this piece of garbage.



Here's weak entry for Pliny's Contest.



At the bottom pool of the falls it was just beautiful. It is a sacred place. There are pretty polished rocks amid grace and flourishing fauna.




While we were there an inexplicable thing happened. A big branch just cracked off the big cottonwood leaning over the pool. Crazy.

The winter phase of the sedge creates an intriguing texture.



The climb out from the falls was tough, but just do-able. A really round little boulder had fallen into the trail at one point, and I thought it was a pretty sight.



Then we took Coit Road to the Domino Pond Trail, it took us about an hour at a gentle pace. Along the I exchanged texts with Brian, who we met a the Domino Pond Trail later. But first we stopped at Sierra View for a traditional session of attempts at pitching stones into a hollow tree. I actually got one in, out of 10 throws or so, the only one today. That never happens. It made my day.




Domino Pond Trail was beautiful. A volunteer trail crew had just performed some excellent maintenance on it that day, just before we got there. And the ride down it was just a blast.




Domino Pond still reflects heaven.





I forgot to mention that Diesel and then Ratpick had much earlier peeled of the ride to get home early for some respective engagements.

Here's Plymmer with his eyes closed.



And here's Knobular in uniform.



On a part of Coit Spring Trail I saw some rocks that wre placed nastilfy in a place a biker rider could flip on, and I moved them out of the way.



A section of trail had the line moved to the right in an old road bed. This did not upset me. I think it was a good idea. I could explain a lot more about this, but the general topic needs an entry of it's own.



At the end we opted to not ride Anza back, and instead simply bailed out onto Coit Rd after the Grapevine Trail. It was a fun ride of about 5500' of climbing and 27 miles. Not too intense, but a good fitness and trail scoping ride, early in the season, with excellent weather and conditions.