April 12-14 Malakoff
Friday night camp is the general meet up spot. I have verfied with the forest service that while this campground is not officially open, it is not gated and we can use it. (Side note: most campgrounds are not open this time of year up this high.) But like a dispersed camping experience, plan to poop in the woods. Raf and I have stayed here before and it is quite nice. Right next to highway 49, so some road noise, but otherwise, quite good. Here is a link to the campground: Carlton Campground
You can all just google map yourself to it.....no tracks needed.
For Saturday, I have two big loop tracks, one is blue and the other is red. Here's the link to them: tracks This will be about a 50/50 offroad day. We have ridden the dirt one from Malakoff down to Washington and it is very good. My plan, assuming we can stay below the snow line, is to ride the blue one to the town of Washington, and then use the red one to take us back into the woods and at some place find a spot we like and make camp, dispersed camping style. On the blue track, we ride through Malakoff Diggins State Park, which is super cool. So lots to see and plenty of history to take in, if that's something you like. Washington has some cool history, including this hotel, which we could stop at for lunch or a pint. https://www.washingtonhotelca.com/eat-and-drink
As was true for our last ride, I think flexibility is key. I don't know if we can make the whole blue track due to snow, and I don't know if you know this, but I don't wanna ride in snow. I don't wanna. Right Fo? Ammiright? AND, this is Rig's first time back in the saddle! So let's make this a safe, fun, memorable adventure with everyone returning home Sunday with only dirt on our equipment, no scratches. This is also the first time we get to have Scott with his new GS850, so some staring and farkle admiring will be in order. But Scott I'm warning you, if you line up my ktm, Swen's ktm, and Rig's ktm, the three swingarms can actually make you think you see unicorns and pegasuses.
Food: So at this point there are 9 of us. Nice! GS Scott, Rig, Jeep Scott, Dorian, Alan, Mike, Raf, Swen, Pete....hopefully Merced can make it. Dorian? Alan? Shall we do communal food or shall we go old school and everyone just fends for themselves? That is yet TBD.
Gas: not really a concern I don't think, but top off when it is convenient. Here's a place in Camptonville on the way to Friday night's camp: Lost Nugget Market and Gas
Supplies: There's a general store that looks pretty cool in Washington. We should at least see if there are more than 14 cats in it: Washington General Store
That's it for now fellas! Looking forward to seeing you all and welcoming our brother Rig back on two wheels! His new ride is the banner picture on this page. Cheers!
Here's how the two tracks look when shown together.
