Trail Discussion: Trails in Nor Cal?

[g-mantj]

I'm headed to Sacramento for the weekend and looking for a good, medium difficulty, one day trail or other place to wheel. Willing to drive within 2 hours of Sac. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Red rubicon]

You could run part of the Rubicon for the day. You can enter from Tahoe and run down Cadillac Hill to the Springs and back. You could also go to loon Lake and run to Little Sluice and back.

[Mike]

Signal Peak is probably about an hour and a half from Sacramento. It starts at the same staging area as the Fordyce Creek Trail. Take the 80 up past Auburn about 45 miles and exit at the Eagle Lakes exit. Go under the freeway and follow the road out to the staging area just a little ways from the interstate. A sign points you to the trailhead.

I haven't ran this trail yet, but I want to. If you go, please post up pics so that we can see what it's like.

[g-mantj]

i might check out signal peak. do you know how tough its supposed to be?

[Mike]

Is is Black Diamond. Charles Wells rates it sort of in the middle of the pack for his list of difficult trails. I know that it is an uphill climb to Signal Peak. If you go, you should take the time to hike the short distance to the old Railroad Watch Station. It looks like the toughest spot is about 1.5 miles into the trail, and the difficult rated section is only about 4 miles in total.

Not trying to plan your trip, but if you are going alone, you might want to scout the tough spot and decide if you are comfortable. If not, you still got to do some wheeling and see some beautiful area. In my mind, part of a trail is still better than none of the trail.

[g-mantj]

looks like we're heading out in the morning for signal peak! the trail doesn't look too difficult but should be some nice scenery and there'll be no worry about not being able to drive my jeep home. thanks for the help mike and i'll be sure to document the trail. i think i might even cruise over to the beginning of fordyce to see what i have to look forward to in the coming years.

[RAT]

looks like we're heading out in the morning for signal peak! the trail doesn't look too difficult but should be some nice scenery and there'll be no worry about not being able to drive my jeep home. thanks for the help mike and i'll be sure to document the trail. i think i might even cruise over to the beginning of fordyce to see what i have to look forward to in the coming years.

You might be dissapointed when you get to the Fordyce trail head. It's deceiving. Looks pretty tame but just a little ways in, it gets fun.

[Mike]

looks like we're heading out in the morning for signal peak! the trail doesn't look too difficult but should be some nice scenery and there'll be no worry about not being able to drive my jeep home. thanks for the help mike and i'll be sure to document the trail. i think i might even cruise over to the beginning of fordyce to see what i have to look forward to in the coming years.

Awesome! Have fun. If you can, snag a bunch of pics to share.
BTW, you probably could get all the way to the first water crossing on Fordyce without too much trouble. But, it is definitely challenging.

[g-mantj]

Hey guys sorry i haven't said anything about the run. Been busy trying to figure out a trans leak that left my jeep stranded in sacramento and then busy with school since i got back. I can't seem to figure out how to upload the pictures from the trip so if anyone has any tips i'd appreciate it. I am headed back up there this weekend with a trailer to run whatever part of the Rubicon we can. We'll be camped at Loon lake and have a couple days to wheel. Looks like its just going to be my dad, sister and dog, Rubi. Should be a fun trip and i'll be sure to take lots of pics of that as well.

[Mike]

Hey guys sorry i haven't said anything about the run. Been busy trying to figure out a trans leak that left my jeep stranded in sacramento and then busy with school since i got back. I can't seem to figure out how to upload the pictures from the trip so if anyone has any tips i'd appreciate it. I am headed back up there this weekend with a trailer to run whatever part of the Rubicon we can. We'll be camped at Loon lake and have a couple days to wheel. Looks like its just going to be my dad, sister and dog, Rubi. Should be a fun trip and i'll be sure to take lots of pics of that as well.

Sorry to hear that you had troubles along the way. As for uploading pics, the easiest way is to sign up for a PhotoBucket account. Upload the pics there and then copy the IMG code into the tread that you are creating. If you try this method and have questions, just shoot me a PM.

[g-mantj]

[Mike]

SWEET!

Did you run Signal Peak alone? It sure looks like it from the pics.
Great pics by the way. The views from the top just ROCK! The trail seems shadier than I expected. Were there any spots that made you nervous?

[g-mantj]

Yea we ran it alone. I wasn't worried at all on any part, it was a super nice pretty mild trail. Perfect for a day run as you can make the trail easy or more difficult by driving over the rocks instead of around them. I'm running open diffs with a d35 and didn't have any problems and wasn't worried about anything breaking. I highly recommend it. I just got back to Sac from the Rubicon today. We camped last night and went through Gatekeeper in the evening and today we ran to Little Sluice and back. It was my dad sister and I in my Tj and his Xj on 32's. He had some fender damage but that's about it. I'll see if I can get some pics up in the next couple days. Thanks again for your guys' suggestions on these runs!

[Mike]

Cool! Thanks for the pics and info. Looking forward to seeing your Rubicon pics.