Yosemite to Mount Shasta

The past four days have been spent in Yosemite National Park and Downieville, California. After leaving the desert (and we were all ready to) and heading north, we were greeted with snow on the way into Yosemite! Yosemite was beautiful and a perfect place to rest after 5 days of biking.

Yosemite Valley (above and below)

My older sister and her boyfriend met up with us and spent the night! The next day we hiked up a boulder field to El Capitan, a famous climbing destination.

El Capitan

My Older Sister and Me in the Boulder Field

After resting and waiting out some rain in Yosemite we headed to Downieville. Downieville turned out to be my favorite place so far! It was a town with a population of 325! The town had the feel that you had gone back in time with all the old buildings. The Wells Fargo had saloon doors on it...

We got in around 4 in the afternoon and wanted to get a bike ride in before setting up camp. Both bike shops were closed so we split up and asked a bartender and inn keeper if they knew where to bike hahaha. We ended up getting our information from an older lady that worked in the grocery story who printed us two maps for 25 cents a piece. We did the Third Divide trail to the Second Divide trail. About 8.5 miles an hour of riding, it was beautiful single track and followed a river most of the way. After that we set up camp in Tahoe National Forest.

The next day we went into town and were surprise to see that the bike shop looked closed again, but as we walked towards the shop the owner approached us and let us in and gave us some guidance on where to bike. He was incredibly helpful and very excited about biking. We knew a winter storm was coming (8-12 inches of snow in some elevations) and needed to hurry, so we set a shuttle in case we go caught in the weather. We rode the Downieville River trail and then went down the road about a mile to Hall's Ranch trail which lead to Fiddle's Creek trail. The Downieville River trail was all single track and we got a lot of great pictures and headcam footage (see videos at the bottom) including a great crash of Irby's. Then after we climbed up Hall's Ranch which was sooo steep (it took us 45 minutes to go 2 miles uggh) it started to rain and hail.... the rest of the ride was cold, wet and muddy, but I thought it was the most fun and beautiful trail we've ridden so far. We went 18 miles and it took us 2 hours and 50 minutes.

Below are some pictures from the Downieville River trail.

Jacob followed by Irby (above)

Sarah (below)

The Crew

Below is a picture of the view from top of our 2 mile climb on Hall's Ranch. We came from the road that runs along the river.

After riding 6 miles or more in the freezing rain we had to get out of our wet clothes. We changed under the porch of an outpost that was closed (a restaurant/bar/little grocery store). The owners eventually came down while Jon and Andrew ran shuttle (thank goodness we set one) and let the rest of us in. They made us the most amazing cup of hot coco with whipped cream, fed us some danishes, let us throw some clothes in the dryer, gave us a bag of ice for our cooler, and tried to give us groceries (since the store in town closed at 6pm). They were so hospitable and we were so grateful for that.

Jacob and Sarah enjoying some hot chocolate.

Downieville had the nicest people I've met in a while and some of the best single track I've seen so far. Now we are on the way to Mount Shasta. This trip has been unbelievable.

Jon Angermeier following Andrew Irby

Jon Angermeier following Jacob Roland

Irby's Crash