A few weeks back, Cindy and I tried to do another run through the Donner Summit snow sheds but as luck would have it, Union Pacific crews were out there with heavy equipment and closed them to access. Unsure of how long they would be closed, we decided to head north of Truckee and do a quick run on the Bear Valley Trail. Here are a few pics from our day out.
It always sucks to come up to a trail and find a sign like this standing in your way...
Fortunately, there are plenty of other trails in the area and so, we headed north and hopped onto the Bear Valley Trail. Here we are at the start of the trail...
For the most part, the Bear Valley Trail is really easy but, rocky enough to keep you from going too fast. It also has a lot of narrow scratchy brush and for that, we were glad to have come without our doors on. Here's a shot of us at one of the high points along the trail...
There are only two obstacles on this trail that would give it a "difficult" rating, if not for the fact that you can bypass them, and the first of which is a rock garden called Ball Peen...
Running 37" Nitto's and EVO coil overs, it was hard to find a hard line but, we tried...
What does make this rock garden somewhat of a challenge is that all the boulders are loose and move around with ease beneath your tires. Here we are on the second half of the climb...
Back in the open...
Tessa scouting the trail ahead...
Pictures really don't do it justice but, the second real obstacle on the trail is simply called "Winch Hill" and it gets its name from the fact that the hill is steep and very loose. My first attempt was to try and crawl it...
But, as you can imagine, that only left me digging in. So, I gave it another stab with a bit more momentum - that worked...
The trail out was rocky but, nothing too tough...
Hopeing that the work being done to the snow sheds and train tunnels would be done sooner than later, we decided to head back to them and give it a look. Unfortunately, when we got there, they were still very much closed and without any sign it would be open again soon. So, we headed west to another set of sheds still in use to take a few pics of them...
All was good until we realized that a train was coming!!
Fortunately, we got out with plenty of time and even found that the train was coming through a different shed
If you would like to see all the pics from our trip, simply click on the link below:
Bear Valley Trail Photos
It always sucks to come up to a trail and find a sign like this standing in your way...
Fortunately, there are plenty of other trails in the area and so, we headed north and hopped onto the Bear Valley Trail. Here we are at the start of the trail...
For the most part, the Bear Valley Trail is really easy but, rocky enough to keep you from going too fast. It also has a lot of narrow scratchy brush and for that, we were glad to have come without our doors on. Here's a shot of us at one of the high points along the trail...
There are only two obstacles on this trail that would give it a "difficult" rating, if not for the fact that you can bypass them, and the first of which is a rock garden called Ball Peen...
Running 37" Nitto's and EVO coil overs, it was hard to find a hard line but, we tried...
What does make this rock garden somewhat of a challenge is that all the boulders are loose and move around with ease beneath your tires. Here we are on the second half of the climb...
Back in the open...
Tessa scouting the trail ahead...
Pictures really don't do it justice but, the second real obstacle on the trail is simply called "Winch Hill" and it gets its name from the fact that the hill is steep and very loose. My first attempt was to try and crawl it...
But, as you can imagine, that only left me digging in. So, I gave it another stab with a bit more momentum - that worked...
The trail out was rocky but, nothing too tough...
Hopeing that the work being done to the snow sheds and train tunnels would be done sooner than later, we decided to head back to them and give it a look. Unfortunately, when we got there, they were still very much closed and without any sign it would be open again soon. So, we headed west to another set of sheds still in use to take a few pics of them...
All was good until we realized that a train was coming!!
Fortunately, we got out with plenty of time and even found that the train was coming through a different shed
If you would like to see all the pics from our trip, simply click on the link below:
Bear Valley Trail Photos
