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Good thing he was heading downhill. I know that trail down into Downieville and to meet someone coming up it, even on mountain bikes, is very difficult, if not impossible to pass it is that narrow. Someone went over the edge this year I read. Killed of course. Took 2 days or something like that to get to the body and haul him out.An advisory to anyone going there entertaining thoughts of the Butcher Ranch Single Track:
After I described my limited experience to Boarder 255 he decided to take this trail solo on his WR250. By then rest of us were by pretty trail weary thinking of camp and cold beverages.
Several hours later he finally made it back to camp. I was getting a little worried since I know Dale (Boarder255) to be both a superior rider & also aboard a superior machine. Turns out my videoed "easy trail" degraded into something resembling a nasty old eroded miner's mule track forcing a one-way descent ending up in Downieville. Something about being hung on a canyon wall above a roaring river having to leap blind break-overs...not something you're anxious to do twice. When he says something was too intense to turn around & retreat I believe him. Shucks, we shared another of those surprise one-way only trails the next summer with Adam-in-Nevada. I ended up shearing a foot peg, bracket & frame tab entirely off Betty Boop forcing another 50 plus road miles to make it back to camp. So a bunch of trail and 50+ hiway mies were done with my left foot atop the stator cover. Thank goodness we all had larger tanks but that is another story.
Bottom line? Sierra Buttes seems like a good vacation destination.
I love the Sierra City area, stay at the cabins where the fish pond is in the front yard. Good restaurant there. Used to be called Harrington's but they sold it and now I think it's called Sierra Inn? I went this summer, but with the whole CV19 thing, I felt like I was being treated like a leper or something. Ha! I poached a camp spot out of town at Wild Plum. They were logging up the road out of the camp ground and so I rode that stretch. It's usually gated off to foot traffic only but with those trucks, decided to give it go. Nice views from that side of the highway, usually all the trails are on the North side of the 49.
Lots of good stories about that area! Thanks for sharing yours.