Neil and Xan MTB Road Trip: Part 4 - Nevada and Home to California

After reloading the bikes in Saint George, Utah, and with grins still on our faces from riding Zen trail (see Part 3), we drove on for a few hours into Nevada. We slept in the large Las Vegas suburb of Henderson so we could hit Bootleg Canyon the next day. I had never ridden there, but it had been on my list for quite a while. Neil had ridden there several times during the US bike industry's annual fall trade show, which includes two days of bike demos at Bootleg. This would be his first time riding here without the craziness of the trade show though.

The terrain at Bootleg was totally different from anything we had hit in Colorado or Utah. Instead of the ledgy slickrock and forest descents we had just been riding, Bootleg Canyon featured sharp and jagged rocks that our bikes would bounce over as they came into contact with hundreds of little knife edges. These rocks were combined with hardpack covered in gravel of various depths. The trails are completely exposed with very little vegetation, which gave us a much different feeling than anything else we'd seen. While Utah also has plenty of exposed trails, Bootleg felt much more like desert riding.

Bootleg's technical riding was awesome, but only after we figured out that this was a far less predictable surface than the rock slabs we had recently seen. We had to learn to relax and stay in control while letting the bike slide around. The only thing that seemed predictable was the probability for loosing skin if we crashed, so we worked to stay focused and keep the rubber side down. We pedaled to the top twice to try two different downhill runs off the peak and played on the jump lines at the bottom each time. I was pretty tired afterwards but Neil was up for another run, so I shuttled him to the top to hit the enduro course before we packed up and moved on.

After the ride we stopped to say hi to a client in the area, grabbed some excellent pizza, and drove into Southern California for the final two rides of the trip. The next morning we headed to Big Bear for some park riding so our legs could rest a little bit. Big Bear is often overshadowed by Mammoth and Northstar, but offers plenty of bermed and flowy lift-accessed riding with a few sections of jumps and rock gardens. Unfortunately a late start, a torn tire, a small mechanical, and an early close time for the lifts kept us from getting very many runs in. In hindsight this was probably for the best since we needed to rest up for the last ride of our trip. We headed to Kernville for the night for an early start to our final ride.

A while back, one of Neil's buddies had recommended a ride near Lake Isabella called the Cannell Plunge. Neither of us had heard of it before, but we were told that it was a 27-mile epic ride that descended around 8,000 vertical feet and rivaled Downieville. This was plenty to convince us to give it a go. Since this ride is a long point to point, we booked seats on a shuttle out of Kernville that took us to Sherman Pass, at about 10,000 feet. As the van climbed up the road, we suddenly we felt like we were back in Colorado with the pine trees and alpine scenery.

Before starting the main ride, we added a bit of singletrack descending near the drop off point down Sherman Peak Trail, which looked too good to pass up. This trail re-connected to a road a few miles down from the pass for an easy pedal back to the top. We also tried to pedal to the top of Sherman Pass, which was recommended in a trail review we read, but there was too much snow and fallen trees to be fun so we turned around before reaching the top.

Once we started the official Cannell Plunge ride, there was plenty of cross-country riding to do before truly getting to "The Plunge” part of the ride. Two prolonged climbs followed by two semi-technical descents kept us entertained, while the scenery around us was fantastic. With nothing but forest and mountains in sight, this felt like real backcountry riding, especially in comparison to having just hit a bike park the day before.

After close to 20 miles of pedaling, we reached a sign that read “8 miles to Kernville”, which marked the start of "The Plunge". We were still thousands of feet above the town, so we knew we were in for a serious descent. The trail was mostly smooth and sandy, but had straight sections where it was easy to hit 30 M.P.H. while charging along on a cliff edge. The plunge continued on, dropping five thousand vertical feet before it finally ended at the highway just outside of Kernville.

Neil and I both agreed that we had never really done a ride that compares to the Cannell Plunge. The style of trail of the plunge itself was not something we are normally excited about riding on long-travel bikes, but it was incredible nonetheless simply because of how much elevation is lost and how long it went. The feeling of the wind screaming by for 15-20 minutes was awesome! All in all, this ride definitely deserves the "epic" designation that was promised.

Back in Kernville, we quickly packed up and hit the road, making it to Berkeley that night by about 10:00 P.M. I passed out immediately, stoked to finally sleep in my own bed. Our bodies and bikes had held up to the beating of 11 days in a row of mostly technical riding (plus 3 more for Neil's trip out), totaling close to 40,000 vertical feet of descending. The capabilities of our bikes continued to impress throughout the trip and made it possible for us to tackle some very challenging terrain. Our only mechanical of any significance was a torn tire, and our suspension, wheelsets, and Rohloff SPEEDHUB drivetrains felt ready for many more trips' worth of aggressive riding.

-Xan

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