From Third Divide we went up Empire Creek Trail. It was nice to see this trial marked open with a motorcycle sign since the landslide that happened many years ago. Since the landslide, this trial was marked "No Motorized Vehicles" and it had a motorcycle sign with a slash through it. The trail was fixed sometime later, but the signs were never removed or changed. Now the trail is correctly marked for us, and it felt good to actually ride it again knowing that I am not breaking the law. As we rode up the trail, I came across Bill Heinemann washing his bike in the stream. He somehow had it laid over in the water on the downhill side on a tight turn. The trail was only a foot wide at the most. I do not know why he chose this particular spot, but I can think of better places and much easier ways to wash your bike. I found it rather interesting riding in the back. It takes the guess work out of what other people are really doing.

I told Bill not to wait for me at any of the turns which goes against TBSA rules for riding in a group. Bill was reluctant at first, but I managed to convince him that I knew where we were going. I did this to save us some time. There was so much dust that we had to stagger ourselves out rather far. We came up to the Red Oak OHV trail and continued straight on Empire Creek continuing towards the Chimney Rock trail. Further up the hill there is another intersection that splits off of Empire Creek to cut back to Red Oak. Keith and Bill had made their turn to the right, and of course there was no one waiting for me when I came along. I blew by the turn never even seeing it. I thought it was up the trail further. I rode for sometime before I realized that I missed the turn. Now, I had to double back. I managed to find it, and I raced down to the Red Oak trail just to find out no one was there either. Now I really started to worry that I could get left behind, or even worse, they might be looking for me. I turned left and headed up Red Oak toward the cabin that was on the way to Poker Flat. Still no dust. I had to go faster. The trail became even worse as it dropped downhill towards the cabin. It was covered with small, loose rocks that will throw you in all directions. I thought my front tire was flat as my steering felt heavy through the turns. Just before the cabin, I started to get some dust. I began to feel some relief as I thought that maybe I was catching up to them. Sure enough, as I pulled up to the cabin, Keith and Bill were taking their helmets off, totally unaware that I had felt lost for the last 20 minutes.

To our surprise the cabin was unlocked. We [thought it was abandoned and] gave ourselves the grand tour and found that the building’s occupants were heavy drinkers. There were bottles of scotch, vodka, rum, gin, whiskey, and different flavors of brandy and liqueurs. They had a large kitchen, a separate bedroom, and a bathroom with a flushable toilet. I had almost wanted to stay behind, but we had to press on if we were going to get back to camp at a decent hour. We continued on through Poker Flat and up to the west end of the Chimney Rock Trail. Instead of taking Chimney Rock, we dropped off the south side of the mountain down Rattlesnake Trail. I know many people do not share my opinion, but this trail was awesome. The first part is a very steep, loose downhill with rutted sections and boulder sections. Yes, not rocky sections, but a boulder section. The whole trail was rocky. I would not recommend it for intermediate riders. After the long nasty downhill, the trail has several deep creek crossings and many rocky switchbacks. Now that I have gone down the trail, I would like to traverse it uphill in the opposite direction, but I am unable to find anyone to go with me. Since this is such a difficult trail, and because I have such a strong passion for difficult trails, then this would be me at my most masochistic. If anyone is interested in a punishing day ride, please let me know.

Once we got down to Downieville from Rattlesnake, we went up First Divide and Second Divide. I recommend Second Divide for anyone who is going up the hill from Downieville. You are less likely to run into any bicycles on this trail. They do not like the narrow rocky sections that traverse the cliffs along the river. After Second Divide, we made our way back up Butcher Ranch Trail to camp. All in all, a very good ride.

On Saturday, I led Keith and Bill H. over to Snake Lake and down the rocky hill to find another group of TBSA riders working their way down the rocks. I was delighted to see that we were breaking in some of the newcomers good and proper on the real hard stuff. Don’t worry. It isn’t always like that -- really! Once we passed Snake Lake, Bill H. decided to take a small detour off the side of the trail. His bike stayed up on the trial, but Bill was tossed over the side. Here’s a good picture of this.

All you can see is Bill’s head sticking up over the embankment. Believe it or not, he is standing up. That is the real bizarre part. With the amount of foliage that surrounds the trail, you can’t tell how far down the drop-off actually goes. In fact, I didn’t even know there was a drop-off there until I saw Bill standing in it.

We continued our way past Hawley Lake, and over to the Spencer Lakes turn-off. Yes, we went down the Spencer Lakes Trail to Lavezzola Creek. Our ride took us 11 miles in 3 hours, Wow! We did, however, stop for a long lunch break. It was more like a long rest break. Going down the Spencer Lakes Trail is like trying to ride down a series of waterfalls without the water. What makes this trial so special besides its difficulty is the wonderful views along the way. Once we got down to the Lavezzola Trail, we rode all the way down to Empire Ranch, then all the way back up Red Oak OHV, and across the Chimney Rock Trail. We then returned back down Craycroft Ridge to Empire Ranch again. We then took Third Divide and Big Boulder Trails to get back to camp. This gave us an additional 60 miles in nearly the same amount of time it took us just to go the first 11 miles before lunch.