SOUTHERN SIERRA SECRETS

May 12 - 13 2007

This was my first time on Mike and Ellie's Southern Sierra Secrets ride. Although I'd read about it in previous years, I didn't really know the route, but was delighted to see that we would bike past Voo Doo where I had been climbing the previous weekend.

We met Friday afternoon at Redwood Meadows campground on the Western Divide Highway south of the Ponderosa Lodge, and directly across the highway from the Redwood Meadow Grove of Sequoias. The campground had just opened this weekend and we were the first visitors of the season for the new campground hosts. After setting up camp on the freshly raked sites, several of us crossed the street and took a walking tour through Redwood Meadow Grove.

Saturday morning we were ready by 8:15am for the first day's ride, which would be up the road I know as the Lower Needles Road, past Lloyd Meadow, to road's end. This would be a northerly in-and-out ride of 61 miles with about 6100' of elevation gain. We had twelve riders for the trip, Mike Wolfe, Ellie Antonio, Larry and Janice Moore, Leslie Gold, Ann Trank with friend Bruce, Phil Conmy, Nicole Flaten, Gloria Nafel, Fu-ping Yao, and Don Porter. This was a beautiful ride past Lower Peppermint campground, Needle Rock Creek, the lower Needles, and on for lunch at road's end. Traffic was light as this is a dead end road. Mike, Phil, and Don took a side trip on the return to visit the Giant Sequoia designated the George Bush (Sr.) tree. Larry and Mike stopped at Needle Rock Creek to filter water with Larry's new MSR filter. We returned the same way for a great happy hour and dinner in anticipation of another ride on Sunday.

Sunday's ride started similarly to Saturday's, except for a short car shuttle. We turned off on the road to Portuguese Pass (elev. 7280') for what was to be a beautiful, untrafficked ride, of about 50 miles and 5000' of climbing, with some isolated patches of snow and broken pavement. We had nine riders today without Ann and Bruce who were off on a photo expedition, and Phil who had to leave for a National Guard commitment. We passed a warming hut on the way up, complete with a stove and supplies, apparently for use by skiers or snowmobilers. Heading south we finally reached Portuguese Pass itself, where we stopped and ate lunch before the long descent back to our cars. I only encountered one vehicle on the entire Portuguese Pass road, and that was a truck near the bottom of the descent. Very nice riding!

So the secret's out, this is a fantastic riding area, and I hope to do it again next year if not sooner. Thanks to Mike and Ellie for bringing this ride to the club.

--Don