Dusy Ershim Trail Photos

WoodsChick · Jul 24, 2008

I figured since I'm at home bored out of my mind while my broken bones heal, I may as well post some photos of another Dusy Ershim Ride I did. It's a jeep trail much like the Rubicon, but's it's a blast on a dirtbike. If you've never heard of the Dusy Ershim Trail, there's a good description of it here in my first Dusy ride report...

http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219160

The crew this time consisted of myself on the blue GasGas, Eric on the red GasGas, Dan on his YZ250F, and Steve on his KTM...

The trail starts at about 9600' ...

And climbs to a little over 10000' before leveling off at about 9800' for awhile. It was not fun climbing into the sun first thing in the morning...

Once the trail levels out, things get a little easier and a lot more scenic...

The trail is mostly rocks...

Screwing around in one of the many boulder gardens...

Steve, moments before losing traction and going down...

To be continued...

WoodsChick

Ant · Jul 24, 2008

Great pics! I miss the old days of dirt biking in the boonies

If I may ask are you recovering from a moto accident?

WoodsChick · Jul 24, 2008

I took a different line...

There are a couple of scenic lakes along the trail, but they are much prettier in the spring (mid-July) than they are later in the season...

Summit Lake, which lies entirely within the John Muir Wilderness Area but is only 75 yards or so from the trail, is a good lunch spot. There were bear tracks all over the shore...

The altitude tends to make this trail harder than it already is...

After lunch we mosey on down the trail, knowing the hardest part is yet to come...

To be continued...

WoodsChick

luckett · Jul 24, 2008

Nice! I want to do the Dusy sometime soon. Anyone want to ride it with me sometime in Sept.?

WoodsChick · Jul 24, 2008

When riding the trail from north to south, the looming spectre of Thompson Hill weighs heavily on the mind after a relaxing lunch. This is the hardest part of the trail, is it drops about 1200' in a very short distance. Courtright Reservoir is at the bottom. It is all rock, and most of the trees bear evidence of winch marks from jeeps winching themselves up it. This is Steve at the very top...

Note the many marks on the trees...

Steve on his way down...

I missed the shot of Steve here, but I got Dan...

Steve almost at the bottom...

To be continued...

WoodsChick

WoodsChick · Jul 24, 2008

OK, my turn now...

Ugh...not good...this is the easy part!

Whew! Made it through the big rocks...

Ok, this isn't so bad...hey, is that a drop off ahead?

Yep, it's a drop-off, alright...

Doh...

No harm done. I dust myself off and continue on my way down.

To be continued...

WoodsChick

WoodsChick · Jul 24, 2008

Continuing on my way down Thompson Hill...

I wasn't the only one falling...

I'm at the bottom!

We sat and rested while Eric rode back up it, just to see how hard it would be for the next time when we go south-to-north...

Eric on the way back up...

He made it to within about 4' from the very top without stopping, but it totally kicked his butt. I'm not looking forward to the south-to-north route.
Well, maybe just a little bit... :ride

To be continued...

WoodsChick

trailjammer · Jul 24, 2008

Nice! I did that in my jeep last year in two days which everyone said couldn't be done. LOL 10 plus hours of wheel'en per day. Fun trail and tons of rocks. I should try it on a bike next time. Very challenging!

WoodsChick · Jul 24, 2008

After descending Thompson Hill, the trail follows the Dusy Creek drainage. Nothing too tough, but it is pretty rocky with some semi-tricky old log bridges across the creeks that are falling apart and/or kinda big and widely-spaced for dirtbikes. The jeeps don't seem to have any trouble with them, though.
This is also where the trail opens up and the scenery gets pretty spectacular, what with granite domes and such. Unfortunately, I didn't get a whole lot of scenic photos on this trip, but there are a ton of them in the first Dusy report linked in the first post here.

Maxson Dome, one of the many in the area...

Towards the end of the trail lies Chicken Rock (Voyager Rock on maps) a large granite dome with a fairly steep descent. Traction is plentiful, though a bit more slidey than slickrock. It's a really fun place to screw around...

The opening in the trees below is the trail...

The trail goes through a rock garden at the bottom and then continues for a few more miles, following the edge of Courtright Reservoir, and then ends at the parking area for the Maxson Dome Trailhead. We finished the 32-mile ride in about 6 hours or so, including lunch, all the time we goofed off up on the granite slab and in the boulder gardsn, and taking photos. It's a great trail, one of the most scenic and remote I've ever found in CA, and it's a lot of fun if you don't try to blaze through it in record time. It's worth it to stop and take in the beauty and be thankful that we can still ride this trail.

Hope you enjoyed the photos...

WoodsChick

WoodsChick · Jul 24, 2008

Ant said:
Great pics! I miss the old days of dirt biking in the boonies If I may ask are you recovering from a moto accident?

Thanks, glad you enjoyed them :thumbup

Not too many dirt photos here in the Moto Photo forum.

And yes, I shattered my ankle on the Big Boot trail ride north of Eureka...

Sorry this photo is so freakin' big...

WoodsChick

WoodsChick · Jul 24, 2008

luckett said:
Nice! I want to do the Dusy sometime soon. Anyone want to ride it with me sometime in Sept.?

Man, I'd love to do it in September

Too bad all of my plans are on hold right
at the moment

If you can do it sooner, I'd highly recommend it. The conditions are better the earlier you go, with lots of green and wildflowers everywhere.

There's a ton of fun to be had down there if you're on a plated bike. Lots of trails available for green sticker bikes, but they are all broken up and it's almost impossible to make a decent loop without riding illegally at some point.

WoodsChick

WoodsChick · Jul 24, 2008

trailjammer said:
Nice! I did that in my jeep last year in two days which everyone said couldn't be done. LOL 10 plus hours of wheel'en per day. Fun trail and tons of rocks. I should try it on a bike next time. Very challenging!

Yeah, they say 3 days is good for a jeep, but they also said it was not recommended for motorcycles :rolleyes

The ranger I talked to said they get very little 2-wheel traffic on the Dusy. I've never seen other bikes on it, even though I know of folks that have done it. We didn't even see any jeeps on this trip. Next trip will include the Swamp Trail.

Yeah, it's challenging, but it's not necessarily the terrain that makes it so. It's a combination of factors, least of which is the remoteness and the fact that there are no easy ways to get out, especially if there are any injuries or whatnot; either you go back the way you came or you soldier on til the finish. Not too many places to land a helicopter, that's for sure. And, unlike the Rubicon, there are no easy go-arounds for the tough stuff. The altitude doesn't help either, especially for this sea-level dweller.

I think I'd be afraid to do it on 4 wheels :wow

Did you go south-to-north or the opposite?

WoodsChick

yabusa8ate3 · Jul 24, 2008

you guy's rock!

ElDiablo · Jul 24, 2008

Very nice! I wonder how my 300LBS Husky would have done there. :wtf

AGOODHI · Jul 24, 2008

awesome!!! :thumbup

i always wanted to do that trail in my TJ.

btw, what kind of trials rubber are you guys running and what psi for that trail?

--ry

ElDiablo · Jul 24, 2008

luckett said:
Nice! I want to do the Dusy sometime soon. Anyone want to ride it with me sometime in Sept.?

I'm in! Do you need a plate or green/red sticker for that?

Butch · Jul 24, 2008

you rock girl. I wanna ride with you!

WoodsChick · Jul 25, 2008

yabusa8ate3 said:
you guy's rock!

No pun intended, right?

RockChick

WoodsChick · Jul 25, 2008

ElDiablo said:
Very nice! I wonder how my 300LBS Husky would have done there.

Wow...I don't know. I wouldn't want to ride my SM610 through there, that's for sure, and it's pretty much set up for the dirt. Hell, I don't even want to ride my 450 EXC there! I'm probably much smaller than you, though...I'm of the mind that the perfect ride for the Dusy is a lightweight 2-stroke. My bike only weighs 200#, yet picking it up at over 10000' made it feel somewhat heavier

A friend of mine is a very accomplished trials rider, and he makes his LC4
640e move like nobody's business on a trail, but he ended up turning around a few miles into it and decided to wait til he got himself something smaller.

Your mileage may vary, of course :teeth

WoodsChick

WoodsChick · Jul 25, 2008

AGOODHI said:
awesome!!! i always wanted to do that trail in my TJ.

btw, what kind of trials rubber are you guys running and what psi for that trail?

--ry

I'm pretty sure we were all running IRC Trials Winners (sometimes called
TR-11's, I think.) The 2 GasGas's were, anyway. We run tubeless-type tires with HD tubes. I usually run about 8psi for picking my way through the nasty, or 10psi if I'm going to be trying to make time and hitting rocks hard, such as in an enduro. I ran 10psi for this trip, due to the huge amount of rocks and sharp pointy bits, and the desire to avoid having to fix a flat out there. Eric was running 12psi, and he usually drops to 10 in the places where I run 8. Don't know about the other two, but we're all usually about the same so I'm guessing they were at 12, too. They all outweigh me and my bike significantly, hence my lower psi.

The trials tire is perfect for this trail. I've been running a rear trials tire for years, but it looks like the world is catching on. They are like cheating and will make you feel like an enduro hero in the rocks and roots :thumbup

WoodsChick

Dusy Ershim Trail Photos

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