Start of October, Bear valley area
From Pinecrest I headed north, bypassing Bear Valley and turning up Hwy 88 instead.
The current route for Orogenesis heads east from Bear Valley on a few singletracks, hops on Hwy 4 for a bit, and then goes north on a rocky jeep trail through a wilderness corridor to Blue Lakes. I had always wanted to explore an alternate route around the west side of the Mokelumne Wilderness from Bear Valley to Thunder Mtn trail to Caples Lake, just north of Blue Lakes. After running some errands I made it to Lower Bear Creek Reservoir, which is about the mid point of that western route. I had no info on most of this route so the first task was to see if any of the forest roads actually exist and are passable/fun.
Lower Bear Creek Reservoir. The main road crosses the dam at the west end of the reservoir and then follows the shoreline half way across the south shore.
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View from the road crossing the dam, looking down the outflow drainage
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I headed east from the reservoir up forest road 8N14 first, which is a narrow paved road. At a junction I turned onto Bear River 4x4 Road, a jeep trail. It was marked double black diamond in a few spots on my map so I didn't know how far I'd be able to get. The goal was to get to the intersection with the Long Valley moto trail 17E28. I planned to explore beyond that intersection on another day as a loop from the opposite direction starting at Thunder Mtn.
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Came across a warming hut parked on the side of the road
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It's not gonna keep you very warm with no windows or doors
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View of Mokelumne Peak to the south
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Looking north was a sea of granite
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Bear River 4wd Road turned out to be fully rideable all the way to that junction. I debated going further, but since it was getting late and because I'd scout from the other direction later, I turned around.
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On the way back I checked out a dirt alternative to paved road 8N14. It was nice, narrow doubletrack that ran along a ridge top for a couple of miles. I was a bit surprised to ride through a tract of homes where the road became paved. Beyond the homes it reverted back to dirt and dropped down to the main road between the reservoir and the Mokelumne River.
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The road to the Mokelumne River is called Running Bear Road. It is narrow pavement and drops 2,800ft to the river with some awesome views along the way
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Looking across the valley. I think line on the opposite side of the valley is a flume, not a road
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I crossed the flume a bit lower down. It would be cool if you could filter water from it. It would also be cool if you could float tube it. Unfortunately they had it thoroughly fenced off.
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I made it down to the Mokelumne River. There is a campground there as well as some dispersed sites once you cross the bridge to the south side of the river. From there a forest road climbs up out of the valley but it was signed and gated as closed to motor vehicles. Not being able to use that road would mean a much longer shuttle when I explore the connection to Bear Valley. The route won't use this road. Instead, a trail drops down to the river here which is part of the Mokelumne Coast to Crest trail. I hoped to ride the MCCT all the way from Bear Valley to here.
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Sunset from the road higher up. Got back to the truck after dark. So far, this connection was looking like it might go.
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