We then descended to the lake’s edge but quickly transitioned to Mount Judah Drive in the Southern Headlands neighborhood. We ascended to Devils Peak Drive, where, at the end of the street, there is a local trail above the local water tank and next to a new home under construction.
I had had problems dragging my bike up this trail while on tour the summer before. However, we had much smaller bags. So, I brought my bike to the top and ran back down and helped the boys as they pushed their bikes up one by one. I taught them how to push the seat from behind and hold the handle bar while walking up. I led the bike from the front but made sure that we were doing it cooperatively.
This left us on a spur of Lakeview Canyon Road, which was easy enough for the boys to ride. It got better as we approached Lakeview Canyon Road proper and, after the intersection, we had to stop a couple times because the climb began in earnest there.
We got to Lakeview Canyon Creek and enjoyed the clear mountain spring water. There were several such streams and we took time to rest at each crossing. The climb to the right of way of the old railroad tracks was tedious and the boys needed help, but I was happy.
We made it to historic Eder which had served as a watering station for trains before it was abandoned in the 1800s. We took pictures above Tunnel 41 on the UP mainline and looked at the historic trails nearby which had provided water from a stream in Emigrant Canyon on the other side of Schellenberger Ridge.
We walked back to the overlook of tunnel 41 and sat in the shade and ate lunch. A short while later we rode to the abandoned tunnels which would connect us to Donner Pass. We barely took a few photos before entering. It was very dark at first but with the help of several flashlights we eventually had an easy time.
Many portions of the tunnel system are in fact just sheds built over the rail bed to protect the cliffside construction from sliding snow and rocks. In some places the sheds have even fallen over the edge and down the cliffs below such that you can step out and look at the mountain peaks all around Donner Lake. I have always found these stretches of the tunnels remarkable because the combination of low light and the various graffiti pieces which line the interior of the system make them vividly colorful. We found my favorite “galleries” from the year before.
I was impressed that the boys were able to get as far as we did on the rough gravel. When we could not ride the bikes, we walked them through. I made a bunch of photos. As we passed through the next few segments of tunnel, things moved a lot faster. We had no trouble, even though we only had a couple of flashlights.
Once we had exited, we rode to old 40 Lodge and had orange crush and root beer. I taught the bartender how to make a Ferrari cocktail. One of my boys got permission to tape a dollar, upon which he had written the letters “SF” to the ceiling above the bar.
A little while later, we got on the bikes and descended Old 40 to and I got a picture of us riding over Donner Pass, which was really cool. Going over The Rainbow Arch Bridge was spectacular and I took pictures there too. The descent was 1100 feet! My boys were really excited about it, but they were definitely very cautious in how they rode.
We stopped at the West Donner Beach Pub to have fish and chips. There was cornhole and foosball and the boys were loud as they enjoyed them. When we were done eating, we went to the ice cream shop in the village. The boys played cornhole literally every time we stopped because it was everywhere.
Once we circled Donner Lake and got back onto South Shore Dr, the ride to the campground went really easy. We passed Lakeview Canyon on the way and I pointed out a bunch of other things to the boys. When we got to the campground area, I took us along a shortcut which went directly to Split Rock and at the campground we prepared for the night and wound down.
This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.
No comments:
Post a Comment