Sun 3/15 American River: snowbiking nirvana

[Philip]

Yesterday's trip up Salonie made us think the crust was probably plenty firm to try snowbiking again. Today dawned nice and chilly, so we headed out to the American River and Saltery Cove Road to try our luck.

The first mile to the initial contact with the river was rutted snow with some ice. Not nice skiing, but no problem on bikes. The ruts aren't deep so most cars could probably drive this section. There is still water in the river at this point, however.

We continued up the road another mile to the second point the road hits the river and that is where we hopped on. There are some 4 wheeler tracks here, but they are very shallow and not that annoying. The snow is pretty sun-cupped and refrozen, however, and the surface is not as smooth as on Salonie. It was great on bikes but probably not so nice for skate skis, and frozen too firm for nice xc skiing I would guess

We rode up the river and then to the right in the side canyon at the end of the valley. The snow coverage was excellent, and we went farther up than I had ever been before. At the turnaround point where the canyon got really narrow, we ran into 3 goats.

The ride out was fantastic with a tailwind most of the way. A stunning day overall.

[Philip]

The early section of road:



The second leg of road between the first and second river contact points:



On the river bed itself:



Leaving the valley and heading into the canyon:



Up the canyon we go:



Goats at the turnaround point:



Heading out:





You have to criss-cross the creek over and over. There were plenty of snow bridges to accomplish exactly that:



Almost out of the canyon now:





Exploring some areas on the hillside above the river:

[patrick]

Nice Photos - It's the Adelia Show! Those are some big tires! And it looks like good skate skiing to me. Patrick

[Philip]

On our way home, we saw your truck at Salonie. Was it windier there today?

[Philip]

I tossed together another short video if anyone is into that sort of thing:



Again, a larger version is on Youtube:

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