[Rick O'Shay]

Glory Hole on Saturday. Wow, orange and green overload. Ride it soon before it all dries out and turns brown.

Glory Hole 4/5/14 from Rick O'Shay on Vimeo.

 

[Ciclistagonzo]

WOW! That is a poppin' vid!
Need to add New Melones to the ride list this year.

 

[Whacked]

I was so there on Sat and Sun. Both were fantastic days and excellent riding.

 

[danec99]

So after viewing Rick's video I decided my Saturday ride would require a little driving. I have been scouting camping locations so this was a good excuse. Wow. Most drives into the foothills are miles of brown, but for a few months every year CA is just GREEN. The drive to Angel's Camp was gorgeous. I was expecting a typical low CA body of water when I arrived at New Melones "Lake" and low it was. The day was breezy but once going it got to be pretty hot, especially back in the bushes. Awesome trails; just singletrack, rolling along, a few different types of surface as well. Probably not techy enough for some, but I loved just being able to ride, and not have a whole lot of climbing. I hit pretty much all of it, but for the down portion on Carson. 16 miles of smiles. Was rolling along on Carson when a long brown wiggly stick was hogging the narrow trail, I had to swerve and avoid. New Melones does have the Western Pacific Rattlesnake, and thankfully he had moved on as I returned.
Basically Bike only trails, I saw one other rider and a family hiking all day.

 

[Whacked]

The whole system in Hike/Bike only. Saturdays tends to bring out more people.
I was out there again this weekend. might be there again this coming weekend, temperature deciding.
I havent ridden the Carson Trail extension and I lack the legs/motor to do Tower Climb.

 

[Ciclistagonzo]

Any you have a Garmin/GPS track? Definately liking the idea of cruising for 16 miles of single track.
Thanks - A

 

[Whacked]

easy.
park at Carson Trailhead
Ride out Frontier
Hit Buck Brush, then Angels Creek
Repeat those 2 loops if you want.
Ready for challenge, go back out Frontier, ride up the paved road to top of Tower Climb.
Take left (or straight ahead) at Carson/Tower intersection.
Take the Carson Trail Extension
Back to Trailhead and cold beer.

Someone else posted (wherewolf maybe? couple years back, I snagged the tcx) 24-25 mile doing Buck/Angel twice and skipping the Carson extension. Other than the uphill climb on pavement to Tower Climb trail, its all singletrack goodness.

Stinging nettle ares starting to overgrow Carson Trail. Its OK now as they are still green. Not going to be pleasant when it dries out.

I rode Gold Rush to Ironhorse Campground. Unfortunately it sees little use and is a bit overgrown with weeds.

Here is a map
https://www.usbr.gov/mp/ccao/newmelones/maps/map_glory_hole_rec_trails.pdf
$8 day use fee or head to the office (across hwy 49 bridge in Tuolumne County) and get a year pass for $50

 

[Rick O'Shay]

Any you have a Garmin/GPS track? Definately liking the idea of cruising for 16 miles of single track.
Thanks - A

My route: (Looking at map link from Whacked)
Park at Carson Creek trailhead
Ride Carson Creek, including extension. (water level is plenty low)
Tower Climb to upper parking lot. Turn around and ride back down Tower/Carson, returning to where you parked.
Ride Frontier to Buckbrush.
Ride Buckbrush in a clockwise direction.
After Buckbrush, take the Angels Creek trail.
Ride the .2mi cutoff. It takes you over the hill to the other side of Angels Creek.
Continue counter-clockwise on Angels Creek all the way around the loop until you get back to far side of the .2mi cutoff.
Take the cutoff back over the hill, return to Frontier via Angels Creek trail.
Take Frontier until about where it makes a sharp right on the map. There is an unmarked trail that will get you down to the road.
Backtrack on the road a few hundred yards and you'll see a picnic area. Look for the start of the Gold Rush trail there.
Ride Gold Rush trail back to Junction with The fire access road.
Depending on how you feel, you can either cross the road to where you parked or if you want one more round of singletrack, you can head up the fire access road and down Tower climb/Carson Creek back to parking area.

It's about 21 miles if you ride all that.

 

[danec99]

Stinging nettle ares starting to overgrow Carson Trail. Its OK now as they are still green.

Oh, thats what that green stuff was - wow. Not a big fan of Stinging Nettles. I was thinking of ticks as I went through that stuff. Plus thats where Mr. Western Pacific was.

As stated is pretty much what I did. Out Frontier, Angels Creek out and back clockwise (insanely pretty trail right now), Buck Brush (much different than Angels), back to Frontier and out Carson. Simply sweet riding, who needs wicked climbs all the time. Plus if you really want one, there is one - Tower Climb.

 

[Whacked]

I've always taken Angles Creek and Buck Brush counter-clockwise. Seemed to flow well that direction with a couple very short but fairly steep climbs (on buck brush)
Gonna have to try those trails clockwise

 

[Whacked]

Another decent place to ride at New Melones is Tuttletown. Lots of short(er) trails with cutoffs but using the road can loop all around the place.
I didn't realize there was hiking/biking trails there until told so by my sister who works for Watch and takes the clients there for hikes. Much less people there than Glory Hole.
I ride that when I don't feel like crossing the bridge to Glory Hole, or riding late in day

 

[Ciclistagonzo]

Awesome intel all, thanks!

 

[Empty_Beer]

This seems like good news.

Angels seeks to blaze trail from city to lake - Calaveras Enterprise: Calaveras County's Most Trusted News Source

 

[Obi]

This seems like good news.

Angels seeks to blaze trail from city to lake - Calaveras Enterprise: Calaveras County's Most Trusted News Source

^Needs to happen. They could easily connect it by the creek out from the Southern side of the golf course. My family always worries when I go riding South out of town by the Highway. Too many people getting clipped.

I urge anyone visiting up there to also try out the Arnold Rim Trail.

 

[Ogre]

Adding 4.4 miles of trails to New Melones and extending the trail into the city... yes please. That would be awesome.

 

[Finch Platte]

Adding 4.4 miles of trails to New Melones and extending the trail into the city... yes please. That would be awesome.

Golly yes!

Any breweries in town to ride back to?

 

[Ogre]

Not sure about breweries, but there is at least one biker bar

 

[bpressnall]

This seems like good news.

Angels seeks to blaze trail from city to lake - Calaveras Enterprise: Calaveras County's Most Trusted News Source

Hi Jeff! The article says it will require a $5,000,000 ( Five million dollars) grant to build a 4.4 mile long trail. Unless that's a misprint, this is proof that the Government is totally out of control. Even a ridiculously expensive trail of that length should cost less than one million- even with bureaucratic planning and a little money laundering factored in. They also mention that they want to make sure people pay the entry fee. Back when Melones was originally flooded- due to the public protest from river lovers- the Government assured the public that access to the reservoir would be free. That is-until they changed their mind. Other than that, I always thought that would be a good idea for the trail system.