Hey TreeDoc I'm putting a little get together together for the Sierra National Forest first weekend in April. Miami Motorcycle Trails. There are a few easy trails up there. The rest may be a bit much for someone who isn't up to the technical stuff, but there are MILES of roads up there. The pretty much standing rule for riding on the forest roads is if it has a vertical marker, you can ride it. Horizontal marker depends. They could be shared use, or sometimes the rangers don't care. But officially they will say horizontal roads (Level 3 & 4) are off-limits. Depends on the area.

Miami is mostly MCs. You can camp for free. Just follow the rules for fires (which may not be allowed in the summer.) Did a long run (65 miles) last year from Miami to Devils (aka Signal) Peak. Miami MT is north of Oakhurst. Just jump on 101 north, 46 east, 41 north through Fresno. It's probably a 3.5 hr drive for you. It takes me 2.5 hrs to get to Pismo and Miami is an hour north of me. It is just south of Yosemite N.P. In fact you can look down into Wawona from Signal Pk (so nick-named because there is a Yosemite N.P. radio repeater up there.)

Iv'e also ridden to Little Shuteye (another fire lookout station) that is north of Bass Lake (Miami is west of Bass Lake). There is a lot of forest roads up there that are pretty much open to use.

Hollister is pretty good. It CAN get pretty busy. A lot more MC guys than ATVs as it's trails. Even the black diamond stuff there is pretty easy. Just gets bumpy. I'm used to stuff at Miami that requires one to get off the bike and lift (probably not needed with the 4x4 utes). Mainly I was just getting high centered. 4x4 utes own the trails up there.

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I haven't been on the beach for a couple weeks but I'm confident the crossing at Arroyo Grande Creek is pretty mild about now. The creek is running pretty well near my house but since the rains have stopped it shouldn't be much of a challenge at the beach. As you may know, when we get the heavy rains and during that period, the creek can be nasty on the beach but that usually doesn't last to long.

Thanks for the info on Jawbone, etc. I hunt the area that is accessed by Piutte Mtn Rd. which is a dirt road traversing from Kelso Valley Rd (I come in on 178 by Lake Isabella), up and over Piutte Mtn ultimately winding its way south to the Walker Basin. It's just a dirt road that is usually pretty well maintained as it runs through Nat'l Forest but it does have some smaller spurs that branch off of it that take you back into some nice forested areas and mountain outlooks. Is it legal to traverse these kinds of roads in the Nat'l Forest on an ATV or are they only open to regular licensed vehicles? I know that area pretty well but would hate to be up there and find out the hard way that we're not supposed to be on those roads on an ATV. I suppose my question could apply to almost any Nat'l Forest roads too, what's considered OK and what's not?

TeeBone: Glad you "hooked up" on those Flamingo's, I'm debating on adding a couple to my collection! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

B&RW,
I saw your post from last year on Miami. That has me interested and I would like to give it a try, I'll watch for the planning stages. You talk about Vertical Markers vs Horizontal. I know I have seen the skinny markers that will have the little pictures with a Jeep or an ATV, or M/C either allowing or disallowing their travel. Tell me more about the Horizontal Markers, I'm unfamiliar...at least I think I am by your description. Also, where can I get more info on these guidelines?

 

Piute Mtn. Rd. although not paved is a county road (Kern Co. #501) therefore is for street licensed vehicles only. I have gone through there in my 4X4 and cannot imagine the locals NOT using their quads on it, but you could be ticketed. There are ATV trails that criss-cross through the area between Piute Mtn. Rd, and the lake. The Friends of Jawbone map has all of that info. You can get it at www.Jawbone.org

 

By markers I mean the road "name" signs.

Verticle Marker (Level 2 rd) is about 2" wide. Fiberglass or wood. The wood ones are usually carved into the wood.
+--+
| 6 |
| S |
| 4 |
| 1 |
+--+
A Horizontal marker is usually a metal or fiberglass and mark Level 3 or 4 roads. The sign would be like this
+--------+
| 6S41 |
+-------+

Maybe you might understand my ugly ASCII drawings. I don't actually have a picture of the different signs. But any other marker of course could take president. For example 6S41 (the one that I've used) is a Level 3 or 4 road in the Bass Lake Ranger District, Sierra National Forest that goes west from Highway 41 (hence the 41 I presume) through Miami Motorcycle Trails. However, being as it's in the riding area, you can ride OHVs on it. Pretty much most of the roads in that area (including those outside of the trail area) are Level 2 roads (vert. marker.)

I've set the weekend for the ride as the first weekend in April. There are details over on Club ATV West. I'm going to run up there next weekend to get some more pics and take a look at the snow situation. There was a little bit where I was planning on camping but I'm thinking it should be gone shortly. I'm also looking for an alternate route in if it gets a bunch of snow. If you have 4x4 it probably won't be an issue. Just takes a while for snow/ice to melt at a bridge crossing that is on a turn. This is the best time up there to ride. Dust is down on the roads and it's still pretty cool. It's the weekend after Easter.

Sierra National Forest OHV Recreation Miami is second to the bottom.

Example of vertical road markers (Mendocino Nat. Forest site) link You can see them at the bottom.

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Well I finally made it out to carnegie sat and met rescue diver and mstrquad for the first time. That was a good deal, real nice people and a family oriented group, real cool. Look forward to riding with them again, and meeting others. Hopefully next time I can dedicate a whole day to riding. I had to go home and help the oldest son with a head gasget on his new wifes accord. Fortunately for me carnegie is only 40-45mins from home.

 

We went to Stoddard this weekend as planned. Checked out the area off of Hodge road as you described, but since we didn't get on the road until Sat. morning, all the camping spots were taken, so we decided to try the entrance at the Slash X cafe, but couldn't find it for anything! Mapquest was way off on that one. So we wound up camping off of Outlet Center Dr. When we went to the top of one of the big hills there, we could see Slash X, but still have no idea how to get to it. Mapquest said to exit on Outlet Center Drive and go to the hwy 247? We couldn't find any road going to the 247 from that street and eventually gave up. As we rode more towards Slash X's direction, the dirt seemed to smooth out a little. It was WAY too rocky where we were - felt like El Mirage. The weather was great all weekend. We left the fog bank just before Victorville and it was sunny and nice out there the whole time.

One cool thing was that Malcom Smith was camped right next to us. They had an awesome buggy with a Northstar in it - sounded like a funny car! What a coincidence that all my gear is "MSR". I was bummed that I didn't have a permanent marker with me - I wanted him to autograph my jersey.

We're planning on Ocotillo Wells next weekend.

 

We made it to Stoddard this weekend on Sunday as planned also. I don't know the different areas or road names to describe where we were, but it was about a mile east of where the wooden cross is on the left hand side of Stoddard road. This was our first trip out as a family and we had a GREAT time, the whole family is hooked. We'll be going out again as soon as possible, we have boy scout obligations this coming weekend, maybe the next.

All the fun had, the beautiful weather and good friends made for an exceptional day for us. Unfortunately the end of the day was spoiled when we were on the way out. Right across the road from the cross we came up on an accident where there was a boy down. He was on a motorcycle headed east and hit a truck that was going west. Apparently the truck was turning left into an area to park and cut the bike off. As a former Marine I've been trained in battle field first aid and cpr so I stopped to help and give the kid first aid/cpr.

It breaks my heart as a parent, but we were too late and a family went home yesterday without their son. All I can say to everyone is be CAREFULL. I don't know if I could deal with it if that had been one of my sons.

I don't mean to bring the mood of this thread down but I had to share.

 

Kudos to you for stopping to help. How awful . . . was the boy on a dirtbike or a streetbike?

I haven't heard about that area where there's a "cross" by the road. Is it rocky there? We just can't wait for Gorman to open and get back to normal someday - that's our favorite place to ride. Next time we go to Stoddard, we're going to try and find the Slash X. We also saw a bunch of riders off of Dale Evans Parkway - we may try that one some time. Those places are good for when we don't feel like driving very far.

Got home yesterday in time to watch the Academy Awards. I normally like Chris Rock, but I though he sucked last night. I almost turned off the TV after his long winded Bush-bashing segment. There's a time and place for everything, and I don't feel an awards show is the right place for that, especially when many of our service men and women overseas are probably watching. I felt his comments were ill-timed and in horribly poor taste. I was glad at least when the President of the Academy came out and made a big deal about thanking our military, as they all should. Normally I refuse to even watch the Academy Awards because of most actor's attitudes, but I wanted to see Jamie Foxx win.

 

He was on a dirt bike (blue & white - yamaha right?).

My buddy Rick was talking about planning a trip to Randsburg after he gets his toy hauler (Tuesday). I've been by there on the 395, but have no idea what the riding will be like. Like I said in my last post though, the scouts get my next weekend, time to go freeze our butts off up in Idyllwild.

BTW - I'll be posting pics today of our trip to Stoddard yesterday as I get a chance.