Creating a Future Great Ride

Trailwork days are not all created equal. Some are laborious and sweaty. And some are laborious, sweaty and incredibly rewarding. The latter aptly describes Saturday's trail building on the Donner Lake Rim Trail. After riding Hole-in-the-Ground Saturday and camping, we worked away on a delicious piece of Sierra singletrack from near Hole-in-the-Ground towards Summit Lake. We worked a multi-use section that will end up creating the next great local high country ride.

Our efforts involved some very interesting rock work, which is always exhausting but absolutely fascinating. For folks like me who dig a technical trail, this is your chance to make a section as fun and challenging as you want. You can lay out the trail exactly as you see fit given the available layout and collection of rocks. It combines the high of Legos with the satisfaction of building something that will make you shout "yeeehaaaw".

Hole-in-the-Ground and Snow

An annual frustration is trying to determine how much snow is still left on a higher elevation trail before I try to ride it. This was particularly important this week as I have planned a group BONC/FATRAC ride for Hole-in-the-Ground Trail near Donner Summit. I heard so many conflicting reports that I decided, screw it... I would go see for myself. So I did a very fun solo ride on HITG on Tuesday 7/18.

The verdict? I found some small patches of snow, but 99% of the trail completely rideable. In fact, it is primo right now, as the hordes have not yet beaten it to a dusty, rutted mess. So I hope you can join us for this event.

FYI, I try to keep track of snow conditions on the BONC trail guide webpage.

Donner Lake Rim Trail in Google Maps

As you may know, I work for Google on the Google Earth product. Recently, Google enable new technology which allows you to view the same geographic information (KML files) in both Google Earth and Google Maps.

This is where my job becomes cool. I get to use my professional expertise to promote outstanding trail projects like the Donner Lake Rim Trail. So I created an online map of this new trail that you can view in both Earth and Maps:

• Google Earth version (requires this free software)
• Google Maps version