What I meant is the lift taking you to the actual peak seems to still be only open durring the winter for skiers.
Lol. Years ago while snowboarding at Breckenridge I decided to hike to the top from the highest lift to get some fresh tracks in the powder (now they have one that goes higer). It dropped me off at about 12,000 ft then had a 1/4 mile traverse and another 1/3 mile + hike to the top w/ 500-800 ft of vert, this after being there at elevation for 5 days. As soon as I started to go up hill all I could do is take 2-3 steps before I had to stop and catch my breath. After 20 min and only gaining 150 ft distance I gave up and boarded down. Until then I never had any fitness issues that trip.
MuniAddict - Each of the two mid-mountain lifts have about 1,000 ft of vert. Distance depends on the route down. It could prob be anywhere from 1/2 a mile to 3.
The best trails, as usual, are singletrack. They are marked by difficulty level. There is also wide fireroad, and actual roads that are pretty smooth (fun on a bike for fast coasting). I think they have over 100 miles of trail choices from the tops of the lifts, including connections to larger area trails.
you don’t want to ride up. it’s a waste of time an energy. There isn’t a spot of interesting uphill riding, it’s either too difficult to ride, or just plain boring. Int he summer the dust can get pretty deep, too, which means you are breathing dirt and pedalling extra hard just so the person behind you can breathe extra dirt.
Terry, no need to question the difficulty of the trails. I guarantee there will be sections you won’t be able to ride (STD comes to mind, assuming it’s still there. I’ve never seen a biker ride it, but then again 90% of them choose to either walk or go around. I’m not referring to wussy cross country boys either). It’s a mix of smooth dusty singletrack with extremely technical, but somewhat wide downhill where the terrain is a mix of large loose racks, embedded boulders, and slippery dust. Excellent place to get nasty tailbone injuries and destroy your break during falls, both of which happened aplenty at 2004 CMW, and this was to the best riders there.
The lifts are pretty fast, but the trails are short, so that’s no surprise. I doubt the MTB park will be all that fun for munis though. Tabletops are boring, and they won’t bother to make any particularly difficult skinnies for unicycles. Maybe they’ll have some rails up though…
Let me know the dates and I’ll try and make it. I’d LOVE to do these trails. As long as it doesn’t interfere with NAUCC, Unicon or RTL I “should” be able to make it.
I have a mild interest in this. It sounds fun. I will just give my two cents on a few things. I think it would be better to bump this after January 1st. People are busy with all sorts of stuff between Christmas and New Years, IMHO. Wait a week or so, and then bump again when stuff settles down. People will be more apt to discuss.
As far as picking a date, perhaps start looking at the weather records for July and see when the odds are that the temps will be the most favorable, and then go with a date that shows a record of mild temps over time. Not perfect, but just an idea.
Actually the whole riding season at Northstar is pretty nice. Cold in the mornings and warm to hot in the afternoons. They probably don’t open until late June at the earliest, and usually close at the end of September. It’s still a possibility for MUni Weekend as well, though I’d rather go someplace new if we can come up with a workable ride. Another idea is the Hole In The Ground trail, which we rode part of in 2006. Kris Holm and Beau rode the whole thing and Kris remarked that he thought it was the best trail he’s ridden in California. But best for Kris might kill a lot of average riders, so we have to figure out rides, or combinations of rides, that will work for the larger group.
And we’re going to do Downieville, so we may not want to do two “epic” rides in the same weekend…
Anyway, I’m all over a Northstar ride earlier in the season. I just have conflicts with RTL, NAUCC and Unicon.
Last summer Northstar opened the first weekend of July. I was thinking that weekend, but that’s the same time as NAUCC (July 5,6). I think the earlier the better, but I know often people don’t like to do big trips on back to back weekends. Doesn’t really matter to me though.
We could go to Mamouth
(map, voted best mtb resort in 2007), but I’d preffer to go to Northstar mainly because it’s closer for me. This year they are scheduled to open on June 21.