Update: California MUni Weekend changes and details!

For all who are interested:

Downieville is pretty long for a friday ride, and too early in the morning for me to go with the group. If you’d like to save your legs for Saturday/Sunday, or can’t make the D-ville ride time, or just don’t wanna muni on Friday, then instead of not riding you should join myself and whichever else riders decide to join me in a fatty skatepark session at Mira Loma Skatepark(The site description is poor, it doesn’t mention how great for uni’ing this place is.)

If you’re interested PM/Email me for more info ASAP. It already looks like a few riders are optiong towards this ride for Friday. It’s gonna be madd fun too!!! Hope to see you there!!!

Late registration:
If you’re arriving on Thursday (early enough), come to Cabin 1 between 6:00 and 7:00. See my previous post for a link.

PLEASE NOTE:
THERE IS A BIG FIRE BURNING IN THE AREA OF BASSETS, WHICH MAY MAKE A DOWNIEVILLE RIDE UNADVISABLE OR IMPOSSIBLE. I WILL KNOW MORE LATER TODAY BUT IF YOU HAVEN’T HEARD ANYTHING BY THURS. NIGHT GIVE ME A CALL. AREA 916. REST OF # 267-8809 (there I go giving out the # online…) A possible alternative ride will be Mr. Toads Wild Ride, but getting out the info could be a problem…

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/506/
This isn’t looking good. Hwy 49 is closed for a portion East of Gold Lake Rd.

Let’s hope the situation improves by tomorrow.

The fire is east of our trails and the winds are from the NorthWest. I don’t think we’d be in danger if only we can get to the trailhead. That looks impossible at this point due to road closures.

What bad luck. But anyway, Mr Toad’s is a great alternative - less driving around too. See you guys up there - we’ll be there around 11 tonight.

—Nathan

OH, @#@$%$#*!!:frowning:

For road closure info, set in your cell phone, Caltrans at 1-800-427-7623 and check it as ya’all are driving up, that’s me included.

Also, for anyone reading this and not on the road yet, I might suggest that you call someone who as access to a computer as you get closer to the area and have them check this thread for the latest info from JOhn. Though, that might only be until 3:00 pm when he’s on the road. Anyway, just a thought.

I hate to say, it, would it be an alternative to change switch Tahoe Rim trail to Friday and Downieville to Sunday? Maybe the fire in the area near Downieville will be out and smoke will be gone, :roll_eyes:

Have a safe drive everyone!

Cheers.

Peter Kittle sent me this link with some information on the fire:
http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060921/NEWS10/609210322

This is the way big fires work: YOU DON’T KNOW WHICH DIRECTIONS THEY, OR THE SMOKE, WILL SPREAD. Given the road closures, which would keep us from getting to Packer Saddle anyway, it would be an extremely bad idea to bring several dozen out-of-towners into the area. BUMMER! But the Downieville Trail won’t go away, it’l still be there next time. Though there is a slight possibility we might be able to do the ride on Sunday, it’s only very slight. As of last night the fire was only 20% contained, and I won’t bring a huge group of people into the area unless it’s out. We’ll all be breathing hard enough as it is; we don’t need smoke to make it more interesting.

I was smelling smoke yesterday as I did my one training ride for MUni Weekend. That was in Auburn. Not sure where the smoke was from, but I could literally smell it!

TOMORROW’S (FRIDAY) RIDE WILL BE THE TAHOE RIM TRAIL. Directions and schedule are already made, just switch the Sunday ride to Friday. Please be outside the Ponderosa Ranch parking lot tomorrow morning before 9:00. From there we will squeeze into a smaller number of vehicles and head up to the trailhead. Remember to bring lunch! This ride is long, but less grueling than Downieville.

For Sunday, Lloyd and I (and Nathan) agree that Mr. Toads Wild Ride will be a great alternative. It’s on the south end of Lake Tahoe. It has a lot in common with Downieville in terms of long technical downhill, long ride, plus it adds about 1700’ of uphill! Prepare for a long hike. Basic information is here:


NOTE: That page was posted by Brett Bymaster way back in 1999 or so, so expect it to be outdated! The map links don’t work, unless I get updates for them by the time you read this. I’ll try to post details on the web site, but it may be more a handing out of maps on Friday and Saturday.

So see you all at the Ponderosa Ranch tomorrow morning at 9:00!

They’re now projecting 9/23/06 at 6:00 AM as a containment date/time (57% contained now).

If the weather stays favorable it might still be feasible to do Downieville on Sunday.

Thanks for that Tom. In the meantime, I’ve updated the MUni Weekend web site with the tentative Mr. Toads Wild Ride for Sunday:
http://www.unicycling.com/muni/2006/sunday.htm

We’ll keep our fingers crossed on Downieville, but it’s generally a bad idea to go into a fire area unless the thing is 100% out. Please check the new pages, directions and schedules to see what’s up, especially for tomorrow.

Also, please pass the word to your fellow MUni Weekend attendees in case they don’t see this or get the emails I sent out! I only sent them to people who preregistered and sent me their email addresses.

Wow, lot’s of changes!!!

Hit me up if you want to ride the skatepark tomorrow. I can’t make the 9:00am start time, so this is a great alternative. If enough people show up, theres a great nearby muni ride about 4miles up and down. If you’re interested in either, PM or email me ASAP.