Boca/Stampede Riding

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Kendo
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Boca/Stampede Riding

Postby Kendo » Mon Jul 18, 2011 11:42 am

We made our first camping trip to Boca/Stampede this weekend! I still can't believe it is mid July and this is the first California camping trip we have made.

We rode Bear Valley Loop on Friday. Trail is in good shape, looks like the Diablo Wheelers have been up there this year cleaning things up. I will say though, the last quarter to half mile of the trail is inaccessible. I rode up and ran into severe overgrowth of manzanita, so much that you can't see any evidence of trail at all. We wound up bailing at the last road crossing and riding the half mile or so on the road back to the trailhead. The ledge that makes Grizzly Guy's butt pucker is effectively filled in, however, it has been replaced by a nice deep crevice from all the water runoff - we traded one puckery obstacle for another. :)

Saturday we rode the Pole Line, then the twisty trail down into Boca Spring Campground. Nothing really to report, it's all open and hasn't changed much from last year. Maybe a bit rockier in some sections, but that's about it. The tyrant at the Boca Spring campground ran us off. We had about 14 riders and we were parked by the bathroom, taking a break when he came over and said that we couldn't linger there or he would have to charge us for all our vehicles being parked in the campground. Uhm, what? Last I checked my goddamn taxes paid for all this land you yahoo, so why don't you take your little ass back to der vaterland and leave us the hell alone?? Can you tell, it pissed me off? He made some comment about the fact that we weren't camped there but we rode in to "use the facilities" and left a mess (referring to people that do this in general at that point) and didn't pay. That wasn't fair to the paying "customers". WTF ever dude, I don't think any of us pissed in his precious hole in the ground. We left.

Sunday we did a short jaunt thru Merrill Valley and Jammer Chair. All good up there too.

Over July 4th weekend, Wendy and I rode up to Verdi Peak, it was clear until the last 100 yard or so, where we encountered a drift. We were still able to make it to the lookout though, I would guess by now it's clear.

No pics, didn't take my camera. :(
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Re: Boca/Stampede Riding

Postby hellcat650 » Mon Jul 18, 2011 2:00 pm

Hey Kendo,
Do you guys set up camp where you can ride quads from camp?
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Re: Boca/Stampede Riding

Postby Kendo » Mon Jul 18, 2011 3:55 pm

hellcat650 wrote:Hey Kendo,
Do you guys set up camp where you can ride quads from camp?
Yeah, we camp right at the Henness Pass - Stampede Rd intersection. There's a dirt road off Henness Pass and several "free" spots off of it. As long as you have a campfire permit, the FS is OK with it. We had a nice conversation with the guy on Sunday. He basically just made sure we were all legal and permitted.
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Re: Boca/Stampede Riding

Postby EigerMike » Mon Jul 18, 2011 4:46 pm

nice to see your out riding!!! :D had to laugh at these ( rode the Pole Line) and then(makes Grizzly Guy's butt pucker ) :D
this needs to be the year you guys come up and ride ! :D
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Re: Boca/Stampede Riding

Postby hellcat650 » Tue Jul 19, 2011 2:27 pm

Kendo wrote:
hellcat650 wrote:Hey Kendo,
Do you guys set up camp where you can ride quads from camp?
Yeah, we camp right at the Henness Pass - Stampede Rd intersection. There's a dirt road off Henness Pass and several "free" spots off of it. As long as you have a campfire permit, the FS is OK with it. We had a nice conversation with the guy on Sunday. He basically just made sure we were all legal and permitted.
I know the spot. I will stop by and say i if i see your camp.
I was just up at Babiits lockout last fathers day and was comming back on the trail that hugs stampede lake on the north side when we came upon a looked gate that prevents contunuing east along the lake to the junction with Heness. When did they lock off the best part? That made a cool loop vs going back on heness pass. Dang FS. :evil:
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Re: Boca/Stampede Riding

Postby Kendo » Tue Jul 19, 2011 2:40 pm

EigerMike wrote:nice to see your out riding!!! :D had to laugh at these ( rode the Pole Line) and then(makes Grizzly Guy's butt pucker ) :D
this needs to be the year you guys come up and ride ! :D
Yes, that is a definite Mike. We have been talking about it way too long. We'll need to do a little research and see if there's a spot we can get the trailer in so we can stay for a couple of days.
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Re: Boca/Stampede Riding

Postby Kendo » Tue Jul 19, 2011 2:46 pm

hellcat650 wrote: I know the spot. I will stop by and say i if i see your camp.
I was just up at Babiits lockout last fathers day and was comming back on the trail that hugs stampede lake on the north side when we came upon a looked gate that prevents contunuing east along the lake to the junction with Heness. When did they lock off the best part? That made a cool loop vs going back on heness pass. Dang FS. :evil:
As full as the lake is right now, even if there was a trail open, it's probably under water. I'm racking my brain trying to figure out where that would be. Only thing I can think of is something that connects with the Prosser system, and I know you can't get there from the Boca trails, at least not that I know of.

There is a little road on the opposite side of Sardine Valley that parallels Henness Pass, and there's a gate at the end before you turn back on HP. That's the one that goes up to Merrill Valley and Jammer Chair. Gate is there, but it's not locked, you just have to close it behind you.
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Re: Boca/Stampede Riding

Postby GrizzlyGuy » Wed Jul 20, 2011 7:57 am

Dang Kendo, the next time I'm riding over by Boca Springs, I'll be sure to bring a bottle of Midol for the camp host! :roll:
hellcat650 wrote: I was just up at Babiits lockout last fathers day and was comming back on the trail that hugs stampede lake on the north side when we came upon a looked gate that prevents contunuing east along the lake to the junction with Heness. When did they lock off the best part? That made a cool loop vs going back on heness pass. Dang FS. :evil:
Kendo wrote:As full as the lake is right now, even if there was a trail open, it's probably under water. I'm racking my brain trying to figure out where that would be. Only thing I can think of is something that connects with the Prosser system, and I know you can't get there from the Boca trails, at least not that I know of.
I think Hellcat is talking about the one in blue on this map, the one along the north shore of Stampede that my mouse is pointing at:

Image

It takes you from Henness Pass road out by Kyburz Flat, through the woods and along the reservoir, then you pop back out on Henness Pass at Sardine Valley. I was on that last year and there were no locked gates, although they were logging in the area between Kyburz Flat and the west side of the reservoir.

FYI those trails in red to the west of Stampede are fun. Last year I was able to connect to them from that blue trail by crossing the creek at the west edge of the reservoir, but there is probably way too much water to do it now. You can still get to those from Prosser Hill trailhead or any of the spots where you can unload along 89. You ride to Sagehen Road (or unload there), go just a bit further north on the big dirt road, then hang a right to go straight across 89 and into that system:

Image
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Re: Boca/Stampede Riding

Postby hellcat650 » Wed Jul 20, 2011 11:00 am

Thats it GG, Thanks.
The locked gate was at the Henness Pass at Sardine Valley intersection.
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Re: Boca/Stampede Riding

Postby GusinCA » Thu Mar 15, 2012 2:27 pm

Hello all,

I'm coming up to visit from Southern California, with my Rhino. Is this a good area to explore some trails? Best trails to see if you only have one day? I plan on visitng the area around mid April. Too much snow still?

Thanksfor any and all advice.

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Re: Boca/Stampede Riding

Postby hellcat650 » Thu Mar 15, 2012 3:42 pm

Great place to ride and camp. alot of trails of various dergee of difficulty. I would say a at least a couple days to cover the area.
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Re: Boca/Stampede Riding

Postby GusinCA » Thu Mar 15, 2012 4:19 pm

thanks for the quick reply. Do you think there will be too much snow? Which trail would you suggest as the most scenic, interesting?

Could you give me exact(ish) directions if I'm coming from Sacramento?

Thanks,

Gus

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Re: Boca/Stampede Riding

Postby Ken » Thu Mar 15, 2012 8:07 pm

Snow. Once again....depends on how much we get...last year?? NO FREAKING WAY.. This year? Odds are good...but could change. It's PAST Truckee...so it gets a LOT less snow.
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Re: Boca/Stampede Riding

Postby GusinCA » Thu Mar 15, 2012 9:07 pm

I once spent 7 hours driving from Davis to Reno...
Hopefully it won't snow that much and by April I'll have these beautiful trails with that perfect depth of snow that's fun but not frustrating... :)

Any ideas on best trails or where to stage?

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Re: Boca/Stampede Riding

Postby GrizzlyGuy » Tue Mar 20, 2012 8:10 pm

GusinCA wrote:I once spent 7 hours driving from Davis to Reno...
Hopefully it won't snow that much and by April I'll have these beautiful trails with that perfect depth of snow that's fun but not frustrating... :)

Any ideas on best trails or where to stage?
April will be a little iffy given how much snow we got in this last storm. For staging, the place where Kendo camps is a good one as it gives you plenty of options in all directions. It is at the end of the paved road (black line) in the map below where it hits the dirt Henness Pass Road (purple line). See my mouse pointer in approximately the center:

Image

Here it is zoomed out a bit to give you an idea of how many trails and roads there are in the area:

Image

One or more of us have ridden every one of these except for the pink ones. Color code:

Black - Paved road
Purple - Dirt superhighway for getting from one part of the forest to another
Green - Almost like purple, only slightly worse.
Blue - Rough 2WD or easy 4WD
Red - 4WD trails
Yellow - Really tough 4x4 trails (unless you aren't a wimp like me, in which case they are easy)
Pink - Haven't been on these yet, they may or may not exist, I have them marked for future mapping.

Note that some of these will now be closed as TNF finally finished their route designation project.

P.S. - Other than the pink lines, those roads and trails are exactly where shown as the lines come from our saved GPS track logs collected over many years. :)
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