Pino Grande

On Sunday. Stuart, Gary and I did a great loop ride from near Stumpy Meadows Reservoir. It took us south from Wentworth Springs Road towards Placerville and Camino around an huge old lumber mill area named Pino Grande. We passed southwest of the Carmen Cow Camp area. About half of the ride was on Sierra Pacific Industries roads and the rest was on Forest Service roads. We saw the pylon for the old cable way that ran across the south fork of the American River to Camino. There was plenty of water on the south part of the trail and we crossed a few streams that fed down into slab creek and the south fork.

It was about a 26 mile ride in total. The footing was beautiful and I rode Annie in just her front Renegade boots without any issues. All the road grades were very mild, but there were 3 or 4 short hills to gallop up.

We also found a good new route into the SPI roads (Mosquito or Onion Valley road, I think) from Wentworth Springs by following the edge of the clear cut that we usually walk through. That route is a small road that was used to bring the equipment around to do the cutting and prevents runoff from the clearcut area.

Once I get the GPS track from Stuart I'll see if I can post a map.