California Dreaming...and Riding. Ride #1

The View of the Forest Hill Bridge from the deck where I am staying.

The trail-head, a 1.5 mile ride from the house.

~ Half way down; the view of where I am headed (the American River Confluence) at the bottom of Stagecoach trail.

The Clementine Trail takes you back under the bridge.  You can see the Stagecoach trail to the left.

The view of the Clementine Dam.  A steep climb that keeps going.

From here, after a bit more climbing it is all down hill...until the 3.5 mile climb back to the house. :p

Good to be home in Sunny (yet not humid) California.  Thanks to Dave K. letting me borrow his case, I was able to bring my Hooligan on this trip, which will likely be the last several rides for this cracked frame that has served me so well.
Arrived Sunday Night (4th of July), put the bike together before going to bed, then woke up and went for a ride ~9am.
I am staying about 1.5 miles from the trail-head, which is the top of Stagecoach.  This is a great double track trail as it is rough, hard, rocky in spots, twisty and has a nice drop-off on the edge of the road to keep you from flying too fast down hill.  I also like that it is two miles all up or all down, with no breaks.  I ended up riding down, then meeting a guy at the bottom (Tom) who was starting his ride.  Turns out he was riding back up, and was cool about me joining him, so I turned around and back up I went, then down, then we hit what he called the Clementine Loop that seemed to be a few trails joined together.  It was a beautiful ride along a river that climbed high up over a dam and just kept going up with some paved road connecting the trail.  Some of the single track was very tight and rocky with a steep ledge leaving you little room for error, but that adds to the fun.  The reward for all the climbing came in the form of a bombing, sometimes twisty rocky downhill that had several jumps thrown in, some high berms and a lot of smiles.  My ride ended with an almost  noon time ride back up Stagecoach in full sun, and it was hot.  Still, I had plenty of water and new the ride was almost over, so I gave it all I had and arrived at the in-laws just in time to jump into their neighbors pool.
So after getting to the trail head the ride was:

Stole this map from Steve's Mountain bike Page.  Thanks Steve!

Down Stagecoach
Up Stagecoach
Down Stagecoach
Lake Clementine Trail
Fuel Break Trail
Culvert Trail
Clementine Trail
Up Stagecoach and back home (another 1.5 miles up)
Total ~20 miles
Part of the ride can be seen on the map below.  Missing is the two trips up and two trips down Stagecoach...I plan on riding the entire colored route for one of my upcoming rides.