Forest roads/routes/lakes/camping/off roading

I've recently moved to Colorado. Anyone on here who would be willing to share similar secret spots in Colorado would be most appreciated!!

 

I went to CU Boulder and lived in the area for a while- many options close by. Gold hill and the Nederland area outside of Boulder are pretty cool and close for camping or generally dirtbagging it. We used to also go up to Steamboat Springs area to camp, mountain bike and hang at Strawberry Springs. The front range is awesome.. Enjoy

 

I would be very surprised if Laurel Lakes road is passable by Memorial Day. The Sierra's received a little more than 200% average snowfall this winter.

 

Has anyone been up to the Plumas NF area lately? I'm thinking of going camping somewhere near the Feather River over memorial weekend. Either Cleghorn bar, Staggs Point, Poker Flat,etc... Can anyone report on the conditions right now (fallen trees, deep snow, deep water crossing, etc)?

I may drive up there for the day this weekend to check the conditions... I've never been here so i'm not sure what to expect. It looks like a pretty mellow area mostly (from what i've read) but this winter may have really messed up the trails.

 

I live in in the Lassen NF area, not too far from the Plumas/Lassen border. The roads are severely rutted out and there is still a ton of snow on the ground. We are supposed to have a week of 70's/80's so that will knock the snow down. It may be okay for Memorial Day weekend, just check with the local forest ranger.

 

I was planning a 3 night hike this year like I usually do. My son just turned 14 so we had been prepping for him to go. Then I bought my 17 Taco OR. So that has really changed our possibilities.

I'm thinking of maybe going on a 3 day off road trip with my son. Camping along the trail in a different spot each night. This would likely be the end of Summer. I live in the 209 and would like to head up to the Sierra's to do this, well wherever actually just don't want to spend and entire day driving on pavement to get there. Looking for fun off road trails, nothing crazy.

Any ideas for us? We obviously will not be "blowing up the spot" or bringing hordes of people. Just wanna take the kid out. So any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

$23 Guide to California Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails (FunTreks Guidebooks)

https://www.amazon.com/Guide-California-Backroads-4-Wheel-Trails/dp/1934838071

Or

https://trackandtrailpublications.com/publications/hs1/

Both are legitimate

 

Awesome. Thanks!

 

Agreed, I am going to pick both of these up as well. Thanks for the tip

 

That's cool. I've been using a DeLorme Gazetteer and it's not terrible, but I've found some inaccuracies already. The errors that concern me are the ones where they list a trail or road as public, but it's actually reverted back to the land owner. I really don't need to meet some pissed off dope growers, and I doubt they would give a shit about my explanation that I'm just out exploring with an outdated map.

Ima pick up that first one, I think.

 

how was it?

 

I didn't make it that far up the road since I heard from someone at our campground that there was still a lot of snow at Little Grass Valley Reservoir (Cleghorn Bar is not far from there)... Instead I just camped at Sly Creek Res for the night and explored the area. I drove down to the Race Track Point to check out the river (had no idea that this trail was mainly for ATVs/Side-by-Sides until now). The trail was REALLY overgrown and scratched the shit outta my 4runner, but it was still fun. There's a few spots where fallen trees were partially blocking the trail but I was able to squeeze by/over with some spotting. The trail was in decent shape up top until i got further into the valley... then it got much more rutted and rocky, but I was able to get through.

It probably wasn't the smartest thing to go down there by myself without being familiar with the trails (although i had maps of the area). Next time i think i will keep going up Quincy-La Porte road to Cleghorn, but hopefully someone can report on the area before then... I really want to camp/explore that area more this summer.

 

you have a track you can share with me? So I can double check elevations, I have been on a lot of the roads out there and even some of the atv roads because they are fun. going to visit next month, just getting all my data together.

 

Also I think I would hike cleghorn before the drop once it first opens (drop starts just after the exposed on both sides ledge portion near the top). with the storms we got it could be bad and it gets steep and narrow going down. would not want to even attempt a reversal after a certain point.

 

Here's the track i took

Edit: I stayed right/straight at the bottom of the valley and didn't go left since there was private/no trespassing signs at the bottom going up the river.

Good to know! That's probably a good idea...

 

Top of this trail was about 4,000 ft and did not see a single patch of snow... bottom of the valley is at about 2,000ft. It sounds like most of the snow is around 6,000.

 

need to make it public.

 

Fixed

 

Windy Point and Usal are now open. Sherwood Road is still closed at mm 25 for a slide.

I realize most people on this thread aren't that far north but what the hell...

 

naw good info