YFO 2017 Yosemite Group Ride Planning Thread

Thought starting a thread where we can do some ride planning for on the way out to Yosemite and/or back. Some members have expressed interest in linking up for some group riding. PM's with friends work, but we prolly also have some newer members in here as well. Since we have folks coming from many locations and different time schedules, maybe post up your plans in this thread and I can list them in one place here kind of like the list of attendees in Tyler's thread. Any plans that look close enough maybe those folks could reach out to each other.

My plans are very tentative and flexible at this point but I'm likely gonna have to shoot out and back near IBA style due to time constraints.

NTXFJR - Head out from DFW area Thursday June 1. DFW, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, Bakersfield, arrive Mariposa sometime Friday. Wouldn't mind taking a short divert out of Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon for a bit.

Good idea. Seeing other's plans and routes might help me get off the fence about going.

You may want to mention this thread on the original YFO 2017 - Yosemite and Beyond thread. I expect there are many that are following that thread.

Thanks -Glen

NTXFJR said:

Thought starting a thread where we can do some ride planning for on the way out to Yosemite and/or back. Some members have expressed interest in linking up for some group riding. PM's with friends work, but we prolly also have some newer members in here as well. Since we have folks coming from many locations and different time schedules, maybe post up your plans in this thread and I can list them in one place here kind of like the list of attendees in Tyler's thread.
My plans are very tentative and flexible at this point but I'm likely gonna have to shoot out and back near IBA style due to time constraints.

NTXFJR - Head out from DFW area Thursday June 1. DFW, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, Bakersfield, arrive Mariposa sometime Friday. Wouldn't mind taking a short divert out of Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon for a bit.

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Suggest approaching Yosemite by the back door, Craig. No good reason to see any part of the Central Valley--maybe Bakersfield especially--on your way from Texas, IMO. I won't suggest a whole route, but if you can find your way to US 395, that runs N-S along the eastern side of the Sierra Nevadas. WAY more interesting road than you'll find in the hot middle part of Cali. At Lee Vining, CA 120 (

) climbs up and right through Yosemite. You make Mariposa from there on CA 140 right out of the park. I'm sure it's shorter, too. You'll have to pay the park entrance fee, but I believe that covers you for a week. Of course, when you reach full maturity, like so many of us, it's free, but you must be patient, grasshopper.

SacramentoMike said:

NTXFJR said:

Thought starting a thread where we can do some ride planning for on the way out to Yosemite and/or back. Some members have expressed interest in linking up for some group riding. PM's with friends work, but we prolly also have some newer members in here as well. Since we have folks coming from many locations and different time schedules, maybe post up your plans in this thread and I can list them in one place here kind of like the list of attendees in Tyler's thread.
My plans are very tentative and flexible at this point but I'm likely gonna have to shoot out and back near IBA style due to time constraints.

NTXFJR - Head out from DFW area Thursday June 1. DFW, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, Bakersfield, arrive Mariposa sometime Friday. Wouldn't mind taking a short divert out of Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon for a bit.

Click to expand...

Suggest approaching Yosemite by the back door, Craig. No good reason to see any part of the Central Valley--maybe Bakersfield especially--on your way from Texas, IMO. I won't suggest a whole route, but if you can find your way to US 395, that runs N-S along the eastern side of the Sierra Nevadas. WAY more interesting road than you'll find in the hot middle part of Cali. At Lee Vining, CA 120 (

Click to expand...

Thanks Mike. I've been eyeing that route too. Some have said that it may not be cleared of snow pack by June 1st? I'd much prefer to go that way and I think your right it's something around 150 mi shorter iirc. What are the chances of being let in at 3 am?

Good addition to the YFO thingie.

Our routes for days Saturday Sunday & Monday as we head out to YFO:

https://www.google.com/maps/@36.5431836,-103.1313146,5z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!6m1!1s1Oz-RIo-eW5FNeV3PEJmtxQAH7K8

Tuesday and Wednesday involve a leg to southern Az to visit family and then it's into YFO on Thursday through Tonopah and Yosemite.

Probably too meandering a schedule for the typical ride out but meeting up with fellow FJRers along the way would be cool

NTXFJR said:

Thanks Mike. I've been eyeing that route too. Some have said that it may not be cleared of snow pack by June 1st? I'd much prefer to go that way and I think your right it's something around 150 mi shorter iirc. What are the chances of being let in at 3 am?

Click to expand...

I think 120 should be open by then (there are other trans-Sierra roads that are more likely to still be closed), but it'll be easy to find out before you commit to a route--phone call to Caltrans or the 'net. Also easy to check with the park about 24-hour access. Never tried arriving at 3 a.m. myself. I'll try to find out and post again.

I have 7 States west of the Mississippi that I have not ridden in. Washington and North Dakota are prob not achievable on this trip. But maybe Kansas, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona are reachable on this trip depending on if I go South and make a loop of it. I definitely would like to make this a camping trip. 700 miles per day on the way out means 3 days

I would not want to ride any further than that on a day when I need to set up for camp. It sucks getting in that late. BUT the first 1000 miles are gonna suck no matter what, so maybe riding a big chunk would be good.

All of this planning may be for naught if we have any more snow days. We already took 2 this year. Right now we are scheduled to get out of school on the 30th. Back to Back Iron Butts are not in my desired future. I would take the last day off which would put my last day of the year at May 26th. I would have to skip the last 2 days as of right now. That might not go over very well. YUCK.

It appears that my plans are that I have no concrete plans.

Back to the regular scheduled program

Hopefully 120 will be open by then (I'm sure we will post up if not) however if you are coming in via the back door my I suggest you include this section of Hwy 120 on your way in or out if you can. One of my favorite roads in the USofA for just the fun factor on a bike.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Lee+Vining,+CA/37.8991804,-118.7662803/Benton+Hot+Springs,+California/@37.8709096,-119.1039722,10z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m15!4m14!1m5!1m1!1s0x80963656dc3b47d9:0xd033576091571beb!2m2!1d-119.119943!2d37.957592!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x80bdf07f577dcd7b:0xd0e7ca9b6f12e740!2m2!1d-118.527985!2d37.800938!3e0?hl=en

NTXFJR said:

Thought starting a thread where we can do some ride planning for on the way out to Yosemite and/or back. Some members have expressed interest in linking up for some group riding. PM's with friends work, but we prolly also have some newer members in here as well. Since we have folks coming from many locations and different time schedules, maybe post up your plans in this thread and I can list them in one place here kind of like the list of attendees in Tyler's thread. Any plans that look close enough maybe those folks could reach out to each other.
My plans are very tentative and flexible at this point but I'm likely gonna have to shoot out and back near IBA style due to time constraints.

NTXFJR - Head out from DFW area Thursday June 1. DFW, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, Bakersfield, arrive Mariposa sometime Friday. Wouldn't mind taking a short divert out of Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon for a bit.

Click to expand...

Please check your dates. If you are leaving DFW Thursday June 1 and YFO BEGINS Thursday June 1 your FJR will have to be much faster than mine.

Bug/Mike: The roads that connects 120 to 140 - Googlemaps says its Big Oak Portal Road, then a right on El Porto Road - are these roads paved, and if so, would they be passable?

If I'm coming from the general direction of Death Valley, then I could just take 395 to 120 to 140 straight into Mariposa and the lodge.

No?

Bugnatr said:

Hopefully 120 will be open by then (I'm sure we will post up if not) however if you are coming in via the back door my I suggest you include this section of Hwy 120 on your way in or out if you can. One of my favorite roads in the USofA for just the fun factor on a bike.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Lee+Vining,+CA/37.8991804,-118.7662803/Benton+Hot+Springs,+California/@37.8709096,-119.1039722,10z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m15!4m14!1m5!1m1!1s0x80963656dc3b47d9:0xd033576091571beb!2m2!1d-119.119943!2d37.957592!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x80bdf07f577dcd7b:0xd0e7ca9b6f12e740!2m2!1d-118.527985!2d37.800938!3e0?hl=en

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That is definitely a great stretch of road Dougie - thanks to your suggestion I've gone that way twice now on trips towards the Rockies so would be a great route for people visiting Yosemite both coming and going.....

Joey, The roads look paved on Google Images. BUT passable due to snow could be another story.

On the trip that I took with my son in the truck 2 summers ago, we went from Death Valley to Yosemite that exact way. This was late July or early August though. I highly recommend it. It was awesome in the truck, cannot imagine how spectacular it would have been on the bike. Or how it WILL be.

Those roads are definitely paved and the scenery is beautiful (120 marginally more so IMO). You'll get a chance to try them both out of Mariposa. They aren't the highest around, so both should definitely be open by June. Of course, in recent years, with our longstanding draught, they've both been closed off once or twice by fires, but this year, unlikely. In fact, right now, they're both closed due to rockslides thanks to all the torrential rain and mud--and deep snow--probably not a concern for June though. Just the usual stuff, like the federal government closing down.

As to Craig's question about entry into the park in the middle of the night, the entry gates are open 24 hours a day. If no one is in the booth, you're supposed to pay when you leave the park, but in his case, since he'd be riding in and out in the night, wouldn't have to pay on that pass at all. Still, at some point, everybody will want to go inside the park to sightsee, and pay then. You'll get a receipt, which you have to show as you leave, to protect them from people sneaking in at 3 a.m., like Craig.

As I thought, once you pay, your pass is good for 7 days of in-and-out. But thinking about Craig's question it struck me that the idea of coming into the park from the east by 120 at 3 in the morning has a flaw. It's dark at 3 in the morning! Aside from safety issues, like dark twisty mountain roads and deer, think of all the gorgeous scenery you'd be passing by. Just something to think about.

I hate to say it, but I think it's unlikely that Hwy 120 through Yosemite N.P. (Tioga Pass) will be open by June 1. The road elevation summit of Tioga is above 9,600 ft., and IIRC, Sonora Pass (108) is 9,225 ft. (I have all the Calif. summit elevations somewhere, but have misplaced the list.)

When I lived in Tahoe and regularly did late spring ski mountaineering (backcountry snow on avalanche prone pitches is consolidated then), we tried to hit the pass summits and other road accessible stashes for one day adventures as soon as the roads opened. We started around Tahoe, Hwy. 88 and worked south (where the elevations are higher) as the days warmed. For the Bridgeport area and south (e.g., Sonora Pass, Virginia Lakes and Mt. Dana), that was typically mid-May to early June (give or take, depending on how heavy a snow season we'd had). Without a doubt, this is already a BIG SNOW year.

For perspective, Sugar Bowl is on Hwy. 40 (~ 2 - 3 miles south of I-80), with a summit elevation of 8,383 ft. Today, they're reporting that they've already received 446 inches (~ 37 ft.)* of snowfall this season at that elevation. Very much of it has been wet "Sierra Cement", with rain/snow levels earlier being above 8,000 ft. (but never above 9,000 ft, so far as I'm aware). An epic year. But Tioga and Sonora passes at their elevations? Or Lassen N.P. north of Quincy on Hwy. 89? From a lot of years in the Sierras paying attention to snowfall and snow pack for skiing and spring riding purposes, my bet is against those three being open before mid June, maybe even approaching July 1 this year.

I-80, I-50, Hwy. 395 and Hwy. 88 (Carson Pass) are kept open year round, except for temporary storm related closures. Monitor Pass (89) should be open. Ebbetts Pass (4) should be open, but that's a closer call. Then there are the southern routes into the state, too.

Sorry to be the naysayer, because I, too, was hoping to ride 108, 120 and 89 through Lassen during this cluster-feck with other FJRs. (I do plan to ride as far east on Tioga from the cluster base in Mariposa as is open.) But if I were coming from the east, I'd plan an alternate all-season route across the Sierras to get to Mariposa in case the preferred route is still obstructed with cold white stuff.

FWIW, it's snowing here at 3,000 ft. as I write this, too.

* edited to update ytd todals at end of day

Don't listen to Rich the skibum...yet. It's a long way before June and you won't need to worry about snow conditions until mid May. If it is closed we can find plenty of good routes over the passes near Lake Tahoe.The roads near Tahoe and the western side of the Sierra's are all worth the ride to Yosemite.

Still about five months to go so let's not jump the gun on closed passes just yet, m'kay?

Signed,

The Eternal Optimist

So I'm not going to YFO the same way I'm coming home. I'm going to take a more southern route one way, and a more northern route home. Now - I'm compiling a list of the stuff I want to see (each way). Then I will try to figure out how long it will take me to see those things. Then I will be ready to discuss routing, buddy ride sharing, etc.

Almost 5 months out - how the hell am I going to stay focused until then.....

Tioga Pass past opening dates:

https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/tiogaopen.htm

Not to be a naysayer with 5 months left, but I would plan another route, LOTS of snow there now, most since 2010.

Redfish Hunter said:

NTXFJR said:

Thought starting a thread where we can do some ride planning for on the way out to Yosemite and/or back. Some members have expressed interest in linking up for some group riding. PM's with friends work, but we prolly also have some newer members in here as well. Since we have folks coming from many locations and different time schedules, maybe post up your plans in this thread and I can list them in one place here kind of like the list of attendees in Tyler's thread. Any plans that look close enough maybe those folks could reach out to each other.
My plans are very tentative and flexible at this point but I'm likely gonna have to shoot out and back near IBA style due to time constraints.

NTXFJR - Head out from DFW area Thursday June 1. DFW, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, Bakersfield, arrive Mariposa sometime Friday. Wouldn't mind taking a short divert out of Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon for a bit.

Click to expand...

Please check your dates. If you are leaving DFW Thursday June 1 and YFO BEGINS Thursday June 1 your FJR will have to be much faster than mine.

Click to expand...

Well, my bike does have the fastest color after all..... And besides that, hwy 120 will have a better chance of being open.