RR: Oat Hill Mine Road...WOW!!!

Being in the wine industry, I rarely ever get to go to wine country for relaxation. Earlier this week, I was finally able to go on my own time.

I've heard of Oat Hill Mine Road, and read good reports about it on the web sites of Peter Fagerlin and mtbBill. The trail head is located in the northern part of Napa Valley, in the town of Calistoga (as in the water). So I decided to take my bike with me this time.

I'll cut to the chase...this is, by far, one of the most fun trails I have ever been on!:bang: If you are ever in this area, and have a bike with you, it is a "must do", and I rarely use that term for trails. It has a little bit of everything, but is not for beginners, as you will see. You could ride any type of bike you wanted, just as you could on any trail, but I would recommend something with 5" or 6" plus of travel.

This is the trail head. There are a couple of faded signs that say "No Parking", but another biker coming down the trail said that it was O.K. to park there. He was parked there, so I did the same. There is a house literally right at the trail head, so although I don't know for sure, I think it was put there just to give the tenant room to park.


Towards the beginning of the trail, this is your view straight ahead (not technical at all).......


And this is the view to your left (handlebar shot for you all know who)


There are many off-shoots, either deer trails, or ones people have cut, so just keep on the main trail and you'll be o.k. You can see here that it starts getting rocky (a preview of things to come). There are lines around it, but going over the rocks is part of the fun to me.....at least on the downhill!


This would make a good Christmas tree if you were to put it in the corner.


The terrain, grade, and trees reminded me of Santiago Truck Trail, Whiting, and Marshall Canyon all mixed together. But when I turned this corner, the leaves really made me speachless!!!


Yes, if you look closely, there is an easy way up this (to the right), but I don't think that was part of the original trail. So, I climbed right up the middle. There is a lot of this on the trail, and it can go for a bit, and I'm not the strongest climber, so I was pretty proud of myself!


I was riding in a canopy for a while, and I couldn't really see down the side of the mountain. All of a sudden, there was a break, with a breathtaking view. A small vineyard in Calistoga is in the foreground, and I'm looking towards St. Helena.


This was originally a wagon trail, and you can see wagon wheel markings on the left of the trail. This type of terrain went on for a while, and I had to eventually hike-a-bike a bit. As I said, not the strongest of climber. But many on this board could climb it.


I should have taken a pic of this when I first saw it. The tree is sitting, literally, right on the edge of a 60'-100' cliff. It was if the roots were scared of heights, cuz they weren't visible, so they must have growing away from the cliff!


This was a clearing getting closer to the "top". I followed the main trail to the right. I found out after the fact that if you were to head left here, there is another trail that has some small jumps and drops.


At this point, it's doable, but you need to be on your game, cuz it only gets rockier. And that's fine, cuz that means the DH is even more fun!


While most are familiar with Mt. Saint Helens, Mount St. Helena (hence the nearby town's name) is a dormant volcano. Here, you can really start to see the lava formations.


In the foreground, you see one of the areas you can "rest". Keep looking, and you see how rocky it is, and it stays like that for a while.


This is China Camp. It is 5 miles up the road from where you started. Most people turn around here. If you went left, it's a hiking trail that is unmaintained. I went right.


A few of the caves at China Camp.


I couldn't get a signal at the bottom, so I really don't know where I'm looking. If I had to guess, I'd say looking towards Howell Mountain.


After China Camp, the trail starts to roll a bit; good change from the straight up. I rode another 2 miles, give or take, and decided to turn around here. It was getting really windy as a storm was starting to come in, and here, I would guess the temp was in the 30s, compared to 52 when I started.


When going downhill from China Camp, I leaned that, momentum is really your friend. Those rockgardens want to grab your front tire. so it teaches you to really look ahead and maintain your speed and jump over sections so you don't slow down. After descending the lava fields, those rocks from earlier were Uber fun to plow through on the Nomad.

All in all, with my stopping to take pics and my slow butt up the hill, I'd say it was 3hrs round trip. As I said before...one of the most fun trails I have ever been on. If you're not a beginner, then this needs to be put on your list of must do trails!!! Gosh, I wish I had a helmet cam.

I'm heading back up there this weekend, so if anybody is going to be in that area Feel free to shoot me a PM; the more the merrier:bang:!

 

Sorry about that...fixed the pics!

 

Looks like fun, how long did it take you to get there?

 

Nice RR! Thanks

Mott

 

7hrs. I don't enjoy the drive to get there, but I've done it enough times to where I just deal with it.

 

Thanks for this project_d. My parents live in the bay area, so this is only a few hours from them. I should be able to hit this trail in the next year or so. Good stuff mang.

 

Great RR...

...I've got family up in that area too...I'll have to hit that!

 

Yep nice area...grew up near there. Been up it many times in a jeep, before my riding days. It is a trip, you used to be able to see the old wagon wheel ruts in the stone...that took a few trips....can you still see them?
:steppie:

 

that place looks sweet, thanks for the pix and rr dan!

 

Yeah, this looks like one of those ruts.....

 

Right on! I was very pleasantly surprised to find that trail was one of the better trails I'd ever ridden anywhere. It's nice to be in posh wind country and find some serious trails like that. So much fun!!!

 

very cool, I must go...!!!!!!!

 

thanks for the RR... I will be up there in the next few months... will definitely hit that up.

 

that is a great RR and a great place to explore

 

WOW! that trail looked A+. nice RR

 

Excellent RR. If I'm ever going through that area I'll have to hit that one up. Thanks,again.

 

Excellent job, Grasshopper...

Dan, haven't seen you around much lately... miss riding with you! This was an excellent adventure and thanks for sharing... thought about you this last weekend when we did the Cannell Trail & Just Outstanding.... you have to promise me that you'll do these as well!

Are you coming to the next Newbie ride at chino Hills on the 20th?

C-ya...

 

Here is a old video from Pete's site...down near the bottom. The quality is not nearly as good as his new high def stuff but still watchable.

Dean

 

I love that trail. It has been too long since I was last up there. I have improved quite a bit in the technical department since I was last there so I'm interested to see how I would fair now. I love the way the beat down just gets more and more the further up you go. The last 1/4 mile or so up to China Camp is just a techno beat down. I also thought it was really cool seeing the grooves in the rocks created by the ore-laiden wagoon wheels from back in "the day"

 

It's looking dicey right now. I might have to go back up to Napa that weekend. Which wouldn't be too bad, cuz I could hit this up again!!!