THE PORTAL HUB - Pinzgauers, Haflingers, Volvo 303s and more!

Some friends and I decided on a little light-duty 4-wheeling trip over Memorial Day weekend. With the heavy winter, there's still too much snow on any of California's high mountain trails. For example, they just plowed the road to Echo Lake a couple days before we arrived at our cabin at only 7,500 feet. With snow depth like this, you can imagine how impassable some of my favorite trails at 10,000+ feet are right now:



So the 8 of us piled into the Pinz and a couple of Samurais and headed down to the Barney-Riley trail, which is a much more manageable 5,500-7,000 feet trail with some nice natural hot springs at a remote spot on the Carson River.











A couple friends found out the hard way that steep trails and loose camping gear rapidly avalanche onto those who ride in the back of a Pinz:



But after reloading the vehicle, they found a way to keep stuff secure while also turning the Pinz into a 4-wheeled La-Z-Boy:



We made camp at a nice location on the river:





The main attraction for this trail is the hot springs just atop the ledge above a nice swimming hole in the river:





On our way back to civilization, we stopped by a patch of snow for a photo op:





...which quickly degraded into an epic snowball fight:







But we all made up and became friends again afterward and headed back to civilization together:



Here are a couple short videos we took of the Pinz playing in the snow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSSVpUAIzMU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSC_CGZVlD8

Great pix of your trip I lived at Tahoe for 16 years, many trips to the hot springs all while WW rafting. The rock work wasn't there last time I was ran the carson,there are 2 more hot springs just upriver,one on each side. The trail in was gated when I was there is it now open to the public ? I bought my pinzi in AZ can't wait to get it to Tahoe.

I grew up at Tahoe from the 60's through the 80's. I haven't heard of this trail till now- planning on taking my 712 down that way so I can!
Thanks for the picts!
Ed

I'm headed to Markleville (sp?) this weekend to do "The Death Ride".

We won't have any snow at 8,000' elevations I hope?

texas pinzgauer wrote:I'm headed to Markleville (sp?) this weekend to do "The Death Ride".

We won't have any snow at 8,000' elevations I hope?

No.

Are you doing the copper mountain triange?

The Copper Triangle ride wouldn't be worth the trouble (IMHO).

If I'm buying a plane ticket to do a bike ride, I want to get my money's worth. With 129 miles and 16,000' of climbing, this is a good dollars for pain exchange...plus there's an In N Out Burger in Reno!

After your ride don't forget to hit the Cutthroat saloon and Grover hot springs you will have earned it.

Thanks for the heads up / suggestions!

True, I live close enough to drive and not miss any work. So it's good for me.

We did sort of hijack this posting.

Those photos were really cool. I'm really envious. That must be so great having proximity to a region like that for off roading, camping, cycling, skiing etc.

I am going to Tahoe in september, can't take the pinzi cause my wife wants to take the horses. gotta love summers in Tahoe.