Day Trip - Up & Down Signal Peak Trail, CA

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JCWages

JCWages

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Adapted from my post on our Colorado/Canyon forum. Shayn is an OB member I believe.

Shayn, his dad, Dean, and I hit up Signal Peak Trail today. GPX Track for GAIA or other GPS app. For those familiar with the trail, we ran it clockwise.

I was pretty beat after a whirlwind trip to Mammoth Lakes and not getting home until midnight last night. I didn't want to back out and look like a flake after previously saying I'd go so I unloaded the truck, washed the bugs off the windshield, threw some off-road gear in the back seat and off I went.



I met up with Shayn and Dean at the Eagle Lakes Road exit and we headed off to the trailhead where we proceeded to air down and talk mods for a bit. For some reason I thought his truck was a long bed.... Instead, he has a white short bed crew cab SLE Canyon model just like mine. He was smart and removed his rack and RTT before this trip.

So off we go looking like twins. lol I tagged my Tyger step bar (not a true slider) on the driver's side going over the very first obstacle and thought well, this is going to be fun, what am I going to break on this run?


The first section was pretty mild. The trail was essentially rock cobbles for much of the way.




The trail started to get more narrow and steep.


And then...... THE rocks


I saw these rocks on a couple of Youtube videos and their positioning and size makes them difficult to get around without damaging the vehicle or without a lot of armor. What you can't see in this photo is a big boulder on his passenger side which restricts your angle of attack. Dean jumped out and started moving some of the smaller rocks around for us then spotted for Shayn. With a couple of tries and a bit of sliding his Canyon made it through just fine. I'll tell ya, after seeing his truck slide around on this big rock I feared for the worst. With some great spotting I got up on the rock fairly quickly but getting over the rock without a front locker proved tough. I had to use some good old fashioned momentum to get over the top which isn't easy when starting off perched on the rock with an auto rear locker! I proceeded to slide towards the passenger side just enough to kiss the other boulder with my Tyger step bar. Lost some paint but no metal damage. #win


Then another "WTF am I supposed to do here" moment. I just watched Shayn go through but I was still at a loss. Dean got me through it without much trouble though. I did sit on the passenger side bar enough to cause the truck to rock up and down a bit at which point I fully expected the Tyger bar to break off but it didn't.


My turn




More tight trails and rocks then even tighter trails. Yikes! #firstpinstripes




We came upon a really gnarly and really steep alternate trail that the big boys play on. It was waaaay out of my league with very little to no armor but Shayn was up the the task. He has true rock sliders and full steel skids protecting the undercarriage. It's way steeper in person. Dean and I honestly didn't think he'd make it up but.....







I took the main trail and planned to meet up with them a little further up where the trails meet. I smashed my passenger side Tyger step bar again and once I got past the root/rock/hole I had to get out and make sure the step was still attached. Yup! soldier on.
 
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JCWages

JCWages

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Wages
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After meeting back up further down the trail, I took the lead for a bit but this section was pretty uneventful. It wasn't quite "stock Z71" easy as you definitely need more clearance but there were no technical sections. After while we came to another split in the trail. This new trail cut off to the right and looked to take a more vertical route up the mountain and of course Shayn wanted to take that one..... So I let him take the lead. The new trail was fairly steep and more dirt than rock but it was crazy twisting. It was like a slalom course up the mountain with tight switchback after tight switchback with lots of logs, bush branches and big rocks reaching out to catch you off guard! I couldn't imagine a full size truck trying to get through there.

Eventually we broke free of the tight brush and found our way onto the mostly barren side slope of Signal Peak which was now comprised of sharp shale instead of the round river rock we had been driving on. At this point I became even more accutely aware of my P load tires and their weak sidewalls so I slowed it down, opened up a bag of chips and took in the grand views while slowly crawling up the mountain.


As we reach the top of the mountain I sighed with relief. Only then did I realize how nervous I'd been for most of this trip. I've never ran a trail this difficult before and being new to wheeling in general I felt constantly on edge but kept it below the surface so I could try and drive smoothly. Wait, where's Shayn going? Great, now Dean is out of the truck which can only mean Shayn needs a spotter and we are not quite done......


Now we are driving on the spine of the mountain with long drops on either side. I didn't take any photos on our way out to the old lookout cabin because frankly, it's disconcerting being on a relatively narrow path, crawling over obstacles with the truck swaying to and fro on tires air to 17psi and feeling loose rocks on the very edge of the trail cumble and shift about beneath you. So yeah, not in the mood to take photos in those situations so here's a couple looking back the way we had come. :)





There's something erie about driving your truck up over rocks on the top of the mountain and not being able to see anything but sky and knowing a false move of a couple of feet could send you and your rig down the mountain for a long long ways. Trust your spotter and pray hard he's good. My thoughts were with the poor woman who died recently after her Wrangler rolled off the edge of a trail in Colorado. Such things should never be taken lightly.

Shayn continued on and dropped over another ledge and I lost sight on him. I thought to myself, most people probably stop at the top of the mountain but we are going the entire way and doing 100% of the trail! I pulled forward and observed his path. Yeah, nope. F' that! The path that Shayn had taken wasn't particularly steep but it had a couple of little ledges and one big ass rock right in the center of the trail and the ridge is so narrow here you can't go around it. The big rock was coated in paint from other rigs. I'm not sure if Shayn added his own paint to the rock but he made it down and was parked proudly next to the old lookout cabin. If I had full body armor like him I may have tried it. It's kinda hard to stop when the end is only a stones throw away but this was a risk I wasn't willing to take. :)



The last bit of trail that Shayn drove down. Looking back up from the cabin to my truck.


Views of the cabin and out into Placer and Nevada Counties.





GAIA GPS Route and Statistics

 
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JCWages

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Ohhhgeee said:
Nice write up! What a beautiful view from up top. Need to try this soon, I’m not too far away in West Sacramento.
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Thanks! You only have about a month or so to get up there before the snow hits amd shuts it down for the season so go for it! :)
 
JCWages

JCWages

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Here's a newer video that shows the trail in pretty good detail in the event someone wants a better preview before hitting it.


Alternate link to VIDEO
 
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CTO1Mike

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So is there a less challenging, more comfortable route to the top? :)
 
JCWages

JCWages

Rank V
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Pathfinder I

2,271
Grass Valley, CA, USA
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Justin
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Wages
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18693

CTO1Mike said:
So is there a less challenging, more comfortable route to the top? :)
Click to expand...
Yup! You start at the Cisco Grove entrance which is further east from where I started. It's mainly a dirt road that turns more rocky with a couple short rock slabs to climb. Nothing a stock pickup can't do when it's dry.
 
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