A Week Off Grid

Well, it’s wintertime. Work is really slow. Brianna and I spent 3 weeks at Kevin’s house in Elk Grove for the holidays and before his HOA could get too mad that we’d been parked for 3 weeks, we decided to push off for a few days into the wilderness until we were scheduled to go down to Arizona.

Those plans changed as well…as with my line of work, you never quite know exactly what to expect until it’s happening because at any moment, things can change.  Arizona has been pushed back a couple weeks…so we filled our time in one of my favorite places of all time: Mosquito Ridge Road. :)

oxbow rubicon mosquito ridge road
The view from up high on the Rubicon River

To be exact, we spent several days down MRR at Oxbow on the Rubicon River. We hung out, made a friend, hiked, skipped rocks, and rode motorcycles. The first two days were mostly pouring rain. That didn’t stop us from romping around.

end of the world hydro dam
This is The End of the World. I kid you not, that’s what it’s called. See for yourself.

ralston oxbow rubicon river
“Dang” is right!

skipping rocks rubicon river
Bribri won the rock skipping competition.

ralston oxbow rubicon river
This was our only visitor the whole time. “My name is How. Like how you greet an indian chief,” he says, holding his hand up.

rubicon river oxbow ralston
Playing on wet rocks.

rubicon river oxbow ralston
Bribri also out-cairned the shit out of me.

thor oxbow ralston rubicon
When driving around a rig like this, you really have to pre-plan how you’re going to get out. Trust me.

Forest Road 23 had been closed for some time. We walked up past the hydro electric plant where the land slide had happened about a year ago, and low and behold, it was OPEN! I was pretty excited, as I wanted to ride up there. I’d told Brianna all about it and how fun it is and whatnot. So Brianna and I went for a ride up Mosquito ridge and several other smaller roads before turning down towards FR23. We got there and there were two Water Authority workers standing there….in front of a fresh land slide that had just happened…completely blocking FR23 again. I guess it’s a good thing we detoured, else the slide would have locked us out of being able to get back to the RV!

water cascades
Here’s a pic from our detour before finding the land slide.

The last thing we did was something I’d never done before…stopped in the town of Iowa Hill. Why had I not stopped? Because it’s freggin scary! I hear banjos every time I go through there. Rarely have I seen people, but when I have, they glare at me menacingly every time I ride past. Anyhow, there was a small group of BMW GS riders out there having lunch when I took Bribri through, so I swallowed my fear and we stopped. We had some of the best burgers and fries I’ve had in a very, very long time! They even brought us out our own private table outside so we could eat it in the sun across the street! It was pretty awesome.

lady and the tramp
I felt like it was a scene from Lady and the Tramp. <3

From there, we came up to the town of Foresthill. We’d had several days of seclusion with very little human contact, so we wanted to actually see people. Foresthill is a rad little town that I actually used to live in circa 2006. The people here are friendly and kind. Tomorrow morning, we push off for Sacramento for a shoot, then we’ll be headed up to Colfax to hang out with a couple friends for a few days before Prairie City this weekend.

Here’s a map of Mosquito Ridge Road, my favorite road in all of California.

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6 Comments

  1. Absolutely loved meeting you both at Zakar, and then again at the GS qualifier at Rawhyde. You are definitely setting the bar high in living the Adventure lifestyle, with sustainability, style and grace. Photography is keen, timing is brilliant

    1. Author

      Thanks man! Awesome meeting you too! I’m sure we’ll cross paths again. :)

  2. Always look forward to hearing from ya!

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