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It’s easy to feel small on this tour among such giants. The Giant Sequoia is one of the largest organisms on earth and a feature of this delightful tour in the Southern Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. We’ll enjoy a few rides within Giant Sequoia National Monument among these living pillars of history, but we’ll also explore the excellent collection of trails in the surrounding Sequoia National Forest including the infamous Cannell Plunge. This trail system is highlighted by its large losses of elevation – numerous times we’ll start our rides in high pine forest and end in classic California vegetation like oak and chaparral.
Our base camp will be alongside the Kern River in a comfortable lodge. It’s a very relaxing setting to return to each day after our ride. There we will enjoy tasty dinners and campfires under the Sierras’ starry skies.
Our staff will greet everyone at the Bakersfield Airport at 6pm (unless everyone flies in earlier), get everyone loaded up and we’ll head to Kernville to our riverside lodge. Once settled and unpacked we’ll swing into town for dinner that evening where we will discuss our plan for the week. At the hotel we’ll make sure that you are situated, that your bike and all your gear are ready to roll and that all your needs are being met.
No messing around; let’s jump into the Giant Sequoias right away!! We start up in a lush cedar forest and climb up singletrack for several hours. The effort is challenging, but you will enjoy spectacular views of the Needles and the High Sierra along the way. Once at the top we’ll take a well-deserved break and enjoy the surroundings that inspired the likes of John Muir. We lose some serious elevation on our descent, and for the brave, some advanced trailside features. Don’t worry; almost all the features have ride-arounds. Chocked full of smiles, we come to the Belknap Grove of Giant Sequoias. This is the least visited Sequoia Grove in the Sierras. These trees are huge!!!! You just can't describe it; you just have to see it. More flowy downhill continues with Sequoia groves giving way to pine and oak forest. Ride length is approximately 12 miles.
It’s hard to argue with this trail’s name: Just Outstanding. The elevation profile alone is just outstanding – we start at 7000 feet and descend to 2400 feet!! The route starts with some very flowy downhill through a pine and cedar forest. As we go down the pines give way to Oaks and Manzanita. A climb follows to the next downhill section, which is slower and more technical. We’ll be surrounded by granite all around. We have some climbing to gain the next ridge, but you’ll receive plenty of payoff for your work. From the ridge, the bottom falls out with a fast and challenging downhill to the river. Ride length is approximately 18 miles.
By day three most of our guests are a little fatigued, so we’ve designed a spectacular day of mostly downhill riding to take the edge off those sore muscles. Shuttle ride number one starts us up in a seldom-visited forest in a remote area. The trail drops quickly to oaks and sagebrush with some wonderful views down into the Kern Canyon. We head all the way down to the river and jump back into the van for shuttle number two. Back at the top we’ll have a delicious lunch and a little Sierra rest. After lunch we head to Remington Ridge. A little fire road climbing to the trailhead greets us, followed by a short section of singletrack climbing. Time for take two – another run of downhill bliss down to river level and the conclusion of our day. Total ride length is about 16 miles.
It’s hard to imagine that after 3 days of such amazing riding that we still haven’t done the Cannell Plunge. Every great mountain bike destination has its signature ride and here it is The Plunge. That’s not to say there isn’t some climbing along the 26 miles, but the change in topography from top to bottom is breath taking. The group will start out high at 9200 feet and from there the trail goes through pines and along meadows. We climb over a saddle then swoop several miles down a rocky downhill to "Big Meadow". After a little fireroad and singletrack climbing we reach another fun rocky downhill to Cannell Meadow. At this point we leave the big trees and “plunge” 5000 feet in 8 miles to the sagebrush below. Wow. Ride length is approximately 26 miles.
We bookend our trip with another jaw dropping jaunt through the Giant Sequoias. This is an all-downhill trail that follows the Tule River and navigates through the Wheeler Sequoia Grove. Huge Sequoia trees are visible for most of the ride. At one point we actually ride through the middle of a live Sequoia! The vegetation is very lush and the forest is dense with little sunlight getting to the forest floor. The seemingly endless ferns may have you scanning the trees for Ewoks. This ride takes about 2 hours and we have a buffet of options at the end: a raft trip on the Kern River if water levels allow, a short pedal to the Needles lookout atop a spire of granite, or maybe another trip up for a second run on this beautiful trail!! Ride length varies depending on which option we choose.
After a great week of riding, we love to celebrate the end of the trip with a group dinner in town. We’ll shuttle back into Kernville where we’ll spend this final night at our riverside lodge. Take a few hours to relax and clean up, then we’ll meet at the hotel to head over to our closing dinner celebration. This is a great time for everyone to reflect on their experiences and tell war stories accumulated from the many great miles of singletrack. Hermosa Tours thank our guests tonight with some goofy awards and some unique gift bags. Cheers!
If you are leaving the next day Hermosa Tours will shuttle you to the airport for your flight home.
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