Pacific Crest Quest - 3000 miles

[R-dubb]

The PCQ extends 3000 miles from the Mexican Border to the Northern Cascades, nearly to Canada. The route, while it does not literally follow the Pacific Crest Trail travels as close to the path as practical on legal roads and OHV trails. The journey extends through 20 National Forests almost continuously from border to border. The route is about 50% unpaved with the paved portion mostly over twisty Forest Service roads. It is a long and beautiful 3000 miles. The entire route includes nearly 500,000 feet of elevation change!

See trip report here: 15 Days on the Pacific Crest.
A map image will also open by clicking on the underlined days.

Day1: Campo to Crestline - 240 miles. Travels though the Cleveland N. F., Grapevine Canyon in the Anza Borrego Desert, into The San Bernardino N.F., along Seven Pines Rd and north to lake Arrowhead and into Crestline.

Day 2: Crestline to Tehachapi - 210 miles. From Cajon, heads west along the Angeles Crest; at Three Points turns off to Mt. Gleason, along ridge to Magic Mtn. and down towards Santa Clarita. Afternoon north to Lake Hughes; west along the Liebre Mtn. Ridgeline to Hwy 138; and north east along the Los Angeles Aqueduct, skirting the Mojave Desert to Tehachapi.

Day 3: Tehachapi to Three Rivers - 240 miles Dead-end through Keene ranch to the north; so take 58 to Caliente. North over the scenic Puite Mtns and down to Lake Isabella. Long trails through Sequoia N.F., then west toward Visalia due to no northerly trails into the National Park.

Day 4: Three Rivers to Fish Camp - 195 miles. Paved through Park. Dirt crossing Kings River entering Sierra N.F. to Shaver Lake then twisty, remote, paved Mammoth Rd. and dirt west to Fish Camp. Very scenic!

Day 5: Fish Camp to Big Trees - 190 miles. Forested, dusty dirt west around Yosemite to Briceburg crossing SR140 through Stanislaus N.F. Up a twisty climb and over narrow scenic trails to potholed, Old Yosemite Rd and crossing SR120 at Harden Flat. Forest Rd towards Cherry Lake. Dirt over Dodge Ridge to Pinecrest Lake crossing SR108. Fast gravel and dirt through Game Refuge to Boards Crossing and onto Hwy 4 at Big Trees State Park. Amazing elevation changes all day!

Day 6: Big Trees to Reno - 210 miles. Twisty, difficult to follow, fire roads through Eldorado N.F. to Hwy88 then forest roads north to Kyburz on US50. Icehouse to Wentworth Springs, beautiful French Meadows, Forest Hill Divide and a rocky road north to Soda Springs. I-80 to Reno.

Day 7: Reno to Gold Lake - 115 miles. Henness Pass Rd in Tahoe N.F. northwest towards Hwy 49 at Sierra City north on a treacherous climb up Sierra Buttes Rd. to Butcher Ranch, a some single-track and down a steep, rocky jeep road to Gold Lake OHV camp.

Day 8: Gold Lake to Old Station / Lassen N.P. - 220 miles. Hwy 89 to Plumas - Eureka State Park west through scenic Plumas N.F. fire roads to Quincy- La Porte Rd. From Quincy north to Lake Almanor, crossing Hwy 70. Hwy 89 north through Lassen N.P. and over lava bed trails to Old Station.

Day 9: Old Station to Coffee Creek - 215 miles. Beautiful lava road along Hat Creek Rd. through Lassen N.F. Then Hwy 89 northwest to McCloud. Numerous dead ends on the way due to private property closures. (Better route through southern half of Shasta N.F. needs work) From Dunsmuir through Castle Crags and into Trinity N.F. From there the fire road over the Trinity Alps dead ends at a remote wash-out. (Alternate route may be possible.) Backtrack 30 miles to Trinity river and then west over Ramshorn Summit to Hwy 3 and Coffee Creek. Needs help...

Day 10: Coffee Creek to Crater Lake - 290 miles. Hwy 3 north to Scott River Rd. then into Klamath N.F. on a fire Rd up Lake Mtn. Road ends at a pair of washouts. Alternate may be possible from Scott Bar. Backtrack to Hwy 96 to Horse Creek, north up to Siskiyou Ridge and east on a fantastic jeep road along the high ridge to Mt. Ashland. From Ashland northeast to Rouge River N.F. fire roads connecting to Hwy 62 into Crater Lake N.P.

Day 11: Crater Lake to Bend - 160 miles. Forest roads through Umqua N.F. to Crescent Lake and on to Mt. Bachelor. Hwy 46 into Bend. There is a trail from Todd Lake to Sisters. Closed due to snow. This was a short day.

Day 12: Bend to Hood River - 210 miles. Mckenzie Hwy west to Old Santiam Rd in Deschutes N.F. Sandy forest trails pass through Willamette N.F. over some whooped out quad trails and onto US 20.at junction with Hwy 22 following the Santiam River north into Mt. Hood N.F. on gravel roads. Lolo Pass Rd along the base of Mt. Hood into Hood River.

Day 13: Hood River to Roslyn - 220 miles. Cross the Columbia River to Willard into Gifford Pinchot N.F. To Gobblers Knob along Panther Creek north to the base of Mt. Adams and on to Packwood. US12 through Mt. Rainier N.P. From Greenwater over Tacoma Pass and a deep crossing at Cabin Creek into Easton taking I-90 towards Roslyn.

Day 14: Roslyn to Slate Peak - 225 miles. From Clu Elam Lake into Wenatchee N.F. crossing Teanaway Ridge to US97 north towards Chelan. Cooper Ridge tracks northward over a scenic series of fire roads ending at Hwy153. Then north on Hwy 20 to Winthrop. The final leg climbs through Harts Pass in Okanogan N.F. and onto the final destination at Slate Peak. Feels like the top of the world!

Do let me know if you get out to ride some of this. Enjoy!


R-dubb

[Hammer]

home country for me is the northern end of the PCQ. I ride Slate Peak and the surrounding area every summer. You can go from 2000-6000 feet as many times as yer fuel and stamina will allow. I've looked (lurked) at some of your report(s) on this before. I may need to ride some of it from N to S this year.
Add another Adventure to the list. Pretty soon the better half will just send self-addressed postcards along, so I can check in now and then....
Good stuff, R-dubb!!!

[sacdjh]

R-dubb: I took some time to go through your tracks and waypoints and I must say you've done an exceptional job of editing and notating. Together with your narratives and pics, this constititues a tremendously useful reference for the Pac Crest Trail. I'll be riding parts of the legs around Tahoe for sure this Summer. Great work and thank you!

[traveltoad]

Nice job R-dubb!!! Looks like a great ride!!!!!!!!!

[Jean-Luc]

Excellent indeed!!! Every one of these riding days was fun and I recommend trying them one by one or all at once

[BenFu]

Wow, sounds great.
How dirt is the dirt? ... single track or fire roads?
I'll be riding a fully loaded dl650 north this spring and I'm wondering if the plastic queen vstrom can handle it.

[R-dubb]

Originally Posted by BenFu

Wow, sounds great.
How dirt is the dirt? ... single track or fire roads?

Well, certainly there are many fire roads on the route. There are also a bunch of jeeps trails which can be steep and/or rough. Not much single track. There are sections where a Strom will be just fine, but keep in mind I dropped my GS probably 50 times along the entire way.

-dubb

[BenFu]

Originally Posted by R-dubb

Well, certainly there are many fire roads on the route. There are also a bunch of jeeps trails which can be steep and/or rough. Not much single track. There are sections where a Strom will be just fine, but keep in mind I dropped my GS probably 50 times along the entire way.

-dubb

WOW! I just read the entire ride report and it was amazing. What a trip.
My ride this spring will be from L.A. to the PacNW to meet with my friends for a 4-6 week Alaska ride. So it's probably not a good idea for me to try to take this trail alone and fully loaded. I'd like to research it and try to fit in a few of the easier fire roads along my way, but to be safe that's all I think I should attempt this time. Thanks for the great read, pictures and info.

[endojoe]

Is there anywhere to get a more detailed map with gas locations and alt routes?

[R-dubb]

Originally Posted by endojoe

Is there anywhere to get a more detailed map with gas locations and alt routes?

Just load the tracks into Mapsource or even Google Earth and you can get all the detail you want.

[toz35]

The FR 23 north of Trout Lake near Mt. Adams has been washed out for a couple years and the forest service is not in any hurry to fix it.

At the columbia river take WA 14 west to Carson, go north through Carson to FR 90 and go west. Turn right at FR 25 going north to Randle, take the side trip to Windy ridge at the midway point... it is well worth the ride to experience the road and to see the Crater on Mt. St. Helens. From Randle go east to Packwood and continue on north. This whole stretch is paved, narrow winding road, a fun ride.

david

[smg94131]

Wow - i just downloaded the tracks....and will include these in my Nor Cal trips in the future. I admire your ability to find these tracks and the ambition to finish the trip...

[NorthernTraveler]

Just as a note -

Last summer I built / rode a connector from the top of the PCQ (at Mazama WA) to the top of the CDR (Continental Divide Ride) over at Eureka MT.

It's posted up at GPSXchange.com

About 475 miles of FS roads, two tracks, back paved roads, minimal highway to connect things together.

IT's quite scenic and somewhat challenging in places... I used a loaded up DR650SE to ride it in, so it should be passable by most everybody.

I didn't write up a ride report - I don't have someplace to store my pictures - and right now I have very limited internet access.

[dscofever]

Wow, what a write up. Hopefully going to do the first couple of days in the fall with a buddy of mine. We live about 15 minutes from the start of the trail.

[tomasv]

Hi guys, I am looking at doing this in mid June - any idea if there is a bit more up to date GPS track and road/trail update?

How about snow - is it to early for CA and OR? I live in Seattle and done the WABDR 2 times so I know it's not going to be passable at that time.

Thank you

Tomas