Mount Patterson CA

Planning a ride from somewhere around Smith NV to Mammoth CA in late August and am wanting to cross over Mount Patterson. Would anyone be willing share your tracks or ground knowledge of that rout? Have wanted to do that ride for a while and am finally doing it.

- Ben

What kind of bike?
There are some mild graded roads, medium 4x4 trails, and some single track up there.

-M

All will be on converted dirt bikes ie. plated XR 400s or KTMs. Just got some great tracks around Mt. Patterson from dualsportmaps.com. Now I am looking for some tracks that will take us there from Smith and beyond there to Mammoth past Bodie.

The more single track the better.

- Ben

Dirt bike should be no problem. I've been over on my R100GS several times, including camping near the summit. It is harder east to west than vice versa. Go past Lobdell Lake and bear right at the base of the mountain. The final climb starts after a left switchback and the next switchback is the critical turn on a big bike, keep your speed up. You may need to bulldog the bike in one or two spots going downhill to Sweetwater.

Yes I have tracks on GPSXchanage.com but you would have a lot more fun if you just ride both my topaz ride on July 14-15 and my Mammoth ride on Sept 8-9 you will see all the great stuff in the area.

http://www.dualsportwest.com/

Just did a few of Countdown's tracks of Mt. Patterson, since they have not been too updated since 08 I ran into a few of the tracks closed to bikes mainly on the west side of 395. The east side was fine but only a selected few tracks were good on the west side so be very careful riding on that side

The one area that was good between Walker and hwy 108 needs more riding by everyone to keep the route burned in so riders can see what way to go. It was a total adventure but hard at times when riders came to signs saying closed, so just be aware the west side of 395 is very limited.

Yes Toiyabe screwed us. I appealed travel management decision but lost.

I am the only one who ever maintained (cut downfall) the trails west of 395. No one ever wanted to use them but bikes but they close them to bikes. None are in Wilderness and all are in "Multipul Use Areas", yea sure!

I have never seen a ranger much less LEO any where near these trails.

I rode over Mt Patterson the third week in September. We went from the 395 side to the Sweetwater side. I was on my DRZ400S with D606 tires. It was a handful up near the top on the west side but we made it. There was a long steep section with orange sized rocks just below the summit that was interesting. Going down the east side was no picnic but if you are going over Mt Patterson, I would say going from the West to the East is the easier way to go. Incredible views and a neat ghost town. From there we road dirt and two tracks all the way to Bodie. Mt Patterson was an amazing ride. Quite challenging for me on the 400 but worth every ounce of effort.

I've been thinking of riding this route over Patterson. I've been up there in my 4 wheeler and had a blast around Balfort, and then down into Smith Valley.
Any recent pictures from up there? And ideas on how a KLR with camping gear loaded on could handle it? I would drop to the 14 tooth sprocket in front, and probably change out the rear also for that ride.

Until at least May the picture comes out all white.

When I last rode this 2 Summers back, the trail just down/east from Belfort had gotten pretty bad. I would hesitate to try it with a lot of gear strapped on. Going west to east would be better--downhill on this section. As mentioned, lots of snow now.

And, access to 395 east of Devils Gate has gotten tougher/impossible with a new house and fences built where you used to be able to get through.

For a Smith-Mammoth route Desert Creek, over Patterson, though Belfort to Sweetwater, highway south to Lucky Boy/Hawthorne road, east to river crossing, south through Masonic to Aurora Rd, Bodie to Aurora, Aurora east and then south around back side of Mono Lake (don't know dirt route here), south via Mono City, back to 395 or pick up trails paralleling 395 to Mammoth. Lots of options....

The trails our routes we were going to use were ones south of 108 from the Marine base and west of 395. All those tracks had gates on them. I personally did not inspect them but riders in our group turned back and had to take 395 to Bridgeport.

Two of the riders in our group had the attitude that if I turned back at every fence and gate I got to I would never ride so they rode around the fences and gates and told me some the area looked closed but again no leo or rangers to be around probably eating donuts. Our ride was the second week of September and everything was closed for camping again lazy feds wanting to close everything.

You maybe right and those areas are open during the summer but they were gated for the fall. Maybe sometime in the future I can go back up there and ride and inspect those sections myself but I would say our saturday ride was cut short from either the trails closed or the feds being lazy and gating up the routes for winter.

I don't have any tracks south of 108 at the Marine base. That is all private.

I do have a track (we call it Huntoon) west of 395 that starts just north of the Buckeye road and comes out on the little Walker road. There are no gates coming from the Bridgeport end but you go out a typical barbed wire gate that has a sign on the road side.

There is also a trail from the back of the marine base (just ride thru the guard gate and point to the forest) with no gates or signs that comes on the Mill creek road.

The road connecting the Marine Base to Mill Canyon, has been closed for 2 years now. I don't know exactly where the closure is on the south end. The sign at the Marine Base still references public access and you can go through the gate and start north.

Coming from the North the road from Mill Canyon is closed(guessing at mileage) 5 or 6 miles south of the lost Canon Creek crossing--about 2-3 miles after you get into the trees. No gate, just spaced boulders across the road and a sign.

I was up there 4 weeks ago.

As of last wekend, the Desert Creek trail to Patterson is also closed about a mile South of the desert Creek Rd. The Jackass Creek road is open up the the split, as is the gnarly uphill going up and over to the Lobdell junction. You can still get to Lobdell or Patterson from the junction. Some snow on Patterson 2 weks ago. But the summit is still accessible. I didn't try going on over to Belfort and down.

There has never been a road connecting Mill Cyn and the Marine Base?

There are two parallel trails; Mill and Lost (also shown as Emigrant on some maps).

There is also a single track connecting Summit Meadow and the top of Mill.

There is also a nice loop using two branches of the top of lost and an old log skid that we cut open a few years ago.

I am talking about the good dirt road shown on my maps connecting to 108/Pickle Meadows. From the north, coming off of 395, take the left at the first fork and continuing south across Lost Canon Creek and on into the trees. As I noted, I have never seen the piece between the closure coming from the north and from Pickle Meadows to the south. If I provided bad info--sorry about that.

You have track south of 108 west of 395 it was on your SMTS North Nov 08 gpx file. Looked like a great track but was gated. It's still on gpsXchange.com for download. The track known as Rt5 7wa goes from 108 to mono lake.

These are tracks of road and trails I have ridden plus one hand drawn one I have not.

The 04-oct 07 track was the one reported closed, I personally did not inspect this but was told by riders in our group it was gated.

This may have been since the feds closed all camping area down for the winter even though it was the second week of September.

Maybe next year I will get out there and check this area out again very fun place to ride. Thanks for the tracks this area for sure needs to be rode more to keep it up and the overgrowth down.

Did that loop a couple times this summer...even shot the shit about those trails with a riding marine, he said he would ride them to and from the base a few times a month for work duty. it gets use...its that darn sticker on the bottom of mill canyon that causes issues...