Signal Peak; Pierce OHV Trail
Meet at the Pierce OHV/Signal Peak Trailhead Staging area at 8:30am to air down, use the restroom, etc. (driver's meeting at 9:00, depart at 9:10). Gil and Brian are meeting at the Wendy's parking lot off Brunswick in Grass Valley at 7:20am, if anyone would like to meet them there and caravan up to staging from Grass Valley (recommended if you are unfamiliar with the staging location).
Directions to staging: From Auburn/Grass Valley, take I-80 East and exit on Eagle Lakes Road. Turn left and follow the road around to the trailhead. Map attached. You can also download CalTopo and use the following link to review the area and record your tracks. If you click on the little jeep on the map, you can navigate to the staging area using google or apple maps. Here is the link to my CalTopo map for this event.
Vehicle Requirements:
Vehicles should have decent clearance, at least 33" tires if you don't want to get too scraped up underneath. Bring all safety equipment as outlined in the GV4W Standing Rules. Signal Peak and Pierce are considered Moderately difficult trails. There are larger rocks and some off-camber areas to traverse, but nothing this group can't handle.
From Brandy:
Brandy will be recording tracks and marking both Pierce OHV and Signal Peak in preparation for the upcoming Sierra Trek run. If you would like to help crew this run during Sierra Trek, please let Brandy know and she will send you the committee registration link.
Expect a full day; probably getting to the top of signal peak for lunch around 12:30-1:00pm. We usually spend about an hour at the top hiking around and enjoying the views. There are no restroom or water services at the top of Signal Peak, but we will stop at staging after we finish Pierce OHV for a quick break before heading up to Signal Peak. We will leave down the back side of Signal Peak via Rattlesnake Rd and air up at Cisco Grove, probably around 3:30pm, then head home.
The NWS heatrisk tool predicts very hot weather for Saturday: https://www.wrh.
Some Background:
The Pierce OHV trail is 2.3 miles long. It begins at Forest Road 654-05 and ends at the Fordyce Jeep Trail (#13E10). It is currently designated by USFS as open for all Off Highway Vehicles.