Gone with the Wind Granola

Trust me, you will never go back to store bought granola...


6 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup of each of 3 different types of nuts (roasted but not salted: walnut pieces, sunflower seeds, cashew pieces, almonds etc.)
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup honey
1/3 hot water
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4-1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup raisins (or other fruit, cranberries, etc.) 

Preheat oven to 325
Mix oats and nuts together
Mix oil, honey water and vanilla together in a separate bowl.
Mix liquid mixture with oat mixture. 

Pour granola into rimmed ungreased baking sheet or glass baking dish. 
Bake for 15-20 min, stirring every 5 min. Stir in coconut and cook (continue stirring every 5 min) for an additional 10-15 min until granola has reached desired golden brown color.
Add dried fruit when done. Let cool and store in airtight container. 

Round 2 - Forest City Mountain Biking

After our only somewhat successful trip to the trails near Forest City, CA the previous weekend we decided to have another go at it. The weather was supposed to be windy and 75 in Sac town, perfect weather to escape the flats and skinny tires.

The drive up was beautiful, that is until about 15 min from the trail head... when we noticed SNOW. Only a few patches at first, but by the time we reached Ridge Road, the road on which the trails begin, there was a lot of SNOW....  Although this time around we were more prepared: maps, check; matches, check; chain tool and backup tools, check and check; we did not plan for SNOW.

Sad faces :(

We attempted to ride the snow covered trails with little success. Okay, maybe I was just unsuccessful...

The snow was much deeper and wetter that it looks!

After a short jaunt to determine that the trails were unrideable, we decided that we would go for a spin on the road to enjoy the scenery. But first Pete needed to tighten his loose cleat.... this resulted in a inch wide portion of the sole of his shoes, including his cleat, coming completely detached from the shoe! At least it happened at the car during already botched day. 

Pete is a trooper and decided to ride with one foot clipped in. Our spin on the road lead us down the valley into Forest City... which lead us to some muddy fire roads... which lead us to the single track we attempted to ride the weekend prior! Yippie!

Super cool little bike specific stone bridge.

We rode the single track up to where the snow got too deep and then back down the way we came. Super fun trail. Unfortunately it looks like we will have to wait till next season to get to the rest of them...

Offseason Adventure Mountain Biking

This story really begins about three years ago when Pete meet a hippie mountain biker who told him about some new trails that he and some of his buddies were building north of Grass Valley. Mesmerized by the stories the tie-dyed shirt wearing, hippie passed along, Pete has been begging me to get out to these trials ever since. I managed to avoid the trip to this theoretical trail system mostly because I didn't believe that it actually existed. I fully expected our 2 hours of driving to be rewarded with a few miles of unmarked overgrown trails.

Following a week of unseasonably amazing weather (and some internet research that indicated that the trails really did exist - http://foresttrailsalliance.org/), we decided Sunday the 6th of November was the day. We woke up early (for us...) and picked up our friend, Peter, and drove 2 hours to the trail head..... which was surprisingly well marked! I took this as a good sign.

We were on our bikes at 11 am.  The trails were amazing, burmed switchbacks, lots of fun rollers, jump options and numerically marked technical sections!

Did I forget to mention that the forest was gorgeous in all of its Autumn glory!!

Unfortunately we didn't print a map. Pete hand drew one.... our printer was out of ink. And there was no cell phone coverage in the valley. And, big surprise, we kinda sorta got lost... 

After a bunch of super fun single track, a flat, and 2.5 hrs of riding, we were supposed to ride a bit of fire road to more fun single track that would take us around the the town of Forest City and up the valley we just spend a few hours riding down. The fire roads were not well marked on our hand drawn map (surprise, surprise) and soon we became tired of riding down similarly looking (and named!) fire roads that all turned out to be dead ends. 

Also, for obvious reasons, we were at least moderately worried about gun sling'in back country folk.

(In case you missed it, please note the spelling of the spray painted sign....)

Still unsure of our location and a bit frustrated, at about 2:45 we had just enough daylight to ride back to the car the way we came. The boys decided that the best option was to continue riding further from the direction of the car on the largest fire road we could find, hoping it would either lead us to the thriving metropolis of Forest City (population ~2) or to the only paved highway in 50 square miles. 

Fortunately they were right...

Feeling relieved that we would not be spending the night freezing in woods, we took the opportunity to explore the old mining/ghost town for a bit. What a cool place!

In case you were wondering, yes, you can rent this old Dance Hall: $100 for 24 hrs

After looking at the map posted in town, the boys decided that the best way back to the car was a fire road that would lead us to the single track we had been searching for all day. 

The fire road ended up being a hike a bike all the way to the top of the ridge.

However we did eventually end up on single track.... 

only to realize that we had already ridden it... 

the same direction.... 

that morning! 

Awesome.

We made it back to the car by 4:30 pm, well within my "as long as I am back at the car by dark" request.  We even managed to eventually find the trail we were looking for... at the trial head :) 

We concluded our great day with some killer burritos and dinner time trivia at the infamous Maria's Taco Shop in Auburn. 

We may be heading back sometime soon to ride the trails we missed, anyone want in!?