Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Mountain Biking Whitney Trail

You have to admit, it would be REALLY fun.

Mountain bike the White Mountain trail! It's legal there.

When I did it, I even hauled the bike to the flat-top roof of the summit building and pedaled around in a circle.

Second time we did it, I was planning on also descending the Silver Canyon road on the bike to the OV floor. ...odd thing, though... I was too tired to ride, even down hill.

They should let people bike the Whitney trail one day a month.

They should make people who bike the Whitney Trail work trail crew for a month, building new walls & waterbars and filling in erosion... .

George

... and wiping up blood stains.

Definitely not the trail to allow bikes on.

Mountain bikers build, maintain and repair more trails than any other outdoor group. They would be happy to help with trails in the area.
I wonder how many of the 300 hikers per day help maintain trails and pick up all the trash they leave up there ?

BTW - this thread was about how fun it would be to bike the trail, not a thread for people to complain even more about the people that they banned from ever enjoying the trail.

You can start a thread, but you can't own it. (Unless you're Doug, of course.)

If people want to respond, they are free to respond.

I own a mountain bike, a road bike, two horses, and several pairs of boots. I leave the bikes and the horses at home when I go into the wilderness. The boots (possibly with skis or crampons) are all I need. People aren't banned from the wilderness trails; bikes are banned. Fuji Guy, you're free to enjoy the trails (on foot) just like the rest of us.

I recall sometime long ago about this guy that said he could stop a social problem. All the establishment said it would not be proper to excite and then expose that person , not sure how it ended , one of those socialist concepts I think "YOU KNOW WHEN I WANT TO DO SOMETHING" and they tell me I can't,I can find a reason why I should be allowed ,even have the right to do what others can't. More equal doctrine (unwritten). Would anyone like to respond?

We already know that mountain biking is banned on the Whitney trail. We already know the reasons why.
Dont worry fellas, there is no danger to the ban being repealed.
You wont go to mother nature hell by simply acknowleding that something could actually be fun.
Just shows how much some zealots are that they cant simply say, "gee, that would be fun".

Weeellll.... some of the downhill would be fun. But the other (uphill) part... Like I said, go try White Mountain first.

There's a little rule of physics with a bicycle -- needs to be rolling at least at a good walking pace to stay upright. Add in uneven trail, and it requires more speed to stay upright. Now add in the angle of the uphill climb, apply the energy required to keep the bike rolling uphill against the thinner air at 12,000 feet, and add in the weight of the bicycle. Moving a 30 pound bicycle up a trail takes as much energy as hauling a loaded backpack. How fast can you haul a pack up that trail? Not fast enough to keep a bicycle upright.

It doesn't work. Ya gotta push the thing much of the way! There are only a few people in the world who could keep a bicycle moving against those forces. I have ridden (or pushed) my bike up a trail that takes almost an hour to get up ...and 5 minutes down. The rims get hot on the descent. Can't say it is the best place to ride, except the top is a flat tabletop, cool place to see. Rolling hill trails are more fun.

I've ridden with the guys on the specialized downhill bikes. They've got front forks that look like they came off a dirt bike. And their sprockets? They don't do any serious uphill. They get their buddies to drive them to the top, then pick them up at the bottom. Or they find a ski area in summer and use the lift.

There are some trails in wilderness areas that would be fun on a bicycle, but not the MMWT. And I too wish they would open a few trails to bicycles on a designated day or two. They would have less impact than those things with four steel shoes.

Bike a big mountain without issues? Fly to Maui, take the guided bus trip to the summit of Haleakala (10K ft) at about 3 a.m., watch the gorgeous sunrise, then glide back down to sea level on the bikes supplied by the tour company. Granted, you won't burn a ton of calories, but guaranteed to be one of the most memorable ways you'll ever start a day.

And I'm trying to picture riding a mountain bike down the switchbacks on Whitney - even given the opportunity, I think I'd pass . . .

You obviously need someone to validate what you said.

OK.

Gee, that would be fun!

Similar to Maui apparently. There has been a commercial firm($$)
for many years that drives you to the top of Pikes Peak and then
you bike down the road about 19 miles. 14,110' down to about 7,400' which is not nearly as big a descent as the Maui one of about 10,000'

The Mt Whitney trail has a long history of separate trails for hikers and riders for a variety of reasons. On the moraine at the base of the switchbacks you can still see where the old horse trail goes right to switchback up the scree slope in the gully below trail crest. Scree is a difficult surface to maintain a good people trail on. The switchbacks we hike today were not designed and built for riding. While the pack station was in operation, the portion of the trail at the very start (the big single switchback) was the horse trail. The people trail was maintained going up from above the pond and joined the horse trail just below the wilderness boundary. Down there the horse trail was easier to maintain than the people trail. Now the people use the old horse trail and the unmaintained old people trail is just cutting a switchback.

Dale B. Dalrymple

Well parts of the MWT might be fun to bike down, but not for me.

As to mountain bikers doing more trail work than other groups, that may or may not be true. I know the horse groups do more per user than hikers as well. But I do notice that after it is all done, the mountain bike trails are still in worse shape than the hiker-only trails, with ruts and skid areas and of course much widening around the curves and rocks.

I would argue back that MTBs and horses SHOULD do more trail work because they cause more damage.

(Yes, I do trail work several times a year, on both hiker-only and multi-use trails.)

I didn't know that CMC - I'll keep that in mind the next trip to Colorado Springs. The PP Highway is one of my favorite roads in the country (top of the list is Mt. Evans), and since it's not all paved a bike descent could really be fun.

Bulldog: straight from AAA Colorado Tour Book. "Guided 20 mile Mountain Biking Trips from the 14,110 summit of Pikes Peak are offered daily late April through early October by
CHALLENGE UNLIMITED: phone (719) 633-6399 or (800) 798-5954."

The bike ride UP Mt Evans is a real kicker. Nothing like seeing spots to remind you of the altitude.

White Mountain (14246') down to Laws (4130') exceeds the 10,000' number. But you have to go from 11,700' on up on your own power.

Dale B. Dalrymple