Yesterday I left the big city and headed up to pristine forests surrounding Truckee, California. My goal was to to meet up with Gary Enterline of BFG, along with pro rock racer Jeff Mello, KOH winner Jason Scherer and Lance and Camo of Pirate 4x4. The plan was simple: wheel Fordyce Creek Trail and visit the old townsite of Carlisle.

The idea was to show Enterline some of the special features of Fordyce Creek Trail. Tomorrow, the trail will be added to BFG's lengthy list of Outstanding Trails.

Gary Enterline, BFG's Senior Product Category Manager, was my chafer for the ride, and to my surprise, our chariot for the day was Jason Scherer's awesome KOH-winning rock buggy. After a quick jaunt into the first trail obstacle of Fordyce, Enterline held a brief trail meeting with a small group of  club members of Friends of Fordyce. 

After the meeting our, group led the way to the old townsite of Carlisle. The area is unique because of a whole assortment of old mining equipment that was abandoned when the Carlisle ceased to exist. It's said that the equipment was brought in by oxen and sleds over the snow before any real roads penetrated the area. The town of Carlisle formed to support the General Grant gold mine, which is located high on the face of Old Man Mountain. Today you can still see the mine tailings and holes where ore carts were used to extract gold ore from the mountain. We hiked around the area and found a bunch of old mining relics in the brush just North of the trail. We even found the remnants of an old Model T  Ford car, no doubt used to ferry people and equipment to and from the mine.

Here Jeff Mello recounts the difficulties of driving a 2WD Model T through the rugged Sierras.

Inside one of the mine shafts a large vain of minerals was visible.

Here you can see some of our group hiking up to the old boiler unit located near the Carlisle town site.

After visiting the mine our group headed towards Meadow Lake.

Here are a few of the photos I captured during our trail ride.