Ashland Mountain Adventures Blog

Ashland Mountian Adventures is proud to announce we will be serving the Ashland and Medford areas for their shuttle needs to MT. Ashland. We will be picking up at  JOE’S in Medford and  we will also be picking up our customers from our location at 700 Mistletoe Rd. off the Tolman Creek Rd.

The early am shuttle  will begin pick up’s at 7:20am at Joes in Medford and at 7:50 at our office on Mistletoe Rd. arriving at Mt. Ashalnd at approximately 8:45am.   Will leave Mt. Ashland at 4pm sharp.  We will opperate every day of the Holliday except Christmass and New Years Day.

Any other times may be reserved for 6 or more passengers or $80. You MUST MAKE A RESERVATION, at 541-499-2298 as our van can only hold up to 14 passengers. This will mean less time on the shuttle and more time on the mountain for our riders!

Our pricing will be simple…  (1) round trip ticket $15   (10) round trip tickets $120  or a one way ticket for $8  YOU MUST CALL AND MAKE A RESERVATION. Tickets can be purchased either at our office, or on the van at time of departure.  

We will be updating the BLOG daily for road contitions and time changes due to weather, so check before you call. AMA will  have safe and convenient racks on each vehicle to stow either your ski’s or snow board that our drivers will secure.

We look forward to serving you so give us a call at 541-499-2298 and get your Ski season started with a warm quick ride up the mountain.

I got an e mail from E.C. about a month ago inviting me to a ride/camping trip off the Kern river the little town of Kernville. My first thought was, another weekend trip I can’t make due to the fact that I’ve started a primarily weekend business! I told E.C. (Eric Carter) that I would check back the week of and let him know if I could sneak away. Low and behold… we were slow on the books for that weekend and last min. I contackted him and I was on my way!
A 5 hour drive from my home in Salinas Ca. had me over the top of the Sierra Alta ridge above Woodford and the Kern river and Lake Isabella, what a sight! Following the directions E.C. posted I was at our camp sight by 9:30am in time to catch up with all the sleepy heads that got in at mid night on thursday. A little water in the face a cup of joe and we walked 100′ from camp to the Kern River for some fishing, good thing I brought food!
By noon the bikes were preped and the early crew of myself, E.C. John C., Kevin, Waylin S. Luis and John ? were ready to get on a trail. We started with Sierra Alta. This is west of kernville off the 155 at the top of the ridge at a ski park, 6,200′ and descends back down to about 1,500′. It’s starts out in the pines with a ripping fast swoopy single track that just seemed to keep going on and on! Corner after corner chasing E.C., Kevin and waylin, seeing there different style and lines was like being in the video game Downhill Total Domination! A few off line excursions had us swaping up positions but a super clean E.C. awlays managed to remain up front. When the trail finaly turned up it was a steep twisty climb out to a fire road that was a fairly easy climb to the next junction. At this point there was a rough fire road to the left or a single track to the right, but becouse E.C. wasn’t sure how to navigate our way back on the single track and none of us wan’ted to be lion bait we oppted to Mega Avalanch it down this fire road! It had us all swapped out with tank slappers in most every corner fighting for the front or just to put a wheel into the guy next to ya!
Unfortunatly at one point Kevin hit a loose patch of sand and washed the front wheel into a big rock and went down hard, cutting his right palm open with what looked like a silver doller sized flapper! He was bleeding all over the dirt from his hand, knee and side. After some creative bandaging, jersy sleeve wraped tight with intertube and electical tape, we remounted and started down. We were super carfull at the begining and by the last couple of miles Kevin was lighting off every hit in the road and sliding around every corner! A trip to the E.R. earned him some stiches and a day off the bike however.

Day 2: The Cannal Trail

This starts with a long windy ride up in the shuttle van from Mountain and River Adventures. The owner John, got us all checked in and ready to go with maps and a full cup of stoke to go! The sights on the way up we amazing! The mighty kern River and it many tributaries, Lake Isabella and The Sierra Mountains we jist awesome!  On the top your at 9,100′ and in the pine forest. The ride starts with a wide pine single track that is O.H.V. so it’s wooped out in places making for some killer doubles and pump sections. It descended and climed between 9,000′ and 8,000′ for the better part of and hour. For every awesome descent there was and equaly tricky ascent. Then a long fire road with some climbing, not bad to the Meadow trail. This starts out super rocky and technical and ends up on a fire road where in about a 1/4 mile there’s a cabin out in the middle of a huge Meadow. We had lunch there and then continued on the Meadow trail wich was up and down fast flowy single track, another short fire road traverce to the Plunge!

 The Plunge: This is where the trail looses 4,000′ of ele in just 8 miles! At this point we are out of the pines and in Chapperel forest, stay on your bike or be ripped to shreads from the harsh suroundings of yuca bush, manzanitta, and rough shale rock. What a blast mixing it up in all the diverce conditions of trails with these incredible riders. Doug “hat trick” from S.C. bicycles and Creig as everone else on theis trip were a hoot to ride with and realy good company around a camp fire.

Day 3: Fogal… where’s Fogal… hey, there’s Sammie no shoes, but where the hell is Fogal? We woke up at 6:30 to make our 8am shuttle just to have  this slacker Fogal be late to the shuttle. A repeat of Sierra Alta Trail was on tap but this time it included the single track that we were unsure of the first time. A ripping run down the pine single track had us all woken up after a late camp fire the night before! when we got to the single track we had not riden yet it was advized that we stay on our bikes or pay the price that the knarly surroundings would dish out! This was a fairly new trail and swooped in and out of reviens with realy good flow if you could manage the tec sections inbetween. We all managed to remain in tact to a short hike a bike up to 10 story… this was a long steep rutted, loose and super fast descent to the fire road below. I road ahead to get photos of the group coming down, what a sight! Everyone managed to clean it and Kevin strieght sent it when he pedaled into it, flew down the steep and launched the ditch gap to road at the bottom! A huge roar from the waiting riders finished this ride perfectly.

 Many thanks to Eric for organizing this and including me in this traip with these realy great guys. I look forward to visiting this place and riding with these guys again soon!

Hey Trail folks, Fall is here and we’re getting some rain on Mt A. AMA is planning a trail work day for Sunday Nov 1st. We will meet at our shop at 9am for coffee and bagles to depart by 9:30am. Bring you bike if you have one and you can ride to the work location where tools will be waiting. When we’re done there will be Pizza and beverages with a raffle for those that help out! Prizes from WTB, Specialized, KALI protectives and SRAM. Don’t miss out on the fun and chance to give back to the Awesome trails on Mt. Ashland!

Hey Riders,
Fall is coming up fast so I wanted to get the word out early. Sunday November 1st AMA will be hosting a trail work day focusing on the upper mountain before the snow falls. We will meet at our shop at 8:30am for some bagles fruit and coffee, pac some snacks and water then head up the mountain where tools and leaders will be waiting. I’m hoping that we can get the bad spots on the Bull Gap trail fixed and some ruts on the fire road as well. AMA will provide another free shuttle and pizza after. There will also be a raffel for anyone who participates! Call or e mail to confirm and we will make sure we have enough for everone!
Thanks and Happy Trails!

Ashland Mountain Adventures has started a face book page and we’re encouraging our customers to log on and become a fan for all the latest goings on here on Mt. Ashland!
Happy Trails!

I’ve just signed up for the Specialized Stumpjumper Trail Crew. This is a program that the cool folks at Specialized are putting together to help there riders club have better riding experiances. They would provide me with a 2010 Stumpjumper, (I’m a feild test rider for Specialized and have got over 100hrs on one now) and I would be riding with fellow Specialized Riders Club Members on the great trails of Mt Ashalnd and other destinations to be determined. If you want to know more about the Specialized Riders Club go to www.specializedriders.com and join up today.
Happy trails

Ashland Mountain Adventures and friends will be attending Mt Bike Oregon to ride and help with the shuttle. We look forward to riding and hanging out with all the riders and folks that will be at this event.
So for that Friday Saturday and Sunday we will be operating on a limited schedule that is set times only. 6pm friday, 10am, 12:30 and 3pm Saturday and Sunday.
We will be back to full operation the next week. Thank you for your understanding.

 The trail is clear of snow from the Bull Gap parking lot down and on the Bull Gap singletrack.
We will be Shuttleing to the top of the mountain for the rest of the seasson.  The new set shuttle times are as follows…

pick ups at the skate park   tues, friday  5:45pm  6pm at the shop

Saturday and Sunday  9:45am at skate park 10am shop   12:15 skate park 12:30 at shop  2:45pm skate park 3pm at the shop.  Resevations can be made for times out side these for partys of 4 or more.

We hope to see you all on the mountain soon!

On Saturday May 23rd at 9am we will leave our shop heading for the Bull Gap parking lot to clear debies on the Bull Gap road and singletrack. The Forest Sevice will provide the tools and Ashland Mountain Adventures will provide water and cliff bars for the trail and food and beverage at the shop after the work. We hope to see some of our friends out there for a good time!

Ashland Mountain Adventures is happy to announce it’s second season of sevice to Mt. Ashland. We will begin with shuttles to and from 4 corners with drop off’s and pick up’s at Tooth Pick. We will begin our pick up’s on Saturday and Sunday at the Skate Park at 10:30am with a quick stop by our shop on Mistletoe Rd. continuing on up Tollman Creek Rd. to 4 corners
The second shuttle will be at 12:30pm on the same route and the 3rd at 2pm.
All of these set shuttle times are first come first serve. Meaning, the first to arrive and pay will then be loaded. We have a 13 passenger van so space is limited so be early! You will either need to have already purchased a punch card or have cash for these shuttles.
We also take reservation for times other than the posted set times for groups of 6 or more. For additional info call 541-499-2298