Day Trip on the Strawberry Pass Trail
Jon and I and a group of friends took three Polaris RZR S’s, one long travel Polaris RZR and a Kawasaki Teryx up to Strawberry, CA for a day trip on the Strawberry Pass Trail. Check out all the pictures and video!
by Jon & Charlene
The weather has turned almost Fall like in the Sierra Nevadas. For the first time this season, the jackets came out of the closet, the gloves and beanies got packed into the backpacks, and the coolers were filled with water, sodas and the cylinder of warm coffee.
After an entertaining breakfast in Placerville, CA where the very nice and innocent waitress asked the wrong crowd of jokers what those “things” were out on the trailers, we headed up Highway 50 to the Strawberry Pass Trailhead.
The trail starts near the very small town of Strawberry (Population 14) on Highway 50 at about 6,000 ft. and climbs to over 8,500 ft. at the overlook. The trail then continues down to Caples Lake and Highway 88. Our goal was not only to have an exceptional day on the trail, but also to break in the new 2010 RZR S that we had received from Polaris. With only 11 miles on it to date, we needed to start putting this machine to the test. Yep, just another day at the office.
We unloaded the vehicles and all realized that we were glad we had brought our warm clothes. We geared up, loaded up and let Bob from Roggy Enterprises lead us on the trail. He was driving Sam’s 2009 Polaris RZR S that was sporting one of his brand new RZR roll cages.
Next in line was Camo from Pirate4x4.com and I the brand new 2010 Polais RZR S. After a call to Camo to see what he was doing for the day, and then quickly following it up with the opportunity to go trail riding, it wasn’t much of a surprise to see him out there testing the vehicle with us. It was also my first time in the 2010 model, so we split driving duties to get the full experience.
Jon was out in his tricked out long travel RZR, and also brought out some of his buddies that had a pretty decked out Polaris RZR S and Kawasaki Teryx.
The stock Polaris rock sliders at work
The Strawberry Pass Trail climbs up through some beautiful parts of the Sierra’s. There are a few rocky challenges, but nothing that a UTV couldn’t easily handle. The more extreme rocky sections had bypassses. The PURE Polaris Rock Slider on the RZR worked well to keep the plastic from getting scratched and cracked, but still needed some additional help with sliding. We got hung up on a rock that we could have probably glided over. The one major item that the stock RZR S was missing that the outfitted ones had was a more serious skid plate. Skid plates are a necessary addition to the vehicle that will be used for rocky trails to keep problems from arising while banging over rocks. Our favorite material for these skid plates is UHMW. It is a very dense plastic type material that can take a hit without bending permanently like aluminum, and it also slides across the rocks instead of grabbing the granite. UHMW skids are perfect for vehicles that that will be used for a lot of rock crawling.
In addition to the rocks, this trail also had a good section of fast trail and a section of pretty rough water bars. All of these terrain differences gave us the ability to really see how the RZR S performs under different conditions. “There are just miles and miles of giggles,” said Camo.
Looking out towards Kirkwood Ski Resort
After about 10 miles on the trail there is a big turnout and one of the most incredible views. The reason that you go trail riding is for moments like these. When you climb up on the rock and say “WOW!” and you don’t just say it once…but multiple times. The Sierra Nevadas are known for these moments, and this was no disappointment. We got our bearing straight with the incredible view of Kirkwood Ski Resort and Caples Lake.
After enjoying the lookout for a while, checking all of our emails, voicemails and Twittered to the world, we overruled the original plan which was to turn around and go back to the trucks. We wanted to know where the trail came out on the other side, “it goes to the bar on Hwy 88,” said Roggy. We didn’t make it all the way to the bar on Hwy 88, but we did make it to the huge CalTrans establishment about a mile shy of Hwy 88 where we took another break. (Were those CalTrans workers that were on lunch jealous to see us roll up!)
Jon's RZR on the Trail
It hadn’t rained for who knows how long, so the trail was pretty dusty. On the way up the hill, we had all taken our time, stayed out of the dust and enjoyed the scenery, the ride and stayed relatively clean. On the way down the hill it was a completely different game. The desert racers came out in us all and we were off for the races.
I took off first knowing that Camo and I didn’t have any goggles and got the RZR S going 50 mph along the slightly uphill trail. The Fox Shocks worked great through the whoops and the Maxxis Bighorn tires did great sliding through the corners. I must not have been doing to bad because it was a while before we started to hear the loud and pumped up vehicles on our tail. Amazingly, we made it all the way to the one end of the trail clean, and ended up back at the truck with the soft Sierra dust plastered onto our faces!
This was the first trip with Jon’s newly installed Holz Racing Products Stage III Polaris RZR Big Bore Kit. He was very impressed with the tuning and the horsepower. He had no problems even up to 8500 ft. elevation. The extra power was nice and the clutch modifications performed well on the rocks. “After seeing how the RZR is responding up here, I can hardly wait to try it out in the dunes!” said Jon.
Camo From Pirate4x4.com on the trail
Camo had a great day on the trail with us. His only comment was on the seats. With both of us being big people, our elbows rubbed in the middle, but if the seats had a little bit of a lip on the sides to help secure us into the seat better it may have been a bit of a more comfortable ride. The feature that surprised, yet delighted him the most was the adjustable steering wheel. “The only bad part is I could see getting rid of my crawler and getting one of these. OK, maybe not get rid of the crawler, but I could certainly see it sitting in the garage a lot more because these are a ton of fun!”
It was another excellent day on the trail. Certainly not one of the hardest trails that we have been on, but still added its own kind of fun. The RZR S is by far a joy to drive on all the terrains that we attacked and I look forward to taking it into harder opportunities to see its limits.
The Strawberry Pass Trail has been adopted by the Gold Hills Posse 4×4 Club. Please do your part to help keep this trail open – stay on designated routes and keep the trail clean.
Directions:
From Highway 50, take the 42 mile tract exit then across the bridge. This will turn into 11N19. At GPS Coordinates +38° 46′ 6.20″, -120° 6′ 37.95 (Google Maps), take 17E73.
From Highway 88, the trail is Strawberry Creek (10N13) near the Cal Trans Caples Lake Maintenance Station.
Google Maps:
- Trailhead on 42 Tract near Strawberry
- Overlook at the top of the pass
- End of the trail near Highway 88
Links:
Category: Featured, Kawasaki, Polaris, Trail Rides
Very cool, Charlene.