Ride Report: Oat Hill Overnighter

Last Saturday, I took my Sklar PBJ out on an overnighter in Napa County. I met with Curtis and Andrew at Wappo Park, where we left our vehicles behind around noon and climbed our way up Old Howell Mountain Road into the weird little town of Angwin.

Old Howell is a dreamy dilapidated treasure of a road; it's been blocked off to cars due to disrepair and landslides, so weeds and wildflowers grow ferociously in the broken blacktop. Angwin has a supermarket that doesn't sell booze or cigs, and their veggie meat selection is plentiful due to the inordinate presence of the Seventh Day Adventists in town. Instead of resupplying at the market, we kept riding past Angwin and up the back way into Oat Hill Mine.

Oat Hill Mine is my favorite trail system in all of Napa County. The mine itself was a quicksilver operation from its discovery in 1872 all the way through the late 1960s. This site in the Mayacamas cranked out a full third of all the mercury produced in the United States for almost a hundred years!

There aren't any dramatic mine shafts or crumbling headframes on the ride – the structures are long gone. But the wagon wheel ruts remain carved straight into the stone. Those grooves were worn by generations of heavily loaded wagons hauling ore down the mountain, and they've outlasted nearly everything else. It's a trip to ride in a groove that's been worn in stone since around the time that my great-great-grandparents were born.

The route was surprisingly hard but not too long, and we ended up at the campsite with plenty of daylight left. We had hoped for a little bit of water for a post-ride dip, but the creek was bone dry. We conserved the last of our water and spent our time climbing around on the craggy volcanic rock. We even found a geocache box with a kazoo inside, so we amused each other with some impromptu kazoo karaoke.

Dinner time! Andrew and Curtis brought burritos, chips, salsa, popcorn, and a few other snacks. I wanted to try a recipe that I'm calling Thanksgiving Feast Dip. Since I started using the Sklar Lightweight Rack, I've been able to bring along more kitchen supplies, such as a Jetboil, utensils, and bowls. Making a hot meal feels luxurious for an overnighter, and it's a fun way to pass the time. We all shared what we'd brought and ate until we were full and sleepy.

Eventually the sun set, but the half-moon in the sky was so bright that it kept us awake. I kept my eyes open as the stars appeared in the darkening sky. Then I drifted off to sleep.

In the morning, we were up with the sunrise. I was on coffee duty, so I used the last of our water supply with my Soto Helix coffee dripper and a cloth coffee filter to make a few hot cups. We split a burrito three ways, then packed up camp and hit the trail to Aetna Springs Road. The morning cruise down Aetna, up Ink Grade, and back down Howell Mountain was the perfect ending to our overnighter.

Thanks to Andrew for planning the route! This was the perfect weekend getaway with some of my favorite riding buddies.