Auburn Trifecta - Make sure you're prepared when you divert down a mystery trail

I got out for a nice long ride yesterday. I had the day off and I packed my jersey with food and carried three water bottles. It's nice to do one extra long ride a week. I parked at the trail head of the Stagecoach trail. I rode that down to the confluence and then I started the Clementine Loop and climbed up. Once at the top, instead of finishing the Clementine Loop, I got on the connector trail and hooked up with the Forresthill Divide Loop. Once I finished that entire loop, which is one of my favorite rides by itself, I went down the rest of the Clementine Loop. This would be a lot more fun on a big travel bike with all the jumps that have been built there. Once at the bottom of the confluence again I climbed up stagecoach but went up the super steep section just under the Forresthill Bridge. It was so steep I had to kiss my handlebars to keep from doing a wheelie and falling over backwards. then I hooked up with the Mossy Oak trail which brought me back to Stagecoach. Then I got on the Manzanita trail and I must have missed a turn and ended up further away from my car at some ranger station and had to ride up the road to get back to my car. So my extra long ride full of climbs become even longer with more climbing. But I made it back to my car before I was too delirious. All these trails can be found on motionbased.com or most NorCal mountain bike guide books.

So lesson learned, don't take mystery trail unless you have time & water for a possible adventure. Also make sure Burt Reynolds is around with a bow just in case you hear some banjo pickin'