Sierra granite weekend: Rubicon, Fordyce Creek and Dusy-Ershim

The Sierra Nevada has a short, sharp season. High passes open late spring, gate with the first snow, and the hardest granite trails sit inside a window that runs roughly July into October. Mid-August is as dependable as that window gets. This weekend's picks are the three benchmark trails on the west slope, and all of them are at the top end of the scale, so read this as a plan for an experienced group rather than a first outing.

The Rubicon Trail is the one the site's 1-to-10 scale is anchored on, and it rates a 10. Granite ledges and off-camber rock run the length of it, with Little Sluice and Cadillac Hill as the sections that set the grade. El Dorado County manages the trail. No permit is required, but the county requests self-registration and a portable toilet is required by county ordinance. Confirm with the managing agency before you go, because the county posts closures and seasonal changes.

The Rubicon's season is typically late June to October. Snow gates it either side, and even in August a cold front can leave the upper sections wet and much harder. Most groups plan two days with a night at the lake, and the trail rewards a rig that has been prepared: rocker protection, recovery points front and rear, a spare belt on a CVT machine, and the tools to fit it. Nothing about this trail is forgiving of a machine that is not ready.

Fordyce Creek Trail, in Tahoe National Forest, is the shorter and in some ways more concentrated version. It rates a 9, with numbered winch hills and a series of water crossings that set the difficulty; Winch Hill 5 is the one people talk about. The season is typically July through October, once snowmelt drops the creek to a passable level, and August is usually well inside that. No permit is generally required, but high water and seasonal closures can shut it. Confirm with the Forest Service before you go.

Water crossings are the part of Fordyce that damages machines. Check the depth on foot before you commit, keep a steady pace, and afterwards check your differential fluid and grease every joint; water contaminates a diff without any outward sign and washes grease out of pivots that then wear quietly. The capacities and grease specifications are in your service manual.

Dusy-Ershim Trail in Sierra National Forest is the long one. About 30 miles of sustained high-elevation granite, alpine meadow and boulders that most groups take two or three days to cover, rated a 9. No trail permit is generally required, though a campfire permit is typically needed and the forest posts seasonal closures. The window is short, usually July into early October, so this is the weekend to go rather than the one after. Confirm with the managing agency before you go.

Because Dusy-Ershim is a multi-day route with no bail-out roads, treat it as an expedition. Carry more fuel than the mileage suggests, because granite crawling burns far more per mile than two-track. Carry water and a filter, a full recovery kit and spares for the things that break on rock: tie rods, a belt, a tire plug kit. Agree a turnaround time with the group before you start.

On all three, the alpine meadows are the resource most at risk. Stay on the marked route, cross meadows only where the trail does, and do not widen a line to avoid a hard obstacle. Tread Lightly principles are not decoration here; the Rubicon in particular stays open because users police themselves.

If a 9 or 10 is beyond the group, the honest advice is to wait rather than to try anyway. The Sierra foothills run most of the year and there is no shortage of moderate forest road lower down. The three trails above will still be there next summer; the machines and the people in them are what a bad weekend costs.