Distance: 45 miles one way
Elevation gain: 3330 ft
(A Best of the Best ride)
This and the Jesus Maria Road ride are the best rides in the Gold Country.
The century that explores the Gold Country is the Sierra Century, and, while I have reservations about centuries generally, this is one worth doing because 45 of its miles are great riding and a perfect introduction to the region, and the other 55 aren’t bad. Good as the route is, it’s got the inevitable stretches of mediocrity that plague all centuries, so, in keeping with the spirit of Bestrides, here is a modified version of the Sierra Century route, whittled down to the sweet stuff.
As with all Gold Country riding, the route can be ridden any time of the year, but doing it in the spring, when everything is green and blooming, doubles the pleasure. The Sierra Century used to be in the middle of summer, when temperatures on the road could easily be over 100, but it learned its lesson and is now c. April 15, which is about ideal. The route has great variety of landscape—rolling grassy foothills, burbling streams, conifer forests—and 5 small towns, each of them worth some exploring.
It’s a U-shaped course that climbs up into the Sierra, cuts across the ridges, then descends, leaving you with pleasant but not great roads to close the loop.
(To see an interactive version of the map/elevation profile, click on the ride name, upper left, wait for the new map to load, then click on the “full screen” icon, upper right.)
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/37826853
Start in the town of Ione. Stop off at Clark’s Corner, an excellent, friendly restaurant run by great boosters of cycling who deserve your business. Take the main street out of town heading north and immediately go R onto Hwy 124, a boring road that’s the worst on our route. Go R onto Sutter-Ione Rd. (I’d start the ride here if I didn’t want to give Clark’s a plug) and enjoy the rolling grassy hills, typical of the riding west of Hwy 49, that precede the more wooded stuff to come. This (along with Stony Creek Rd. to the south) is as good as the riding to the west of Hwy 49 gets, so if you don’t like it I wouldn’t do more of it. It can be brutally hot out here on a summer day, so ride it in the morning or in another season. You will do some work here—the rollers can get big and you’re gaining elevation overall.
Sutter-Ione Rd. ends at Sutter Creek, the prime tourist destination in the Gold Country. You might pause to soak in the quaint charm of the main street and/or hit the ice cream parlor on your R. Ride through town (heading south) and take Church St. to the L. It soon becomes Sutter Creek-Volcano Rd. This leg is a popular bit of riding because it’s along a pretty creek and as mellow a climb as the Gold Country has—perhaps 1000 ft in 12 miles. Try to get there before midday, when the light is still low and the broadleaves along the creek are illuminated.
In the tiny, very historical town of Volcano notice the actual phone booth on your R as you enter town (and the sign inside) and consider buying food, because I don’t know of any place with good food past Volcano until Ione. Volcano at first looks like a tiny ghost town, but within its three small blocks beats a mighty heart. In that 100 yards you’ll find two charming, refurbished old hotels, each with a very good restaurant, a friendly old-fashioned general store, two theatre stages (one indoor, one outdoor), a city park, and a very good bakery. I highly recommend (if not today, eventually) an overnight in one of the two hotels, but check on opening and closing hours for everything before you book a date: the last time I was there, one hotel’s restaurant was closed Sunday, the other hotel’s restaurant was closed Monday, and the bakery was closed Saturday.
Leaving Volcano, go R up Ram’s Horn Grade towards Daffodil Hill (signed). This is a serious 3-mile climb that’s a lot of 6-8% but never worse. At Daffodil Hill, a tourist attraction (also clearly signed), you used to be able to walk among its tens of thousands of daffodils during blooming season, but it’s been closed “indefinitely” since 2019 because it became too popular and the area couldn’t cope with the crowds.
At the intersection with Shake Ridge Rd., stay R., the road name becoming Shake Ridge Rd. Daffodil Hill looks like the top of the climb, but around the corner is a long character-builder of a climb, then a fair amount of moderate climbing, all of it doable if you know it’s coming but spirit-crushing if you think the work is done. When Fiddletown Rd. comes in from the L., you’re done with the hard climbing for the day. Take it and enjoy a wonderful, fast, easy, rollicking 10-mile descent through the prettiest of foothills foliage to Fiddletown. This is my favorite road in the Gold Country. It’s not all down—you’ll ride perhaps 10 rollers—but if you keep your speed high you can sprint up most of them. It starts out fairly steep—35-mph steep—but soon moderates, and you’ll probably pedal the last miles, which is a kind of descending I love. The scenery is the best on our loop (see photos at the end of this post). The road surface is far from perfect (this is the Gold Country), but not so as to impair your pleasure significantly.
Fiddletown itself is a very small, quaint cluster of houses and ramshackle stores that looks like a movie set of an old mining town. The local historical society is active, and they’ve prepared a walking tour with accompanying pamphlet if you want to get off your bike and explore. As far as I can tell there is no reprovisioning.
In Fiddletown we leave the 100-mile Sierra Century route and continue on the metric Sierra Century route. Stay on Fiddletown Rd. to Plymouth. It’s less wonderful than what you’ve just done, but it’s still very good. Just before Plymouth there’s a tiny, completely unexpected hill that gets up around 10% and guts you if you think all the climbing is over.
Plymouth used to be a sleepy intersection, but the wine business has exploded in the Shenandoah Valley, so money is moving is. There’s a nationally-ranked restaurant in town, Taste, if you want to get off the bike for an extended repast, and a boutique hotel, Rest, if you’re done for the day. Across the street from Taste on Main St. there used to be a wonderful foodie deli, the Amador Vintage Market, but it has folded and there is no place special I know of to eat. The coffee deli down the block from Rest has a few sandwiches, and there’s a Mexican restaurant I haven’t tried (along with a modern supermarket) a stone’s throw to the south down Jackson Rd.
My route stops here. Of course you have to get back to your car, though the roads between Plymouth and Ione vary from pleasant to tedious, so here’s a route. Ride straight on through town and Fiddletown Rd. becomes Old Sacramento Rd. The road surface on Old Sacramento is poor for a couple of miles, but it doesn’t last long and the road contour is fun. Take it till it T’s at Hwy 16. Go L on 16 (shoulder riding), then go R on Willow Creek Rd. Ride WCR until it ends at Hwy 124; turn R onto 124 and take it into Ione. If you’re planning on doing this entire loop, you might like to start in Plymouth, as the Sierra Century does, to make sure you’re doing the hottest part of the loop in the earliest part of the day.
Shortening the route: our long route includes two roads that make excellent out and backs: Sutter Creek-Volcano road, and Fiddletown Road from Fiddletown to Shake Ridge. SCV meanders sweetly along a pretty little creek, so it gets points for beauty, but the pavement is fairly rough, so the return ride is less than ideal. FR is pure joy both ways —21 miles of gorgeous scenery (see the description above). Both roads are easy to moderate pitches only, so you never suffer, and the road contour is constantly interesting.
If you want to do a bit more work, do Sutter Creek-Volcano and continue on up Ram’s Horn, then take Shake Ridge Rd. back to Sutter Creek. SRR has decidedly less interesting contour and less beautiful scenery than SCV or Fiddletown Rd., but it’s not bad.
There’s a shortcut that allows you to trim the loop by eliminating the miles connecting Plymouth to Ione and Ione to Sutter Creek if you’re willing to ride some dirt. It goes from Sutter Creek to Fiddletown (you’ll probably ride it in the other direction). Beginning as Amador Road, it leaves Hwy 49 from the north end of town and heads north for 10.2 very pretty miles of riding before ending at Fiddletown. Head north for 2 miles, at which point you intersect and cross Amador Creek Road (jogging L about 50 ft. in the process) and the road changes its name to Turner Rd. (all signed). You may see 3-4 cars in these first two miles, but after Amador Creek Road you should be alone—I saw 2 cars in the last 8 miles, out and back. Continue to a T at New Chicago Rd at 3.1 miles. Go R onto New Chicago and begin 7 miles of dirt to Fiddletown. At mile 5.3, take a sharp L onto Quartz Mt. Rd (signed). Total elevation gain 1400 ft. one way, which is a lot. The dirt is flat and well-groomed, but see below.
I used to love this route, but as of 5/22 it’s unridable unless you have huge tires, because all of Quartz Mt. Rd. is under several inches of loose, sharp new gravel. On any conventional road bike, it’s hell—no traction, no steering. I ended up walking the 10% pitches, up and down, and there are a lot of them. Perhaps in a year or so the gravel will go wherever gravel goes and Quartz Mt. will be ridable again.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/38370538
(RWGPS says Quartz Mt. Road is paved. It isn’t.)
Another way of shortening the loop is to ride Hale Rd., a charming and pretty one-lane back road with surprisingly good pavement (see photo at end of post), from Fiddletown Rd. to Shake Ridge Rd. and continue on Shake Ridge to Fiddletown Rd., then ride Fiddletown Rd. to Hale Rd. This loses you a lot of good stuff, and Hale is a workout (lots of 11-13% climbing, 1380 ft of gain in just 6.2 miles north to south), but it’s a lot shorter. It’s easy to make the Hale Rd. loop a little longer by adding the lollipop from Hale Rd. to Fiddletown (10 more miles) or Plymouth (20 more miles) on Fiddletown Rd. as an out-and-back.
A much shorter loop ride in the Sutter Creek area that includes our Sutter Creek Volcano Road leg is the Climax Road Loop: Sutter Creek to Volcano, Pine Grove Volcano Rd. to Hwy 88, R on 88, R on Climax Rd. (unsigned), straight on to Ridge Rd., R on Old Ridge Rd., R on (Old) Sutter Hill Rd. back to Sutter Hill. All of this is good (Climax Rd. is a particular favorite of mine—look for the large herd of deer that live there) except for Ridge Rd., which is lousy—busy, shoulderless, and rough of road surface—but is all downhill this way so is over quickly. Whatever route you create for yourself, don’t ride Ridge Rd. uphill. If you want to add a few nice miles to this loop, take the Pioneer Dr. spur off Climax out and back. Pioneer is signed as a private road not open to outsiders, but I can’t imagine anyone hassling you about it.
Adding miles: If you want to do a longer loop and a famous killer climb, stay on the Sierra Century 100-mile route, but I warn you: the next 24 miles are mostly tough climbing on roads that are less interesting and through country that is less scenic than what you’ve just done, with the single exception of the Bridgeport School Road described below. Here’s the route: from Fiddletown go R. onto Jibboom St. (named in keeping with Fiddletown’s nonexistent nautical heritage, no doubt), then soon L onto Tyler Rd. Cross a dangerous wooden bridge and go L on Bridgeport School Rd., a tiny below-the-radar road with a poor surface but ambience that’s more than worth the pain—one of my favorite way-back back roads in the Gold Country. At the T, go L on Cedar Creek Rd. At the T, go R on Mt. Aukum Rd. and ride through the community of Mt. Aukum, which is little more than a grocery store but a good place to reprovision. Go R. onto Fairplay Rd., soon turn L on Perry Creek Rd., and L onto Slug Gulch Rd.
Slug Gulch is a notoriously hard climb. The Sierra Century uses a slug as its logo to advertise its toughness. It’s 5.4 miles long, most of it hard. It begins with some truly steep work for a mile or so, then stairsteps up through a series of 10-12% pitches that end at a big obvious S-curve, after which the climbing is merely irritating. It’s definitely one of those accomplishments that give you bragging rights. It’s not particularly scenic, and you’ll be working too hard to see your surroundings anyway, so you can decide if the glory is worth the labor.
At the top of Slug Gulch, go R onto Omo Ranch Rd., go L on Mt. Aukum Rd., and follow Mt. Aukum back to Plymouth.
Of course all the riding around you on this route is excellent. The Clinton Road ride is just south of you. The North South Road ride is just to the northeast of you. Every other road in every direction is also good. Just make sure the road is paved, then head out.

Thanks again for yet another great ride suggestion. I rode this today and loved (nearly) all of it. The small historic towns along the way make for great stops, and the fall color is really kicking in up in the hills.
Just a note that all but “HI” is missing from the “IRISH HILL RD” sign, so if anyone tries this out in the future, make sure you keep an eye out.
Also, they look to have very recently re-paved the lane in the reverse direction in the poor pavement section of Old Sacramento Road, so hopefully the lane that this route has you taking gets repaved soon as well.
Thanks again!
Thanks for the heads-up on Old Sac Rd. I know I’m in the minority here, but if I can see what’s coming I’m not averse to riding on the wrong side of the road when it’s got the good surface.
Jay K sends the following: Let me tip you off on a better Best of Sierra Century Route. It’s basically the Sierra Century backwards with the best parts of the 120 included with the flatter parts left out. The big advantage is that you hit Slug Gulch hours earlier than on the Century course, while its cooler and there is shade. We skip the Ione section–now my riding style is most conducive to the steep rollers between Ione & Sutter Creek, but I gladly give that up for more pine forest riding.
Start at Plymouth Fairgrounds and warm up on easy rollers on Shenandoah School Road. Add the Steiner Road loop. Then take Shenandoah Rd>Mt Aukum Rd to Fairplay. Pass an Alpaca Farm. Park at @18 for water & restrooms. Then it’s straight onto Perry Creek Road, & Slug Gulch which you are hitting at mile 21. At the top is great rest stop at shaded Omo Ranch School. Hose water always available. Then a real treat is more uphill, but much more gentle than Slug Gulch–11 miles through the El Dorado National Forest. Some great scenery toward the end.
Eventually you get to Highway 88–you go UP about a 1/4 mile and have a great lunch on the outdoor deck at Cook Station. From here on in the ride is generally downhill. You start 4 miles downhill on hwy 88. I’m not a good descender and I never had a problem going down 88 (which the Sierra Century 120 also does) –turning on Shake Ridge Road. Shake Ridge Road riding is also a treat through more heavily shaded pine road.
At the Fiddletown Road cutoff, for anyone wanting to do a metric it’s back on that “E ticket” road to Plymouth. For anyone wanting to do a century it’s on to Daffodil Hill and down Shake Ridge Road (as you note, Volcano Road is a bit bumpy, and with the falling rocks on the hill side, Shake Ridge is a much better option for a downhill.) At Sutter Creek there are restrooms/ water behind the muni-building, and then it’s up to Volcano-Rams Horn Grade***, and then to Fiddletown. We’ve sometimes added more climbing leaving Fiddletown on Ostrum Road–or straight back if it’s running late. (***An alternative to Rams Horn is Charleston Grade which is only recommended for excellent climbers.)
Smooth roads, little traffic, few traffic controls, real bathroom and food possibilities, unique western towns and views in the El Dorado National Forest–what’s not to like. Ride report and photos here
http://pumpkincycle2008.blogspot.com/2012/09/self-supported-sierra-century-reverse.html
On a short visit from Vancouver Island Canada, we just discovered your great website. We came equipped with mountain bikes looking for easy and scenic single tracks, but discovered Jay’s ride site. We thought of doing the Sierra Century loop backwards, but shortly after Plymouth, a big sign announced that the Shake Ridge road was closed. So we turned down the Quartz Mountain road and cycled to Amador and back. We had no problems with the mountain bikes, but I would not attempt this on a road bike. I would certainly not call this very rideable gravel. There are very steep and very rough and loose sections, some parts are reasonably smooth, but overall it is a rough road. Also, the Fiddletown road from Plymouth to Fiddletown was very busy. We encountered a fairy steady stream of traffic (3 – 4 cars per minute in both directions) , a couple of drivers quite aggressive and impatient where they had to wait behind a blind curve. Today was Good Friday, so maybe there is more traffic, but some drivers were not in a Good Friday spirit. If you come down this section, you’ll go fast and it may not be a big problem, but it’s not quite the peaceful country road I’d expected. Loved the bakery at Amador.
I rode this yesterday and did a full loop. I continued west of Plymouth on Old Sacramento Rd., to CA-SR 16, to Irish Hill Rd. and then back to Ione. This ride was scenic and I only encountered about 3-5 cars on 10-mi. stretches. Some sections had rough roads, but overall they were great. There’s one diner to eat at on the way to Plymouth. I waited till Plymouth to eat lunch and ate at Amador Vintage Market. They have outdoor seating.
Not sure what you mean by “one diner to eat at,” but there are places to eat in Ione, Sutter Creek, and Volcano.
Thank you for yet another amazing ride. We did a short version, starting at Sutter Creek and ending in Plymouth, at the Amador Brewing Company. After a beverage, one of us took LYFT back to Sutter Creek to get the vehicle. The Fall colors were spectacular, the weather perfect, and the ride down Fiddletown Road was a blissful rush.
Thanks for another great ride, Jay! I rode the loop on my gravel bike to Fiddletown and then returned to Sutter’s Creek via Quartz Mountain/New Chicago/Turner Road. Pretty much a perfect ride!