Distance: 18.3 out and back
Elevation gain: 1680 ft

This is a fairly generic ride—pleasant rolling along a wide, well-surfaced two-lane road past a long grassy meadow, then up and over a noticeable hill through nice, unremarkable Norcal forest. Well worth doing if you’re in the area, not worth driving out of your way to do. It has two selling points: it’s only 8 miles off Hwy 5, so it makes for a nice break in the drive if you’re traveling between Oregon and lower California, and it has one striking vista, of Mt. Shasta looming over the meadow (see photos below). It’s a short ride with a moderate work load (3 miles of moderate climbing), but you can keep riding beyond our turn-around point if you want more miles (see Adding Miles).

Drive to the small town of McCloud and park on Squaw Valley Rd., a road whose name is surely not long for this world. This being a real rural small town, there is plenty of dirt shoulder. Ride 9.1 miles to Lake McCloud; return.

The first 5 miles are along a long, pretty meadow that was still mostly green when I rode it in mid-August. The road is basically straight and imperceptibly downhill, so it’s an easy warm-up.

When the meadow ends, you enter solld Norcal forest and you do the one hill, 1.5 miles at a noticeable pitch (6-8%), then a nice 1.5-mile descent (again, 6-8%) to the lake.

Typically in a ride to a lake the lake itself is the high point, but Lake McCloud is the ugliest lake I’ve ever seen, so arriving there isn’t uplifting.

At the lake the road forks, and each fork follows one of the lake’s shorelines. The L fork (east side of the lake) immediately turns to well-maintained dirt and is blocked by a gate and a sign reading “road closed.” I didn’t ride it but it looks inviting, for dirt. The R fork (west side of the lake) remains paved and immediately climbs for a mile, then returns to the lake shore. I did a couple of miles, none of it remarkable, and turned around. I got no views of the lake, but you wouldn’t want them anyway. According to street view the road continues to the southern end of the lake on sketchy pavement, then crosses the dam and rejoins the east-shore dirt road, which continues south for miles and connects to an endless warren of other dirt roads.

The ride back to McCloud is as you would expect—1.5 miles of moderate climbing, 1.5 miles of nice descending, then an imperceptible climb along the meadow—with one lovely surprise: When you get to the meadow you see that, unbeknownst to you on the ride out, Mt. Shasta has been dramatically dominating the skyline to the north. Enjoy the view and return to your car. By the way, halfway down the descent on the return ride is the mother of all cattle guards, which you’ll hit at 35 mph if you don’t see it coming, which you don’t want to do.

Shortening the ride: for a completely effortless outing, ride to the end of the meadow and turn around.

Adding miles: Ride to the dam at the southern end of the lake (4.3 miles from the turn-around one way, 1 mile of climbing) . Add as much of the dirt road continuing south as you wish. It’s all pretty much the same.