(Note 9/21: The Dixie Fire in the summer of 2021 devastated the area north of Chester.  Expect near-total vegetation loss on these rides. See photos at the end of this post. All other photos are pre-burn.  JR)

There are three similar roads that run due north from Chester.  They’re all short—in each case after 6-13 miles the road turns to gravel.  They’re all fairly easy steady ups, featuring mellow climbing through what once was forest and is now bare ground and black tree trunks. 

One’s immediate reaction to fire damage is to assume that the ride is ruined.  Not so.  I actually find riding through burns to be rewarding in unexpected ways.  For one thing, you can see the lay of the land more clearly.  For another, you can see the road contour more clearly as it stretches before you.  Look at the two photos at the end of this post to see what I mean. For a third, the fire tends to shut down all commercial activity in the area, so the road tends to be deserted.  

Even before the burn, these were “best in the area” rides—not great, but worth doing if you’re at Lake Almanor and want to ride.   I can’t say which is the best, so I’ll list their differences and let you decide:

Warner Valley Road is the longest, widest, busiest (or it was before the fire), and easiest, and it has by far the best road surface—pure glass until a few frost heaves in the last 2 miles.

Juniper Lake Road is the steepest and curviest (and thus my favorite).  The road surface is far from perfect but not problematic with fat tires.

Road 10 (that’s its only name) is the narrowest, it has the longest, most extended descent, and it’s by far the most isolated.  Do this one if you like narrow roads and solitude.

WVR and JLR touch, so combining them into one ride is a natural.  Combining either with Road 10 would require riding an easy 5 miles (one way) through some beautiful, interesting north Lake Almanor shoreline.

Warner Valley Road

Distance: 26 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 1100 ft

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Distance:  18 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 1460 ft

At last count there were 2,347 roads on the West Coast named Mill Creek Road. Bestrides has three: this one, Mill Creek Road #2 by Fremont, and the Wine Country one in the Adding Miles section of the Pine Flat Road ride.   All three are super-sweet little rides.

This one is Just down the road from Lassen Park, in Mineral, CA.  It’s a thoroughly charming back road that in 9 miles manages to pack in a lovely mountain meadow, a mild 1-mile climb through piney woods, a 2-mile slaloming descent that’s as sweet as cotton candy, and a flat ride along a creek.  Then you get to do all those things in reverse.  The climbing is consistently 5%-ish, just steep enough to make you say, “Wow, I’m climbing strong today!,” the scenery is prime throughout, the road surface is glass, and there is no traffic.  I’m not making this up.  Midway there’s a classic mountain store, like something straight out of Jeremiah Johnson.

(Ignore the map’s pitch numbers on the long climb/descent. It’s c. 7%.)

Mill Creek Rd. goes from the town of Mineral westward to Mill Creek and north along Mill Creek to a dead end at Highway 36/89.  The only road signs say “Mill Creek” or “California 172 East,” but there is no other substantial road leaving Mineral other than the highway you drove in on.  Ride to (signed) Mineral Summit and down the other side to the Mill Creek Resort, a classic low-brow Northern California cabins-and-store complex, where you can get food and water if you’ve managed to run out of supplies in 5 miles.

Mineral meadow

From the Resort you ride along Mill Creek, as I promised, but the fact is you’re 100 yards from the creek and you can’t see the water from the road, so you’re riding through merely pretty mountain meadows.  To get your creek fix, there is a dirt turn-out about 1.5 miles from the turn-around where a very short (40 yards) dirt road blocked to cars by a row of large boulders goes down to the water.  For more extended creek exploring, if you’re on a gravel bike, a dirt road to Hole in the Ground Campground (clearly signed) takes off downstream just south of Mill Creek Resort.

On the return route the climb is about twice as long but the same invigorating 3-5%.

The route rides equally well from either end.

I like this ride as an out and back, because I love both of the climbs and the descents, but you can loop it with good results.  When Mill Creek Rd. dead-ends at Hwy 36/89, turn left and ride 36/89 back to Mineral.  You’ll slog up to Morgan Summit, then have a very fast descent back down to town.  You’ll see plenty of traffic, and I don’t find the grind up to Morgan Summit at all rewarding, but if you live for fast, straight descents this is your route.

Shortening the route: Ride to Mill Creek Resort and turn around.

Mill Creek valley meadow

Adding miles: Since this ride is short, you may well want to combine it with another ride in the area.  Luckily you have good options.  At Morgan Summit you ride past the R turn onto the Lassen Park Road and our Lassen National Park ride.  In fact, where I come from a popular way to ride Lassen Park is to begin with Mill Creek Rd., ride to the Park road summit, and turn around.  Personally, I find the leg from Morgan Summit to the Visitor Center tedious, and I hate to give up the leg from the park road summit to Summit Lake, so I would drive to the Center and ride from there.

You’re about 30 minutes by car from the Chester Back Roads rides, and about half that distance to the turn-around of the Highway 32 Canyons ride.

Afterthoughts:  Mineral has a very large motel/store complex for such a tiny town (since it’s a southern gateway to Lassen National Park), so you can resupply at what the signage tells you is the Mineral Lodge Motel Restaurant Cabins Gift and Ski Shop Country Store Saloon Cafe Liquors Ice.  I’m not kidding.  Fancy lodgings and food can now be had five minutes away at the new Highland Ranch Resort at Child’s Meadows (“Luxury in the Forest” is their motto).

Distance: 56 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 5180 ft

A Best of the Best ride

(Note: In 2021 the Dixie Fire burned much of the park east of the main road.  Damage was severe.)

This is a typical National Park ride—one and only one paved road, running straight through the heart of the park, and it’s grand and expansive and mighty.  Lassen Peak itself isn’t postcard pretty like Shasta or Hood, and the scenery isn’t as in-your-face stunning as Yosemite or the Grand Canyon, but it’s one of my favorite California rides.  The road contour is excellent, the surface is nearly flawless, and great vistas are around every corner.  And since it lacks the roadside waterfalls and dramatic chasms, it’s one of the least-attended of our National Parks, so the traffic can be downright light on a weekday or in spring or fall.   There is no flat here, so you’ll be climbing for 28 miles, but it’s all moderate, 4-6% stuff.  Perks include a good Visitor Center at one end of the ride, lots of history, geothermic activity, a nice mountain lake halfway in, and a photogenic pond and store at the turn-around.  Check Afterthoughts for a way to avoid the traffic.

A reader tells me the road has recently been re-chipsealed, which may be good or bad depending on the chipsealing.

Lassen is a National Park, and they charge standard NP fees.  If you have an annual pass or a geezer’s lifetime pass (like me), remember to bring it and photo ID (that’s the part I always forget).   Some rangers don’t charge entrance fees for bikes, but you can’t count on it.

By the way, you don’t get to ride to the top of the mountain.  You ride through a little pass between Lassen and a small bump next to it, 2000 ft below the Lassen summit.

Start at the southern entrance Visitor Center.   The Center has great bathrooms (open early in the morning when the Center itself hasn’t opened yet), interesting displays (there are 4 kinds of volcanos—I can never remember any of their names), friendly people, and a good food counter than does smoothies, hot dishes, and the like.  There’s a prize for anyone who can remember the Center’s Indian name, a prize yet to be claimed.

The hairpins, with the usual Lassen traffic

Ride up an uninterrupted seven-mile moderate climb.  Keep noticing what’s around you—that’s why you’re here.  You’ll pass some mud pots at the first bend in the road.  They’re worth a stop.

Seven miles in brings you to the parking lot for the trail to the mountain’s top.  Stop and watch the line of hikers work their way up the mountain.  Immediately after the trailhead is the unmissable road summit.  There’s a sign reading “Elevation 8,511 ft.” (only after the snow clears).

Now is a good time to think about how much climbing you want to do.  It’s 21 more miles of almost uninterrupted descending to the turn-around point at Manzanita Lake, so it’s 21 easy-to-moderately-challenging miles of climbing back out.  The riding gets a little less marvelous the farther in you go: wonderful from the summit to Summit Lake, good from Summit Lake to the Devastated Area (including the best views of the mountain itself), less good thereafter.   The further you go, the shallower the descending, so coming back out the climbing gets steeper as you approach the summit: easy to Summit Lake, moderate to King’s Creek, moderately challenging in the last 4 miles (mostly thanks to the elevation).  There are 6070 ft of climbing for the entire ride, which is a not insignificant total for 56 miles.  I’m not trying to talk you out of it—just know your limits and don’t say I didn’t warn you.  After all, 23 miles at 7 mph is 3+ hours of continuous climbing.

Assuming you decide to continue on north past the summit, the 4-mile descent that follows is full of big, sweeping curves you can take at speed AFTER the first two switch-backs, which come early in the descent and are very tight.   Once my riding buddy shot off the road and ended up face down in the snowbank on the first one.  Some of the best vistas are along this stretch of road, but you can gawk at them on the return ride, when you’re doing 6 mph.  Five miles down the mountain, the road goes nearly flat, you pass the lovely King’s Meadow, and then see parked cars on your R—they’re there to see King’s Creek cascades, which you must stop and see if you’re into tumbling water.

Morning mist starting the climb to the summit

The next likely stop is the grossly misnamed Summit Lake.  There MAY be water here (check at the Visitor Center), but there are certainly campgrounds, bathrooms, and a sweet little lake (hardly more than a pond) to meditate by before getting back in the saddle.

The Devastated Area (so-called because the Lassen eruption devastated the surrounding forest) is a parking lot, a bathroom, and no water.

Our turn-around point, Manzanita Lake, is a lovely spot well worth the effort to get there.  There’s a little museum and a nice store (in the summer—again, ask before riding if you’re planning on resupplying),  a flat hiking trail that circumnavigates the Lake if you want to take a short, effortless stroll, and a tree-identification loop.  For bliss, rent a canoe or kayak and paddle around the lake.

Ride back the way you came.  The large lake you see in the distance as you ride from Summit Lake to King’s Creek is Almanor.  As you near the 8500-ft summit, there’s a handy “8000 ft elevation” sign telling you you’re close (only after the snow is cleared).  From the summit it’s a wonderful 7-mile curvy descent back to the Visitor Center (if the cars stay out of your way).  Watch for gusty winds, especially around the sharp right-handers.

King’s Creek meadow with Lassen in background

Not a lush landscape

I’ve mapped the ride so it begins at the southern end of the road, but the ride works equally well beginning from the north end.

Just to summarize: there are bathrooms at the Sulphur Works, the summit trailhead, Summit Lake, and          Manzanita   Lake,  but no guaranteed water at any of them.  If you’re riding in spring when the road has been plowed, you may be looking at 56 miles with no water re-supply.

Shortening the route:  The first obvious turn-around spot is the summit—from there, there is nothing ahead of you that’s any better than what you’ve done (or will do on the returning descent).  The descent from the summit to King’s Creek is quite good, and I usually go that far past the summit (5 more miles) and turn around there.

There are two more natural turn-around points between King’s Creek and Manzanita Lake: Summit Lake (despite the name, 9 miles past the summit, and not spectacularly pretty) and the Devastated Area trailhead (19 miles past the summit).   Except for Manzanita Lake itself, which is perfectly charming, the riding gets less interesting the further you go.

Adding miles: There is no other riding in the Park.  From Manzanita Lake you can ride north out of the Park and as far down the highway as you like.  It’s a straight road on a very open, barren landscape with its own sort of beauty.  Seven miles from the Visitor Center you have the Mill Creek Road ride.   The Warner Valley Road ride is 25 miles down the road.

Lots of people ride Lassen Park from Morgan Summit (not really a summit, but rather a saddle), where Lassen Peak Highway, the road through the Park, takes off from  Highway 36/89.  There’s a large snowpark parking lot there and bathrooms.  This adds a 7-mile moderate, straight, boring climb to the beginning of the route, or 14 miles to the out and back.   Some people start with our Mill Creek Road ride.  This adds about 40 miles to the out and back (so most people who start with Mill Creek Rd. turn around at the summit.)

Afterthoughts: Summit Lake is Ground Zero for mosquitos.  Bring repellent.  The last time I did the ride, I forgot, and, on the brink of hysteria, had to beg repellent from a camper.

Always get the official word at the Visitor Center about the availability of supplies on the ride before heading out.  Ask specifically: is there water at Summit Lake?  Is there water at Manzanita Lake?  Is the store at Manzanita open?  It can be hard to get trustworthy answers to these questions.

The Park road is closed by snow in the winter, and the snow lasts longer than most flat-landers can believe.  Before the drought it was common to have piles of snow alongside the road in July.  Call the Park Service for an update if there’s a chance it’s closed.

In 2014, the Park began an annual program where they open the road only to bikes and walkers for two days, one day in the early summer soon after the road is clear of snow and one day in the fall.  The date is determined by the snow level, so you just have to watch the Lassen website/Facebook page and be ready to go with 2 weeks notice.  I’m told that the Park Service takes heat from angry motorists about the closures, so, if you want the closures to continue, go to the Lassen website or Facebook page and add a comment telling them they’re a swell idea and you’re grateful as hell.  The early ride is usually before Park water sources are functioning, so the Rangers thoughtfully put water thermoses in the Lassen Trail parking lot.  Don’t assume they’re there.

This carless thing isn’t an obvious win.  You’re swapping out the chance to ride with 20 cars for the chance to ride with 400 cyclists.   The last time I did it, it was a zoo and I felt seriously at risk from inattentive pedalers.

The park’s official name is Lassen Volcanic National Park.

Distance: 73-mile lollipop
Elevation gain: 5531 ft

This ride samples a network of little roads in an area roughly bounded by Cottonwood CA, Redding, highway 299, Round Mountain, and Shingletown.  I think this route is the best of them.  The scenery is California Valley foothill and low forest, with a nice mountain town at the halfway point, good views of Mt. Shasta, and one bonus feature: 10 miles of the finest rock wall I’ve ever seen.

This area can be very hot in the summer, and most of our route is in full sun.  Luckily, even though you’re riding through only one town, water opportunities are fairly plentiful, because this is corner market country.  Water is available at the intersection of Gover and Ash Creek (a river “resort” in a manufactured building), Manton (a bar), Shingletown, and the intersection of Hwy 44 and Black Butte Rd (a quickie mart and a deli).  If you ride Ponderosa, there’s a delightful country store with a gumball machine made from a gas pump in Whitmore.  There’s nothing at Millville, if you go home that way.

Most of this route is covered by the Anderson Century and the Lassen Foothills Century (aka the Give Me Wings Century), both excellent introductions to the area.

From Highway 5 just north of Red Bluff, take the Jelly’s Ferry Road exit (see, the fun has already started) and drive on Jelly’s Ferry Rd until it crosses the Sacramento River.  Park in the large dirt parking area on the far side of the bridge.  Continue north on Jelly’s Ferry on your bike.  (By the time you get to Ash Creek Road, Jelly’s Ferry has changed its name to Gover Road.)  Turn R on Ash Creek Rd.  The road surface is at first disappointing but it gets better.  Turn R on Wildcat Road.

The waller’s art

You may ride any of the other roads in this area or not as you will, but you must not miss Ash Creek and Wildcat, because along these roads you’ll find the thing that makes this ride extraordinary: the Wall.  For ten incredible miles, the most beautiful stone wall I’ve ever seen runs along one or both sides of the road.  As you ride, appreciate the unimaginable craftsmanship and labor the waller put into this masterpiece (yes, an artisan who builds a wall is called a waller).   And imagine the wealth of the person who paid for it all.  The riding is all very moderate climbing.   The terrain is classic grass and oak foothills, a perfect backdrop for a rock wall.  Note the views of Mt. Shasta to the north.

At the top of Wildcat Rd. you hit an unsigned T.   Left is Black Butte Road, which we’ll do in the other direction on our return route.  Go R (which is still called Wildcat Rd.) to a most wonderful, unexpected descent.  It’s a very fast, all-too-short slalom course on a wide-open, big two-lane road with a glassy surface, and you can take some chances because the traffic is next to nonexistent.  It dumps you out on Manton Road, a big, straight, monotonous two-lane.  Turn L and do a tedious slog to Manton, an intersection with a bar and grill (live music on Saturday nights, believe it or not).  Go L up Wilson Hill Road and prepare yourself for a prettily wooded by truly demanding 2.5-mile climb to Shingletown.  Mapmyride reports a pretty intimidating 5500 feet of gain for this ride, but I frankly don’t know where it is—these 2.5 miles are the only place where you’ll work.  If you want to avoid steep pitches you can turn L onto Black Butte Rd. earlier, and the 2.5 mile climb up Wilson Hill to Shingletown becomes 8 miles of tedious but only moderately steep grinding up the shoulder of busy Highway 44.  I wouldn’t.

Ponderosa Way is small

Shingletown is a pleasant, typical largish Northern California mountain community, population 2300, with a big grocery store and a restaurant or two.   The place is hip enough to sell wines from Manton.

From Shingletown, ride down Hwy 44 to Black Butte Road.  It’s fast, straight, heavily trafficked, and not particularly fun.  Go L onto Black Butte and ride back to Wildcat.  BBR is fairly well built up with unobtrusive houses and is more brush than forest, and it’s mostly rollers, some of which are tons of fun and some of which are work.  From Wildcat, return along your outbound route.

Shortening the route: Obviously the prime miles are Ash Creek/Wildcat, along the wall.  After that, if I wanted a shorter ride I would actually ride off the route, on the side trip along Ponderosa Way/Fern Rd. East/Oak-Run- to-Fern Rd recommended in Adding Miles just below.

Mt. Shasta is visible whenever the sightlines open up in this area

Adding miles:  The next-best route in the area is much more of an adventure: Ponderosa Way/Fern Rd. East/Oak-Run- to-Fern Rd, a series of three end-to-end roads that are small, wild, woolly, and largely deserted.  The last time I rode Ponderosa Way I saw 3 vehicles in 13 miles.  So come prepared to take care of yourself.  Ride the route until you’re tired, then take any of the three roads that peel off to the L and descend to the valley—Whitmore Rd., Oak Run, or Hwy 299, in the order in which you come to them.  Of course then you have to get back up to Ponderosa Way.   Here’s a possible loop incorporating those roads.  You can extend the adventure by continuing past Oak-Run-to-Fern Rd. on very back roads to Round Mountain, which I haven’t done.  To minimize the mileage total, ride Ponderosa Way and its extensions as an out and back.

Ponderosa Way is work because you’re riding across the ridges that run down to the valley—it has about 8 miles of 6-10% rollers.  The road surface throughout is surprising good for such unused roads (that is to say, it’s OK).

You’re a few short miles away from the Igo-Ono ride, just on the other side of Hwy 5.

Distance: 67 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 5690 ft

(A Best of the Best ride)

(Note: Some of the recent forest fires hit this area hard.  Damage to this actual route varies from non-existent to infrequent devastation.  I didn’t find the pleasure of the ride significantly reduced.  JR)

This is an out and back from a spot in the middle of a country road to the tiny town/store of Platina (pluh TIE nuh).  So why is it called the Igo-Ono Ride?  Because it goes through the tiny town of Ono, and the tiny town of Igo is one mile off the route, and it’s just tons of fun to say “Igo-Ono.”  “Halfway down Gas Point Road to Platina” just doesn’t have that ring.

This is a perfect ride, with non-stop pleasant climbing and descending, grand vistas, next to no traffic, a classic country grocery store, several photogenic barns, and not one unrewarding mile.  It lacks that big Selling Point—no redwoods, no waterfalls, no world-class descents—but the road contour is charming enough to earn Best of the Best status.

The road is unchanging wide two-lane without shoulder, but since there is almost no traffic (5 cars in 32 miles on my last outing) you have the road to yourself.  The pavement is mostly good, with some poor miles, but nothing bad enough to interfere with your riding pleasure.  There are no unending climbs or anything steeper than c. 7%, but there isn’t a flat mile, so the overall effort is substantial—note the elevation total above (5690 ft), which isn’t backbreaking but isn’t insignificant either..

The landscape is grassy rolling hills sprinkled with oaks and horse farms—nothing world-changing but very pretty in its way, especially if you can avoid summer when the grass is brown.  My last outing was in February 2025, when a warm winter had the grasses lush and green and a recent cold precipitation had the hillsides covered in a light layer of snow—beautiful.

There is no water resupply on this route other than the Platina Store, and my sources say the Platina Store is now permanently closed, in which case you’ll be riding 67miles without resupply.  On a hot day you might consider carrying a third water bottle and dropping one on the ride out.

Don’t try this ride on a summer day unless you start around 6 am.  The Redding area regularly sees 100+ degrees in the summer, and this ride is largely without shade.

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Distance:  c. 35 miles, two out-and-backs
Elevation gain: c. 4800 ft

These two climbs and several other good rides in Siskiyou County are mapped at www.CycleSiskiyou.com.

This is the prime 35 miles of the Shasta Summit Century.  It consists of two excellent out-and-back climbs through typical NorCal landscapes, and nothing else.  The two roads are quite different.  The first is a mild ascent and descent through a rocky, open canyon along a tumbling stream.  The second is tougher climbing and faster descending through (mostly) a wall of greenery on both sides.  I prefer the scenery on the first climb and the descent on the second.  Both climbs are mellow pitches, with only one two-mile stretch that flirts with 8%.  Neither climb is actually on Mt. Shasta, by the way—”Mt. Shasta” in our title refers to the town the climbs start from, not the mountain, which is on the other side of town.  There is a road that goes partway up the mountain, but it’s deadly boring riding.

From your parking spot, there is water a short ride down Barr in the other direction.  At the corner of W. A. Barr and Siskiyou Lake Blvd, you will see tennis courts, and there are water fountains along the fence perimeter.

Begin at the intersection of W. A. Barr Road and Castle Lake Scenic Drive.  Ride up W. A. Barr Road (which changes its name to South Fork Rd. about the time it starts climbing) as long as you wish to (hence the vagueness in the distance and elevation gain figures above—I just picked a random spot along the road when I mapped).  Around 14 miles in, you get to a summit and an intersection at the Gumboot Trailhead (there’s a large sign.  Gumboot Lake, no relation, is actually briefly visible off to your L as you near the summit).

You can actually keep riding past the summit (see Adding Miles), but South Fork Rd. is best in its first half, which is all paralleling a charming, tumbling, rocky stream (in fact, the headwaters of the Sacramento River) at a consistently mellow pitch.  When it leaves the stream, it gets a bit steeper (though never steep), a bit narrower, a bit straighter, a bit rougher, and a bit less interesting.  As long as you’re riding in the creek canyon, the terrain is creek boulders on one side and rock cuts on the other, very pretty in its way.  Since SFR gets less appealing as it goes up, you can turn around as soon as you sense the magic is gone and enjoy the fine descent back to the car.

Typical lower-half W. A. Barr Road: baby Sacramento River on left, rocks on right

Back at the car, ride up Castle Lake Scenic Drive until the roads ends at Castle Lake (7 miles one way).   The first 2 miles are work—a steady 8%, the hardest work you’ll do on the route—and the scenery is just green walls on either side.  After that, the pitch mellows considerably, and towards the end you get open vistas with nice views of Mt. Shasta to the east.

Castle Lake is a lovely little natural lake with a campground and picnic tables by the water, a perfect place for dallying and cooling your toes, but no services besides an outhouse (no water). When your inner peace is topped up, turn around and enjoy the descent, even better than South Fork Rd., back to your car.  It’s very fast—you can top 40 mph in places.

Castle Lake Road near the top

Of course you could do this as a part of the organized century, and that way you’d get fed.  But two bad things would happen: 1) you’d have to ride up the Mt. Shasta road  (officially the Everitt Memorial Highway), a 13-mile, essentially straight climb of unvarying pitch and bland scenery that’s laborious and boring.   Then on the descent you just sit on the bike at 40 mph and read a book.  Some people love that sort of thing.   I don’t.  2) The descents of South Fork Rd. and Castle Rds. would be thronged with cyclists riding up, chatting and weaving all over the road, and your descending line and your peace of mind would be constantly interfered with.   It’s worse than car traffic.  At least cars usually stay on their side of the road.

Shortening the route: Obviously, just do one climb—do you prefer rocky creek canyon or mountain vistas and a lake?

Grand views of Mt. Shasta along Edgewood Road

Adding miles: There’s a lot of good riding around this ride.  The part of the Sierra Summit Century route we haven’t discussed, which runs on back roads north through the valley they share with Highway 5, is perfectly pleasant mountain valley rollers past meadows, lakes, and farms, with frequent grand views of Mt. Shasta.  There are several alternate routes, but a good one is, begin at the intersection of N. Old Stage Road and Hatchery Road; ride north on Old Stage until it ends (it does some turning and jogging); go R under Hwy 5 and take the immediate R onto Edgewood (the large road sign reads “Edgewood” and points L—go R anyway); when Edgewood ends, go L onto N. Weed (don’t go under Hwy 5) and follow N. Weed through the town of Weed and out the other side, going under Hwy 5, and take the immediate R onto College; when College deadends at N. Old Stage Road, go R on Old Stage and return to your car (about 30 miles).

If you keep riding south on Old Stage Rd, then go L on Mott, and straight onto Dunsmuir Ave., you can ride all the way to Dunsmuir, the next town to the south, which would give you about 50 miles of mellow mountain valley rollers.  Past Dunsmuir the route gets difficult to follow and generally unrewarding.

There’s also a climb at the northern end of the valley loop, up Stewart Springs Rd., on what’s known as the Mt. Shasta Century Super-Century route, for those who want 10 more miles of challenging climbing.  The road has a nice profile, nice scenery, and new pavement, but unfortunately the pavement is a moderately rough chipseal.

View from Hwy 26 past the summit

You can continue up South Fork Rd. It crosses the obvious summit, begins to descend, then goes up and down along the sidehill, with fine vistas along the way, until it dead-ends into Ramshorn Rd. (totally unmarked).  Go L on Ramshorn (going R turns to dirt instantly) and do a steep, rough descent to Castle Crags State Park and the intersection with Hwy 5 (by which time the road has changed its name to Castle Creek Rd.); then work your way back to Mt. Shasta via frontage roads.  This last leg is continuously confusing and  poorly signed, so carry a thoroughly detailed route sheet with you.  It’s not a loop I recommend—the big descent is so rough you suffer it rather than ride it, and the leg from Castle Crags to home is grindingly, lengthily uphill.  You can find details of the route on the Castle Crags Century website or on www.CycleSiskiyou.com.  Bring your legs—I recorded 55 miles and 6700 ft of vert on the loop.

Distance: 100-mile loop
Elevation gain: 10,570 ft (RWGPS)

(A Best of the Best ride)

This one is special.  It’s almost unknown, so you feel privileged and in on something, and the isolation is nearly absolute.  I found out about it in the best possible way: a friend told me about his favorite, secret ride.  It starts and ends in Etna, a tiny town with vitality, charm, cheap lodging, and its own excellent brewery.  The roads are mostly tiny and deserted—on the return leg of the loop, I rode for two hours before I saw a vehicle.  Yet the road surface is very good.  (I don’t know why—no car ever uses it.)   The scenery is grand California mountain primeval.  One of the 10 best rides in California, without a doubt.  The logistics are tricky, because services are sparse—for more on that, see Route Options later.

You can ride the loop in either direction—the only difference is that in one direction the big climb is relatively moderate in pitch (up to 10%) and in the other it’s much harder (up to 14%).  I’ve mapped it counterclockwise, to avoid the killer hill.

Leave Etna on Sawyer’s Bar Rd. and ride to Forks of Salmon.  You’ll do a pretty big climb on a pretty straight road, but past the summit the road gets smaller, prettier, and windier and stays that way.  The drop down the back side touches 18%, so if you love steep climbs you’ll want to ride the loop in the other direction.   At Forks of Salmon (just an intersection—no services), turn left and take Cecilville Rd. to Callahan.

The return ride repeats the profile of the ride out in reverse—gradual climbing on a winding, very narrow road through a dramatic river canyon, ending in a long, moderate climb to the top of the ridge, then a long fast descent to Scott Valley.  You come out in Callahan, not quite a ghost town—it has a functioning mercantile for resupply (or did when I was there) and a hotel I don’t think is in operation.

Leaving Callahan, don’t take the big straight highway back to Etna—take the back road, East Callahan Rd., paralleling the highway north.  Take the Horn Lane connector L  to return to Etna.  East Callahan Rd. is a moderately interesting, rolling road just up the sidehill from the flat valley,  but it’s not in the same class as the rest of the ride, and I only include it because you have to get back to our car.  it’s shadeless, so it can get brutally hot on summer afternoons.  If someone can pick you up in Callahan, so much the better.

Early morning, leaving Forks of Salmon

Route  Options: This ride is a long, hard day—100 miles, 10,000 ft of climbing.  There is no lodging on the route, and there is water/food only at Cecilville (where there’s a little store, with a wonderful cooler of soft drinks sold on the honor system even when the store is closed), Callahan (a very small town), and Etna.  All of which means, if you ride the route you have to get from Etna to Cecilville self-supported.   Even houses are very rare out here.  One solution is to do the ride in two days—either ride loaded or talk someone into sagging the ride for you—and camping near Forks of Salmon.  There are creekside campgrounds in the first miles of Cecilville Rd.  The campground I prefer is oddly named Hotelling.  It’s tiny and sits by a beautiful swimming hole if you’re late enough in the year for the water to be warm (well, warm enough).    Another alternative is to do the Forks of Salmon Century, about which I know next to nothing, which is sagged but which seems to start in Forks of Salmon.

In an emergency, there’s a resort just off the route, a couple of miles northwest of Forks of Salmon on Salmon River Rd., the Otter Bar Lodge.  It’s a kayak school, and officially it doesn’t cater to other guests, but I asked and they told me they put up cyclists occasionally, if they aren’t full up. The only sign from the road is a large mailbox reading “Otter Bar” and a dirt road, but you notice the buildings deep in the trees on the river side.

This ride might be the one that inspires you to invest in a water filter.

Paul, in the comments below, points out that these re-provisioning problems can be solved by starting the loop at the western end, at Forks of Salmon, which puts Callahan and Etna at the halfway point.

See Brian Green’s excellent summary of re-provisioning and watering options on the route in the comments below.

Adding miles: The region surrounding the Marble Mountains is one of the best road riding regions on the West Coast.  This is only one of many excellent rides in the area.  For a review of the possibilities, see the Adding Miles section of the Scott River Road ride.