Author Archives: Jack Rawlins

Kings Canyon

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Distance: 68 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 7980 ft

(A Best of the Best ride)

(This route has been closed for the past couple of years due to rockslide damage, but is now fully open.)

I’m not a great fan of riding in National Parks.  They’re too crowded, they aren’t bike friendly, and they usually have only one or two paved roads, onto which thousands of cars are funneled and forced to fight for room.  Our Lassen Volcanic NP ride is an exception, made attractive only because almost no one goes there and you can have the road largely to yourself.  (The Yosemite tour is there because Yosemite is too imposing to ignore.)

Another exception is Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park(s).  They’re two parks, but they’re contiguous, so everyone thinks of them as one.  You often aren’t sure which of the two you’re in.  The riding is excellent and extensive.   While Yosemite offers you two roads and Lassen one, KC/S has no less than ten paved roads, and they’re all well worth riding.  Not a lot of people seem to know this.  In my five days of riding in the two parks, the only person I saw on a bicycle of any sort—road bike, mountain bike, BMX, cruiser—was me.

Of course there is always the traffic problem.  I wouldn’t go near any National Park in high season, and even during the shoulder seasons (spring and fall) I adhere strictly to the EMOW rule: ride Early Morning, Only on Weekdays.  I did my KC/S riding in late September, and my EMOW rides saw a car per mile or less.

The ride outlined here is the best of the ten, by a long shot, one of the best rides I know of anywhere and a hands-down Best of the Best ride.     It’s an 8-mile descent into a rock canyon of indescribable grandeur, then an 18-mile meander between towering granite and marble walls and through a beautiful glacial valley along a perfect Sierra stream.  If you ride for the Wow Factor, if you love to be awed, this is the ride for you.  There may be other rides as pretty or as pleasant, but none more mighty and imposing.  Photos can’t do it justice.

I’ve mapped the ride from the obvious starting place, but if you want to get the climbing out of the way first (and I’m with you), drive to Convict Flat Overlook, park, ride back up the hill to the forest line, turn around and descend to your car, then continue on to Road’s End and turn around.

It’s a big ride—69 miles, 8000 ft of gain.  In Shortening the ride I’ll show you ways to cut it down that maintain the grandeur.

By the way, the name of the park and the canyon is Kings Canyon, not King’s Canyon.  It’s a translation of Canon de los Reyes, “Canyon of the Magi.”

Our route starts in Grant Grove Village, one of the two large communities in KC/S.  Ride north on Hwy 180 until it dead-ends at Road’s End 34 miles later, then ride back.

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An early glimpse of the canyon—click on photo to see your road in the center of the photo

At first the ride does not impress.  You do 3 miles of up, then 5 miles of down through plain Sierra forest.  The truth is, the forest here is dry, rather bedraggled, and often fire-damaged (though not as bad as KC/S’s other highway to the south, Hwy 198), and the road contour is only OK.  At Mile 6.7 you pass the turn-off to Hume Lake, and at mile 8 you emerge from the trees and see the canyon you are going to ride into, at which point your heart soars like a hawk (or trembles like a leaf, depending on your nature).  Kings Canyon is enormous and mighty—deeper than the Grand Canyon in places—and you’re going to spend the rest of the ride exploring its wonders.

img_9365Drop 8 miles and 2400 ft through a Best-of-the-Best descent.  You’re passing turn-out after turn-out with incredible views, but they’re easier to take in when you’re climbing out at 7 mph.  After you pass the foundations of Kings Canyon Lodge, destroyed in 2015’s devastating Rough Fire, the road takes a right turn and levels out and meanders up and down to Boyden Caverns (closed for years but recently reopened and worth a visit).  The few miles from the leveling-out to just past Boyden are the geologically richest and visually most spectacular miles on the ride—linger and take in your surroundings.  I know of no riding to match it.  Mother Nature has done some of her best rock work here.  Soon the road joins up with the Kings River, a boulder-strewn series of cascades and pools, to add to your pleasure.

img_9794Just past Boyden the nature of the ride changes.  The canyon goes from being water-carved (vertical V-shaped) to glacial (wide, open U-shaped), the river becomes tranquil, and you begin a steady, easy 10-mile climb to Cedar Grove.  The elevation profile makes this look harder than it is—you’ll climb about 1500 ft in 11 miles.  Halfway to Cedar Grove you pass Grizzly Falls (clearly signed), an unpaved 40-ft walk from the road.  Worth seeing.

Best rock anywhere

Amazing rock

One mile before Cedar Grove the road crosses the river on a large bridge and a smaller road, Cedar Grove Road (unsigned), takes off to the L (staying on the north side of the river).  It’s a back door into Cedar Grove, and if you take it (in either direction) it will save you one small but rather steep hill.  My mapping forgot to include it.  At Cedar Grove there’s a snack bar (with board games!), water, good bathrooms, lodging, and all the things  you expect from a National Park complex.  If you’re seriously out of season, check what’s open and what’s shut before you ride, so you don’t get surprised.

Kings River

Kings River

You could turn around at Cedar Grove, of course, but the 6 miles of road remaining offer three rewards.  1. Roaring River Falls, a .2-mile paved walk from the road, is an exquisite little falls into an emerald pool—don’t miss it.  2. Zumwalt Meadow is a classic Sierra meadow with an educational hike around its perimeter.  This takes walking shoes, since you can’t see the meadow from the road or from the parking lot.  3. The last 3 or so miles of the road enter a glacial canyon with towering rock walls surrounding you (very reminiscent of Yosemite and El Capitan).  The tallest of them, to the south of you, is Grand Sentinel.

img_9465The ride back to Boyden Caverns is effortless.  Not so the rest of the ride.  You’re going to climb 3600 ft in 13 miles.  None of it is really steep, and the vast bulk of it is 4-6%, but that’s still a lot.  Mind your water.  There is no water source after Cedar Grove, so if you aren’t going to wear a hydration pack you might think about dropping some water midway on your original descent (this is another argument for starting in the middle and riding up the climb first—you pass your car midway through the ride).  Be sure to stop at every turn-out, wide spot in the road, and overlook to take in the vistas.

The glacial canyon

The glacial canyon

Shortening the ride:   First, cut the first 8 miles.  It isn’t rewarding riding and it adds 1000 ft of climbing.  I drive to where I can see the canyon and start there.  Second, if you aren’t up for a big climb, drive to where the road levels out (past Kings Canyon Lodge) and ride to Road’s End and back—36 gorgeous miles that includes the best of the canyon’s geology.  Total elevation gain 3000 ft.  If you want less, drive to the Convict Flat Overlook, drive the obvious descent that follows, park when it ends, and ride to Road’s End.  That will save you 500 ft.  If you want even less and want to ride only the most spectacular geology, start at the same place and ride to Cedar Grove.

Hangin' at Roaring River Falls

Hangin’ at Roaring River Falls

Adding Miles: Surely you’re done for the day after this ride, but there are lovely rides all around you for other days.  My favorite is Big Meadows Road, 11 miles of pavement before it turns to dirt, with one nice descent and one nice climb, an almost deserted dead-end road used only by hunters and horse packers.  Also very nice is Hume Lake Road/Ten-Mile Road, 14 miles of not-too-steep, more domesticated back road that passes a very pretty lake with an interesting history (it used to be a logging mill pond).  It’s also the only ride in the parks you can do as a loop.  The ride to Panoramic Point is a brisk, sometimes quite steep 2 miles that’s a wonderful little luge run (and the panorama at Panoramic Point is marvelous—expect a short paved hike doable in bike shoes or bare feet).   All the other roads—Mineral King, Crystal Cave, Crescent Meadow, Buckeye Flat, Little Boulder Grove—have their appeal and will reward if you can catch them at a low-traffic time.  Just remember than the highways of KC/S are on a spine, so roads that leave them tend to go down, usually precipitously—then they come back up when you turn around.

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Approaching Boyden Caverns

Hwy 198, the major artery southward through Sequoia NP, is a mixed bag.  It’s all very pretty—the best woods in the parks—but it has no shoulder and obviously can be busy.  From the intersection with 180 to Big Meadows Road it’s pleasantly up and down, nice if you can catch it early before the cars are out.  From Big Meadows to Giant Forest the road is more extremely up and down, but still quite rideable.  At Giant Forest the road begins a wonderful 23-mile descent to Three Rivers.  It’s a long climb back, but if you can arrange a shuttle or hitchhike I’m told it’s dreamy.  In the Giant Forest area you do get to ride right by some splendid Giant Sequoias.

See Jeff’s comment below for an excellent survey of rides in the foothills south of the parks.

Afterthoughts

Most of the riding I’ve discussed isn’t actually in the National Parks.  The borders of KC/S are odd, so many of the rides are on roads in the surrounding Giant Sequoia National Monument or Sequoia National Forest.  Only the first 2 and last 7 miles of the Kings Canyon ride is in Kings Canyon National Park—in fact, none of Kings Canyon (the canyon itself) was in the park until recently, when the park was expanded to include the last 7 miles of Hwy 180.

Brice Creek Road

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Distance: 52 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 6490 ft

A longer version of this ride is expertly covered in Jim Moore’s 75 Classic Rides Oregon (see the “Oregon” section in Rides by Region).

The Dorena Lake/Cottage Grove area is one of the richest troves of cycling roads in Oregon.  You could spend a couple of weeks here and ride a different good road every day.  See Adding Miles for suggestions.  This ride and our Siuslaw River Road ride are  the best of them.

Our route is the west half of the big, legendary climb and descent from Dorena Lake to Oakridge.  It’s a great ride all the way to Oakridge, if you can figure out a way back (iron men ride to Oakridge and back in a day, exactly 100 miles), but this route just goes to the summit and returns.  It’s the prettier (lusher) side of the divide.  The appeal here is scenery: some of Oregon’s prettiest rainforest, and a very pretty creek alongside you much of the way.

This route used to be plagued by gravel sections and tricky to navigate, but both problems are history—I saw one short gravel section, and it’s impossible to get lost if you stay on the pavement.  That being said, the upper reaches of this ride are remote and wooly, so come prepared for solitude and self-sufficiency, especially on a weekday.

In Culp Creek, a cluster of houses east of Cottage Grove on Row (rhymes with “cow”) River Road, park at the eastern end of the Row River Trail (more on that in Adding Miles), in a little dirt parking area cum outhouse on the L side of the road with the large sign reading “Culp Creek Trailhead/ Row River Trail.”  Ride east on Row River Road and in one mile go L onto Lower Brice Creek Road.  Row River Road itself is fine riding and you may be tempted to stick with a good thing, but don’t, because Lower Brice does RRR one better.  It’s not only gorgeous—it’s also tiny, rolling, and deserted.  And it has a wonderful little falls and swimming hole, Wildwood Falls, which may call to you on the return ride if the weather is warm.   I was sorely tempted to ride up and down Lower Brice Creek Rd. all day and forego the work, but noblesse oblige.

Lower Brice Creek Road

Don on Lower Brice Creek Road

At 4.5 miles Lower Brice dead-ends on Layng Creek Road.  Go R for forty feet and reconnect with Row River Road, which now (or somewhere in here) changes its name to Brice Creek Road/NF 22.  From here to Mile 17.5, BCR climbs at a relaxed pace through a lovely forest of maples, moss, alders, and fern, much of its length on the very lip of charming Brice Creek.

Brice Creek Road

You won’t be alone here—the National Forest is thick with hiking trails to falls, the road itself has several campgrounds along it, and dirt roads lead to OHV meccas, so there are people up there, but the traffic is amazingly spare.  The last time I rode it I saw 7 (!) vehicles on the road, on a lovely summer Monday mid-day.  Once I rode it on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend and traffic was still light.

Half a mile past Cedar Creek Campground

Brice Creek is pretty but often below you and obscured by foliage in the first miles.  There’s one place where you should really get off your bike and check it out.  You can’t see it from the road, so you’ll have to follow my directions.  Exactly .5 miles after the large Cedar Creek Campground sign on the R and campground turn-in on the L (at Mile 11), there’s a small, one-group campground without a name.  Pull in, take off your shoes, and walk the 40-ft trail on your L down to the water.  There you’ll find a gorgeous little stair-step falls, perfect for meditating, wading, and even swimming (well, emersion) if you’re determined.  You’ll hear it before you see it.

At around 13 miles you pass the Champion Creek Trailhead (signed).  Immediately afterwards, you cross the creek on a bridge and it’s now on your R.  Now begins my favorite leg of the ride.  The road gets smaller and the creek is now right along the road, at your elbow, and it’s utterly charming—a constant series of little falls, mini-rapids, and still pools, all lined with mossy maples.  Of course there is a price: for the creek to make falls, it has to drop, so you, who are going in the other direction, have to climb a bit more than you’ve been doing.  Slow down, stare at the water, and let the climbing miles roll by painlessly.   When you cross the creek a second time, the road ramps up again, enough that you’ll feel like you’re doing a little work, but it’s not hard, and it only lasts for a mile or two.

At Mile 17.5 you must take a 90-degree turn-off to the L, and you have to watch for it because there is one small sign marking your route and nothing else.  The sign is a small rectangle reading “Connect Lane” (the county) and underneath a very small sign reading “Oakridge CL 1” with an arrow.  I could find no forest service numbers or other markings.  Luckily you have little choice because the only alternative, straight ahead, is obviously wrong because it turns to gravel in 50 ft.

Following the sign, go L and the road changes dramatically.  It’s much steeper and much narrower (though it’s still NF 22), and the forest is drier, with the trunks of mighty conifers instead of maples.  Any traffic you’ve been seeing should trickle to nothing.  The next 4 miles are the hardest climbing in the ride.  It’s never brutal, but you can get lulled into complacency by the previous gentle climbing, and if so it’s a shock.

Ferns and alders

At Mile 21.5 you reach a notorious 4-way intersection which in the old days reduced riders to tears.  Now it’s foolproof.  You enter on NF 22.  Straight ahead is Rd 2110, dirt, clearly numbered.  Crossing your path is 5850, clearly numbered.  To the R, 5850 is dirt.  To the L, it’s paved and it’s the road you want.  Because of road curvature, you end up making a tight near-180-degree L turn.  There is also an obvious sign reading “Hwy 58—Oakridge” pointing our way.  Trust your navigation at this point, because you aren’t going to see signage (and quite possibly humans) for the rest of the climb.

There is nothing marvelous beyond this intersection.  If you turn around now, you won’t miss anything but the satisfaction of making it to the top.

The road continues up for about another 4 miles at a straight and steady pitch, none of it grim, all of it work.  Again the landscape changes, because it’s been logged here and there’s less water, so the forest is stunted and at times feels more like shrubbery than forest primeval.  At the obvious summit you descent for 1.5 miles to the bottom of a large saddle and meet the gravel patch that is our turn-around point.  Again, if you’re done climbing for the day, turn around back at the summit—you won’t miss anything.  On the other hand, if you decide to log a few more miles, past the gravel the road soon climbs 8 more miles to a second summit before plummeting steeply down to Oakridge.

Brice Creek Road, but a likely sight on any back road in Oregon

On the ride home, the descent from the summit to the four-way is fairly straight, but the descent from there back to the main road is breath-taking.  Descending the main road offers some 30-mph stretches, but it’s slow and straight enough in the main to let you relax and take in the splendid scenery a second time.

Take Lower Brice Creek Road on your return for maximum scenic payoff or creek swimming, but it is more up and down than the main road, so if you just want to be done, stay on Row River Road back to your car.

There are at least three campgrounds with formal outhouses before the turn at 17.5 miles—after that, you’re on your own.  There is no potable water.  There will be campers, from whom water can be begged.

Shortening the route: Turn around at the 17.5-mile-out L turn.

Adding miles: As I said, there’s a lot of good riding within 20 miles of this ride.  Most simply, you can continue on from our turn-around point to Oakridge, an additional 24 miles, making for a total of 50 miles—actually fewer than our out-and-back route but more work because past our turn-around point you climb for 8 more miles).  You just need to find a way back from Oakridge.  Riding from Oakridge to Culp Creek you do the same elevation gain in fewer miles, so it’s steeper (14 miles to the summit from the Oakridge side, 34 miles from the Culp Creek side).  Once in Oakridge, you’ve got the Aufderheide ride and the other roads discussed in the Aufderheide ride’s Adding Miles section.

If you’re looking for tranquil, there’s the Row River Trail, a rail-to-trail conversion that runs from our parking lot all the way to Cottage Grove (16 miles).  I’m not a fan of rail-to-trail conversions, but this is one of the better ones.  The miles before and after Dorena Lake are pretty stock flat farm country stuff, highlighted by a couple of nice covered bridges along the route and a couple of nice bridge crossings (of the Row River and Mosby Creek), but the 5 miles along the lake and the 2 miles west of them are prettily wooded.  The trail by the lake has a lot of root upheavals, but they’re all boldly outlined in yellow paint.  There’s a nice pamphlet on the trail, with a good map, free at any visitor’s center in the area.

The roads on either side of Dorena Lake (smaller Row River Road on the north shore, larger Shoreview Drive, the main road, on the south) are good riding (though the south side is somewhat trafficky), so you can actually ride along the lake three times and never repeat your route—both roads and the rail trail.  There are also two roads leaving Brice Creek Road that are very worth doing: Layng Creek Rd. turns to gravel in about 8 miles and is beautifully wooded when the light is right.  If you have a gravel bike, you can continue on when the pavement ends and ride to short (1/3-1/2-mile) hiking trails leading to any of three stunning little falls: Spirit, Moon, and  Pinard—Google for details.

Sharps Creek Rd. keeps going.  You can keep riding southward until you get to Steamboat (33 miles one way starting at the north end of Sharps Creek Rd), or you can make a 74-mile loop starting in Cottage Grove and riding Row River Rd to Sharps to Clark Creek Rd. to Big River Rd. back to Cottage Grove.  The Lane County Bicycle Map lays out the loop route.  Take a map—there are a number of road name changes.  But Sharps Creek Rd is good for shorter out-and-backs too.  For the first 10 miles it’s a mellow 2% climb on a big, domesticated, smooth two-lane road through woods that vary from OK to fine.  Then at the unmissable, well-signed fork (Sharps Creek Rd goes L, Martin Creek Rd goes R, but it’s soon renamed Clark Creek Rd), you go R, cross a bridge, the road becomes smaller, rougher, more densely wooded, and steeper—an easy 4% for a while, then suddenly a truly daunting, unrelenting 8-10% for 4 or 5 miles.  By this time the road has shrunk to bike path size and the woods have closed in dramatically.  I rode 24 miles of Sharps Creek Road and saw not one car on the road.

Don’t be tempted to ride the loop up Sharps Creek Rd., past Bohemia Mt., and down Champion Creek Rd.  The Lane County Bike Map says it’s all paved, but it’s actually gravel from when you leave SCR.

On the west side of Cottage Grove, all the roads are favorite cruising grounds for Eugene cyclists—feel free to wander.  See our Siuslaw River Road post, especially the Adding Miles section, for details.

Quartzville Road

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Distance:  44-mile out and back
Elevation gain:  2880 ft

This is one of the Oregon rides that is expertly covered in Jim Moore’s 75 Classic Rides Oregon (see the “Oregon” section in Rides by Region).

There is very little to say about this simple, perfect ride.  It has no grand vistas, no exhilarating descents, no craggy monoliths—no breath-taking features of any kind.  It’s just 22 miles of lovely, pleasantly meandering, gently rising and falling two-lane road through the faery Western Oregon rain forest, then back.  It follows Quartzville Creek, which for 10 miles of our route is widened by Green Peter Dam into Green Peter Lake.  There is in fact 50 miles of Quartzville Road (or Quartzville Drive on some maps), which is officially the Quartzville Road Back Country Byway (though I saw no evidence of this along the route), and runs from Sweet Home on Hwy 20 to its dead end at Hwy 22.  The other 25 miles of Hwy 22 are chronicled in the Beyond Yellowbottom ride, which has a very different character.

This is one of the easier rides in Bestrides.  The road is rarely flat, but the pitch is often so mellow you can’t be sure if you’re climbing or descending, and it’s never enough to make you break a sweat.

Park at Sunnyside Park, a lovely county park that is friendly, cheerful, and free.  Ride up Quartzville Road/Drive for the entire ride.  The scenery is gorgeous—mossy maples, golden canopies—almost from the gun.  It isn’t going to get any prettier, so don’t hurry through these early miles to get to the mythical good stuff.   I recommend riding in the morning if possible, so the sun backlights the trees on your R.

useThe road surface is excellent, and made better by the fact that new shoulder strips have recently (summer 2016) been added on both sides of the road, and this new surface makes climbing practically effortless.  On my last ride I met a flagman who told me they were about to repave the road “to make it really nice for you,” but I can’t imagine how it could be better.  He also said they were going to be adding guardrails, which might impair the road’s sense of intimacy a tad.

In 3.6 miles you reach the unfortunately named Green Peter Dam and Lake.  The view of the lake from the dam is usually quite striking.  Take it in, because hereafter it’s not a pretty lake, and you can’t see it very well anyway.  You’re here for the road and the forest, not the water views.

IMG_8420In about 10 miles (about where you cross on the obvious but unsigned Rocky Top Road bridge spanning the headwaters of the lake), the creek returns to being a creek and the character of the ride changes.  The scenery is rougher, drier, and rockier.  The land is more open, so for the first time in the ride the road is often in full sun (if it’s sunny).   To my mind, the scenery is now only good, not grand—turn around if you don’t like what you see.  Now the creek is strewn with boulders that form lovely, large swimming holes you should try if it’s hot enough.   The road is now also marked by miniature camp sites in most of the dirt turn-outs, which is a handy thing because water sources are scarce along this route and you may need to beg water from a camper.

In the last miles before my turn-around spot the road stops rolling up and down and does a steady, easy climbing grade you’ll hardly notice until you turn around and discover it’s now a descent.

IMG_8399At 22.2 miles you reach Yellow Bottom (or Yellowbottom), a lovely spot with a rocky beach and swimming hole on one side of the road and developed campground on the other.  I turn around here.  The ride back is close to effortless—just a few easy climbs to break up the long, gentle descents.

I love this ride in sunshine, but it has a different kind of beauty when wet, also wonderful, so I wouldn’t write it off because of rain.  The pitches are never steep enough to cause you any wet-road bike handling concern.

Shortening the ride: The ride begins lush and moist, and gets rockier and drier as it climbs.  Pick your foliage.

Adding Miles: Keep riding up Quartzville Road past Yellowbottom and do the Beyond Yellowbottom ride.

The miles to the south and west of Sunnyside Park are also very good—classic farm and foothill riding.  Don’t follow Quartzville Drive to Hwy 20; instead, take the almost-immediate R off Quartzville onto N. River Drive and follow it along the north side of pretty Foster Lake.  From Sunnyside Park to Sweet Home this way adds 8 miles (one way) of very pleasant riding.

Afterthoughts: I know of no guaranteed water sources between Sunnyside Park and Yellow Bottom, but there are frequent bathrooms—at campgrounds, at Green Peter Dam, and at road intersections for some reason.

Blue Lakes Road

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Distance: 23.6 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 1730 ft

This ride isn’t thrilling.  But if you’re in the mood for a mellow jaunt through pretty High-Sierra country, you can’t beat it.   It’s a idyllic ride, perfect for a recovery day after you’ve tackled one of the harder rides in the area—Carson Pass, Ebbetts Pass, or Monitor Pass—or for a day when you only have an hour or two in the morning or evening to ride.  It’s all easy climbing (1730 ft. in 24 miles), with a  brilliant blue Sierra lake at the turn-around for snacking or meditation.

Blue Lakes Road isn’t plowed in winter and is therefore impassable above the snow line.

(The RidewithGPS map shows the pavement lasting longer than I think it does.)

Begin at the junction of Blue Lakes Road and Highway 88, which you pass on the Carson Pass Plus ride.  There is no “Blue Lakes Road” sign per se, but there are signs reading “Blue Lakes 12” from either direction on 88.  There is a nice dirt area for parking on the SE corner of the intersection, and if you don’t like leaving your vehicle on roadsides it’s a pleasant, flat ride from Sorensen’s Resort (which seems to have been renamed Desolation Hotel—see the Carson Pass Plus ride for details).

Just your basic pretty Sierra scenery

Just your basic pretty Sierra scenery

Ride to the end of the road.  After the first couple of miles of flat, You’ll climb pleasantly for about 6 miles, then climb moderately for a mile to a summit at mile 9, then descend 2 miles to a junction at Lower Blue Lake.

As you ride, enjoy your surroundings.   This is not the time or place to hammer or train.  You’ll pass meadows, ponds with dark green conifers reflected in their waters, great boulders, and signs of cattle ranching, with a background of lofty mountains flecked with snow (in season).

Near the summit, looking back on the climb

Near the summit, looking back on the climb (road visible in center)

At the junction there’s a wooden sign reading “Blue Lakes Basin,” a board with some interesting history, and a map showing that four lakes lie in front of you.  If you’re on a gravel bike you can ride to any one of them, but the roads are all dirt, so if you’re on a road bike you have one option: ignoring the road into the campground directly ahead of you, take the road on your R, ride along the edge of the campground until that road turns to dirt, then ride the dirt for 1/4 of a mile along the shore of Lower Blue Lake until you see granite boulders jutting out into the water.   You should have the place to yourself.  Bliss out.

Lower Blue Lake

Lower Blue Lake

On the return you’ll do an untaxing 1-mile-or-so climb back up to the summit, then have some thoroughly pleasant moderate descending for the bulk of your ride home.  No hairpins, no daredevil 40-mph straights.  It’s all rejuvenating, not draining, and you end the ride fresher than when you started.

Adding Miles: This ride lies between two Bestrides.org rides, Carson Pass Plus and Ebbetts Pass.  See both those rides’ Adding Miles sections for other possibilities and information on the area.  The miles of road between Sorensen’s and Markleeville are almost all trafficky, straight, monotonous, moderate descending—effortless in this direction but not particularly rewarding.

Sierra Nevada rocks!

Blue Lakes Road boulder

Tin Barn Road/Annapolis Road

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Distance: 38-mile loop
Elevation gain: 4845 ft

This is the loop ride directly to the north of the King(‘s) Ridge ride—in fact the two routes share a few miles—so the question arises, how are they different, and which one should you ride?   They’re very similar.  They’re both great rides and serious efforts with much climbing.  Each has one pleasant, tiny town near the beginning of the ride, then you’re totally on your own.  The terrain and landscape are similar for both (pretty coastal hill country).  Tin Barn/Annapolis is further from Santa Rosa, the nearest large population center, so it gets ridden less.   TB/A has more redwoods, the climbing is spread out more, and the road surface is a quantum leap better though still flawed (for the rare good pavement in Sonoma County, see our Occidental Loop ride and Bohemian Highway ride).  TB/A has rhododendrons in the spring, a few miles of pretty, mellow Hwy 1, some totally ridable dirt, and by far the harder pitch (1 mile of 15-20%).     TB/A, unlike King Ridge, can easily be cut short if you overestimated your resources.  If that sounds like I think TB/A is the better ride, I do.

The coast is always subject to fog and wind, and thus chill, even on the hottest days.  The hills of Tin Barn and Annapolis can get very hot.  So dress for a huge temperature swing.  The last time I was there, it was 102 degrees on Tin Barn and 64 (and windy) on Hwy 1—a swing of 38 degrees.  Also, plan your water supply before starting out—on a hot day, two water bottles may not be enough to get you from Ratna Ling to Stewart’s Point.

(The map erroneously shows the Hauser Bridge Road as dirt.  It’s paved.)

Start at Stewart’s Point (not to be confused by you STNG fans with Patrick’s Point to the north), a tiny coastal community with a very charming general store where you can get root beer floats after the ride.  Ride south on Hwy 1.  I’m not a fan of Hwy 1 riding, but this is completely pleasant—charming, nearly flat, with easy passing lanes for cars and not too many of them.  It’s not the extreme/sublime scenery of the Hwy just to the south, which is known as Dramamine Drive, but for that reason it isn’t dangerous and leg-killing.

FOB Brian on Kruse Ranch Road—note the excellent dirt

FOB Brian on Kruse Ranch Road—note the excellent dirt

Ride the short distance to Kruse Ranch Rd. (labeled Krause Ranch Rd on the Sonoma bike map) and take it to the L.  You’ll soon be in the Kruse Rhododendron Preserve, which is a treat during the spring bloom.  The road surface is all dirt, but it’s easy on 25 mm tires, the scenery is that matchless coastal redwood and fern rain forest, than which there is nothing better on this earth, and the pitch is pleasant until you get to The Plantation (can’t miss it).  From there it’s a rather steep pitch to the road’s end at Hauser Bridge Rd.  Rear wheel traction can be a problem on skinny tires, but it’s over soon enough.

Annapolis Road

Annapolis Road

Turn L on Hauser Bridge Rd., and now you’re riding the King Ridge loop backwards.  (RidewithGPS shows HBR as unpaved, but it’s wrong.) Stop at the drinking fountain thoughtfully provided for you by the monks at the Ratna Ling Retreat Center (past the front gate on the L) and fill up—there’s no water source between here and the end of the ride, and it can be hot in those hills.

Drop steeply down to Hauser Bridge and begin the climb up the other side, which is something you’ll tell your riding buddies about.  For 1.1 miles it’s a constant 15-20% (RidewithGPS says it tops out momentarily at just over 21%); after that it’s just 10-12% for a while.  It’s a extraordinarily difficult climb, and if you aren’t in shape for it it can drain you and make the rest of the ride miserable.

Annapolis Road

Annapolis Road

At the top of the climb go L at a fork onto Tin Barn Rd (the other fork is King Ridge Rd).  The rest of the ride, with one exception, rolls constantly but never fiercely, so if the ride hasn’t killed you by now it probably isn’t going to.  Where Tin Barn T’s into Stewart’s Point/Skaggs Springs Rd., go R for a brief stretch almost entirely consisting of ripping descent and go L onto Annapolis Rd, crossing the old metal bridge to do so.  Annapolis Rd begins with the other demanding climb (nothing like Hauser Bridge—just standard hard), and from there to the end the climbing is never worse than moderate, though there’s a lot of it.

Hwy 1 is unthreatening here

Hwy 1 is sweet and unthreatening here

All of Tin Barn and Annapolis is lovely riding—climbing and dropping and back and forth through standard coastal ridge meadows and woods.  The final descent on Annapolis, down to the South Fork of the Gualala River paralleling Hwy 1, is grand.  It would be world-class if the road surface were better, but as it is it’s still very good. I confess I ruined my carbon front wheel by overheating the braking surface with all the braking I had to do, but that’s rim brakes for you—disc brakes won’t have a problem.

Often along this stretch of coast there’s a killer climb on the other side of the Gualala River to get back to Hwy 1, but not here—the mellow little riser here is a pleasant surprise.  Turn L on Hwy 1 and ride the few miles back to Stewart’s Point, hopefully with the northerly wind for which the area is famous at your back.

Shortening the route: You can cut the route in half by turning L instead of R on Stewart’s Point/Skaggs Springs Rd. and riding it to Hwy 1.  It’s a lovely stretch of road, so you won’t be losing any beauty.  You could also cut the route in half the other way, by riding just the Annapolis half of the route (Annapolis to Stewart’s Point/Skaggs Springs Rd. to Hwy 1).  It’s probably equally hard in either direction.  Some people ride just Annapolis Road, as an out-and-back.

Adding miles: Obviously you can add King Ridge to the route, since it’s contiguous, and if you’re up for that my hat’s off to you.    You can add Hwy 1 miles by continuing south past Kruse Ranch Rd, enlarging the loop by leaving Hwy 1 at either Timber Cove Rd, Fort Ross Rd., or Meyers Grade Rd. (in that order heading south), all of which are much harder climbs than Kruse Ranch.   Remember, Hwy 1 gets tougher and scarier as you go south.

You can ride Stewart’s Point/Skaggs Springs Rd. east all the way to Geyserville.  It’s a standard test of conditioning for local racers, and it accumulates serious elevation gain.  It’s also hot on a sunny day, since much of it is exposed, and not particularly pretty once you clear the coastal redwoods.

Soda Springs Rd, which leaves Annapolis Rd at the tiny community of Annapolis and turns to dirt at a gate in about 4 miles, is reputed to be a fine little out and back.

Clear Lake to Cobb

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Distance: 23 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 2430 ft

This is a short, relatively easy, totally joyous out and back climb and descent—one of the easiest 10-mile climbs you’ll ever do.   It stairsteps with much variety of contour through pretty scenery, then gives you a sweet descent you can really attack on the return.   No bragging rights on this one, no sufferfest—just sweet riding.  To add to your bliss, at the turn-around point is a unique, charming cafe/bakery/bookstore/coffee shop.

IMG_7384Begin at the intersection of Hwy 175 and Highway 29, the moderately big highway paralleling the southern shore of Clear Lake.  The stretch of 29 has recently been reworked and expanded, and the base of 175 has been enlarged as well, but you’ll be back to moderate two-lane very soon.

Since our route is steepest in the first couple of miles, you might want to warm up on 29, which is flat or gently sloped in both directions, but it’s big and busy, so it can be disconcerting.

Ride 175 to the tiny mountain town of Cobb, where you turn around and ride back.  Hwy 175 is the second-most popular route from Middletown to Clear Lake (after Hwy 29), so it’s not car-free, but the traffic is light (even on weekends) and the two-lane road offers plenty of passing room.  And the payoff for riding on a “highway” is the road surface is glassy throughout.  The scenery is good, starting in vineyards and deciduous oaks (particularly colorful in the fall) and climbing to lush Coast Range conifers near the top.  The route used to be prettier, but it’s suffered the same population growth as the rest of California and there are a few too many hardscrabble homes with accompanying junkyards.  But it’s still very good.

175 is moderately steep in the first mile, but then it mellows out and you won’t work again until the hill just before Cobb.  You gain 2430 ft in 11 miles, according to Mapmyride, but in fact the climbing feels much easier than the numbers suggest.  The road contour is pleasantly varied, so you never do the same sort of riding for more than about 50 yards.

About 8 miles in you hit the one noticeable hill, 1.3 miles to an obvious summit, followed by a fast, straight 1.5-mile descent into town.  Turn around at the summit if you don’t want to do work, because the climb out of Cobb on the return is noticeable and not particularly interesting or pretty.  But riding to Cobb is worth the effort, because it allows you to visit Mountain High Coffee and Books, on your R just before you intersect with Bottle Rock Rd. in a little strip mall (easy to overlook), a delightful coffee/smoothie/bakery/sandwich/breakfast eatery/aroma therapy/book store which makes for a perfect mid-ride pit stop.  This place is one of my favorite little stores anywhere.  It sells about 100 used books, all of them hand-selected and worth reading, with a children’s book section, big easy chairs for extended browsing, and outside tables for lunch munching.

The ride back from the summit is very special.  It’s never straight, but it’s not twisty, and the pitch is just steep enough that you can get up some real speed (in places you’ll touch 30 mph) but never so steep that you have to back off and brake.  I love descents like this, where you can really charge the hill, press the pace, and pedal hard.

In 2015 the Valley Fire burned tens of thousands of acres south of Clear Lake.  The fire burned on three sides of Cobb, but the town and our stretch of Hwy 175 were largely undamaged.  There is still some signs of the fire damage in the last couple of miles before Cobb (suspiciously thin forest, lots of 10″ tree plantings on the hillsides), but most of the terrain is green again now.

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Hwy 175: love that glassy road surface

Adding Miles: There is an outstanding alternative to our route.  Two-thirds of the way towards Cobb you go through the tiny town of Loch Lomond, and at the town’s one and only intersection you can take Seigler Canyon Rd. back down to Hwy 29.  It’s a marvelous two-lane  descent, serpentining smoothly on fine pavement.  The only drawback is, there is no shoulder and no room for cars to pass, so you’re almost forced to pull onto the dirt for all traffic.  But it’s still grand.  Not  better than our route, but as good, so you’ll just have to ride up 175 twice to experience both descents.

From Cobb you can continue on 175 to Middletown.  It doesn’t begin to match the interest or beauty of what we’ve already ridden, but it’s pleasant enough—bigger, straighter, more open, more developed—and just past Cobb there’s a substantial descent (1700 ft in 5.5 miles, c. 7%) you want to make sure you want to climb if you’re doing an out and back.

The other riding around Clear Lake is plentiful, popular, and consistently good once you’re off the main highways.  The hills south of Clear Lake are a warren of good roads, all much like Hwy 175—pretty, a little trafficky, never flat, never severely steep.  It’s easy to make up loops.  Bottle Rock Rd., which parallels our ride just to the west, is a little bigger, straighter, and busier than 175 (or was the day I rode it), and it has a 3-mile slog of a climb—straight, unvaried of pitch, and downright monotonous—soon after leaving the lake, all reasons I didn’t include it in our route, but it’s worth riding nonetheless.  If you love straight, fast descending, ride up 175 and down Bottle Rock.  Also worth riding in the area are Loch Lomond Rd. and Red Hills Rd.

Big Canyon Rd. has the advantage of dropping you off on Middletown, right by Harbin Hot Springs, so you can take in a soak.  Its contour is also nice: from its north end on Siegler Canyon Rd. it climbs for a while, then drops all the way down into a large canyon, crosses the creek at the canyon bottom, then follows the creek downstream, crossing it frequently on quaint bridges.  Sounds great, but the pavement is poor enough that it was a once-only for me.  There is a stretch of dirt in its middle (in ways better riding than most of the pavement) and it goes through the heart of the Valley Fire burn, so the scenery is stark.  Perini Rd. is much like Big Canyon: it takes off from Siegler Canyon Rd., it’s quiet and isolated, it suffers from poor road surface, and it has a substantial stretch of dirt that’s perhaps better riding than the pavement.  It has the advantage of going nowhere (it leaves Seigler Canyon and returns) so there is little reason a car would be on it.

Seigler Springs Rd. and Diener Rd. are largely dirt.

Creating loop routes in this area almost always involves riding a stretch of Hwy 29.  It can be fine or harrowing, depending on where you are.  It’s a big two-lane highway with constant gentle rollers, a lot of traffic, and an unreliable shoulder.  The scenery—vineyards, hills—is charming.

A stone’s throw south from Lower Lake on Hwy 29 is Spruce Grove Rd., 9 miles of peachy, meandering road on OK surface through moderately farmland/woodsy scenery (surprisingly lush for this area—no burn damage).  Since it’s a horseshoe that takes off from Hwy 29 and returns, it’s classic side road and sees little traffic.  At the north end it’s all low-rent ranches for the first mile, and at the south end you find yourself in the midst of the upscale, pretentious gated community of Hidden Valley Lake, but in between it’s borderline Bestrides-worthy.

Heading north from the north end of Clear Lake is one of those effortless gems that cycling brings our way now and then, Scotts Valley Road.  It’s a near-flat, dead easy, but utterly adorable roll through an unpretentious valley of ancient pear orchards and old farm houses (the kind with unmanned produce stands in front of them).  Take the Hwy 29 exit marked Scotts Valley in Lakeport.  Park as soon as the road leaves the congested highway area, ride to the road’s dead end at Hwy 20, then ride back.  You can add 6 miles by taking Blue Lakes Rd out and back along the river a stone’s throw before the intersection with 20, and you can add interest by taking the alternate route along Hendricks Road on your L about a mile down Scotts Valley from the beginning of the ride.  Rumor had it that the Mendocino Fire damaged Scotts Valley, but I’m happy to say it’s totally intact as of 11/18.

IMG_5036

From Elk Mt. Road looking back toward Clear Lake

At the northwest corner of the lake is the town of Upper Lake, and from there you can do the Elk Mountain Rd. ride, the exact opposite of the Scotts Valley ride.  This one is a rough and rugged ride for a day when you want to work.  Ride away from the lake down Upper Lake’s Main St., jog R on Second St. and turn immediately L on Middle Creek Rd, which turns in less than a mile into Elk Mountain.  Ride Elk Mountain until it turns to dirt 17 miles out, then return.   For the first 9 miles you’ll roll sweetly through pretty oaks along the edge of an ever-narrowing valley.  As soon as the valley ends, the road turns up, and you’ll do a demanding 8% pitch for the next 5.5 miles over rough pavement with some splendid switchbacks and grand vistas of the country you’ve just ridden through.  At 14.5 miles you summit and roll up and down, mostly down, to the end of the pavement.

The returning descent from the summit would be a Best of the Best descent if the pavement were smooth, which it isn’t.  It’s generally poor, and in places it’s downright nasty.  Bring your 40 mm tires and prepare to do a lot of braking and feel a lot of jarring.

Elk Mountain Road leads to Pillsbury Lake and to a hugely popular off-road vehicle playground, so there are a surprising number of people up there.   I did it at 11 am-1 pm on a beautiful fall Saturday and saw two cars on the ride in—one of whom stopped, asked me if I needed anything, and offered me water.  But all those people have to drive up and down that road sometime, so at some hours it must be heavily trafficked, and it’s not a pleasant road to meet traffic on.  Plan your ride accordingly.

All that makes Elk Mountain sounds pretty dreadful.  It isn’t.  If you like a hard climb, don’t mind rough pavement, and can find a ride time that avoids the traffic, it’s the only ride in the Clear Lake area with a sense of epic grandeur.

A popular ride is to circumnavigate the lake.  I can’t see the appeal.  Highway 29, on the south side, is scenically pleasant but is all shoulder riding, Highway 20 along the north shore goes through a series of small, congested, bike-unfriendly towns that are hectic even in a car, and the connecting roads on the west and east sides are the epitome of big/flat/straight/trafficky.

Fire damage near Cobb, since repaired

McKenzie Pass

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Distance: 44 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 4100 ft

(A Best of the Best ride)

This is one of the Oregon rides that is expertly covered in Jim Moore’s 75 Classic Rides Oregon (see the “Oregon” section in Rides by Region).

This ride is the greatest climb and descent in Oregon.  ‘Nuff said.  And in addition, you get class-A Oregon forest and an enormous lava “moonscape” you’ll never forget.

Others seem to find this climb harder than I do.  The defunct Lane County Bicycle Map, which I love, had a place along this route marked with 3 chevrons (hardest pitch).  Baloney.  I promise you the pitch on this climb is consistently mellow (when it isn’t downright easy).  RidewithGPS gets it right (but inexplicably says most of the climb is unpaved).

(The RWGPS map shows half of the route as unpaved.  This is untrue—it’s all excellent pavement.)

This out-and-back starts at the intersection of Highways 126 and 242.  If you approach the ride from the Eugene side, as I always do, you’ll find that the terrible fire of 2022 burned most of the McKenzie River valley in the miles before the Hwy 242 turn-off, and you’ll fear for our ride, but the burn stops a few miles before the turn-off and the forests of 242 are untouched except for the very last mile or two before the lava fields.

Park at the intersection of Hwy 126 and 242.  There’s a nice paved turn-out at the beginning of 242 for that purpose.  Climb Hwy 242 (The McKenzie Highway) to McKenzie Pass and return.  It’s a long but consistently moderate climb, not a foot of it hard, followed by a descent that’s beyond words.  If you don’t like out-and-backs it’s possible to ride the Pass from end to end one way, and I’ll discuss how later, but it’s less good that way, because the east side of the summit is boring compared to the west side, both climbing and descending.

Morning light

Morning light through the lower forest

I suggest you do this ride in the summer or fall, in sunshine.  The road is gated off to cars and impassable in winter.  Then it’s open to bikes only for a few weeks in the spring.  Some riders love that, but typically the road is a wet black ribbon between tall banks of snow at that time and I would think the views would be about as exciting as a bureaucratic hallway, which is a terrible thing to have to look at as you freeze to death.  For me, much of the delight of the ride comes from sunlight through leaves.  Summer is hot, however—it can be 90 degrees at the summit—so I suggest you start early in the day.  About 8 am seems ideal.  Once I started at 7 AM and the light was disappointing, the sun too low to illuminate anything.  Even though this road is a magnet for tourists and motorcyclists, I’ve always had it to myself until around 11 AM.  Last time I started at 8 am (in August) and saw 2 cars in the first hour.

The first five miles of the ride are easy climbing through the typical spectacular Oregon rain forest—ferns, canopies, sun backlighting mossy maples.  You’ll see lots of signs that you’re very welcome: “Share the road,” “Scenic Bikeway,” “Bikes may use full lane,” and (new to me) “Bikes stay to right of centerline”!  You’re not in Kansas, or California, any more.

Five or so miles in, the pitch steepens a bit, to around 5-7%, and stays right there for 9 miles. It’s never hard, but there’s a lot of it, so pace yourself.  Though the pitch is monotonous, the road contour never fails to reward, constantly re-inventing itself as it meanders back and forth.  Nine miles into the ride you pass a big turn-out/parking lot for the Proxy Falls trail head.  The first of 2 falls is about 1/2 mile down the trail, just a bit too far for walking in cycling shoes, and it’s beautiful, so you might bring some sandals and do the hike on the way up or down.  The forest is unbroken—you’ll see only one break in the trees, an unlikely little “meadow,” and there’s an info board explaining how it got there—interesting (disease control).

As you rise, the landscape begins to dry out and the forest changes—wet undergrowth (ferns) is replaced by drier plant life (fireweed).     Eventually the maples disappear entirely.  When the trees drop below you and you start getting vistas, you know the end of the big climb is near.

Two of the Three Sisters behind the lava bed

When the climbing eases off, the next/last 8 miles are mostly untaxing rollers working their way gradually upward to the summit.  You’ll gain about 700 ft in those last 8 miles, most of it in one distressingly long pitch that catches you off-guard.  At first you ride through the burn, then a few miles of ordinary conifer forest.  Then you enter the lava flow, the reason most of the cars are up here.  The word “moonscape” comes to everyone’s mind.  The area around the summit is an ocean of ancient, black lava, sprinkled with gnarly trees bravely growing in it, or having tried to grow in it and failed.   Their dead trunks and broken limbs are irresistibly reminiscent of skeletons and bones.

Ridiculously fun descending

Ridiculously fun descending

At 22 miles, the turn-around point, you reach the Pass (there’s a summit sign to have your photo taken under) and the inimitable Dee Wright Observatory.  It’s for observing the lava, not the stars, an old queer building made entirely out of the local lava rock.  From its top you can see the Sisters mountains, Mt. Hood, Mt. Hamilton, and a dozen other points of interest, all identified for you by a large brass compass.

The ride back begins with one little pitch.  That’s the last significant climbing you do in the return 22 miles.  The descent is simply astonishing (after you re-ride the 8 miles of plateau), a perfect 14 miles of serpentining, banked curves on a pitch that ranges from mellow to exhilarating, all on a glassy road surface with good sight lines, with all the dangerous curves clearly marked by speed limit signs (when it says “20” you know you need to slow to 25, and so on).  No two corners are alike.  Every 1/4 mile is a new experience.  There will be some traffic (6-10 cars), but they won’t pass you, because you can ride this road faster than they can drive it.  I actually had a car pull over and wave me on because I was going faster than it was.  How often does that happen?

Park your bike and walk out into this stuff

Park your bike and walk out into this stuff

Oh, and the scenery—what was a pristine new dawn on your ride up will now be a golden fire on the way down.  It’s none of my business, but I strongly believe in getting off the bike in forest like this, walking 50 feet into it, and just sitting for a few minutes, to drink it in.  Imagine what the pioneers thought when they encountered it.  Imagine carving out a homestead from it.

Is it the best descent in Bestrides.org?  Of the descents called “best” on the Best Of the Best page, Tunitas Creek Rd is the least stunning visually and most traffic-free.   McKenzie, Tunitas Creek, and Ebbetts Pass are all long.  McKenzie is the lushest.  Ebbetts is the fastest.  Do them all and tell me which you prefer.

A cathedral moment

If you are determined to through-ride the pass (which almost everyone does), you can ride it west to east or east to west.  If you go west to east, you end up in Sisters, an oddly famous upscale tourist town (think, high-end women’s fashions and rodeo instead of trinket shops) that’s worth a stroll.  But then you have to get back.  Riding there and back makes for a long day, but it’s possible, since the climb up from Sisters is mild.  If you want to go east to west, McKenzie River Mountain Resort will shuttle you from the resort (15 miles west of the west end of our ride) to Sisters, whence you can ride back to the resort, or drop your car at the start of Hwy 242.  The climb from Sisters to the summit is half as hard as the climb from the west side, so start in Sisters if your goal is to avoid climbing.  But the insurmountable downside to through-riding is that the road between Sisters and the summit, ascending or descending, just isn’t in the same ballpark as the west side.  It’s OK—that’s all.   So by through-riding you miss either the great ascent or the great descent.  Which is why I do the ride as an out-and-back.

And how does this ride compare to the Aufderheide ride just a stone’s throw down the road?  Both are fairly long, steady, moderate climbs with roughly equal workloads.  Both are drop-dead gorgeous.  Aufderheide is lusher and wetter (though the fact that I did it last in a light rain might have something to do with that).  The terrain of McKenzie is much more varied, from fern forest to moonscape.  Aufderheide is much straighter, so the ride up is more monotonous and the descent is faster and much less interesting.

There are bathrooms at a couple of developed turn-outs along the climb and at the Observatory.  There is no water anywhere.  You can beg water from RV’s at the turn-around.

Shortening the route: Ride to the start of the plateau and turn around (12.5 mi one way).  You can save a little time (but hardly any effort) by skipping the first 4 miles of the route, which are flatter (therefore less thrilling to descend). At 14.2 miles you reach a kind of leveling off with a large dirt turn-around/parking lot on the R.  It’s tempting to turn around here, but don’t, because if you ride for half mile or so to the actual plateau you’ll get a superb stretch of descending when you turn around.  You’ll  know the climb is over when you see badly burned trees.

Adding Miles: At your starting point, Hwy 126 is pretty, but it’s big, straight, and unvarying in pitch, and very busy with a big shoulder for bikes.  People descend it all the time, but I wouldn’t.  In fact, a standard big ride for Bend cyclists, and a stage in the Cascade Classic stage race, is to do the loop from Sisters to the Santiam Pass (Hwy 20), down 126 to the McKenzie Highway, and up McKenzie back to Sisters, but I’m not recommending it because Hwy 20 is the worst sort of big-road monotonous bleak.

Obviously you can continue on from the summit to Sisters, and obviously I don’t recommend it.

The Aufderheide ride is a few miles down Hwy 126.

Highway 32 Canyons

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Distance:  51-mile out and back
Elevation gain: 4920 ft 

(Update: as of 8/18, this ride has undergone some improvements and some diminishments.  On the up side, the entire descent and ascent through Chico Creek Canyon has been repaved and is glass.  On the down side, much of the leg along Deer Creek has been thinned for fire control.  It’s not ugly like clear-cutting, but much of the maple understory, which provided the light show, is gone.)

(Update: in 2024 much of this route burned severely in the Park Fire.  The leg along Deer Creek, the prettiest part of the ride, is largely intact.)

This ride has major pros and cons.  Pros: smooth, blissfully meandering two-lane road in and out of two pristine NorCal creek canyons, the highlight being 12 miles (one way) along Deer Creek, as pretty a little babbling stream as there is.  The cons: traffic, all of it in a hurry, some of it consisting of loaded logging trucks or heavy equipment haulers (because this is a working corridor), and only a small dirt shoulder or no shoulder at all.   This is the only ride I’ve ever done anywhere where I had to pull off the road onto dirt to let traffic pass.  Don’t do this ride if you aren’t willing to put up with that.  To minimize the problem, I wouldn’t do this ride during high-traffic periods: late Saturday morning through Sunday evening.

This route has no amenities or perks—no quaint inns, amazing rock formations, or giant redwoods—other than Deer Creek Falls (see below).

Start at the intersection of Highway 32 and Humboldt Road (the road to Butte Meadows), 28 miles northeast of Chico on Hwy 32, an intersection called Lomo though there is nothing there.  Ride to the end of Hwy 32, where it T’s into Hwy 36; ride back.  The route profile is simple: you’ll drop down from the ridge into Chico Creek Canyon, cross Chico Creek (it’s a lovely spot, worth a stop and a walk along the water), climb out of the canyon and up to the summit ridge between Chico Creek and Deer Creek, drop down into Deer Creek Canyon, cross Deer Creek, and ride along the creek to the T.  This involves a lot of elevation gain, but it’s never steep—I don’t think there’s a foot steeper than 6%.  You’ll do three moderate, extended climbs in the 51 miles.

Looking down into Deer Creek Canyon—you're going to ride right up it

Looking down into Deer Creek Canyon—you’re going to ride right through its heart

Good as it is, there are other rides in Bestrides where the climbing and descending is as good as this.  The real draw here is the 24 miles (out and back) along Deer Creek.  You ride along its banks, then leave it to climb up over a little ridgelet, then return to the water, again and again, as if the stream is ever calling you back.  The road crosses the creek seven times in 12 miles.   Because you’re riding upstream, the progress on the ride out is steadily ascending, but pleasantly and with much variety of contour; then when you turn around you find the ride back is a surprisingly invigorating rolling descent.

Deer Creek Canyon floor

Deer Creek Canyon floor, with typically narrow shoulder

Because the suffering on this ride is all caused by the traffic, and because you want to see the forest with the light coming in low, this is a ride you want to do early in the day and in sunny weather.  Sunrise is the ideal starting time, keeping in mind that the sun “rises” later in a canyon that it does on the flats.  I wait until summer when the sun rises early, and then I start at 7 am.  The last time I did it, I encountered about 10 logging trucks or huge equipment haulers in the 50 miles, and maybe 50 vehicles all told.  As I say, the moments of high risk and terror are few.  Early evening is even prettier, but then the traffic is at its worst.

Deer Creek: than which there are no creeks prettier

Deer Creek, than which there are no creeks prettier

Shortening the ride: The Deer Creek Canyon riding is better in every respect than the Chico Creek Canyon riding, so drive about 8 miles past the Butte Meadows fork, park anywhere along the 2 miles of flattish summit, and ride to Hwy 36, thus cutting the mileage from 51 to about 37 and reducing the climbing by over a third.  If you want even less, drive to the first bridge over Deer Creek and start there.

Adding miles:  At the start of the ride you’re a short, challenging climb up Humboldt Rd. from the back door to our Paradise to Butte Meadows ride.  At the turn-around, on Hwy 36, you’re an unexciting but easy 15+ miles from our Mill Creek Road ride and our Lassen National Park ride. to the northwest.  In the other direction, to the southeast, you’re an unexciting but easy 13+ miles from our Chester Back Roads rides.

From your starting point, Hwy 32 in the other direction (back toward Chico) is seemingly endless miles of trafficky, long, straight, fast shoulder descending.  I hate it, but locals ride it all the time, usually riding to or returning from Butte Meadows.

Afterthoughts:  The only services on this ride are two primitive campgrounds, Potato Patch (about halfway out) and Elam (a few miles before the turn-around).  Both have pit toilets (Elam’s are always locked when I come through on an early weekday morning—I don’t know about Potato Patch), and both have water (Elam’s a charming old hand pump).  Elam was closed to camping by Covid, but the bathrooms were accessible.

Deer Creek and its canyon are natural wonders.  If you want to explore them off-road, stop at the first Deer Creek bridge crossing and hike the obvious trail on the northwest side heading downstream.  It’s a smaller version of Mexico’s Copper Canyon—grand, harsh, and solitary—and it rewards an extended exploration.  Take lots of water.

Deer Creek is small, but there are manageable swimming holes along the route.  The water is cold.

Midway along the stretch along Deer Creek is Deer Creek Falls, clearly signed.  It’s a very short hike, well worth doing and probably manageable in cycling shoes or bare feet.

Bean Creek/Mtn. Charlie/Soquel-San Jose

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Distance:  34-mile loop
Elevation gain: 3560 ft 

A Best of the Best ride

This is a fairly big, kitchen-sink sort of ride designed to bag five of Santa Cruz’s prime cycling roads, one of which is the area’s only high-speed luge descent and one of my favorite descents anywhere. The route can easily be chopped into smaller pieces in lots of ways.   It’s all up and down, like most of Santa Cruz riding, and it has some steep moments, but those moments never last.  3560 ft of gain in 34 miles is a lot, but you’ll wonder where they’re coming from—it doesn’t feel that bad.  The route sports incredible variety—the road contour changes every 25-50 yards—and it’s almost all stunningly gorgeous.

Mountain Charlie Rd. is notorious for being closed due to winter mud slides. Latest report (2025) is, it’s open.

Most of this route has houses but not much else, so if you want to reprovision and don’t like knocking on strangers’ doors, there are stores halfway down Summit Rd. and at the intersection of Soquel-San Jose Rd. and Laurel Glen Rd. (and of course in Scott’s Valley).

Begin at the south end of Bean Creek Rd. in Scott’s Valley.  Parking is tricky, because Scott’s Valley is downright snooty and the neighborhood curbs are designed to prevent visitor parking.  If you get tired of cruising the side streets, go L off Bean Creek onto Blue Bonnet and in 1/2 a mile you’ll see a large parking lot in front of the municipal building on the R.

Ride up Bean Creek Rd. to its end at Glenwood Rd.  BCR, surprisingly, begins with a substantial descent, then climbs moderately for a while, so you don’t need to warm up your legs on flat streets.  The only taxing pitch on BCR is at the very end, so when it get’s hard, you know you’re done.  BCR is narrow and gorgeous and lightly trafficked.

Bean Creek Road

Go L on Glenwood and ride the short, mostly down leg to Mtn. Charlie Rd. on your L.  This leg of Glenwood is quite delightful in itself, so you might be tempted to stay on it, but the road surface soon becomes unpleasantly rough, then it debouches onto Hwy 17, where you don’t want to be.

Take Mtn. Charlie to its end at Summit Rd.  It’s more typical Santa Cruz rainforest gorgeous.  Compared to Bean Creek Rd., it’s steeper, narrower, windier, more deserted, and rougher of surface.  The road goes up and down, back and forth, never staying the same for very long.  You’ll come upon a few stretches of 15-18%, but they’re over almost before you can start to worry, and thanks to the God of Cycling almost every tough pitch is followed by a stretch of flat or descent so you can recover, which is how I like to do my steep stuff.  The road surface is poor enough to make descending on these roads a poor idea (though many cyclists do), but at my 5 mph ascending isn’t a problem.  In short, it’s an adventure and needs to be approached in that spirit.   I don’t hammer this sort of stuff—I forget about speed and get as much into the beauty that’s surrounding me as I can.  Think of it as hiking on your bike.  If it’s not your cup of tea, rest assured that everything else on the route is much more domesticated.

Bean Creek Road

When MCR deadends at Summit Rd., take Summit Rd. to the R, do a little steep drop, immediately cross over Hwy 17, and go L at the stop sign, which is still Summit (there’s a large sign).  The next 4 miles is wide, open, straight, with big rollers where you can hit an honest 40 mph, a refreshing change of pace after all that 5-mph climbing over patchy pavement.  But it’s no fun, because Summit is a busy 2-lane artery, and the shoulder comes and goes, so expect to have cars passing you riskily as you’re doing 35 mph in the middle of the lane.  I’m glad when it’s over.  For an alternative route that bypasses most of Summit, see  Brian’s Schulties Rd.-to-Redwood Lodge Rd. route below (some dirt).

Assuming you stay on Summit, watch for Soquel-San Jose Rd. going off to the R and take it.  It’s a big road, and there are no fewer than 4 road signs announcing its approach, but they’re all small and it’s still easy to miss.

Shawn in the comments below outlines a back-alternative to the busyness of Summit Road, or at least two thirds of it: From Summit, go R on Old Santa Cruz Hwy > Schulties Rd. > Redwood Lodge Rd., which dumps you out partway down Soquel-San Jose.  This detour is laid out in detail in our Alma Bridge/Old Santa Cruz Hwy Plus ride, and it adds considerable difficulty to the loop.

Mtn. Charlie Road

Mtn. Charlie Road

SSJ is the sort of road I typically avoid—big and busy.  But in this case it’s not to be missed—a Best of the Best descent without qualification.  Smooth as glass, with sweeping turns that keep you alert but don’t slow you down, through beautiful woods, it begs to be ridden at a sustained, easy-yet-exhilarating 35 mph.  I promise you will never touch your brakes.  The cars (and there will be cars) are courteous—there are even signs reading “(bike icon) may use full lane.”  If you needed an invitation to ride here, there it is.

Mt. Charlie Road

Mt. Charlie Road

Turn R off SSJ onto Laurel Glen Rd., the first real road on your R (at the country store) and return to climbing through small-road, light-traffic, dense woods.  You might be tempted to continue down SSJ, and you wouldn’t regret it (come back up on Branciforte Dr.), but the big descent is over and the rest of the road is just very mellow/pleasant.

Laurel Glen climbs briefly to a summit at the intersection with Rodeo Gulch Rd. (make a mental note to come back and ride our Rodeo Gulch ride some other day—it’s a pip), where it changes its name to Mountain View Rd., then does a rough and only-OK descent and dead-ends at Branciforte Dr.  Go L on Branciforte.

Branciforte is unique in the Santa Cruz area: an easy ride.  It’s a pretty and mellow road that climbs gently from its source in Soquel to where we join it.  Enjoy it for the tranquil respite that it is, and remember to bring your non-riding partner back here for a relaxing roll.

There are two ways back to the car from Branciforte: Glen Canyon Rd. and Granite Creek Rd.  Glen Canyon is the more direct and less steep route, so take it if you’re done taking on challenges for the day.  Granite Creek Rd. adds about 4 miles and is the slightly harder climb, but it’s prettier (though Glen Canyon is just fine), so do it if you can.  The difference between the two pitches isn’t great—maybe the difference between 4% and 6%.  Our map goes up Granite Creek.

As you enter suburbia on Granite Creek, watch for S. Navarra going L (shortly after plain Navarra goes R)—if you miss S. Navarra, you’ll find yourself on an entrance ramp to Hwy 17 within seconds.  Take S. Navarra, ride it to a dead-end, and go straight ahead through the dead-end barrier onto the arrow-straight frontage road along Hwy 17 heading directly away from you.  Ride its rollers for 2 miles until you get to the first road going R (there’s a stop sign).  Take the R, which immediately plunges straight down for 30 ft., then crosses under Hwy 17.  Stay on that road to the T at Mt. Hermon, go R onto Mt. Hermon, R on Scott’s Valley Rd, and L onto Bean Creek.  These last 3 turns take about 2 minutes and cover at most 1/3 mile.

If you parked at the Blue Bonnet civic center, you can actually save yourself some climbing by staying on Mt. Hermon and crossing Scott’s Valley Rd., then going R on King’s Village Rd., which runs into Blue Bonnet at the Center.

Shortening the route: There is no way to significantly shorten this route without losing its heart.  Riding Bean Creek/Mtn. Charlie as an out-and-back isn’t desirable because Mtn. Charlie is a very unpleasant descent.  Riding Soquel-San Jose as San out-and-back would suck because climbing SSJ would be a tedious, trafficky slog.  So I think you’re in for the full monty.

Adding Miles:  The Soquel-San Jose leg of this route is also part of the Alma Bridge/Old Santa Cruz Hwy Plus and the Eureka Canyon/Highland Way routes.

Almost everything in any direction is good—see the Monterey Bay discussion in the Rides by Region chapter for a survey of roads in the Santa Cruz area.  Since it’s the same conversation for all 6 of our Santa Cruz rides, I’ll do it once there and leave it at that.

Mosquito Road

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Distance:  24-mile loop
Elevation gain: 3540 ft 

There is an endless amount of rideable road north of Placerville, but most of it is just-OK, generic green-wall riding.  This route has some real drama.  It’s a short, serious climbing route, the bulk of it on a small, energetic back road.  You plunge down to the bottom of the American River canyon, cross the river, climb steeply back out the other side, roll up and down along the side of the canyon, do a fast drop on a moderately traveled mountain highway back down to the same river, and end with a challenging 1000-ft climb.  Along the way you get some nice woods, some nice canyon vistas, and a lot of nice solitude.  It’s 3540 feet of gain in 24 miles of riding (which means 12 miles of climbing), so you’ll work.

There’s a possible issue with car traffic.  When I did the ride I saw no cars at all, but that was some years ago.  Now there is an active community at the intersection of Mosquito Rd. and Rock Creek Rd., with a population somewhere between 1000 and 2000 folks, and they have to get in and out, so you may meet some traffic on RCR.

Begin in downtown Placerville.  It’s a town well worth some checking-out time.  Don’t miss the hardware store, one of the oldest in the West and a bit of living history guaranteed to delight tool fetishists and non-fetishists alike.   Ride east out of town on the main street and when you’re almost out of town take the L turn under the highway onto Mosquito Road.  Climb steadily and moderately for 2.5 miles, until you’re at the lip of the South Fork American River Canyon.  From here to Hwy 193 there should be next to no traffic.  Plunge 4 miles down through thick, pretty Sierra Nevada foothill woods to the river.  The pitch is often too steep to be ideal descending, but it’s still exciting.  The last 100 yards are very steep and can be wet and treacherous.

Crossing the American River

Crossing the American River

Cross the river on a charming little bridge and begin the grinding climb up the other side.  It’s very steep for 1/2 a mile, then just steep for another 2 miles.  You’ll feel some pride when you get to the summit at mile 9.0.   At the intersection you encounter an  unexpected cluster of mountain estate homes.  This is the historic community of Mosquito (pop. 1000+), also known by the name of Mosquito’s most prominent housing development, Stansboro Country.  Google “Mosquito CA” for some interesting background.  Take the unmissable hard L onto Rock Creek Rd. and follow it as it rolls sweetly along the sidehill.  Enjoy the striking vistas of the river canyon.

American River canyon

American River canyon from Mosquito Road

When you deadend at highway 193 (Georgetown Rd.), go L and delight in the all-too-short but smooth, fast, sweeping descent back down into the canyon.  Cross the bridge and do a moderately challenging 2.5-mile climb back to town.   You’re on the shoulder here, the traffic will be noticeable, and the pitch is unvaried, but you’re in pretty, dense forest so the scenery is good.  On the outskirts of town you’ll merge with Hwy 49 (Coloma Rd.) but you won’t notice.

The route can be ridden in the other direction, but it will involve you in a 40-mph descent right off the bat, which I’d rather not do.

Adding Miles: The larger roads north of Placerville are merely good riding and all pretty much the same green-wall stuff.  But just a stone’s throw north of our intersection with Hwy 193 lies a warren of small to very small roads, all very isolated and worth riding: Shoo Fly Rd., Transverse Creek Rd., Bear Creek Rd., Spanish Flat Rd., Meadow Brook Rd., Balderston Rd., and the amazingly narrow Darling Ridge Rd. They’re all inter-connected—feel free to wander. Mt. Murphy Rd., bisecting our route, is largely dirt.

Georgetown is a cute little village with a nice old general store and hotel, and Garden Valley has a wonderful plant nursery.

Apple Hill woods

Apple Hill woods

If you’re looking for something mellow, ride the loop through Apple Hill (so-called because every fifty feet of road there’s an apple farm).  Begin at the intersection of Union Ridge Road and Carson Rd.  Go Hassler Rd > North Canyon Rd. > L on Larson > L on Cable > R on Mace, then R onto Carson and take Carson back to your car.  Carson is bigger, flatter, faster, and more trafficked than all those back roads, so stick to it if you’re really looking to avoid up and down.  This is not a ride to attempt during apple harvest, when the area is mobbed with tourists.

Where our route intersects Hwy 183 , you’re a mere 3 miles south on 183 from where our Prospectors Road to Bayne Road route turns onto Bayne.  So it’s easy to do both routes as a single ride, a rough figure eight, thus turning two moderate rides into one big one.