Distance: 21 mi. lollipop
Elevation gain: 1875 ft

If you’r’e like me, you’ve driven past Clear Lake many times, but you’ve rarely gotten off the three highways that circumnavigate the lake: Hwy 20 on the north shore, Hwy 29 on the south shore, and Hwy 58 on the east shore. Now is the time, because on the peninsula that juts into the lake heading west from the town of Clearlake (no space) there is a lovely little network of roads crying out to be ridden.

Clear Lake has two outstanding rides: Clear Lake to Cobb and this one. The two rides couldn’t be more different. The ride to Cobb is a sweet steady climb through lush forest to a tiny mountain community and back. This one is a mix of riding conditions—some small-town streets, some flat shoreline, some short steep rollers, and some climbing through dry (though pretty) oak-and-grass landscapes with big vistas of the lake below you and in the distance. And there’s some history here as well—the eponymous Sulphur Banks, where Native Americans and later Europeans dug for Cinnebar, Sulphur, Borax, and Mercury, and one of the oldest archeological sites in the US, with signs of habitation dating back 12,000 years!

It all starts in the town of Clearlake. It’s a conventional little town, with a fresh spritely energy. It’s the kind of town that has several barbershops, all called something like Clearlake Barber Shop. You won’t find artisanal bakeries, and I’ll bet the locals don’t know what a “barista” is. I like it a lot. So I’ve started the ride in the center of town, at the unmissable Austin City Park, where there is plenty of parking, so I could include a few miles through downtown streets. If you’re not hot on riding busy streets, fear not—Lakeshore Drive, the first leg of the route, gets quieter, prettier, more interesting topographically, and more isolated the farther west you go.

Throughout its length Lakeshore alternates between hugging the waterline through enclaves of small lakefront vacation bungalows, each with its own ramshackle pier, and climbing up the hillside for nice views of the lake and the bungalows below you.

Lakeshore ends at an intersection with North Rd., and we are eventually going R onto North, but not yet. An obviously secondary road continues westward (the direction you’ve been riding in up to this point). Signed as Crestview Rd., it’s short but choice and you should ride it. it’s a little narrower, a little steeper, and a little more meandering that what you’ve done, and the vistas of the lake are ideal. It ends at a gate and a “private community” sign. Speak a curse on the moneyed elitists and turn around.

Back at North Rd., take it. It’s very different from Lakeshore, in that it’s not along the shore—it’s up the hill, so the shore, the bungalows, and the piers are well below you and usually out of sight. It’s almost completely untouched wilderness. Because it doesn’t have to follow the shore, it’s flatter than Lakeshore, which means it meanders side to side more. It’s perfect riding, and I don’t think I saw a vehicle. It ends all too soon at Sulphur Bank Drive.

A word about ride scheduling: North, as its name implies, is on the north side of the ridge, which means it’s in shadow for most or all of the day. This is a lovely thing on a hot summer’s day, but in the winter it means it’s probably wet. On the January day when I rode it, with no rain at all in the recent weather systems, it was still soaking wet from dew at 2 pm and slippery as a result. On the other hand, in the winter the oaks have dropped their leaves (still gorgeous) and so the vistas on North Rd. and Sulphur Bank are superior.

At the intersection of North and Sulphur Bank, you go L onto Sulphur Bank. You’re already near the summit of the SBD climb, but what remains is cherry, with great views of Borax Lake, the town of Clearlake, and the south arm of Clear Lake itself on your right and far below you. The back side of the hill is ideal riding, both climbing and descending—a little over a mile of 6-7%, with constant esses. As soon as you start down you get grand views of the north arm of Clear Lake, the community of Clearlake Oaks, and the Sulphur Bank between you and them. The bank, a shoreline hillside prominently dug away, is actually down a side road, Sulphur Bank Mine Road, signed with many protestations of privacy and promises of dire punishments meted out to trespassers, but the good views of the bank are a mere 1/8th of a mile down the road and you can easily pop down and poach a look-see. You can read about the history of the Bank here.

At the bottom of the hill you roll through pretty ranch land to a T at Hwy 20, and you turn around and climb back to the summit. The descent from the summit to Borax Lake is the stuff of dreams—1.6 mi. of serpentining so good I’d put it in Bestrides’ list of Best Descents if it were a bit longer. At Borax Lake you can look around for the archeological site but you won’t see it—you can read about it here. At least try to wrap your head around the idea of humans living their lives here 8,000 years before the early Egyptians.

Shortening the ride: You’ve got two excellent options. You can ride Sulphur Bank Drive alone as an out and back. You can ride the Lakeshore/North loop by itself, which gives you much less climbing.

Adding miles: Along the spine of the peninsula runs Crestview Rd. It forks off from Lakeshore a few miles into our ride and returns to Lakeshore right at the North Rd. intersection. It’s mostly dirt, but it looks to be good dirt. It’s on my to-do list. Oddly (for dirt), it’s covered in Streetview, so you can preview it. I don’t know of other good riding in the immediate vicinity. The Clear Lake to Cobb ride discusses good riding further afield.

Our route cuts off 2/3 of the south-side Sulphur Bank Drive climb, and it’s a very sweet climb, so you might like to turn around when you get to Borax Lake, climb back up to North Rd., and turn around again. That way you’d get to do most of the grand Sulphur Bank descent twice.

Distance: 18.3 out and back
Elevation gain: 1680 ft

This ride is nowhere near the old Squaw Valley skiing area.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Distance: 13-mile lollipop
Elevation gain: 785 ft

This isn’t a life-changing ride—just a sweet little lollipop with a varied contour through nice Clear Lake woods, past a lot of unpretentious ranches, and (briefly) along a charming creek. I’d be more enthusiastic if the road surface were better—it’s only OK, but a very worthy little hour’s outing nonetheless. The elevation total is mild, but the ride is mostly rollers and you’ll have the chance to work some. It’s nowhere near as swell as our Clear Lake to Cobb ride, which is just down the road, so do that one first, then this, unless you’re trying to avoid climbing.

Start at the intersection of Kelsey Creek Rd. an Hwy 29. There’s dirt shoulder parking.

A short stretch into the ride you’ll see Wight Rd. prominently forking off to the R. Don’t take it but note it. Our loop ends there.

At some point in the ride the road changes its name to Adobe Creek Rd.

Turn R onto Wight Rd. and ride Wight back to the Wight/KCR intersection. Return to your car on KCR.

There are at least two ways to make the ride longer by enlarging the loop: instead of turning on Wight, continue north and turn R on Bell Hill Rd. or (still further) Merritt Rd. Both routes have substantially less interesting road contour/scenery and I don’t recommend them.

Shortening the ride: Not much need to, but the best miles are the loop, so you could start at the Kelsey Creek Rd./Wight Rd. intersection.

Adding miles: From our starting point it’s about 4 miles of flat to Clear Lake State Park, a lovely park and campground where you can pick up Soda Bay Rd., a pleasant 9-mi. (one-way) stroll along the lake shore and through some classic old Clear Lake settlements to an intersection with Hwy 29.

Distance:36.6-mile out and back more or less
Elevation gain: 1845 ft

(A Best of the Best ride)

(Warning: Once I did this ride and parked at the Keswick Dam Trail Head parking lot. My car was broken into. Don’t leave valuables in your car there. I believe parking at Turtle Bay is safe. JR)

Normally I don’t like rec trails, because they’re crowded and fussy. But the occasional rec trail rises above the regrettable norm, and Bestrides discusses six that I really like: the Monterey Bike Trail, the Nimitz Trail, the Willamette River Trail in Eugene, the American River Trail in Sacramento, the Coyote Creek Trail in San Jose (use the search window for the last four), and this one. As with all rec trails, the Sacramento River Trail (also called the Sacramento River Parkway) can get unpleasantly crowded on weekends, but if you can catch it on a quiet day, it’s a wonderful ride, with an immaculate road surface, grand vistas, and (three-quarters of the time) an intriguing contour.

Besides crowds, the curses of rec trails are monotony and flatness/straightness (since most are trail-to-trail conversions). The SRT has neither problem. The route is a constant series of entertaining surprises: Turtle Bay Exploration Park with its vast array of educational attractions, McConnell Arboretum and Botanical Gardens next-door, a giant sundial, three river crossings on bridges (one world-famous, one a suspension bridge straight out of Indiana Jones), one spooky tunnel, endless views of the Sacramento River (since you’re riding along its very lip), distant views of Mt. Lassen to the southeast, views of Mt. Shasta at the turn-around, a ride along the top of one of the world’s largest and most scenic dams, interesting historical placards to further your knowledge, cards naming and describing the trees and shrubs along the path, one mighty hydroelectric generating plant, and bald eagles in flight. And the SRT is, about 2/3 of the time, as far from flat/straight as you can get, a delightful roller coaster of up and down and back and forth (it’s more work than the elevation total suggests). When it is flat, it’s still perfectly pleasant.

Avoiding the crowds is key here. Two solutions are obvious: 1) ride on weekdays and 2) ride farther than the walkers can walk. The SRT is one of those trails that begins at the edge of the city and gets more and more isolated the further you go. Most of the walkers are in the first 3 miles of the route, and by Keswick Dam they’re almost entirely gone. The third solution is unusual: ride in the winter. The flora is as pretty in January as it is in June, but the crowds are indoors, so if you can find a clear, dry winter day the trail should pretty much belong to you and the hard-core runners. In addition, in the winter the surrounding summits are crowned with snow and the vistas are vastly improved. And it isn’t 105°, as it often is in August.

The frequent trailheads along the route all have bathrooms. Water resupply is available at Keswick Dam, Shasta Day Use Area, and (I’m told) the Shasta Dam Visitor Center.

Our route crosses the top of Shasta Dam, but RidewithGPS doesn’t recognize that as a “road” or it thinks it’s closed to the public—for whatever reason it wouldn’t let me map it.

Click on any of the photos to see them enlarged.

The SRT changes its personality every few miles, so I’ll describe the route in sections.

Section 1: From the Sundial Bridge to the Diestelhurst Bridge. Park in the Turtle Bay parking lot (it’s free). Make a mental note to come back and explore the riches of Turtle Bay soon. Ride across the famous Sundial Bridge carefully—the road surface of the bridge is mostly glass and is therefore slippery if at all wet or frosty. Check out the giant sundial laid out on the earth at the north end of the bridge. Turn L onto the North Sacramento River Trail. Immediately pass the gates to the Botanical Gardens. Make a mental note to come back and explore the riches of the gardens soon. At the gate to the gardens is a poster with an excellent map of the SRT—take a photo for later reference if you forgot to download your ridewithGPS route map.

This section of the trail is cozy, full of tight little turns, drops, and rises as it works its way through pretty riparian oaks and past playgrounds and other suburban signs of life. It’s likely to be the section of the ride most crowded with walkers, dogs, and children. Note the pretty quarter-mile markers along the route—they are one of at least 5 different sets of distance markers you’ll see on the ride, so you’ll never be in doubt about where you are on the route.

Follow the unmistakable trail as it passes under two bridges. At the third bridge, the Diestelhorst, pass under, immediately go R and loop up onto the bridge. From the center of the bridge (which is closed to cars), note Mt. Lassen through the trusses of the two bridges to the east.

Section 2: From Diestelhorst Bridge to Keswick Dam. At the south end of the bridge turn R onto the unmissable South Sacramento River Trail and ride to Keswick Dam. Note the large sign at the trailhead giving you distances to all destinations ahead—it’s the first of many such signs. This is a popular trailhead for runners, because this leg is mostly flat and straight, so you may have company. It’s mostly free of development, traveling through pretty, small woods and later more open country, hugging the riverbank the entire way. Note the prominent mountain dead ahead of you (hopefully snow-crested if you took my advice and are riding in the winter). Watch for bald eagles from here to the turn-around.

As you approach the impressive pile that is Keswick Dam and Power Station, you pass a lovely little suspension bridge across the river, called either the Sacramento River Trail Bridge or the Ribbon Bridge depending on your map. We’ll cross over on it on our return ride.

Section 3: From Keswick Dam to Keswick Boat Launch and Trailhead. Officially the Sacramento River Trail ends here and the continuation is called the Sacramento River Rail Trail, but no name could be more misleading. This leg is by far the most dramatic, difficult, and rewarding on the route, and no rail line could ever consider traversing it. It begins with a challenging 0.6-mile hill, named Heart Rate Hill on the nearby placard, the first of two climbs on the route that you’ll really notice. RWGPS says it maxes out at 10.5%, and you’ll feel all of it.

From Heart Rate Hill’s summit, the leg meanders dramatically, up and down, back and forth. You’re high above the river, on top of the canyon ridge, and it’s exhilarating. The terrain is sparse and dry, made more barren by the recent fires that pounded Whiskeytown, but it’s a grand barrenness, and the constant views of Mt. Lassen and Brokeoff across the river to the east are splendid. By now you should have out-ridden all but the heartiest of trail users, so you can really attack the course. This is great riding and is the one leg of the SRT you can’t afford to miss.

Section 4: From Keswick Boat Launch to the Shasta Day Use Area. This leg fits the rail-to-trail stereotype—basically flat, straight, and homogeneous—as it works its way through riparian shrubs and low trees along the river’s shoreline. Trailside placards naming and describing the local flora pop up. The monotony is broken by a cool little tunnel, long enough to get pleasantly tingly but never pitch-dark. You’re nearing the northern end of the trail, so you may pick up some walkers or casual cyclists coming from the Shasta Use Area campgrounds just ahead of you.

The bike trail debouches onto a major road (Coram Rd., never signed) at the Shasta Dam Trail Head of the SRT. Follow the road to the R, which in 1/4 mi. arrives at the Shasta Day Use Area, a major complex with campgrounds, bathrooms, and water. It’s a gathering place for off-road four-wheelers, but they keep to themselves for the most part.

Section 4 would be the most skippable on the route except we need it to get to the next leg, which you don’t want to miss.

Section 5: Shasta Day Use Area to Shasta Dam. Ride through the Day Use Area (drinking water available) on Coram Rd. and follow it to the dam, a very sweet, moderate 1.5-mile climb serpentining up beside the dam face to the road across the top of the dam itself. Halfway up the climb the road changes its name to Shasta Dam Access Rd., again unsigned. At the dam, ride across it to the other side, then ride back—1.2 mi. round trip. The dam road (officially still Shasta Dam Access Rd.) is surrounded by guardhouses, barriers, and guards armed with automatic weapons, so it looks forbidding, but you are in fact welcome to ride there and poke around (a sign says, “No knives, guns, or food”—I didn’t ditch my Clif Bar). Smack on the far side of the lake is Mt. Shasta in regal grandeur, and the views down the face of the dam are unforgettable. It’s an iconic dam, everyone’s image of what a dam should look like. On the far side is a Visitor Center where you can replenish your water, if it’s open—in an act of incredible (and typical) governmental idiocy, its current hours are Mon.-Fri. 8:30-4:00…in other words, exactly when almost no one can visit.

Turn around and ride back down the hill. It’s a perfect slalom on perfect pavement, over too soon. Return to the SRT and ride it backwards past Keswick Dam to the Ribbon suspension bridge. Cross the river on the bridge and begin the next leg.

Section 6: North Sacramento River Trail to the Diestelhorst Bridge. You are paralleling Section 2 directly across the river, but the terrain couldn’t be more different. Whereas Section 2 is flat and straight, this leg is the most twisty/turny up and down riding you’ll do all day. I loved it. If you love it too, there is an argument to be made for skipping the tamer Section 2 on the ride out and doing Section 6 in both directions.

The NSRT debouches onto a suburban neighborhood street. Continue down the street and keep an eye out for the continuation of the trail, which takes off to the R in 1/4 mile with no signage. Don’t fall for the trail-look-alike driveway just before it.

This leg runs back into our outward path at the base of the Diestelhorst Bridge. Return the way you came to your car.

Shortening the route: Since there are car-accessible trailheads with parking lots scattered along the route, you can start/stop your ride at any of them and tailor the route to suit your aesthetics, conditioning, and tolerance for crowds (see my warning about theft at the beginning of this post). The 6 sections from best to worst are IMO #3, 5, 6, 1, 2, and 4. Which means there is no way to ride just the good stuff. My ideal short routes would be a) #3, 4, 5 out and back and b) 1, 6, and 3 out and back.

Adding miles: You can add on 6-8 unthrilling miles to our route by continuing on past the dam Visitor Center and going R/south on Hwy 151, Shasta Dam Blvd., to Summit City (so called on maps, but signed “Shasta Lake” as you approach town), then either turning around or heading north on Lake Blvd, which will return you to the dam. Shasta Dam Blvd. is a generic moderate climb and descent on a big two-lane road with car-friendly contours (big sweeping turns). If you ride it as an out and back, it adds c. 1100 ft. of elevation. Lake Blvd. is even less exciting. The only real reward in doing the loop, besides getting additional miles in, is the spectacular vista point halfway up the Shasta Dam Blvd. climb looking back on the face of Shasta Dam, the lake behind it, and Mt. Shasta in the distance. I suggest riding to it, taking in the view, and turning around.

If you make it to Summit City, take the time to continue east 1/4 mi. on Shasta Dam Blvd. to the town’s Little League baseball field to see if there’s a game going on—if there is, it’s a heart-warming Norman Rockwell scene of small-town Americana. Water available.

If you’re determined to loop the entire ride and don’t mind riding a lot of mediocre stuff, you can ride to the dam and take this return route. It does a good job of avoiding the larger roads. Notice that for the fun of it I’ve included an out-and-back on Walker Mine Rd., which is a good bit better than anything else on this route.

There is some additional bike path to the east of the Sundial Bridge, on both sides of the river, and it’s all fun stuff—consult the map by the Botanical Gardens—but it isn’t a significant number of miles.

Distance: 34 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 3224 ft

This ride is an offshoot of the Forks of Salmon loop ride, and has the same virtues: rugged, rocky landscape, minuscule road width, little traffic, major exposure. Since it’s short and relatively easy to get to, it makes a nice alternative if you found the FOS ride seductive but didn’t want to invest the 100 miles. The vert is somewhere between easy and hard—RWGPS gives the elevation total as 3200 ft, which isn’t daunting, but I promise it feels like even less than that.

Of its 17 miles, 10 of them are just very nice canyon riding along a river on a large, polished two-lane road. But the other 7 miles are extraordinary—hair-raising serpentining along a vertical canyon wall on a true one-lane road with no guard rails or any kind of protection, with massive rock on one side and a 200-ft drop-off to the river at the very edge of the road on the other. I loved it, but it’s not for people who have trouble with exposure.

Salmon River Road takes off from Hwy 96 at Somes Bar and follows the river upstream for 17 miles to Forks of Salmon, an intersection with a few buildings but no services. The road is often mildly up and down, but it’s never hard work and no pitch lasts very long. RidewithGPS says the ride has over 3,000 feet of gain, but I don’t know where they are. It’s only slightly more work going upstream than it is going downstream. The Salmon River is dramatic and grand, and views of it far below you along the route are frequent and excellent.

The first 7 miles are domesticat-ed riding, on a polished road surface with a double center line and road shoulders through a broad valley where the river is tranquil. At mile 7 a sign says, “Narrow winding road next 35 miles,” all the road amenities stop, and the good stuff begins. The canyon steepens dramatically, the river falls away beneath you, the tread becomes iffy (which feels perfectly appropriate), and the road width becomes truly one-lane, with no guard rails or shoulder of any sort. I saw two pick-ups meet, and one had to back up a quarter of a mile to find a turn-out. Don’t rush through these miles—drink in the exposed rock, the views of the river, the absurd drop-offs on your L. It’s quite a place.

At mile 13, around Nordheimer Campground, things mellow out and go back to something like the first miles. When you see an unintentionally hilarious sign reading “Congested area” you know you’re nearing Forks of Salmon, which is an intersection with two or three houses, a couple of barns, and—surprise!—a modern school (who’s going to this thing?). Turn around and ride home.

If there’s a down side to this ride, it’s that there’s not much in the way of carving turns on the descents. Most of the down isn’t steep enough to be dramatic, and when it is the road tends to be pretty straight. I only had a couple of “Whee!” moments.

Traffic should be next to nothing. When I was there, a forest fire was burning adjacent to the road, so I saw a fair amount of forest service and Cal Fire vehicles—perhaps 20—but on a day without fires I’d expect 3-4 cars in 34 miles.

There are no services on this route, but there are a number of places where emergency help could be gotten: a fire station, a few campgrounds (with brick outhouses), private houses at Forks of Salmon, and the Otter Bar Lodge a few miles before Forks of Salmon. It’s a kayak school, and it doesn’t cater to other guests, but it’s there in a pinch. 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.

Shortening the route: Drive to the “narrow winding road” sign and start there. It will save you 14 miles.

Adding miles: This is a great bike riding area with lots of opportunities. At Forks of Salmon you are at the midway point in the Forks of Salmon loop—ride as much of it as you’d like, in either direction. If you’re not going all the way to Etna or Callahan, I’d recommend the southern route (Cecilville Rd.) over the northern (Sawyers Bar Rd.) because it’s right along the banks of the river and offers excellent swimming.

At Somes Bar, Ishi-Pishi Rd. parallels Hwy 96 for about 7 miles of tiny, meandering road deep in pristine woods. Quite lovely, but a significant ascent, so be sure you’re up for it.

Hwy 96 itself is a popular through-ride for long-distance cyclists. In fact the Etna-Happy Camp-Forks of Salmon-Callahan-Etna loop is a bucket-list ride. But most of 96 is only pleasant riding, a 60-mph highway that is pretty but too straight and too big for any sort of drama. The one stretch of it that looked fun to me was between Orleans and Hoopa, and it also looked deadly—tightly winding with no sight lines, no shoulder, with a guardrail on one side and a rock wall on the other, on a well-trafficked road and impatient drivers.

Distance: 34 miles one way
Elevation gain: 3550 ft

This is the rarest kind of ride in Bestrides, a ride on a major highway. But Hwy 3 isn’t like other highways—it’s almost car-free. On a beautiful Wednesday morning in August, once I cleared Trinity Lake, I saw perhaps a vehicle every ten minutes and spent much of the climb riding the center line in solitude.

This ride has a number of virtues—pretty forests, nice rocks, some good vistas, good-to-excellent road surface, a strange almost-ghost town as an end-point, lake-side riding, creek-side riding—but the raison is the climb and descent, which are both pips. Look at the overall numbers and it looks like nothing. The entire ascent racks up a mere 3000 ft in 18 miles, which is about 3.2%. But the last 5 of those miles average over 8%. To put that another way, of the 3550 ft total elevation gain, you do almost all of it in those 5 miles. The descent down the back side is about the same pitch but straighter—you’ll do 45 mph if you want to. You can ride the route as an out-and-back but you’d be in for a big day. I arranged a shuttle, and I’ve mapped it as one way.

I seriously underestimated my water needs on this ride. There is no resupply spot after the first few miles, and the climb is largely exposed after early morning. On a hot day, doing pitches of upwards of 10% for an hour, you cook. If it’s going to be hot, go early and/or take as much water and ice as you can.

Start at Trinity Center. It’s what Northern California calls a “resort,” which means it’s a general store, a launch ramp for the lake, and a campground. Ride Hwy 3 to Callahan.

For the first few miles you’re riding flat terrain along Trinity Lake, but it’s merely pleasant, because you aren’t by the shore so the lake is little more than hints of blue through trees. Like so many reservoirs in Northern California, Trinity is low by the end of summer and any time during drought years and then not very pretty, so better early in the year.

Once you clear the lake you ride along the Trinity River, climbing imperceptibly, at first through dramatic mountains of boulders left by California’s gold mining past, then along the stream itself, which is a pretty rock-strewn thing but which tapers off to a trickle in the latter part of the summer. There are occasional “resorts” along the river in these first miles (I can’t imagine what people do there), but otherwise no services until Callahan. You follow the river, crossing it repeatedly on bridges, until mile 19, when you leave the Trinity and follow Scott Mountain Creek and the pitch goes from imperceptible to 8-10%.

Luckily the road serpentines constantly, so you’re never facing tedious slogs up endless straight pitches. The landscape here isn’t as dramatic as the Sierra, but it’s always pretty and you get some good rock formations and the occasional vista back down the Trinity River Canyon. Scott Mountain Creek is continuously below you but you won’t know it’s there. The climb gets easier—8-10% in the first half, 6-8% in the second.

At 25 miles you reach Scott Mountain Summit (unmissable, signed) and begin the 6-mile rocket ride down the back side. It’s almost straight, with a few wide, sweeping curves that needn’t slow you down, and it’s steepest in the first miles, so seek your max mph early. There is a grand vista off to your right of Callahan’s valley about the time the pitch is moderating.

The descent ends at a stop sign and a T. Signs tell you Callahan is 3 mi. to the L (still on Hwy 3). Callahan is a quirky spot, at first glance deserted but with a fully functioning “mercantile,” a hotel that may or may not be functioning, and a few other buildings. It’s what I call a codger town, the sort of place where you’re likely to find an old codger sitting in front of the mercantile and eager to chat. If he’s there, don’t miss the opportunity.

Shortening the route: If you can’t arrange a shuttle, you can ride to the summit and turn around—it isn’t an easier ride (more miles, actually), and you’re swapping a straight fast descent for a curvy fast one.

Adding miles: To the south, all of Hwy 3 between Weaverville and Trinity Center is not spectacular but worth riding—prettily wooded, lightly built up, and consisting mostly of straight stretches with big rollers (tiring). Just south of Trinity Center Hwy 3 intersects with Rush Creek Rd., a very lightly trafficked, meandering, pleasant two-lane road that goes to Lewiston, a tiny community where you can pick up Lewiston Hwy, a very sweet back road, and then Old Lewiston Hwy, even sweeter, or loop back to Hwy 3 via Lewiston Dam Blvd. It’s all nice without being great.

At the other end, there’s good riding in every direction. Callahan is on the route of the Forks of Salmon ride, which runs west and north from town. To the east is Gazelle-Callahan Rd., through the pretty valley you saw as you were descending Hwy 3, which is reported to be well worth riding and which ends in Gazelle, where you can go either way on Old Highway 99S, itself not rewarding despite my rule that any road with “old” in the title is good. Going south soon takes you to Stuart Springs Rd., a road with a charming profile but unfortunately recently chipsealed. Going north takes you (in 16 miles) to Yreka and the north end of Hwy 3, which loops back to Fort Jones, Etna, and Callahan through pretty hay farms.

Distance: 55 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 4025 ft

The land surrounding the Marble Mountains Wilderness Area is a rich area for cycling.  Almost every small road is pretty, interesting, mostly car-free, not killer steep, and paved, at least in the main.  Loops are easy to construct.  The only drawback is there aren’t many communities up there, so you have to plan overnight stops carefully, unless you’re self-supporting.  The area is represented in Bestrides by three rides, Forks of Salmon, Salmon River Road, and this one, but they’re the tip of a very rich iceberg—see Adding Miles to see the big picture.

This ride is representative of the area: smooth-surfaced, lightly trafficked, very pretty, and surprisingly easy.  It’s one of the easiest 55-mile rides I know.  It accompanies the Scott River for its entire length, so it’s gently downhill going out and gently uphill returning, but the difference is negligible—I rode out the 40-mile version (see below) in 2 hrs and back in 1.5 hrs.  The only noticeable hill is the last mile or so descending into Scott Bar, our turn-around spot, so if you’re really into mellow you can skip that, leaving you with nothing but constant gentle rollers, just enough to vary the riding experience without ever making it laborious or tedious.  You could almost leave the granny gear at home. RWGPS’s elevation gain is inexplicable.

Begin in the town of Fort Jones, a pleasant little burg with several simple but worthwhile places to eat.  Ride out on Scott River Rd. through Scott Valley, a typical hay-farming region.  The road is mostly straight and flat, but it’s a pretty agricultural area, and if you aren’t familiar with Oregon-style hay farming you’ll marvel at the giant walking sprinkler systems.  The Marble Mountains serve as backdrop.  But honestly it’s just as interesting from a car seat, so if you want to drive to the start of the good riding, drive 7 mi. to the intersection of Scott River Rd and Quartz Valley Rd and start there.  There’s a perfect dirt turn-out for parking.

Immediately after Quartz Valley Rd the river canyon begins, at first broad and almost unnoticeable, with the river hardly moving, but soon the canyon deepens and narrows and the water comes to life.  For several miles, you’re riding on the very lip of the river, with constant fine views of boulder-strewn rapids and deep pools perfect for swimming.   This is my favorite leg of the route.

All too soon the road leaves the river and climbs gently until the river is far below you, then drops back down to rejoin the river at Scott Bar, a community of a few houses, a post office, a ranger station, and an interesting historical marker 100 ft past the town proper—don’t turn around without checking it out.  Ride back to your car, marveling at how little work you’re doing despite the fact that the river is constantly climbing alongside you.

This road is no one’s principal driving route.  The only significant community along it is Happy Camp, and Happy Campers when they want to go to the big city drive south on Hwy 3 to get to Arcata/Eureka.  I did the ride on a lovely Friday morning in August and saw 14 cars (once out of the busy Scott Valley).  Why the county keeps the road’s surface in such pristine condition I don’t know.  I saw deer, turkeys, herons, and a fox.

Shortening the route: Skip the first 7 miles, as discussed.  Then, turn around any time—the miles are pretty equally rewarding.

Adding miles: As I said in the beginning, the cycling riches nearby are extensive.  If you like riding in pretty valleys, you can take Quartz Valley Rd south and wander around until you get to Etna.  You can continue on Scott Valley Rd to Happy Camp.  From there you can ride northwest on Greyback Rd into Oregon and eventually to Cave Junction, or you can take the afore-mentioned Hwy 3 south and ride to Arcata, or branch off Hwy 3 to Forks of Salmon and pick up either half of our Forks of Salmon ride to either Etna or Callahan.  Just past Scott Bar you meet Hwy 96, and you can ride it east along the Klamath River all the way to Hwy 5.  It’s 32 miles of pleasant but not grand riding amidst rather stark terrain, slightly uphill all the way.  I’d call it the least exciting of the roads discussed here, the most developed, the biggest, the busiest, and the easiest.  From Seiad Valley you can ride Seiad Creek Road, reported to be an excellent ride until it turns to dirt.

There is a very big, multi-day loop that consists of Etna to Scott River Rd, SCR to Hwy 96, 96 west and south to our Salmon River Rd ride to the leg of our Forks of Salmon ride from Forks of Salmon back to Etna.  Obviously, much of the route is prime, since it encompasses three of Bestrides’ routes.  But the long leg on Hwy 96, while generally pleasantly scenic, is not great riding—shoulder riding on a big, wide highway with much traffic and car-friendly profile (straight, with long unchanging pitches).  It’s a good route for a touring mentality, but not for Bestrides.

Afterthoughts: The Marble Mountains seem to burn every summer.  Check smoke conditions before planning a trip to the area.

Distance: 58 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 5844 ft

This ride was suggested by Friend of Bestrides Brian.

This is a good, solid ride.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, though it has no extraordinary features.  It’s got some nice rollers, a very pretty, flat stretch through a fairly dramatic river canyon, one fairly easy climb, one somewhat harder climb, and a totally unremarkable town, Covelo, at the turn-around.  It’s 10 miles down the road from my beloved Branscomb Rd. ride, and I wouldn’t do this one until I’d done that one.

It’s the only paved road by which Coveloans can leave town, and the river attracts lots of water seekers in the summer, so traffic can be substantial.  I recommend doing it early in the morning or sometime other than summer or both.  Anyway, the Eel River Canyon is prettier in early morning, before the sun gets high.  The seven-mile stretch from the Eel River Bridge to Dos Rios is the ride’s best scenery, and it’s essentially flat, which makes it a rarity in Bestrides.  The elevation total gives the impression of a laborious outing, but I didn’t find it hard at all.  The only time you’ll work is the 2-mile hill just before the turn-around, and that’s never worse than 6-8%.

Highway 162 winds west to east across much of California and shows up in Bestrides more than once.  For instance, it’s the road from which the Bald Rock Road ride, northeast of Oroville, takes off.  Here we are at the western terminus, where it deadends on Hwy 101.  There’s a large dirt parking lot 1/4 mile up 162.  Ride to Covelo (KOH vuh low) on Hwy 162 (aka Covelo Road, a name I’ve only seen on maps); turn around and ride back.

You begin with 8 miles of rollers.  In this world, some rollers are too small to notice, some are so large each uphill pitch kills all your momentum and enthusiasm, and some are just right, big enough to notice but small enough that you can power up the upslopes standing and feel buff at the crest.  Covelo Road’s rollers are pretty much ideal.  The scenery is conventional brush and small tree.  You’re following a creek, but you can’t see it.

After 8 miles you cross the Eel River Bridge and follow the river for 7 miles (to Dos Rios) through a moderately grand canyon that I think is quite fetching.  The pitch is about 1% down overall and seems flat except for a bump or two, so it’s no work at all, in either direction.  You’re in the midst of a rocky canyon in full sun, so if you’re out there on a hot summer afternoon, you will die.  (I did it in July at 7 am—perfect.)  On the plus side, you’ve got countless swell swimming holes to choose from, which is why the turn-outs are full of cars in the summer afternoon.  Seriously consider taking a swim suit.

Dos Rios is a tiny enclave of tiny houses 1/2 mile off the road (clearly signed, invisible from the road) with no services.

At the Dos Rios Bridge the road leaves the river and begins to climb moderately for about 5 miles.  The road is a big, wide two-lane, clearly designed for 60-mph car traffic, so the excitement level is pretty low, but it’s pretty easy climbing—about 4-7%, with no tough pitches.

At the summit the road goes up and down, with some nice views, then drops for 4 miles and bottoms out onto the dead flat, dead straight road through Round Valley, a completely developed farming region that looks just like any other small farming valley in California.  It takes you to Covelo, a small but fully functional town I can find no reason to get to, so I like to turn around at the summit and save myself the 4-mile return climb, which is the hardest work on the route.

The 5-mile descent back to Dos Rios, because the road is groomed for car traffic, is about as mellow as 30-mph corners can get, with big, manicured curves you can take at full speed without a care.  Don’t expect too much in the way of hair-raising.  If you’re timid about descending, you’ll love it.

Shortening the route: Start at the Eel River Bridge.  Skip the descent into Covelo.

Adding Miles: If you are set up for dirt, you can continue on Hwy 162 through Covelo, ride through Mendocino National Forest and Mendocino Pass, and descend (having returned to pavement) to Hwy 5 on a road that has nice moments.  Also mostly in the dirt, the Laytonville-Dos Rios Road, a true back-back-country road, will take you on an adventure from the one town to the other on a tread not much bigger than a driveway.  From the Dos Rios Bridge, ride into Dos Rios and just keep riding on the only road out of town.  I haven’t done it, but I’m told it’s done.  You’re 10 miles from the Branscomb Road ride, which takes you to the ocean.

Afterthoughts: There are no services and no water source between Hwy 101 and Covelo.  Plan your water carefully, especially if you’re turning back before Covelo.  I take a third water bottle and stash it at the Dos Rios Bridge for the last 15 miles.  There’s nothing at the Hwy 101/Hwy 162 junction either.

A local told me Covelo Road was famous for car crashes.  He also mentioned that there’s an enormous Indian reservation just outside town.  Draw your own conclusions.

Distance: 22 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 2600 ft

This is another of those “worthwhile if you’re in the area” rides.  It’s 22 miles of small two-lane back road through pretty but not extra-special Sierra foothill forest.  You pass through a small but bustling mountain community, Berry Creek, which unfortunately makes the first third of the route surprisingly trafficky for a foothill road.  You will do some work—2100 ft of gain in the 11-mile ride out—but it’s never steep.

Two features elevate this ride above the perfectly pleasant.  First, rollers.  The road is all up and down, so much so that there is only a 1465-ft. difference in elevation from start to turn-around but 2100 ft of vert on the road (in other words, you ride every vertical foot 1.5 times).  This has its charm.  It means the climbing on the ride out is constantly interrupted by little descents, and on the ride back the descending comes in short, fast runs interrupted by short risers, so about the time you think you have to brake the contour does it for you.  The riding experience is ever-changing.

Second: Bald Rock, the greatest rock formation the world has never heard of (see photos at the end of this post).  Take slippers or sandals and plan to get off the bike and explore—you will be enchanted.

Begin where Bald Rock Road takes off from Highway 162, just south of Berry Creek.  There is no attractive place to park, and the first 1/2 mile of Bald Rock Rd. is steep, so you might skip it and drive to the large dirt turn-out just up BRR.  Ride to where Bald Rock Rd. returns to Hwy 162.  Turn around and ride back.  You can start at the turn-around (look for the Brush Creek Work Center sign on 162), but it gives you 75% of the descending up front and leaves the hard climbing until the end of the ride, which I never like.

In a couple of miles you enter Berry Creek, a tiny mountain community (a country store, a church, a school, a community center) that used to be famous for illegal pot growing (and the consequent frequent murders) but is now busily recasting itself as a bedroom community.  Hence the hustle and bustle, which can seriously impact the vehicle traffic.   Once through “town,” traffic is essentially non-existent.

The best part of the ride—best woods, best road contour—is from the Zink Rd. turn-off (unmissable on your L) to the return of Zink Rd. (a little less unmissable, still on your L) several miles along.  (Zink Rd. itself is dirt after 2 miles, and highly rideable if you’re set up for dirt, though why you’re prefer it to Bald Rock I don’t know—it would just mean you missed the best part of the ride).

Midway into the ride you pass the trailhead for Bald Rock (unmissable large sign on your L).  Stash your bike.  A dead easy quarter-mile walk takes you to a mind-boggling granite bluff covering several acres on the lip of a cliff overlooking the Feather River Canyon.  It’s as good as anything in Canyonlands or Arches National Parks (see photos below).  You’ll probably have the place to yourself.  Why it isn’t on every travel magazine’s bucket list, I don’t know.

Back on your bike, the 1/2 mile or so of road surrounding the trailhead is as good a short stretch of riding as there is anywhere—a perfect 25-mph slalom through picture-book woods.  You’ll want to do it two or three times.

Adding Miles: The pickings are slim.  Bald Rock Rd. takes off from Hwy 162, which features briefly in our Oroville to Forbestown ride.  It goes to cool places—Bucks Lake and Quincy—but in the main it’s a ton of climbing on endless, unvarying, straight pitches on the shoulder of a wide, busy road.  I hate it, though the vistas can be good.

You can add 4 miles by riding the 2 miles of paved Zink Rd. out and back.  An out and back on Rockefeller Rd. will also let you add some miles before turning to gravel.

Several fine rides are a short car trip away (see the Bestrides locator map).

Distance: 52-mile lollipop
Elevation gain: 1790 ft

This is another of those rides worth doing if you happen to be in the area, but probably not worth driving any great distance to do.  It’s a pleasant roll through typical, often quite pretty westside (west of the Sacramento River) landscapes—orchards, cattle farms, small valleys, and  up into the first bumps of the Coast Range.  Its primary selling point is that it’s a few minutes’ drive off Highway 5, so it’s one of those rides in Bestrides you can use as a break while you’re driving between Oregon and Southern California (others being the Old Siskiyou Highway, Del Puerto Canyon Road, and some others).  It’s flat or gentle rollers throughout (2500 ft gain in 52 miles on my computer), but if you want to climb, a simple extension of the route will give you all you could ask for (see Adding Miles below).   Traffic is minimal, since there’s nothing along these roads but a few small ranches—my last time I saw 4 cars in the first 20 miles.

Two caveats: 1) for me, this is a spring-only ride.  In summer the hills are burned brown, the heat is intense, and the creeks are dry.  Once the rainy season begins the gravel leg (see below) can be a muddy quagmire.  In the spring you get almond orchards in bloom, green grass on the hillsides, running streams, and happy cows.  2) There is a 4-mile stretch of gravel, as notorious for Chico-area riders as is the pavé of Paris-Roubaix for Europeans, smack dab in the middle of the loop.  There’s no alternate route around it, and it can be unpleasant.  The gravel is completely loose, so you slide around a lot.  If the road has been regraveled recently, it’s like riding in rocky sand.  If there has been recent rain, the road becomes a bog.  Suffice it to say, timing is everything here.  If you’re determined to avoid the gravel, at the end of this post I’ll show you two gravel-free out-and-back routes.

You can start this ride anywhere along the route, and it’s equally good in either direction.  I start at the intersection of Corning Rd. and Black Butte Rd. because it’s the spot closest to Hwy 5, and I ride in whichever direction gives me a tailwind on the Black Butte Rd. leg, which is the straightest, flattest, and least scenic (read: most boring) leg of the route.  My description goes clockwise, since the prevailing winds are northerly.

Ride Black Butte Rd. to Newville Rd., passing almond orchards whose blossoms are spectacular for about two weeks in late February or early March.  Note the buffalo ranch on your R, with grazing buffalo in season.  Mt. Shasta is to the north, smack dab behind you and prominent on a clear day.  Mt. Lassen is to the east, over your shoulder on your L.  At Newville Road go R. You’re paralleling the shore of Black Butte Reservoir, but don’t expect lake views.  After two impressive rollers, the climbing for the ride is over unless you add the optional extension of Round Mountain Rd. (see below).

Cross a small bridge and begin the most bucolic leg of the ride, through a gallery of oaks along the lip of a small open valley.  You’ll pass the Newville Cemetery, with gravestones from the 1870’s.  Around mile 20 the road character changes from smooth, wide two-lane to battered country track, and you do 1.2 miles of nasty patches and potholes.

At 21.5 miles you cross another bridge at one of the ride’s more scenic spots and the road turns to gravel for the next 4 miles.  It’s mostly gradual uphill, which might be an argument for riding the route counterclockwise.  These 4 miles are not without their rewards: on your L along the length of the gravel is a valley walled by masses of small round mounds that look like the work of gigantic gophers.  Geologically fascinating and quite lovely in its way.

At 25 miles the gravel ends at a T at paved Round Mountain Rd.   Here you have a choice.  You can go R, skipping the out-and-back lollipop stick, thus avoiding some climbing and lopping 7 miles off the route.  But I go L, because that takes you up a draw through those round mounds you’ve had on your L for the past few miles, and I think it’s the best riding and best scenery of the entire ride.   The road rolls easily up and down and back and forth for 3+ miles, then sets in for a very long, uninterrupted, rather grim climb into the heart of the Coast Range.  There are great views of the Northern California Valley behind you, but not much else to offer besides exercise.  My route turns around at the base of the climb, at about 29 miles in.

Retrace your steps to the intersection of Round Mountain and Newville and continue straight on Round Mountain to the hamlet of Paskenta, which is nothing more than a pleasant little country store where you can reprovision with ice cream or soda.  Stay on the main road through Paskenta and continue on what is called Corning Road after the Flournoy store until you close the loop at Black Butte Rd.  Check out the views of Mt. Lassen directly ahead of you as you ride.

Shortening the route and/or avoiding the gravel: There is no way to loop the ride and avoid the gravel, so you’re limited to riding out and backs on either side.  On the north side, begin at Black Butte Rd. and ride to Paskenta and up Round Mountain Road until you’ve climbed as much as you want, then ride back.  If you turn around at our turn-around point, this will give you 44 miles.  If you want less, start at Flournoy.  On the south side, I’d start at Black Butte Rd. and Newville (skipping Black Butte itself) and ride to where the road turns rough and return, for a total of about 22 totally pleasant miles.  If you’re doing this version, leave Hwy 5 at Orland and follow the signs to Black Butte Reservoir.

Adding miles: There is a lot of worthwhile riding nearby, none of it as easy as what you’ve done.  You can continue on up Round Mountain Road past our turn-around point for about another 5 miles of uninterrupted, substantial climbing before the road turns to dirt  (in a normal spring, you’ll hit impassable snow before that).  There is a similar road that climbs up into the same hills from the Paskenta intersection, Toombs Camp Rd, for about 12 miles of similarly uninterrupted, substantial pitch.  If anything, TCR is even more featureless and interminable than Round Mountain Rd.  Again, closed by snow until summer.  Serious locals do a hard training ride in which they ride one road to the dirt, then ride the other.

A whole other kettle of fish is Rd. 306, which heads south (on your L) shortly before Newville turns to gravel.  This road continues south for many miles, through Elk Creek, along Stony Creek, and through Stony Ford, Lodoga, and Leesville.  You can even continue on from Leesville to Bear Valley Rd, which turns to ridable dirt, goes through world-famous wildflowers in the spring, and passes charming Wilbur Hot Springs (which recently suffered major fire damage).  It’s all essentially flat except for Leesville Grade, and the spring scenery is excellent, but it’s not popular, for one reason: the road surfaces are often horrid.  My cycling club used to run centuries out there, and people would bring mountain bikes.