Distance:  22 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 1014 ft 

Update 11/18: The Camp Fire raced through this canyon on 11/8-9/18.  The area is much changed.   Much of the understory burned off, which makes the landscape more open, so Butte Creek and the canyon walls are actually prettier because you can see more of them.  Most of the big trees seem to have survived.  About a third of the houses burned and are now being rebuilt in some form.  The covered bridge burned to ash.  It’s a different ride, but I think it’s better, especially in the spring when the loss of canopy results in an abundance of spring wildflowers.  JR

This is the only ride in Bestrides I can do from my front door.  It’s a perfectly charming meander with pretty scenery and a road contour that is ever-changing.   In 11 short miles you get a number of bonus features: mid-Nineteenth-Century rock walls, a lively creek lined with stately sycamores, tailings left by the Gold Rush argonauts and their placer mining, a grand little canyon with dramatic rocky bluffs, a small back-country museum, a working flume, a great piece of cycling sculpture, and the remains of one of California’s finest covered bridges.  So the ride keeps you interested.  In addition, the elevation profile is perfect for your legs: a few miles of gentle rollers, then a little moderate climbing, then more rollers, then a bit more extensive climbing to get really warm, a short recovery period, and finally a 1.5-mile brisk climb to put all that warm-up to use.   With the final climb, the ride’s a good work-out; without it, it’s an easy stroll.

(RidewithGPS doesn’t acknowledge that Centerville Road turns to dirt at our turnaround.  It does.  I’m right, it’s wrong.)

Park at the south end of the Steve Harrison Bike Path where it intersects the Skyway.  Appreciate the Bike Path’s gateway arch, in the form of a chainring, made by a local artist to honor Steve, a beloved local cyclist who died tragically.  Head east on the bike path bordering the Skyway for 50 yards and merge onto Honey Run—not “Honey Run Road,” as non-local maps insist, just Honey Run.  Local lore tells several tales about the origin of the name, but it’s a sweet, flowing ride from the get-go, so let’s pretend it refers to that.  You’re leaving the flats of the Northern California Valley and heading east through Butte Creek Canyon into the first ripples of the Sierra foothills.

Honey Run used to be back-country, but like everywhere else the back roads of Chico have been built up, so traffic can be irritatingly dense for the first 5 miles.  The road is moderate-sized two-lane without shoulder, but motorists are used to your presence and behave civilly.  Even so, I’d try to not do this ride during morning or late afternoon rush hour.

For the first 5 miles, Butte Creek keeps you company—quite dramatic in times of high water, and still bearing along its banks the boulder fields left by 49er gold mining.  Observe how the bluffs build on both sides of the canyon as you continue into the canyon—the walls will keep building until they’re 2000 ft above your head.  Note the power lines crossing the road—they come all the way from Lake Oroville 20 miles to the south and go north to I don’t know where.  Watch for rock walls, built by miners and farmers (not Chinese laborers, as all California school children were taught) in the late 1800’s from stones gathered in the fields, on the north side, and large sycamores, identifiable by their nearly white, smooth bark, to the south.  The houses you pass fall into 3 periods of architecture: pre-60’s shack, when living here was as outback as living in the Yukon; 60’s and post-60’s Hippie back-to-the-land sweat lodge; and 90’s and post-90’s rich-person’s McMansion.

The Covered Bridge (no longer there)

4.2 miles in you hit an unmissible fork in the road.  To the L is our route, Centerville Rd.  The fork  to the R (still called Honey Run) crosses Butte Creek on a modern bridge.  50 feet downstream from the bridge was a piece of California history, the Honey Run Covered Bridge, built in 1886.  It burned to its foundations in the Camp Fire.  There’s a water bib by the outhouses nearby that seems to work even when the bridge rec area gate is closed, so you can do the rest of the ride out with very little water and resupply here on the way back.

Butte Creek Canyon bluffs

Once on Centerville Rd., ride to where the road turns to gravel.   After the fork the road is less trafficked and the landscape even prettier than before.  You leave the creek, the houses thin out, the bluffs grow grander.  About 8 miles in you hit a series of 3 very short pitches, the Three Sisters, then descend to what locals call “the Steel Bridge” even though there is no visible steel because it replaced a bridge that had a steel superstructure that was destroyed in flood waters one winter.   Cross Butte Creek (it’s pretty there, and the swimming hole is pretty good) and do the one real climb on the route (7% average) for 1.5 miles to the end of the pavement, where you turn around and ride home.

The Three Sisters

Just as you start to get into the climb, you pass the Centerville-Colman Museum, a classic back-country one-room neighbor-tended museum that used to be the local one-room schoolhouse.  It’s only open on weekends from 1 to 4 pm, but if you’re there then it, like all such places, is well worth a stop, not so much for the museum collection as for the folks who care for the place, who are always a treasure—serious, knowledgeable, friendly, generous, unpretentious, and passionate.

At the turn-around point, the road crosses an old Power Company flume.  Like all flumes, it has a maintenance footpath along one side, which you can explore on foot or mountain bike if you’re willing to ignore the half dozen signs telling you not to.  The flume used to run water, but I haven’t seen it do that since the Camp Fire.

The ride back is just like the ride out, squared, because it’s a splendid 1.5-mile descent followed by a lovely, relaxed, up-and-down-back-and-forth saunter made nearly effortless by the imperceptible descending.  It’s especially gorgeous in later afternoon when the light is low, the foliage is back-lit, and the bluffs are in chiaroscuro.   The Three Sisters, when you hit them, are one of the world’s great 20-second descents—there are two blind corners, but trust me, they’re both completely safe, so stay off the brakes throughout, or you’ll wish you had.

Shortening the ride: If you don’t want to work, turn around at the Steel Bridge…but you’ll miss the best part of the ride.

Adding miles: At the Covered Bridge fork you can cross the creek and continue up Honey Run.  In 5 miles you’ll be in the large village of Paradise, which was obliterated in the Camp Fire.   If you go this route, the first 2 miles are mellow, then you have 3 miles of demanding, dramatic climbing through constant tight switchbacks over rough pavement.  Going up is a grind, but coming down is worse.  It’s too rough, too steep, and too curvy to be much fun.  Consider doing the first 2 miles as an out and back 4-mile add-on to Centerville.  Most locals who ride up the Honey Run climb loop around back to Chico by means of Neal Road, which is boring but smooth.

If you’re on a gravel bike, you can continue on Centerville Rd. when it turns to gravel.  It will climb gradually up through the same canyon until you come out on the Skyway above Paradise.  It’s a fairly boring ride but the views are grand.  One reader says the road is or was washed out part-way up, but I suspect that was temporary.

As of 6/24, Chico has a lovely little 3.5-mile recreational trail that takes off about a mile from the start of this ride.  It’s Humboldt Rd., and the story of its creation is a doozy:

Humboldt Rd. runs parallel to Hwy 32 heading east out of town, just a stone’s throw to the south of the highway.  It’s a road with a lot of history—it’s the old wagon road heading east out of town, and wagon ruts in the lava cap are still clearly visible running beside the south shoulder.  With the building of modern Hwy 32 it fell into disuse (it runs back into the highway and disappears 3.5 miles from Bruce Rd.), it became a hang-out for drinking parties, the county saw no reason to maintain it, and it generally went to hell.

Enter one of Chico’s most sterling and respected cyclists, who gave the city and the county his own money to have the road repaved and gated off from motor vehicles.  Presto!  A dream come true—a charming, meandering, moderate climb up through the valley oaks, on glass, free from traffic.  It’s a lovely ride to do on a day when you don’t want to work, or you can add it on to the Centerville ride without getting in over your head.  The fun starts at the intersection Bruce Rd. and Humboldt Rd.  There is shoulder parking.  The gated section is 1/4 mi up Humboldt.

Distance: 61 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 6610 ft

A Best of the Best descent

This is a fine ride through Sierra foothills and forests whose virtues are three:

1. Solitude—the last time I rode it, I saw two cars between the summit and Lumpkin Rd. (20 miles).

2. A 30-mile descent of extraordinary variety—the ride back from the Road 27 summit (28.5 miles) is almost entirely descending, and the road contour is never the same for long.

3. 8.5 miles of the most whee-inducing, roller-coaster stretch of road I know.

The route climbs steeply for 8.5 miles through tiny mountain communities, then traverses the deserted spine of Lumpkin Ridge, then descends for 2 miles to Little Grass Valley Lake, then returns.  The scenery is fine without being special: classic Sierra foothill scrub, then pretty madrone-and-conifer forest, with some views into the forested canyons of Fall River (the stream that supplies the water for world-famous Feather Falls) to the west and the South Fork of the Feather River to the east from Lumpkin Ridge.  the ride out is pretty much 30 miles of climbing, but after the first 8.5 miles it’s never particularly hard.  There are three sensible turn-around points along the way that reduce the work load while preserving the roller coaster, which is in the last 8 miles of the return route and the high point of the ride.

This route (like the alternatives in Adding Miles) is simple to navigate on the road (there are only two turns) but confusing on any map, so follow my directions carefully and ignore what any paper or web map is telling you.  To add to the confusion, all road signage is absent, ambiguous, or hard to see until the summit, 28.5 miles in.

From the intersection of Lumpkin Rd and Forbestown Rd, drive 4 miles down Lumpkin to the Enterprise Bridge and park just beyond the bridge—there’s a small dirt road with parking on the R.  It’s possible to ride from the intersection of Lumpkin and Forbestown, but if you do you’ll begin with a 3.5-mile drop down to the Enterprise Bridge, which will leave you with a tedious, 3.5-mile uphill slog at the end of the ride, which, after 6500 ft of vertical gain, I don’t need.

From the bridge, ride 8.5 miles of complex, often taxing up-and-down stuff through nice foothill scenery and old-school foothill infrastructure (houses, ranches, a school, a grange hall, a “saloon”).  The road is ever-changing—you can rarely see more than 1/10 of a mile of road ahead of you.  On the return, these 8.5 miles will turn into something magical, but on the way out they’re mostly just hard—consistently 8-12%.  In the first 4 miles you gain 1350 ft. in elevation; in the first 10 miles you gain 2460 ft. in elevation.  Most of the work of the ride is right here—the next 20 miles, to the summit, are steadily up but at pitches from imperceptible to moderate.

Absurdly fun stuff in the first 8 miles

At 7.5 miles you pass the turn-off to Feather Falls.  The road isn’t named, but two signs clearly read “Feather Falls.” If you take it, the road doesn’t take you to the falls—it takes you to the trailhead.  The trail to the falls is a substantial hike, best left for another day.

At 8.2 miles you come to the first of two intersections where you have to pay attention.   While the main road seems obviously to continue straight ahead, a paved road enters on the R.  It has a stop sign (which has painted on its back side “A-line” and B-line”), and there’s a large sign that mysteriously reads “A Line” in freehand just before it.  Take that road.  If you miss the turn, no worries—the “main” road (which is still Lumpkin Road, unsigned) will turn to dirt in 1/10 of a mile, and you’ll know to backtrack. The new road (unsigned) is Lumpkin Ridge Road (Mapmyride also labels it “Mill Road”).  From here on, the traffic should be next-to-nothing.

Lumpkin Ridge Rd. scenery: good, not great—note typical pothole

LRR at first climbs at a fairly stiff pitch for a mile or so, but then it mellows out and climbs at a mostly gentle rate through pretty woods to mile 15.3, where there’s a prominent intersection and you need to make a decision.  An unsigned dirt road goes off on your L at 7 pm.  What appears to be the main road, unsigned, continues almost straight ahead at 11 pm—it’s Mill Road, Forest Service 94 (22N94), which we’ll discuss in Adding Miles.  An unprepossessing road goes R at about 3 pm.  A small post marks it as 22N27.  That’s Forest Road 27.  Take it and ride 13 miles to a summit at 28.5 miles into the ride.  Or turn around and enjoy first a sweet, fast descent, then 8.5 miles of roller coaster.

Some of the canyon forest is pristine

Road 27 is mostly stair-steps—short climbs with little descents or flat stretches between.  The road surface is the opposite of Lumpkin Ridge Rd., which was smooth chipseal.  Logging trucks have been busy destroying Rd. 27, and the result is smooth pavement scattered with jagged potholes.  It’s a mine field.  The potholes are easy to see and, with one or two exceptions, easy to ride around/between.  I didn’t find them intrusive on the climb, and on the descent I found them an absolute hoot, turning the ride into a game of high-speed dodge ’em.  I’m not sure everyone would share my view.  Some good samaritan has written “bad spot” before the particularly broken sections of road, which you won’t need going up but which prove quite helpful going down.

Somewhere in here you meet a Y where both forks look equally attractive.  There’s a small post with an “22N27” sign on the L fork telling you to take it.

Dyslexic’s warning: bad spot of pavement ahead

At 28.5 miles you pass two roads entering from the L—first Mill Road, Forest Service 94 (22N94), then something I can’t find a name for.  Both roads have prominent signs pointing the way to Little Grass Valley, and FS94 has a small sign reading “22N94.”  Ignore both roads.  Immediately after, you reach a Y or T, whichever you prefer.  Take the R fork and descend for 2 miles to Little Grass Valley Reservoir and our turn-around point.  But before taking that fork, consider: the 2-mile climb back to the summit adds 510 ft. to your total elevation gain—not a tough climb (roughly 5%), but do you want more climbing?

The roller coaster

The ride from the summit to your car is unbelievably easy, 28.5 miles in which you will have to work at climbing perhaps twice, briefly.  The descending comes in all imaginable forms (including pothole slalom), so you’ll never get bored.

Once you’re back on Lumpkin Rd., the roller coaster begins.  It’s a bucket-list ride, a rollicking, absurdly diverting 8.5-mile series of turns and drops and little climbs, with your momentum allowing you to hammer up those climbs and maintain your speed.  You’d wish you could do it two or three times.

Shortening the ride: After the first 8.5 miles, the rest of the ride is all good but all pretty much the same degree of good.  So turn around as soon as you like, but be sure to include those first 8.5 miles.

Adding miles: If at the first intersection of FS 94 and FS 27 you go straight ahead onto 94, 5 things will happen: 1) you’ll rejoin Rd. 27 just before the summit; 2) you”ll add 15 miles to the ride out, or 30 miles if you take 94 out and back; 3) you’ll almost double the vert, from a vigorous 6610 ft to a downright grim 11710 ft out and back;  4) the road will become even narrower and more isolated than Rd. 27; and 5) the road surface, which on our mapped route is mostly fine, will vary from OK to wretched.  This is a true adventure ride, spectacular in its way but not to be attempted without fat tires, emergency supplies, and a copy of your itinerary left with a trusted friend back home.

FS 94 gets really small

Whichever route you take to get there, from the summit where 94 and 27 reconnect you can take the other route back to make a 74-mile loop of it.

You can loop this ride another way.  From our turn-around point, you can continue along the south edge of  the lake on Little Grass Valley Rd., the first half of which is rideable dirt, the second half good pavement and nice riding, for 5 miles.  Then Little Grass Valley Rd. ends at Quincy-La Porte Rd.  Go R.  Quincy-La Porte turns into La Porte Rd.  Take the Challenge Cut-Off to the R, which connects with Forbestown Rd., which passes Lumpkin.  Take Lumpkin back to your car (75 miles if you take FS 27, 89 miles on FS 94).  This is all good riding, almost Bestrides-worthy, and especially nice downhill.  Of course returning this way means you give up a glorious 30-mile descent and the roller-coaster section of Lumpkin, so if you go this way you might want to ride counter-clockwise.

If you’re into serious miles, when you hit Quincy-La Porte Rd., go L and ride to Quincy. For a detailed description of the ride, see the Added Miles section of the Oroville to Forbestown ride.

Lumpkin Rd. at its southern end intersects the Oroville to Forbestown ride.  See the latter’s Adding Miles section for a discussion of other rides in the area.

The Feather Falls trailhead is about a couple of miles down the nameless road you passed 11 miles into our ride.  If you brought a mountain bike or hiking shoes, it’s one of the west’s great trails.  It’s a loop, with the Falls at the far end.  The left trail is steep and prettier, the right is smooth and built for mountain bikes and mellow walking.

Lower Lumpkin Ridge Road—the only photo of me on a bike in Bestrides? Photo by Byron

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.

Begin 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.

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.

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

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 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, 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

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.

Distance: 68 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 2064

Update 2021: Greenville was destroyed by fire in the summer of 2021. The fire stopped at the eastern edge of town and left the first 22 miles of this ride pristine (thanks, Robert).  The 10-mile climb to Antelope Lake is presently (9/24) being repaved and is what appears to be good dirt (see details below.)

There are more awe-inspiring rides, but there is no prettier ride in California than this one.  It’s a short form of the Indian Valley Century.   It goes along the lip of two flat, postcard-perfect valleys framed by mountains (with snowy peaks, if you time it right), and you’re just a bit up off the valley floor, so you get all the scenery without the flat—the road gently bobs and weaves and rises and drops and thus provides you with a delightfully varied road contour.  Then the outward leg ends with a ten-mile climb that’s entirely doable and parallels a tumbling, rocky creek.  I’ve cut off two loops from the century route I don’t need, but I’ll tell you they’re there and what you’re missing.   All the significant climbing is in the last 10 miles out, so if you skip it the ride is easy.

I rarely talk about driving routes to rides, but this one merits a word.  As of 9/24, the two main routes to Greenville—up Hwy 32 through Chester and up Hwy 70 through the Feather River Canyon—are problematic.  Hwy 32 is essentially closed while they deal with repairs from the Park Fire.  Cars are allowed through at 3 designated times each day.  Consult the CA road conditions website.  Hwy 70, while a beautifully scenic drive, is undergoing a lot of construction, resulting in numerous one-way stretches and traffic hold-ups.  When I drove it I counted 7 time-consuming stops, the longest being c. 15 min.  None of these construction projects looked anywhere near completion.  Plan your travel time accordingly.

Greenville has ample shoulder parking.  If school isn’t in session I park in the school parking lot (unmissable as you enter town on your R coming from the south).  Ride north and east out of town on the only road, North Valley Rd.  Ride 34 miles on this road, then turn around and ride back.  Keep going on North Valley Rd., ignoring a few roads going off to the left and right, as the road name changes to Genessee Rd, then Indian Creek Rd., heading first to Genessee Valley and finally to Antelope Lake.

There’s only one place to get lost. At 9.5 miles in, there’s a fork.  Diamond Mt. Road takes off to the L (signed), and our road, which is oddly unsigned, goes R and immediately crosses a small but sturdy bridge.

Between Indian Valley and Genessee Valley there are a few miles of lovely woods, and here you get a mild climb and descent—if you skip the climb to the lake, this is the only noticeable climb on the ride.

Ride through Genessee Valley.  Midway you pass the Genessee store and restaurant, which may or may not be open. I had a long conversation with a local in Spanish which implied that it was indeed open, sometimes, in some seasons.  If it’s open, check it out.

At the end of the valley the big, obvious climb starts.  A mile before it kicks in, you pass a sign reading “Road closed 1 mile.”  A mile later the construction starts and the road turns to what looks like excellent dirt (as of 9/24), but there is no gate or warning sign scaring you off.  I didn’t explore further.  If you attempt it, it’s an honest 10 miles up.  After a mile or so you’ll say, “I don’t think I can do this for 10 miles,” but all the steep is in the first 3 miles; then it mellows out and rolls so much that you’ll do some work coming back “down.”

Indian Valley in June (it’s even greener and prettier in May)

At the dam the road circumnavigates the lake, but I don’t like the ride because I think it’s ugly.  The area was burned to ash many years ago, and the soil is a chalky moondust that won’t allow much to grow back.   Do it if you’re set on riding a hundred miles.  Otherwise, turn around and ride home.

Genessee Valley

At the bottom of the climb, return the way you came, unless you dislike out and backs, in which case see below.

Shortening the ride: Skip the climb to Antelope Lake.

Adding miles: To restore the miles I cut from the Century, a) ride around Antelope Lake (see above) and b) take the big loop that goes off from North Valley Road to the northeast.  It’s Diamond Rd. going out and North Arm Rd. returning if you ride it on your way out.  You’ll need to ride it twice, on your way out and your way home, to total 100 miles.  It’s perfectly pleasant but a notch less scenic than the valley riding.  You might consider riding it once, on the way out or the way back.

About halfway out along the main route there’s a 1-mile detour to the tiny, cute town of Taylorsville, which has a market, a tavern, and a church (see Johnmc’s comments below).  It’s worth it if you like tiny, cute towns.

If you’re dead set on riding a loop, stay left when you re-enter Indian Valley, ride through Taylorsville, and continue west to Hwy 89 on a much flatter, straighter, and less rewarding valley road.  This will necessitate you riding a final leg up Hwy 89 to your car, managing one significant climb and descent in the process, but it’s a pleasant ride for a highway.  There are other roads through the heart of Indian Valley, smaller and even more boring, if you like flat.

Reachable by car are 1) our Chester Back Roads rides, and 2) a challenging and rewarding ride from Quincy up Rd 119/414 to Buck’s Lake.  You can make this ride a lollipop by taking the south route to Buck’s Lake out and the north route home when you hit the obvious fork.   Buck’s is a lovely lake with rustic resorts, cabins, and a road along its west shore for more riding.

Afterthoughts: Time of year matters here.  The valleys are at their prettiest in the spring, before things turn hot.  But you’re in the mountains, and spring snows and hailstorms are common.   I’ve done the century once in snow and once in hail, and both times I froze.  Ideally you’ll do this ride before the summer heat arrives but while there is still picturesque snow on the mountain peaks.   Watch the weather report and take an extra layer, especially if you’re planning on doing the Antelope Lake loop.

Don’t miss Johnmc’s helpful additions below.

Distance: 81-mile loop with a spur
Elevation gain: 3370 ft

The Mix Canyon leg of this ride is covered thoroughly in words and pictures at toughascent.com.

See reader comments below on the serious fire damage done to this route in recent years.

This loop goes through the best riding in the area between the Wine Country and Davis.  It’s got two great climbs, two scenic farming valleys, and a few boring miles through the outskirts of Fairfield to get from one valley to the other.   There is no great wow factor (except the Mix Canyon descent), but, with the exception of the Fairfield miles, it’s all very pretty and pleasant.

You want to think about when you do this ride.  On summer afternoons, it’s hot.  On weekends, the traffic around Berryessa is obnoxious.  On Monday and Tuesday everything in Manka’s Corner is shut down, so you will have one and only one opportunity for resupplying water and food: the shopping center at the corner of Waterman and Hilborn in Fairfield.

If you aren’t up for a big day, it’s easy to take about half of the hard out: just skip both of the climbing detours.

There is a bike shop in Winters, closed Monday and Tuesday.

Continue reading →

Distance:  26-mile loop
Elevation gain: 1410 ft

Note: This route was untouched by the Camp Fire of 2018.

This loop consists of roads covered by the Wildflower Century, my hometown cycling club’s annual spring ride, and since 4000 cyclists do it every year there’s a good chance you’ve been over these roads.  But this loop goes backwards to the Wildflower direction, and it’s a wholly different, and better, ride.   It’s got a lot of points of interest besides the riding—a famous dam, century-old olive orchards, a state-of-the-art sustainable farm, a covered bridge, nationally renowned wildflowers in season, a Gold Rush cemetery, and two old Gold Rush towns complete with historical plaques and one-room museums.

You have a serious choice about which direction to ride in.  I’ve mapped it clockwise.  But there are benefits to riding the loop in the other direction.  Counter-clockwise reverses the climbing/descending, so instead of a short, sweet climb up to Cherokee and a long, rough, rollicking descent down to Oroville, you get a long, gradual ascent up from Oroville and a short, super-sweet, glassy-smooth descent down to Hwy 70. In fact, I don’t do this ride as mapped any more, in either direction—see Alternate routes below for my current favored route.

Weather matters on this ride.  Chico-area winds are predominantly from the north, and if a north wind is snorting, that first leg of the loop can be horrific.  I’ve done it in a death-march paceline at 10 mph.   If it’s like that on your day, ride the loop in whichever direction has the wind at your back on the Table Mountain Blvd. leg.  Also, on a normal summer afternoon the temperature on the first half of the ride can be well over 100 degrees, so ride early.

The famous expanses of spring wildflowers at the top of Table Mountain are a treat if you can schedule your ride to coincide with the bloom.  Bring a lock and walking shoes and do your best impression of the Sound of Music’s Maria through the fields of lupine, goldfields, and owl clover.  Wildflower websites will tell you when the Table Mt. wildflowers are peaking (usually March to early April).  Start at the obvious parking lot on the north side of the road and follow the little creek downstream to get to a lovely waterfall.  Of course to see wildflowers you run two risks: 1) rain, for that is the rainy season—which is why the Wildflower century is ironically run later in the year after all the flowers are gone; and 2).wildflower tourists.  Table Mountain Blvd. is thick with traffic on wildflower weekends, and there’s no room on the road for them and you, so absolutely do not do this ride on a weekend day during wildflower season.

You might wonder why, if clockwise is the better direction, the Wildflower Century goes the other way.  It’s about safety.  Long ago the Century did go my direction, but a cyclist was killed by a car while descending Table Mountain Road, and the ride committee decided the descent couldn’t handle thousands of cyclists at high speed dodging cars on a weekend.

Table Mountain is a huge mesa (Spanish for “table”) outside of Oroville.  The ride climbs up to it, traverses it, and drops down the other side.  The rest of the ride is getting back to your car, though much of it is nice riding.  Warning: this ride has about seven miles of boring—my absolute limit.

Old olive trees along Coal Canyon Rd

You can begin the loop anywhere, but I like to get the boring leg out of the way, so I start at the intersection of Table Mt. Boulevard and Cherokee Road.   There’s lots of safe curbside parking in the neighborhoods to the immediate southeast, and if you’re not comfortable with that there is a huge parking lot a couple of blocks due south surrounding government buildings (and a 7-11 for afters).  Ride north for 7 miles on Table Mt. Boulevard and turn R onto Coal Canyon Road.  You’re immediately surrounded by lovely olive trees, some well over 100 years old.  On your right you’ll pass Chaffin Farms, a farm nationally renowned for its sustainable farming practices.   Look for the chicken yurts, little portable tepees that help spread the chicken poop throughout the orchards.  Coal Canyon crosses Highway 70 and becomes Wheelock (only one L) Rd.  Wheelock dead-ends at Durham-Pentz Rd.  The riding is less than exhilarating for the next 3 miles or so.  Go R on Durham-Pentz until it dead-ends at Pentz Rd.  Go R onto Pentz until it dead-ends at Highway 70.  Just before Hwy 70 you’ll pass a school, where water fountains are available if the grounds aren’t locked up.  If they are, the fence is scalable.

The ascent from Hwy 70 to Cherokee is pretty perfect

Slog up the shoulder of boring and busy 70 for an unpleasant half-mile or so and take the first R onto Cherokee Rd.  The riding will be fine from here to your car.  The first 1.5 miles of Cherokee Rd. is a lovely ride that used to be one of the prettiest, sweetest climbs in Bestrides, but after the dreadful forest fires of recent years California went on a fuel-removing spree and the magnificent oak canopy has been cut way back.  It’s still very good.

At the top of the climb you level out at the old historical town of Cherokee, which is now just several houses, some stone ruins, a small museum that never seems to be open, and an interesting historical marker worth reading.  Cherokee was a major diamond mining center, and one of the miners moved from there to South Africa, where he helped found DeBeers, the company that controls the world’s diamond market.

The next 8 miles roll across Table Mountain itself, at first a lovely ride through foothill oak and scrub and past real, low-rent ranches.  A mile or so past Cherokee, on the R, is the Cherokee Cemetery (there’s a small sign), with gravestones from 1871.  At 19 miles into the ride, Derrick Rd. (signed) takes off to the L, and signs pointing L read “Oregon City” and “Covered Bridge.”  For a nice diversion, follow those signs L.  In 0.5 miles you pass under the covered bridge, and just beyond is a) the plaque detailing the history of Oregon City and b) the Oregon City schoolhouse, now an interesting museum of local history.  It’s usually closed, but the keeper lives next door and will be happy to let you in if she isn’t busy.

Table Mountain wildflowers

Back on Cherokee/Table Mountain Rd, in another 1/2 mile you get to the nationally famous wildflower fields on both sides of the road.  You can’t miss them—huge rolling lava fields full of either wildflowers, green grass, or dead grass, depending on the season of your ride (see Afterthoughts below).

The descent from Table Mt. to Oroville: 3.5 miles of roller coaster

Now for the descent: 3.5 miles of rollicking, very fast roller-coaster.  It’s open enough that you should be able to see cars approaching (but see the warning about traffic in Afterthoughts).  This would easily be a Best of the Best descent were it not for the road surface, which is rough—not pot-holey, tire-threatening rough, but chattery, rattle-your-teeth rough.  If the county ever repaves it, it will be marvelous.

At the bottom of the hill you ride back along the Feather River to your car.  If you look upstream when you first hit the water you can catch a glimpse of Oroville Dam, one of the world’s largest earth-filled dams, which made national headlines by coming close to self-destructing in the winter of 2016, threatening much of Northern California with a flood of Biblical proportions.

Alternate route:  Because I like climbing, I now ride Cherokee Rd only, as an out-and-back.  This allows you to ride both major hills up and down, and gives you a ride without a boring mile.  It also avoids having to deal with the wind, since the wind is only a factor on the valley flats.  All you miss are the ancient olive trees and Chaffin Farms.  Start at the Oroville end, so you get 10 minutes of flat warm-up before the first climb.

Shortening the route: Climbing up to Table Mountain from either side and turning around makes a nice out-and-back.  Start at the intersection of Cherokee Rd. and Hwy 70, or somewhere near the intersection of Table Mountain Blvd. and Cherokee Rd., and ride as many of the semi-flat miles on top of Table Mt. as you like.

Adding miles: you’re a few miles from the Concow Road ride (straight up Hwy 70) and a 15-minute car ride from the Oroville to Forbestown ride.

Distance: 18 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 2660 ft

(A Best of the Best ride)

6/20 update: the Concow area has burned twice in recent years.  There are two areas of noticeable burn on the ride—the first couple of miles after the Concow/Nelson Bar intersection, and the turn-around where the road turns to gravel.  Between, the woods are intact and still lovely.  And of course the road contour is unaffected.  Still a great ride.  JR

This little gem is one of the sweetest 18-mile rides you’ll ever do, and the best ride in the Chico/Oroville area.  It’s a delightful roller-coaster back-country climb on glassy road surfaces through pretty foothills farms and woodland to a spot where the road turns to dirt.  The road contour is constantly varied, up and down and back and forth, with no two climbs or curves the same, and it’s good riding in both directions.  It’s also a workout—you’ll log almost 3000 ft of gain in less than 20 miles, with a few short pitches of 11-12%, but none of the climbs lasts long.  It’s smoother and faster than the average back road, and you can touch 40 mph a time or two.

Traffic should be next to nothing.

Begin at the intersection of Hwy 70 and Lunt Rd.  The route is full-on up and down from the get-go, so there’s no place flat to warm up.  I actually start at the intersection of Concow Rd. and Hwy 70, because it’s relatively flat there, and ride back and forth on Hwy 70 for 20 minutes before starting the route.  Ride straight down (and I do mean down—it’s a 40-mph descent) Lunt for a mile to a stop sign and a T.  Go right onto Nelson Bar Rd. (signed) and follow it until it dead-ends at Concow Rd.   Take Concow Rd. to the L and ride Concow to the end of the pavement.  Nelson Bar is fairly coarse chipseal, but Concow is glass—inexplicable for such an unused dead-end road.  Turn around and ride back.

Just east of the Concow Rd/Nelson Bar Rd intersection (uphill) on Concow is the Messilla Valley Schoolhouse, a classic old structure in good shape, moved at great expense from Messilla Valley (a few miles away) to its current location.  The interior hasn’t been restored (it isn’t a school or a museum, just a modern meeting room), but it’s a pretty sight from the outside.  There are bathrooms around back.

The visual highlight of the ride is Concow Lake, which you’ll parallel for a mile or so.  It’s very pretty, and there are two access points to the water open to strangers, both marked on an unmissable billboard map at a big dirt parking lot.  Beyond those two points it’s all private and posted and they don’t take kindly to trespassers.

Past Concow Lake you’ll ride by a number of yards with barking dogs, but I’ve never encountered one that was loose.

About a mile from the turn-around the road turns seriously up and stays that way until you hit gravel.  When you turn around, that one-mile descent is steep, curvy, and always a bit gravelly, so it’s a technical challenge.

On the way back, watch for the R turn onto Nelson Bar Rd.—there’s a sign, but it’s easy to miss.

You have three options for riding back up to Hwy 70.  You can go back the way you came down, on Lunt, which is the hardest climb of the three.  Easier is to go stay on Concow all the way out—it’s a noticeably shallower pitch, and it’s shadier and more wooded.  Easiest of all is to take Concow Rd. to just past the old school and go L on Pinkston Canyon Rd. (erroneously signed Pinkston Canyon Ct., which implies it’s a culture de sac).  It’s a fairly featureless ride on solid, coarse chisel, but it’s mellow climbing and drops you on Hwy 70 with a short, quick descent back to your car.

After the ride you can resupply at the Canyon Lakes Market (so-called because it’s not close to a canyon or a lake), aka the Dome Store, at the intersection of Hwy 70 and Concow Rd.

Concow Road—smooooth

Concow Lake

Shortening the route: Start at the intersection of Nelson Bar and Concow Rd., or skip the climb right before the turn-around, or begin and end at the Concow Rd/Hwy 70 junction, skipping Nelson Bar Rd.

Adding miles: There’s a short spur off this route that adds a nice couple of miles.  On the ride out, at the intersection of Lunt and Nelson Bar Rd, go L instead of R and ride to the dead end, then return.   The road surface is a little rough.

There isn’t a lot of other good riding nearby.  If you drive or ride up Hwy 70 a stone’s throw, Dark Canyon Rd. is on your R.  It’s a straight-forward descent down a pretty little draw dead-ending at Oroville Lake, followed by the inevitable (and substantial) climb back out. The turn-off from 70 isn’t signed as Dark Canyon—check Googlemaps, because you’ve got a couple of turns to negotiate.

Hwy 70 to the southwest from Lunt is a dreadful ride—long interminable unvarying descents or climbs (depending on which way you’re going) on shoulders with 70-mph indifferent cars whizzing by.  But if you head northeast on 70 from Lunt, you’ll climb about 3 more easy miles, then do a dramatic 5-mile descent down to the Feather River canyon.  After you meet the river, you’ve got c. 40 miles of nearly flat, scenically stunning riding to the junction with Hwy 89.  An established route is to ride to the last of the 3 tunnels (you can’t miss them) and turn around, because by then you’ve seen the most dramatic of the rock displays, though the scenery stays rewarding all the way to the junction.  The river canyon also has several hydro-electric dams and a very active rail line, so if you’re part engineer or train guy you’ll be fascinated.  It sounds like a perfect ride, but few cyclists do it, because the traffic is fast and heavy, the shoulder is non-existent, and the road contour is made for 60 mph (boring).  There are a couple of rest-stop bathrooms along the route.

You intersect the Table Mountain loop a few miles down 70 to the south.

The dome store

Distance: 31 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 2760 ft

This is a nice, pretty climb from the edge of the Sacramento Valley up through the foothills and into the cedar forests of the western Sierra with a classic mountain store as a destination and a sweet potable spring along the way.   It’s pretty much all up, but with lots of variety in the scenery and the riding conditions so it’s never a slog. Continue reading →

Distance: 54 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 5770 ft

(A Best of the Best ride)

Update 11/18: The Camp Fire raced through Paradise and parts of Magalia in the days following 11/8/18.  Paradise was destroyed.  The first couple of miles of this route are scorched by the fire.  The rest of the route is undamaged.  JR

This ride actually starts in Magalia, the small community just up the hill from Paradise, CA, but who doesn’t want to ride in Paradise?  The route strings together four distinct rides, three of them treats, and the other…well it gets you from one of the treats to the next.  The four rides are, in order: a classic rolling stair-stepper, a short fast descent followed by a long straight slow upwards slog (the non-treat), a perfect serpentining climb through NorCal pine-and-cedar forest, and a rolling ramble across the top of the world on a spanking new (as of 2013) state-of-the-art mountain road.

This is a demanding ride with a lot of elevation gain.  If you want less, see Shortening the Route below.

Leg #1 of the ride is Coutolenc Rd.  Drive to the intersection of the Skyway and Coutelenc in downtown Magalia, CA, just past the last dregs of Paradise if you’ve coming from Chico.  Park in the dirt parking area on your immediate R as you turn onto Coutelenc, and ride up Coutelenc.  As I mentioned, you begin riding in fire devastation but soon leave the burn behind.  This is a lovely 7 miles of short climbs and big rollers with great variety of contour that ends in a 1.5-mile climb that’s just long enough and steep enough to give you a workout without becoming burdensome.

miles of esses above Stirling City

Coutolenc dead-ends back at the Skyway.  Turn R and do Leg #2, the ride to Stirling City.   This leg is not something I hold dear.  It’s 3.4 miles consisting of a straight, fast descent followed by a straight boring ascent.  But we need it to get to a stretch of road I love: Leg #3, the 6 miles of road between Stirling City and Inskip.   On the map it looks like nothing, but it’s a perfect climb through pleasant pine and cedar forest.  It’s a cozy, old, barely-two-lane road with no shoulder and surprisingly good road surface that stairsteps its way steadily upward, getting curvier as it goes, and never steeper than 7%.   The trees along the road have been thinned for a fire break for much of the route, which allows for good views of the impressive West Branch of the Feather River canyon on your R.

At Inskip, which is really just an intersection and three abandoned buildings with no services or water, you begin Leg #4: the ride to Butte Meadows and the Bambi Inn.   Keep straight on through Inskip and immediately the road’s character changes.  As I said, it’s pretty new, and it’s a sterling example of the road-builder’s art.  It’s straighter and more open than the older road you just did, with smooth, polished curves.  You continue to climb at about the same pitch until you reach a not-obvious summit with a large dirt turn-out usually occupied by quads and trailers.  There is a momentary glimpse of Mt. Lassen through the trees at the summit, the only such vista on the ride.

From the summit on you roll gently up and down across the ridge between the Feather River Canyon and Chico Creek Canyon, the easiest part of the ride. About a mile past the summit, go L at the unmissable Y—there is a road sign marking the two roads, but it’s been shot to pieces by good old boys who couldn’t find any cows to shoot at.

When the road turns noticeably down, you’ve begun the short drop into Butte Meadows.  Butte Meadows is a large grouping of cabins spread out for miles along the crossing road, Humboldt Rd.  At the intersection of Humboldt Rd and the Skyway is the famous Bambi Inn, an unrepentant country biker saloon.  If saloons aren’t your sort of place (and they aren’t mine), you have two other choices for resupply.  Just up Humboldt Road to the R is the Butte Meadows Mercantile, a very casual and friendly spot with simple sandwiches, ice cream, and the like.  Don’t miss the outside benches made out of old wagon seats.  A bit further on is The Outpost, a more traditional mountain restaurant.  All three of these places tend to be for sale or closed at unexpected times, so it’s wise to check out their current status before riding.

Coutelenc’s very nice too

Now turn around and do it all in reverse.  You’ll climb up from Butte Meadows (not as bad as the drop-in would lead you to believe), roll back to the summit, then it’s all sweet descending to Stirling City.  From Inskip to Stirling City is simply spectacular, an ideal slalom course with banked corners, good road surface, and good enough sight lines that you’ll see (most) on-coming cars (and there will be at least one or two) in advance.   This leg is in our Best Descents list.  You’ll wish there was a chairlift so you could do it twice.

West Branch of the Feather River canyon above Stirling City

The big descent just after Stirling City is probably the fastest, straightest descent in Bestrides—you can top 50 mph if that’s your goal.   Watch for one nasty pothole in an otherwise-glassy surface.  There’s a nice 40-mph curve across a creek and a following uphill at the run-out, so you can go as fast as you dare.

When you get back to the top of Coutolenc, Coutelenc itself is a sweet ride back, but it’s rolling and has a surprising amount of climbing to it, so if you are spent or just crave variety you can go straight instead of turning L and continue down the Skyway to the intersection with the bottom of Coutelenc and your car.  It’s just a tad longer, and much more developed, but it’s a much faster descent (you’ll be around 25-30 mph for much of the time), on a bigger, more trafficked road with much more sweeping turns.   You’ll do some trafficky shoulder riding as you ride through the developed section of Magalia, just before you reach your car.

Shortening the route: You can ride from Stirling City to Butte Meadows and back, or from Stirling City to the summit above Inskip. You could also ride from Inskip to Butte Meadows or just ride Coutelenc—both nice rides—but to do either is to miss the descent from Inskip to Stirling City, which is  the jewel in the crown for this ride.

Adding miles: If you want to add a few pleasant, mostly-easy miles to the route, you can go L or R from Bambi Inn and ride Humboldt Rd.  Going R is easier.  Going L adds 5.4 miles one way, to the intersection of Humboldt and Hwy 32, called “Lomo” in local lore though there is nothing there.  The last couple of miles to Lomo are a fast descent, which means you get a couple of miles of vigorous (8%) ascent coming back.  Going R gives you 6.0 miles one way of nearly flat to Jonesville (with some noticeable climbing in the last mile).  Do both legs out and back and you add 23 miles and 2440 ft of vert to the ride.  A mile past Jonesville the road turns to dirt—gravel bikes can continue on over Humbug Summit or Humboldt Summit (the road forks where the pavement ends) to Lake Almanor.  One road is reported to be an excellent surface; the other is a nightmare.  Choose wisely.

Lomo is the beginning to our Highway 32 Canyons ride.  So you could ride from Chico to Paradise, over to Butte Meadows, down Humboldt to Lomo, up 32 to Lassen National Park, through the park and back, then down to Red Bluff, then find a bus to Chico, thus bagging 3 fine Bestrides routes in one loop.  I’m just saying.

If you want a big ride you could actually do in a day, locals do a loop that goes from Chico up Honey Run to Paradise, up the Paradise Bike Path to Magalia, along our route to Butte Meadows, L on Humboldt Rd to Hwy 32 and 32 to Chico.  But that stretch of Hwy 32 is wide, tedious, unvaried, and heavily trafficked, so I’m not recommending it.  The loop is 80+ miles, very strenuous, and works equally well in either direction.

If you want a mellow warm-up before hitting Coutelenc, there is the afore-mentioned Paradise Bicycle Path.  It was a pleasant, albeit straight, paved rail-to-trail conversion that runs the length of the town of Paradise, CA, paralleling the main road, The Skyway, and typically about 50 yards to the southeast.  I don’t know what shape it’s since since the fire.  It’s a steady 3% grade and about a 20-minute ride dead-ending at the Skyway a stone’s throw below the starting point for our ride.  If you want to ride all of it, it starts at the intersection of the Skyway and Neal Rd, immediately after Paradise turns into real town, though you can cross it by driving further up the Skyway and turning R on any street.

Afterthoughts: Stirling City is big on loose dogs.  I’ve never been bitten, but if you hate dogs prepare to be a little freaked out.   Stirling City also has a nifty little museum devoted to local history, which is all about the lumber industry and the gigantic lumber mill the town was built around.  Its hours are unpredictable.

Re-supplying is a challenge in this ride.  You can get water at Merlo Park 1/2 mile off our route on your R as you enter Stirling City (signed at the turn-off)—IF the park is open—or at the Mercantile, the Outpost, or Bambi Inn in Butte Meadows—IF they’re open.  There is a ramshackle building as you make the turn in Stirling City with a sign out front that says “Country Store” (sometimes) and a sign over the front door saying “Hotel Lobby”—that’s all I know about it.   The one sure bet is the Stirling City Museum, which has a functioning water bib on the outside corner facing you as you ride up.