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.

Irrigating in Scott Valley

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.

The Scott River

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.

Above the river, with the Marble Mts in the background on a typically smoky summer day

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.

Scott River

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.

The Eel River Canyon at sunrise—note the abandoned rail bed on the left bank

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.

The riding along the river is nearly flat

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 climb up from the river—made for fast descending

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.

Between Zink and Zink

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.

Near the top

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).

Bald Rock

Bald Rock

Bald Rock

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.

The spring show: almond blossoms along Black Butte Rd.

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).

Coast Range in spring, from Black Butte Rd.

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.

Newville Road

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.

The infamous gravel

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.

Coast Range mounds at sunset, from Round Mountain Rd.

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.

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: 32 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 1780 ft

This is one of the few rides in Bestrides that is easy enough to be easily be done by a non-cyclist on a rental cruiser (for the others, see the list of flat rides in the Best Of the Best page).  Here the appeal is entirely in the scenery—you’re riding through some of the greatest redwood forests left on earth.  It’s not my favorite Redwoods ride—that would be Big Basin (at least before Big Basin burned), which in addition to Redwoods has wonderful climbing and descending—but it’s certainly the ride with the biggest, most awe-inspiring trees.  (There is a list of Redwood rides on the Best of the Best page too.)  It’s in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, but the car traffic isn’t bad—since the Avenue is paralleled by the main highway just a stone’s throw to the west, all through traffic is diverted and you’ll share the road with the few cars hip enough to linger.    If you want to make the ride longer or harder, there is good riding on either end (see Adding Miles). Continue reading →

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.