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.  Near the beginning of the ride there’s a climb that’s an honest 15% for a stretch, which is why I warm up on Hwy 70 first.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Warner Valley Road

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mineral meadow

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

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

The route rides equally well from either end.

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

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

Mill Creek valley meadow

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

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

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

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

A Best of the Best ride

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

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

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

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

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

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

The hairpins, with the usual Lassen traffic

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

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

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

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

Morning mist starting the climb to the summit

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

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

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

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

King’s Creek meadow with Lassen in background

Not a lush landscape

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Distance: 73-mile lollipop
Elevation gain: 5531 ft

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

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

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

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

The waller’s art

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

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

Ponderosa Way is small

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

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

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

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

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

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

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