Distance:  c. 35 miles, two out-and-backs
Elevation gain: c. 4800 ft

These two climbs and several other good rides in Siskiyou County are mapped at www.CycleSiskiyou.com.

This is the prime 35 miles of the Shasta Summit Century.  It consists of two excellent out-and-back climbs through typical NorCal landscapes, and nothing else.  The two roads are quite different.  The first is a mild ascent and descent through a rocky, open canyon along a tumbling stream.  The second is tougher climbing and faster descending through (mostly) a wall of greenery on both sides.  I prefer the scenery on the first climb and the descent on the second.  Both climbs are mellow pitches, with only one two-mile stretch that flirts with 8%.  Neither climb is actually on Mt. Shasta, by the way—”Mt. Shasta” in our title refers to the town the climbs start from, not the mountain, which is on the other side of town.  There is a road that goes partway up the mountain, but it’s deadly boring riding.

From your parking spot, there is water a short ride down Barr in the other direction.  At the corner of W. A. Barr and Siskiyou Lake Blvd, you will see tennis courts, and there are water fountains along the fence perimeter.

Begin at the intersection of W. A. Barr Road and Castle Lake Scenic Drive.  Ride up W. A. Barr Road (which changes its name to South Fork Rd. about the time it starts climbing) as long as you wish to (hence the vagueness in the distance and elevation gain figures above—I just picked a random spot along the road when I mapped).  Around 14 miles in, you get to a summit and an intersection at the Gumboot Trailhead (there’s a large sign.  Gumboot Lake, no relation, is actually briefly visible off to your L as you near the summit).

You can actually keep riding past the summit (see Adding Miles), but South Fork Rd. is best in its first half, which is all paralleling a charming, tumbling, rocky stream (in fact, the headwaters of the Sacramento River) at a consistently mellow pitch.  When it leaves the stream, it gets a bit steeper (though never steep), a bit narrower, a bit straighter, a bit rougher, and a bit less interesting.  As long as you’re riding in the creek canyon, the terrain is creek boulders on one side and rock cuts on the other, very pretty in its way.  Since SFR gets less appealing as it goes up, you can turn around as soon as you sense the magic is gone and enjoy the fine descent back to the car.

Typical lower-half W. A. Barr Road: baby Sacramento River on left, rocks on right

Back at the car, ride up Castle Lake Scenic Drive until the roads ends at Castle Lake (7 miles one way).   The first 2 miles are work—a steady 8%, the hardest work you’ll do on the route—and the scenery is just green walls on either side.  After that, the pitch mellows considerably, and towards the end you get open vistas with nice views of Mt. Shasta to the east.

Castle Lake is a lovely little natural lake with a campground and picnic tables by the water, a perfect place for dallying and cooling your toes, but no services besides an outhouse (no water). When your inner peace is topped up, turn around and enjoy the descent, even better than South Fork Rd., back to your car.  It’s very fast—you can top 40 mph in places.

Castle Lake Road near the top

Of course you could do this as a part of the organized century, and that way you’d get fed.  But two bad things would happen: 1) you’d have to ride up the Mt. Shasta road  (officially the Everitt Memorial Highway), a 13-mile, essentially straight climb of unvarying pitch and bland scenery that’s laborious and boring.   Then on the descent you just sit on the bike at 40 mph and read a book.  Some people love that sort of thing.   I don’t.  2) The descents of South Fork Rd. and Castle Rds. would be thronged with cyclists riding up, chatting and weaving all over the road, and your descending line and your peace of mind would be constantly interfered with.   It’s worse than car traffic.  At least cars usually stay on their side of the road.

Shortening the route: Obviously, just do one climb—do you prefer rocky creek canyon or mountain vistas and a lake?

Grand views of Mt. Shasta along Edgewood Road

Adding miles: There’s a lot of good riding around this ride.  The part of the Sierra Summit Century route we haven’t discussed, which runs on back roads north through the valley they share with Highway 5, is perfectly pleasant mountain valley rollers past meadows, lakes, and farms, with frequent grand views of Mt. Shasta.  There are several alternate routes, but a good one is, begin at the intersection of N. Old Stage Road and Hatchery Road; ride north on Old Stage until it ends (it does some turning and jogging); go R under Hwy 5 and take the immediate R onto Edgewood (the large road sign reads “Edgewood” and points L—go R anyway); when Edgewood ends, go L onto N. Weed (don’t go under Hwy 5) and follow N. Weed through the town of Weed and out the other side, going under Hwy 5, and take the immediate R onto College; when College deadends at N. Old Stage Road, go R on Old Stage and return to your car (about 30 miles).

If you keep riding south on Old Stage Rd, then go L on Mott, and straight onto Dunsmuir Ave., you can ride all the way to Dunsmuir, the next town to the south, which would give you about 50 miles of mellow mountain valley rollers.  Past Dunsmuir the route gets difficult to follow and generally unrewarding.

There’s also a climb at the northern end of the valley loop, up Stewart Springs Rd., on what’s known as the Mt. Shasta Century Super-Century route, for those who want 10 more miles of challenging climbing.  The road has a nice profile, nice scenery, and new pavement, but unfortunately the pavement is a moderately rough chipseal.

View from Hwy 26 past the summit

You can continue up South Fork Rd. It crosses the obvious summit, begins to descend, then goes up and down along the sidehill, with fine vistas along the way, until it dead-ends into Ramshorn Rd. (totally unmarked).  Go L on Ramshorn (going R turns to dirt instantly) and do a steep, rough descent to Castle Crags State Park and the intersection with Hwy 5 (by which time the road has changed its name to Castle Creek Rd.); then work your way back to Mt. Shasta via frontage roads.  This last leg is continuously confusing and  poorly signed, so carry a thoroughly detailed route sheet with you.  It’s not a loop I recommend—the big descent is so rough you suffer it rather than ride it, and the leg from Castle Crags to home is grindingly, lengthily uphill.  You can find details of the route on the Castle Crags Century website or on www.CycleSiskiyou.com.  Bring your legs—I recorded 55 miles and 6700 ft of vert on the loop.

Distance: 100-mile loop
Elevation gain: 10,570 ft (RWGPS)

(A Best of the Best ride)

This one is special.  It’s almost unknown, so you feel privileged and in on something, and the isolation is nearly absolute.  I found out about it in the best possible way: a friend told me about his favorite, secret ride.  It starts and ends in Etna, a tiny town with vitality, charm, cheap lodging, and its own excellent brewery.  The roads are mostly tiny and deserted—on the return leg of the loop, I rode for two hours before I saw a vehicle.  Yet the road surface is very good.  (I don’t know why—no car ever uses it.)   The scenery is grand California mountain primeval.  One of the 10 best rides in California, without a doubt.  The logistics are tricky, because services are sparse—for more on that, see Route Options later.

You can ride the loop in either direction—the only difference is that in one direction the big climb is relatively moderate in pitch (up to 10%) and in the other it’s much harder (up to 14%).  I’ve mapped it counterclockwise, to avoid the killer hill.

Leave Etna on Sawyer’s Bar Rd. and ride to Forks of Salmon.  You’ll do a pretty big climb on a pretty straight road, but past the summit the road gets smaller, prettier, and windier and stays that way.  The drop down the back side touches 18%, so if you love steep climbs you’ll want to ride the loop in the other direction.   At Forks of Salmon (just an intersection—no services), turn left and take Cecilville Rd. to Callahan.

The return ride repeats the profile of the ride out in reverse—gradual climbing on a winding, very narrow road through a dramatic river canyon, ending in a long, moderate climb to the top of the ridge, then a long fast descent to Scott Valley.  You come out in Callahan, not quite a ghost town—it has a functioning mercantile for resupply (or did when I was there) and a hotel I don’t think is in operation.

Leaving Callahan, don’t take the big straight highway back to Etna—take the back road, East Callahan Rd., paralleling the highway north.  Take the Horn Lane connector L  to return to Etna.  East Callahan Rd. is a moderately interesting, rolling road just up the sidehill from the flat valley,  but it’s not in the same class as the rest of the ride, and I only include it because you have to get back to our car.  it’s shadeless, so it can get brutally hot on summer afternoons.  If someone can pick you up in Callahan, so much the better.

Early morning, leaving Forks of Salmon

Route  Options: This ride is a long, hard day—100 miles, 10,000 ft of climbing.  There is no lodging on the route, and there is water/food only at Cecilville (where there’s a little store, with a wonderful cooler of soft drinks sold on the honor system even when the store is closed), Callahan (a very small town), and Etna.  All of which means, if you ride the route you have to get from Etna to Cecilville self-supported.   Even houses are very rare out here.  One solution is to do the ride in two days—either ride loaded or talk someone into sagging the ride for you—and camping near Forks of Salmon.  There are creekside campgrounds in the first miles of Cecilville Rd.  The campground I prefer is oddly named Hotelling.  It’s tiny and sits by a beautiful swimming hole if you’re late enough in the year for the water to be warm (well, warm enough).    Another alternative is to do the Forks of Salmon Century, about which I know next to nothing, which is sagged but which seems to start in Forks of Salmon.

In an emergency, there’s a resort just off the route, a couple of miles northwest of Forks of Salmon on Salmon River Rd., the Otter Bar Lodge.  It’s a kayak school, and officially it doesn’t cater to other guests, but I asked and they told me they put up cyclists occasionally, if they aren’t full up. The only sign from the road is a large mailbox reading “Otter Bar” and a dirt road, but you notice the buildings deep in the trees on the river side.

This ride might be the one that inspires you to invest in a water filter.

Paul, in the comments below, points out that these re-provisioning problems can be solved by starting the loop at the western end, at Forks of Salmon, which puts Callahan and Etna at the halfway point.

See Brian Green’s excellent summary of re-provisioning and watering options on the route in the comments below.

Adding miles: The region surrounding the Marble Mountains is one of the best road riding regions on the West Coast.  This is only one of many excellent rides in the area.  For a review of the possibilities, see the Adding Miles section of the Scott River Road ride.