Distance: 43 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 6670 ft

This ride is hard work.  It’s notorious for a 2.1-mile stretch of 12-16% that’s as hard as it sounds, and there is significant climbing after.  The route is never flat, and much of the other climbing is 6% or more.  But the road contour has great variety and character, and the woodland scenery is top-notch.   See Shortening the Ride for a way to cut the climbing in half and keep most of the fun.  Perks include one large river crossing and one classic mountain store, but mostly this ride is about being in the woods.

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Distance: 16-mile loop
Elevation gain: 1302 ft

There are four Bestrides rides in the Grass Valley/Nevada City area—Dog Bar, Red Dog/Pasquale, Willow Valley Road, and Lower Colfax.  They are all pleasant up-and-down strolls through nice woods—no grand vistas, no awe-inspiring crags, no waterfalls, nothing of the sort.  Dog Bar has the best descent (on Rattlesnake), but it’s also the most built up.  Dog Bar goes to Grass Valley.  Red Dog/Pasquale and Willow Valley begin and end in Nevada City, and both go through the prettiest woods.  But overall the best of the four is Willow Valley, and I’d do it first, in part because it duplicates the best half of this ride—then I’d ride any of the others.

I learned this route from the good folks at the Outside Inn, a dedicated cycling, mountain-biking, and kayaking mecca of a motel, lovingly restored from a rundown old motorcourt and now sporting rooms with outdoor themes like the Singletrack Room.  By all means, stay there when you’re in the area, if you can.  They used to have a free stash of xeroxed road and trail routes, but I think they’ve stopped doing that—sad.

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