Northern Sierra Cross - Approx Reno/Verdi/Truckee to Nevada City/Auburn

[TailLights]

I've been looking at a potential route from either Reno or Truckee, and ending in Nevada City or Auburn. Googlemaps shows many roads through the area north of highway 80, but when zooming in with satellite view, I see some look like decent sealed roads, and others overgrown BLM trails. I have found a video of some people doing this route sticking to more major roads, and someone doing something similar on an motorbike.

Anyone done this? If so, could you link up trails other than the main Hennese Pass road? Did you wild camp, or stick to official campgrounds.

Basically in this picture, it'd be a right to left trip (one potential route is 215km from Truckee to Auburn, and includes 4500m of climbing and 6500m of down).

Truckee - Washington - GoldRun - Auburn is about the route.

Thanks.

[alpamayo]

Just take the top portion of the California Sierra Trail Race route, combined with the Tahoe Twirl to get up from Reno.

[TailLights]

Thanks, that route looks pretty epic, and I'll look to do that on a separate trip.
I'm hopeful that north of 80, there'll be more gravel options, as one of the group will be on a cx bike.
Thanks

[alpamayo]

I?ve ridden all the portions of that CSTR from soda springs to Auburn. That can all be done on dirt road and pavement.

[phillip]

Also look at the Trans North California Race.  It starts in Verdi, NV and uses Henness Pass road.  CX bike would work fine, even if you went to Forrest City.  I'm thinking of doing that race on my cutthroat.  Did it last year on my SC Tallboy. Recommend a minimum tire width of 44mm or greater.  50mm would be better.  Sidewall protection is recommended.  Portions of the CSTR would be less fun on a CX type bike;  I have no shame in walking or hiking my bike if it is high injury risk.  I've gotten older.  Carry your personal locator device on you, not the bike.  I've done both the CSTR and TNCA, and they are great routes.

Here is a link that includes the TNCA route, and a future route I want to do:
https://caltopo.com/m/2L2V

the linked routes can be easily connected with trail or road to make a great route.  Have fun!!

[TailLights]

Thanks for the Caltopo link. That is really interesting, it's showing a way to get into Washington by going down the valley past the good swimming holes.

Looks like I'll switch to planning a route on Caltopo rather than google/garmin, as Caltopo has the map detail I need.

Thanks,

There's some sections that I'm unsure of. I need to learn the map code, as I don't immediately know if Blue Lake Trail is a narrow hiking trail, or if it's a wide "jeep trail". Also need to look up who manages which sections of land, and therefore where you can ride bikes or not.



Then there's ares like this where it seems to follow a river. Is that because there's a trail next to it, or is this pack rafting, or just hiking along the river?

[TailLights]

Looking at the pre-ride pictures up to Orroville, all the trails look very much what I want, i.e. "gravel" more than mountain biking.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/danhensley/sets/72157637773185513/

Verdi to Washingon, doing exactly the same as the race course, seems ideal. I just need to make sure that that whole section matches the pictures in the ride report, and there's no rocky hike a bike stuff if you're on a cx bike.

From Washington, I've mapped out a way already that heads back towards 80 and Colfax, and then Colfax to Meadow Vista on the road, and then on to Auburn. It's all downhill, so pretty easy.

Thanks,

[phillip]

The blue lake/grouse ridge/beyers lake trail are all single track, and fairly technical backcountry riding, and all this is open to bikes.  The Bicyclists of Nevada City (BONC) sponsor, and work with the private property owner and Forest Service, trail work on all these trails.  full suspension highly recommended.  It is NOT a jeep trail, it is hike a bike in spots.  It is Forest Service managed.  Specific to blue lake trail, the portion that connects near Blue Lake itself is private property so you must stay on the trail and the dirt road portion.

The second picture shows the trail on the Bowman-Spaulding canal that transfers water from Jackson meadows & Milton reservoirs to bowman lake.  The route stays on the access road until the tunnel is reached, then you must follow the access road upto Bowman Road.  do not go into the canal, either swimming or packraft.  all portions of the routes on my caltopo link are open to bikes.  The Canals are managed by PG&E as part of electricity generation and irrigation, managed by Nevada Irrigation District.

Now, if you going westward from Blue Lake trail to Washington, the route shows both the original (may be very overgrown due to past fires) and an alternate.  The original may be hard to find, and the alternate is easier to find so you can reach Arctic Mine road.  The Doolittle trail is seldom used and narrow, but recently had some trail work.  I don't know how good it is today.  Also, the Ridge Trail has not had much trail work for at least 3 years so may have lots of debris.

Have fun!!!

[TailLights]

Thank you for the info. Sounds like the blue lake/grouse ridge/beyers lake trail section isn't what we're after. The earlier sections for which there are photos in the pre-ride, is far more in line with what we want. One friend has a cross bike with 32's, but can fit 38's. So I'm trying to make a route that'll work for him, but also one that's not too road-like that my 29er fully rigid with 2.3's would feel like a tank. Also when I mapped one option, it was about 150 miles Truckee to Auburn, and we all have families/partners who'd prefer that this trip was a 2 day, maybe 3 day trip. We'd all be up for rougher trails and a longer trip if we didn't have time constraints.

So possibly we can ride the first section of the race, then do our own thing.

I really need to spend more time with the maps. The pre-ride pictures who exactly what I want, with maybe the exception of the sealed Henness Pass bit. I'd really like to work out how to basically ride roads/trails like these photos from the pre-ride, the whole way. I'll see about Caltopo this week and how easy it is. Might end up ordering some topo maps, as I still find paper maps much easier.

Than you








But not as rough for more than the odd section like this

[phillip]

You have a few options but you have to get across major river canyons: Bear, Yuba, or American.  From truckee, the easiest and fastest to Auburn is via Soda Springs Road, foresthill Road, and into Auburn: easy 2 day trip or 1 day quick trip.  This is about 50/50 dirt to paved and very doable with CX; 38's would be good, and mtb with 2.3 is okay as it is mostly downhill.  There are some alternative paths on Elliot Ranch road off of foresthill road, then around Sugar Pine reservoir to Finning Mill road that returns back to foresthill road just east of Foresthill.  Then when you get to Driver's Flat area on foresthill road, take the Foresthill Divide Loop trail (north side of foresthill road) (FDLT) for single track that returns you back to foresthill road and a few miles east of Auburn.  This is essentially the CSTR 2017 route but not taking shirttail canyon road or Yankee Jims road; less mileage.

If starting in Verdi, follow the TNCA route.  When you get to Jackson Meadows reservoir follow Graniteville road to Bowman lake via Meadow Lake Road onto Gaston road, which goes into Washington; climb up washington road to Hwy 20 & go east.  Take Lowell Hill road westward into Dutch flat; plan a route to Colfax.  Once in Colfax, make your way to either Yankee Jims road or Ponderosa Road so you can cross the North fork of the American River (2 of only 3 bridges across the river).  these road connect to Foresthill road, and then it's downhill to Auburn.  You can take the FDLT as described above.  alternative from colfax is to take roads to Auburn but this is not fun due to traffic.

I will draw these alternatives on the map so you need only click the link to see them.  You can export a gpx file from it.

[TailLights]

Thank you so much, that's really good details.

I've stayed with family a lot in Meadow Vista, so know some of the area okay. I'll take a look at the Soda Springs to Forrest Hill option South of 80. I knew there was a way to go Auburn to Tahoe south of 80 (other than the Western States single track), but hadn't looked into it.

Really seems that someone could do Truckee/Verdi to Auburn by quite a few different routes, and each one would be over half different than the others. I really liked the north of 80 stuff for the gravel road nature, the lakes (thought we'd be able to camp next to one of the lakes for the one night, then have mostly downhill to Auburn (except that Washington to 20 climb).

Thanks,