Mountain biking the Fall colors

[dave54]

Not sure to post this here or under other sports.

The Bizz Johnson Trail is not in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, but misses by only a couple miles.

The BLM and Lassen Lands and Trail Trust hosts a Fall color ride down the Bizz every Fall (Oct 21 this year). They bus you and your bike to the upper trailhead and you ride the 25 miles back to Susanville. The upper reaches of the trail were all well past peak color and not much there. From the meadow at Westwood Junction where the trail first crosses the Susan River the colors started. It was cold and windy until the last few miles.


Pictures at:
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/dsandbro/#page1

Can't get the img tags to work. Looks like Yahoo does not allow hotlinking.

[hikerduane]

I thought that was a couple weeks ago. Three of us did the ride a few years ago, pretty easy. We didn't get in a hurry and stopped for lunch and a potty break or two. With all the stops and all, even a 70 something lady beat us back to town. We laughed about that, but we had a good time.

[dave54]

3 weeks ago was the Rails-to-Trails Festival.

There seems to be a bike club along on every sponsored ride. They always take off like rockets disappearing down the trail, a race to see who gets back first.

That's their style and it's fine with me. I'll ride at my pace, stopping to enjoy the trail along the way. There are a couple of geocaches a short distance from the trail, some side trips to explore on foot, etc. The local Susanville bike club built some singletrack that is an alternative route from Devil's Corral to Susanville.

The BLM is in the process of acquiring the rights-of-way from the now abandoned rail line from Alturas to Wendel and incorporate that into the national Rails-to-Trails system.

The rail line that Collins Pine owns, from the mill in Chester to the BNSF rail line at Clear Creek, is no longer in operation. BLM is also working on acquiring rights-of-way from Alturas north to possibly connect with the O&C trail (old rail line similar to the Bizz Johnson Trail) that runs from Lakeview to Klamath Falls.

Once all these are built and interconnected, there would be a multi-use (mostly MTB) trail system several hundred miles in total length. My fear is by the time it is all completed I will be too old to ride it.

[hikerduane]

Nice riding in the Spring and Fall. I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to do it until I am old.