AT and his GoPro – Winterpark Colorado from Kris Jamieson (Jaymo) on Vimeo.

On Friday I loaded up Das Sprinter with a selection of 14  2010 demo bikes, three personal bikes, two sarcophagus sized coolers, four bags of clothes, three boxes of dry food, five folding chairs, two bags of charcoal, an industrial sized coffee urn, a tool box, a “beverage” cooler, and various other random items. To avoid Labor Day traffic through Sacramento we took the back way , aka the “faster way”, through Yuba City and Marysville. Turns out it wasn’t really faster, but we did stop at Los Charros, an authentic Mexican eatery, and have an excellent meal.  The highlight of our drive, however,  was making the mistake of heading north on 49 and turning right at the Forest City sign. All looked promising until the pavement quickly turned into a rutted, ascending dirt road. Little did we know that the preferred route was south on Ridge Rd., the one used to get to Alleghany.We soldiered on in the ominous darkness, skittering around moon dusty rocky corners, hoping that we were going the right direction. Just as the banjos were getting warmed up to play, we teed into the only street in Forest City: Main St. We were quite relieved to find our crew camped out around a fire pit at one of the few remaining miner’s shacks in town, one which happened to be generously donated  for the NorCal Cycling League’s Coaches’ Retreat.

Saturday  morning we got the low down on the Forest trail system, one that has taken over 12 years to construct, from  Zachi, the leader of the Forest Trails Alliance . He explained that the FTA works closely with the USFS to create new trail opportunities that will help  connect communities in this remote part of the Sierras. Zachi and his dedicated  crew of dirt mercenaries have carved out roller coaster ribbons of loamy pine single track that symbiotically flow over  the land’s contours, many of which utilize existing flumes, skid paths, and trails carved out by miners over a hundred years ago. The Forest Trails Alliance builds sustainable trails that are fun to ride.

The single tracks and dirt roads we experienced have an Annadel meets Downieville feel to them and provide riders with many options. The perfect example of this is off of Pliocene Ridge Rd. at  a trail convergence called Big Tree,which is,  literally, a big tree. Big Tree sits at the head of three single track descents of different flavors, all of which drop you into town on entertaining sections of  well built trail. Trails built by the FTA will put a smile on your face and some grit in your teeth, so I suggest making your way up to Forest, CA so you can experience some remote Sierra single track few have ridden.