The Road Less Traveled
Bike season is winding down but it’s not over just yet. After a full Spring, Summer, and Fall of riding all the Tahoe classics we wanted to highlight some amazing trails off the beaten path. All three of these trails are what we would consider “backcountry trails”.
If you fancy yourself a good adventure ride these are for you, however be prepared from a gear and fitness standpoint, make sure you confident at route finding, and be comfortable riding very technical terrain.
Badenaugh Canyon Trail
The Badenaugh Canyon Trail is located Southeast of the town of Loyalton. This trail can be ridden as a loop with a fire road climb or as an out and back with a mixture of pedaling and hike a bike on the way up. As an out and back expect a around a 6 mile ride, if you choose to pedal the loop you are looking at closer to a 13 mile day.
This trail is a historic trail was revamped in 2023 by the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship and the Truckee Dirt Union. It starts at the Babbit Peak fire lookout and ends just East of Smithneck Road. Once you drop in you will be riding a 3 mile & 2098ft singletrack descent, starting in a steep but flowy forested section. Rolling from there you end up in a clearing from that is an old burn scar (cottonwood fire 1994) and things get more technical with rock gardens and small slabs. The grade gets less steep on the lower third of the trail as it turns into a wavy and brake free section through some aspens and grass.
Buzzard’s Roost Ridge
This is another historic trail that was recently reopened by the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship in late September of 2024. Buzzard’s Roost Ridge is located 20-30 minutes South of Quincy. This trail can be ridden by pedaling up the La Porte Road on the pavement or it can be shuttled.
The trail itself is 6 miles with a little bit of climbing at the beginning and end. The main descent is steep, dropping 3,300ft of raw singletrack. If you like brake burning trails where speed control is the name of the game you will love this one.
Spencer Creek Trail
This is the most adventurous of the trails listed, located in a remote drainage West of Mt. Elwell this trail sees few riders and almost zero maintenance. There are a handful of different ways to get there, most people access the trail from Johnsville, however it can also be accessed from the Lakes Basin or Packer Saddle. Choose your own route but remember you may not have cell service on this ride.
While The Spencer Creek trail is not quite as steep it is by far the most technical, most of the trail is rock with very little smooth dirt. The trail passes by Spencer Lakes and offers some spectacular scenery, there are also plenty of fun rock slabs to play around on in the middle section of the trail. This trail can be hard to follow at times but the juice is worth the squeeze for the right people.
