California is often thought of as an epic American landscape, along with its coastal stretches, ancient redwoods, deserts, and postcard-pretty towns. A new trail system aims to open up some of the state's best views along a 600-mile network of multiuse trails in the northeastern part of the state.
The Sierra Nevada mountain range is a strong contender with its national parks, forests and monuments. The Lost Sierra Route is designed to bring visitors to parts of the Sierras that are off the tourist trail.
The mountain bikers are riding above Crystal Lake. Patrick Cavender is the founder of the Connected Communities Project.
The US Forest Service and community partners are part of the Connected Communities project. The aim is to revive the Sierra Buttes through recreation-based industry.
The first phase of the project will connect the mountain towns of Quincy and Taylorsville with views of the mountain ranges and the Indian Valley. Over the next seven years, the plan is to connect a total of 15 towns in Northern California and a slice of Nevada through 600 miles of trails, giving intrepid explorers plenty of opportunities for hiking, biking, moto-riding, horse-riding, fishing, wildlife watching and sightseeing.
The Connected Communities Project has a bike pit-stop in Downieville.
If you're more of a section hiker you can break it up into smaller pieces, but there are more remote options as well. "It's not necessarily an A-Z trail," Trinity Stirling, project coordination for Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship, tells Lonely Planet. You can choose your own adventure by hopping between different communities. You could make a 600-mile loop by visiting each mountain town.
California's incredible redwoods can be seen from this new sky walk.
Establishing 600 miles of trails requires a lot of boots on the ground and the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship have turned to local communities to build out their crew and volunteer teams.
In the past year, we ran two professional crews and six youth crews, which was huge coming out of 2020 and COVID-19 when we didn't run any youth crews. It was great to have young people back out on the trail to see the public land. They're all from the region, so they're working on land in their backyard, working on trails that they can use for the rest of their lives.
Patrick Cavender is with the Connected Communities Project.
The collapse of the logging and mining industry has been a major cause of economic hardship in this part of northeastern California. The Connected Communities Project aims to bring a vision for a recreation-focused lifestyle through community investment, shared stewardship, economic opportunity, and important new local jobs to the region through the Lost Sierra Route.
Right now, the teams are working to expand on smaller sections of the trail from the mining and logging routes of the Gold Rush-era mail delivery route, as well as creating new trails that will bring visitors into the mountain towns.
Other towns that will be connected through the route include Truckee, Loyalton, Sierraville, Sierra City, Downieville, Graeagle, Portola, Greenville, Jonesville, Chester, Westwood, and Verdi in Nevada.
The Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship's website has the latest updates on environmental reviews and trail planning.
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