Lavezzola Road
Out and back · from the café
14 mi
Distance
1,750 ft
Climbing
The one everybody rides, and the reason is simple: you are inside the gorge the whole way. Starts and finishes at the café.
The invitation
Come ride the dirt above the Yuba.
Downieville sits exactly where the Downie River runs into the North Yuba — two canyons meeting in the middle of a town that never quite got around to changing. What it has, more than anywhere else I know in the Sierra, is good dirt road.
So that is what this weekend is. No highway riding. Nothing at the sharp end of technical — the famous Downieville Downhill is deliberately not on the list. Every route here works on an e-mountain bike, and every one of them puts you inside a river gorge.
Join for a day or for the whole thing.
- Dirt only
- Max 7/10 technical
- E-MTB friendly, every route
- A gorge in view
Four rides
Pick your day.
Ridden as a group, at the pace of whoever is having the hardest morning. Nobody gets dropped.
Easy
Saddleback Lookout
Climb · 6,706 ft summit
19.5 mi
Distance
3,700 ft
Climbing
A fitness test, not a skills test. From the top you are looking down on both canyons at once — and on the town where they meet.
Sierra Buttes Road
Shuttle descent · FR 93
8 mi
Distance
−2,900 ft
Descending
Van to Packer Saddle, then point it downhill. All dirt, all the way to Sierra City. The most fun per unit of effort on the list.
Mountain House Road
Henness Pass · out and back
9.3 mi
Each way
2,759 ft
Climbing
The old emigrant road. Waterless, exposed, no bail-out once you commit. On the list for the history — not as the group ride.
Where it starts
The confluence.
Two 1938 bridges cross the water in the middle of town — Jersey Bridge over the Downie, Durgan Bridge over the North Yuba, the second one on the National Register. Routes one and two start and finish between them.
Stand on either and you can see the thing the whole weekend is built around: two river gorges running together into one larger canyon, with a hundred and seventy years of town wedged into the gap.
39.5597° N, 120.8286° W · 2,966 ft
Carol M. Highsmith / Library of Congress — public domain.
The weekend
What it takes.
Shuttle & bikes
| Pedal mountain bike | $140 / day |
| E-mountain bike | $150–180 / day |
| Packer Saddle shuttle | $40 / rider |
Downieville Outfitters on Main Street. E-MTB price depends on the model. Book ahead.
Eat & sleep
In town: Two Rivers Cafe, La Cocina de Oro, Riverside Mountain Lodge.
Up the canyon in Sierra City: Buttes Resort.
It is a small town. Reserve, don't wing it.
Getting there
| Truckee | 1 h 25 |
| Reno | 2 h 00 |
| Sacramento | 2 h 20 |
| South Lake Tahoe | 2 h 30 |
Before you come
Tahoe National Forest is under Stage 2 fire restrictions through 31 October 2026 — no campfires, no motors off established roads. The Packer Saddle shuttle runs until snow closes the road, historically late October. After that the high routes are out and the canyon roads carry on. Check the forest and the shuttle before you drive, whatever the date.
When
Let's pick a day.
There is no fixed weekend on this. The season here runs a lot longer than people assume — the canyon roads sit around 3,000 feet, and weather permitting you can often still be riding down there in December, or at least well past Thanksgiving. Tell me what works for you and I will call the date that catches the most people.
Through late October
Everything on the list, including the high routes and the Packer Saddle shuttle.
November
The canyon-floor roads keep going. Saddleback and Packer Saddle shut with the first real snow.
Into December
Weather permitting — and it often permits. Cold mornings, empty roads, nobody else out there.
Would love to have you there if you can make it.