Creating and riding a 250-mile backcountry bikepacking adventure
Story and photos by Matt McCourney
The Connected Communities project by Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship (SBTS) is a visionary 600-mile trail intended to connect 15 small mountain towns in the Lost Sierra Region. Their proposed route is awe-inspiring but building that much trail will take a long time to complete. After viewing their film Lost On Purpose, I realized I didn’t have to wait for the completion of the trails to explore this area. There’s already a vast network of gravel roads throughout the Lost Sierra. It’s a bikepacker’s paradise.
After months of mapping, scouting, and waiting for snowmelt, I finalized a 250-mile dirt touring route that highlights some of the stunning landscape the Lost Sierra is famous for. Utilizing modern mapping applications, I targeted the specific towns I wanted to travel to and strung them together to create the overall route. Though I planned to do this ride solo, I kept fellow riders in mind who might also enjoy embarking on this journey in the future, so making the route feasible, enjoyable, challenging, and inspiring was all part of the plan.
From traversing challenging 7,500-foot mountain passes to meandering through tranquil river canyons, this route offers a captivating diversity of backcountry landscapes together with the occasional comforts of civilization along the way. 
My goal was to complete the journey in five days, which meant I would be cycling about 60 miles and climbing 6,000 feet of vert per day, predominantly on dirt trails. Despite possessing a substantial background in cycling, racing, and coaching, I harbored doubts about my ability to tackle such a feat as I had just recently returned to cycling after a five-year hiatus.
TRAINING
In anticipation of my long journey on dirt, I started to challenge myself on some longer rides, dial in my gear, and do a few smaller one and two night trips to get the rhythm down and figure out what worked and what did not.
I looked at other bikepacking routes that inspired me and ended up doing a route that traversed the Santa Cruz Mountains for three days as a full shakedown ride which proved to be very successful.
After that, I did a few more overnight trips and after five solo bikepacking expeditions I had dialed my gear and dialed my headspace — I was feeling ready to take on the Lost Sierra Route.
THE ROUTE
The beauty of the route is its flexibility to start and end in any of the towns. I decided to start and end in Truckee, since it’s the easiest town to get to for people traveling to the area and it made sense for the resupply layout.
• Truckee to Downieville // 55 miles, 4K of climbing. Relatively easy, the descent into Downievlle is challenging.
The first day travels quickly out of Truckee, diving off the beaten trail, as you travel into Jackson Meadows and along the historic Henness Pass Road before dropping into Downieville for a resupply and camping spot on the North Yuba River.
Downieville is a great town in general and an even better place to resupply on any backcountry trip. It has a few restaurants, inns, a general store, bike shop, hardware store and two snow melt rivers merging into town. Waking up riverside just outside of Downvielle I was feeling alive.
• Downievelle to Florentine Canyon // 28 miles, 6.5K of climbing. Hard, the most difficult day.
From Downieville, the route swiftly climbs 3,000 feet from the river’s edge to the top of the Sierra Buttes crest. This section is brutal and I started second guessing myself during this part of the ride.
A portion of this leg follows the renowned Downieville Classic Mountain Bike Race course, including the notorious ‘Baby Heads’ section — a treacherous descent riddled with loose rocks known for causing spills and flat tires. Descending ‘Baby Heads’ on a touring bike proved to be a blend of laughter and tears, embodying the essence of Type II fun.
Camping at the top of the ridge was amazing, and one of the best nights I had on the trip. Though this day’s route was shorter in distance, technically it was the crux of the trip and I felt accomplished when I settled in for the night.
• Florentine Canyon to Taylorsville // 54 miles, 5.5K of climbing. Hard, 2 plus hours of climbing.
The next day, I knew I had a lot of miles to cover, but the road surfaces were smoother and travel would be quicker. The most difficult part would be the climb up Mount Hough at the end of the day.
Although the two hour climb up Hough was challenging, I reminded myself to take it easy and enjoy the ride. Along the way, I couldn’t help but chuckle as I witnessed multiple bike shuttles from Quincy ferrying mountain bikers to the top for the exhilarating downhill ride.
Upon reaching the summit, I began my own descent toward Taylorsville to conclude the day’s ride. The town welcomed me with open arms, offering amenities like The Grizzly Bite Cafe, an excellent general store, and a riverside campground with hot showers — a perfect spot to resupply and rejuvenate.
• Taylorsville to Lake Davis // 54 miles, 5K of climbing. Relatively easy, moderately smooth gravel.
From Taylorsville the route hits the northernmost portion of the Sierra Nevada and the terrain is high and dry. This leg features Antelope Lake and Lake Davis with lots of interesting terrain in between.
Antelope Lake is pretty wild, with a lot of strange rock features and interesting things to look at. The area around Lake Davis is used by the SBTS Lost and Found Gravel events and the roads are scenic and epic. I camped at Lake Davis and my wife came out to meet me and brought some car camping gear and our dog. We had a great night and I was happy to have a well cooked meal and birthday cupcake as I celebrated my 45th birthday.
• Lake Davis to Truckee // 58 miles, 3.2K of climbing. Easiest day, asphalt and smooth gravel.
This day begins with about 15 miles of pavement, which was much appreciated at this point of the tour. Smooth asphalt and 15 mph never felt better.
Once back on the dirt, Smith Neck Road travels back to Truckee via Stampede Reservoir with some pretty smooth gravel road surfaces. The last few miles I decided to take some singletrack around the Prosser Hills area and I enjoyed meeting runners, hikers, dog walkers and other bikers. It was nice to be back into society, but I took my time getting to the car because I was sad to see the adventure come to an end.
Reflections and Beyond
The ride ended up being just over 250 miles with 26,000 feet of climbing in five days. I adventured solo except for the night camping with my wife and our dog.
I rode my trusty steel Kona gravel bike with 2” wide tires packed with everything I needed. It felt amazing, just what I was looking for — a route that physically challenged me and mentally awakened me.
After posting the ride to the Ride With GPS website’s ambassador’s route section, a few people reached out and wanted to learn more, and I happily shared as much info as possible. Some were only interested in doing an overnight or breaking it up into multiple trips. I’ve enjoyed emailing and speaking with those folks and helping them find their little version of the Lost Sierra Route. When they reported back, I was thrilled to hear how much they enjoyed themselves and it seemed like they had just as much fun as I did.
Go to bikepackingroots.org to view the route online. Learn more about the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship and their Connected Communities project at SierraTrails.org.
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