Downieville MTB Ride

California Autumn 2005 - Day 8 - Downieville MTB Ride

We decided to drive over to Downieville to ride the Downieville downhill trail. The drive took us 2 hours each way from Auburn.

We parked up in the town center and then arranged a Shuttle to the start of the trail up at packer saddle with Yuba Outfitters which cost us $20 each, they had a very good racking system for the bikes which held them by the tyres only.

We caught the shuttle which took over an hour to get to the start of the ride.

Start of Downhill trail

We followed some fellow Mountain Bikers who had done the ride before down some singletrack that was not described in our guide book, I found it to be good fun as it was quite tricky in places. unfortunately my wife had another crash as it was took tricky for her and got gashes on both knees - which we patched up before cutting back to Road 93-3 from the trail.

We turned off road 93-3 onto The Butcher Ranch Trail and then connected onto the Third Divide Trail, and finally onto the First Divide Trail. The trail was mostly downhill with the odd bit of technical stuff thrown in and one bit of uphill. The trail is really what I would call a x-country trail, and does not require a downhill specific bike to ride it.

Butcher Ranch Trail

When we got back to Downieville we packed the bikes in the SUV and then got two great freshly made smoothies from a shop in town, and went for a paddle in the river that runs through the center of the town.

We then drove back to Auburn and and patched up the latest wounds that had been acquired on the trip, then as it was quite late we went and had pizza from a round table pizza house.

DAY 9