Truckee's Newest Single Track
Professional trail builders are hard at work right now building exquisite rock work, banked turns and rock reinforcements that travels across the picturesque Sawtooth Ridge in Truckee, CA.
The coming together of local organizations, the community and financial partners has awarded the Tahoe Truckee area with the first approved trail on forest service lands in many years. The Truckee Trails Foundation is working with the US Forest Service to build a new 6.5 mile trail called Big Chief.
The trail is located off the southern tip of the Sawtooth Trail and will connect to the Tahoe Rim Trail near Watson Lake. What this team has accomplished so far is a manicured section that takes off just as you would cross the 0-6 road on the Sawtooth trail when heading south. Snaking through the trees, back and forth along the sawtooth ridge further south, this trail makes you want to explore further. The traill is expected to be completed by the end of summer. John Groom of the US Forest Service says, “The mountain bike community is really excited for this trail and in general, there has been a positive outpouring of support.” If you want show your support and get in on this cornerstone trail, sign up for a volunteer trail building day. The next one is this weekend, Saturday, July 14th.
→ Click here for volunteer day information.
The Truckee Trails Foundation (TTF) and The US Forestry Service (USFS) see this as the beginning of a bigger vision that will continue trail connectivity and create sustainable progressive trails for users and the land itself. “Sawtooth and Big Chief are at the heart of where everything is connecting” says, Alison Pedley of TTF. Groom says, “Big Chief is the beginning of what I hope is a start in the right direction,” as he talks about sustainable, progressive trails that actively invite people to ride on them.
The USFS has current and long term visions of creating trails like this for meaningful public access to US Forest Service land for all users — hiking, biking, equestrian and motorized.
→ Click here to see a map of Big Chief Trail.
Big thanks go out to the generous financial donors at REI, National Forest Foundation, Northstar California and the many other contributors who helped. We are excited for new access and a chance to connect Truckee to Tahoe City via single track.