Downieville: Mtn Bike Sierra

Highway 49 is the Gold Country & this is the far north end of it, where the Yuba River runs wild & the Sierra Buttes are the majestic centerpiece for the Northern Sierra Nevada.

The infamous Downieville Classic is the big annual race for mountain bikers. A huge event for the small historic town. The Downieville Downhill is the longest and most demanding downhill mountain bike race in the country, or so they say. The rest of the year, it's great fishing, camping & hiking all the way around. Lakes Basin Recreation Area is perfect for a day trip, picnic & hike. Sierra Buttes, Gold Lake, Lake Campgrounds are abundant in this region. Goose Lake, Haven Lake,  Packer Lake, Sardine Lake, Snag Lake, Salmon Creek, Frasier Falls are all nearby lake destinations.

downieville ca

Home prices here are almost as high as neighboring Grass Valley & Nevada City, but you are much more remote in this location. Winters can be harsh with snow, ice, power outages and road closures. Smog from the Central Valley may not reach you tucked way back here and the Sacramento heat & bad traffic will be non-existent. Tourists traffic is abundant in summer, and overwhelming sometimes. Seasonal recreation like fishing, hunting, cross country skiing, snowmobiling bring locals here all year long.

Kennedy Meadows California

Sometimes you don't need to drive to Northern California to find your rivers or seclusion in a cabin community --- all you gotta do is head up, as in elevation. This is the South Fork of the Kern River, way beyond Kernville, CA.

The easiest way to get here is head up North Mojave Hwy 395, passing turn offs for Inyokern & Ridgecrest. Look for the small sign for J41, a county road also known as Nine Mile Canyon Rd. This will take you climbing from the desert valley, westbound, up the side of a granite mountain with joshua trees. Way up to the high elevation sage brush meadows of Kennedy, Troy & Monache.

The Dome Land region has been hit with wildfires, but nature grows back fast and it's still gorgeous country up here. Pinyon pines, jeffrey pines, ponderosa pines too.... granite peaks, rivers & some cabins are sprinkled about the landscape. The big draw here is the fishing & hiking, but the off roading & mountain biking trails are plentiful too.

Thousands of dollars will buy you hundreds of acres in the Kennedy Meadows Wilderness region. Finding anything & I mean any lil thing on real estate in these parts is very rare.