Sierra Buttes’ Feel-Good Video Is Inspiring For Trailbuilders Worldwide

February 25, 2021
3 Comments

If you need a bit of feel-good viewing to keep you going until the weekend, then have a look at Sierra Buttes’ video that it has produced, documenting its campaign to connect 15 mountain communities via building and restoring trails through California’s ‘lost’ Sierra mountains. By hiring local residents to work on its trail crew and some extensive outreach to the local communities it is connecting, it is connecting remote communities that used to be connected back in the days of the gold rush of the 19th century.

Grinduro USA has used many of the Sierra Buttes trail network near Quincy, California

The trail building has been more than just for the pleasure of mountain bikers (though that has helped with the funding – the trail system is well supported by the California bike industry), it is connecting remote towns (Downieville, which you’ll have heard of, only had a population of around 300 residents) with trails that can be ridden, walked and many, dirt biked too. In some cases, the trailbuilders are finishing sections of trail that were started during the Gold Rush in the mid 1800s and never completed once the bust came. The Sierra Buttes is a great example of how a few inspired individuals can make a big difference in an area previously given up on by industry – once mining and later logging – moved out.

Have a watch, get inspired about trailbuilding and look at all that dust! At the very least it’ll make you want to visit Downieville and the rest of the 15 communities that the Sierra Buttes trust is bringing together via the medium of mountain bike trails.

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Mr. Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's ex-Editor At Large

With 25 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps holds the record for the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Chipps stepped down as Editor in April 2026 after 25 years at the helm. He's now wondering what to do next, while riding his bike in the French Pyrenees, where he also runs some gites.

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3 thoughts on “Sierra Buttes’ Feel-Good Video Is Inspiring For Trailbuilders Worldwide”

  2. The Lost Sierra is one of my favourite places to ride. The trails range from the groomed (Mt Hough) to the rough (Mt Elwell) and if you spend some time with a map you can plot some proper wilderness rides where you might not see anybody all day (I did see a mountain lion from a distance and a bear much closer). It’s an amazing community and as a visitor you feel good that the dollars you spend are providing a livelihood for a deprived region and also going towards building more great trails for all. I only hope that they can finish some more before I’m too old to ride them!

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