The Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship, the group that also promotes the world-famous Downieville Classic, is entering mixed terrain events with the Lost and Found dirt and gravel ride and race on May 31, 2014.
Get your fill of scenic dirt and gravel riding at the Lost and Found Ride. © Phil Roeder on Flickr
What is the Lost and Found? The Lost and Found is a spectacular journey in the California Sierra by bicycle, featuring a blend of pavement, dirt road, gravel road and historic railroad grade. The long route is 100 miles long with over 7,000’ of elevation gain and is 80% dirt. Participants can choose to race or simply ride the route and take advantage of the views and quality aid stations. Call it what you want: gravel grinder, race, ride, dirt century, dirt gran fondo, seven hours of cyclocross, or perhaps most accurately, a whole lotta miles with a whole lot of good food and good times thrown in.
And unlike famous gravel grinders like the 200-mile Dirty Kanza, the Lost and Found event has something for everyone, with 30 mile and 60 mile options that may appeal to busy cyclocross racers and cyclists used to shorter events with more cowbell and less grinding. The 60 mile option as planned will have 4000′ of climbing and is 90% dirt.
Got kids? The promoters plan to have a bouncy castle so that the little ones will burn as many calories as you do while you’re sampling the local dirt, and there’s fishing nearby.
30, 60 and 100 mile options of dirt and gravel around Lake Davis – Lost and Found Ride 2014
Racers must choose their weapon wisely: road bike, cross bike or mountain bike? 26″, 27.5″ or 29″ wheels? Let the contemplation and anticipation begin.
The promoters recall that it has been a long and rough road to get this event up and running (which may be an indicator of things to come, since the event itself will be long and contested on rough roads), but are ready to host the first-ever Lost and Found Bike Ride on May 31, 2014 at Lake Davis, located 15 minutes north of Portola in the Sierra of Northern California.
The ride is just a four hour drive from NorCal’s San Francisco’s Bay Area, and less than an hour away from Tahoe and Reno (the closet major airport). It’s within a day’s drive of Portland and Los Angeles.
Plenty of scenic water near Lake Davis. photo: courtesy
The event stages on the shore of Lake Davis at Coot Bay, and in typical Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship (SBTS) fashion, aims to offer participants a high-quality racecourse, well-stocked aid stations, a post-ride lunch party, and of course, plenty of cold beer, provided by our local brewery, The Brewing Lair.
The proceeds generated from the Lost and Found will be used to build local trails. Funds from this event will go towards the construction of the Lake Davis Trail; a 25-mile-long shared use trail that circumnavigates the lake and provides access to area campgrounds and other areas of interest. Racers and riders from around the world are invited to lose themselves and find this two-wheeled paradise.
The organization also organizes the world-famous Downieville Classic, and given the international audience that event draws, the Lost and Found event may be destined to become a classic as well. Wouldn’t it be cool to participate in the inaugural event? Register on Eventbrite here.
Notes:
About the event: The Lost and Found Ride is a very important event for SBTS. This event, along with the Lost Sierra trail run and the Downieville Classic, is a crucial component of our fundraising. We put on these events in order to bring people to this area, challenge their abilities, and showcase a place that we are proud to call home. The money raised from entry fees for these events then gets fed directly back into our trail restoration, maintenance and building efforts. Our trail crews are all locally hired, and we gear our work toward enhancing not just the trails in this area, but also bringing some economic life into the region.
At both the state and federal level, grant funding is becoming scarce. This is a basic, hard to swallow reality of the current economic climate. If we were to rely solely on grants, we’d have to put down the tools and close up shop at some point. As such, these events, as well as other fundraisers such as Trailfest and our Five Buck a Foot campaigns, along with our membership dues, become more and more important in helping us continue to do what we founded this whole stewardship thing for in the first place – build, restore, and maintain the best trails on the planet. So please, continue to be a part of this. Bring some friends. As always, we can promise a good time along with some soul cleansing hard work.
Cyclocross Magazine is proud to be a sponsor and support this mixed terrain fundraiser event.
Michael Ferrentino contributed to this report.
Update: Full results, report and bike profiles from the 2014 Lost and Found gravel race here.
