Another Road Less Travelled Bike Adventure

We’ve been doing a lot of biking over the last couple of weeks. The challenge is to get away from the more crowded trails in the area. The Legacy Trail, the Trout Creek Trail, the Truckee River Trail, the Donner Emigrant Trail and popular mountain biking trails are getting more crowded as COVID restrictions are lifted.

So we headed out to Jackson Meadows Road for a ride, 17 miles north of Truckee. Normally, we wouldn’t do a pavement ride on that road. There is no separate bike lane and the road is narrow. During the summer season, the road is frequented by Class A motorhomes and large pickups towing 5th wheels, boats and offroad vehicles. Few respect the 45 mph speed limit.

But this week, the campgrounds aren’t open yet, and the road is posted as open only to Webber Lake. Parking at the Little Truckee Summit parking area is plentiful, now that the snowmobile season is over. So we parked there, far from the one other car parked there and set out on the bikes.

The road is a bit bumpy, due to frost heave cracks every 10 to 20 yards. You will appreciate having a bike with suspension. We rode as far as Webber Lake, 8 miles from the parking lot. Jackson Meadows would be another 9 miles farther and would have likely had some snow drifts due to increasing elevation. Word on the street is that you can get all of the way to Jackson Meadows.

Webber Lake is still closed and we chose not to go past the gate this time. We’ve enjoyed the ride out to Lacey Meadows a couple of times as well. That road was also closed. Conditions look very similar a ride we did in late June last year, where much of the road was still mud bogs and snow drifts.

On the way back, we took Henness Pass Road, which is the dirt road that parallels the paved road for about 3 miles. It also passes by Webber Falls, which is quite spectacular right now. The dirt road did include a few snowy and muddy spots, but was passable on bikes. You can continue to follow Henness Pass Road down into Perazzo Meadows and rejoin the paved road later.

We also noticed that that there are currently some pretty nice spring “hike to” ski lines off of the flanks of Mount Lola. It can be pretty confusing figuring out how to access those lines. We’ve reported on it several times.

Normally, we try not to give away too many secrets about stashes. But this one is not long lasting. Overall we saw about 10 cars on the road on the way out, and double that on the return trip. Once we get past Memorial Day, Jackson Meadows Road will get far too busy to safely enjoy a bike ride. You should find some time between rain showers to enjoy it this week.