Road Biking and Gravel Grinding around the Endurance Capital
Check out the many road cycling and gravel grinding options described below, followed by a section of links for more information.
CLICK HERE for Auburn-area cycling organizations and businesses.
Road Cycle and Gravel Grind Your Way in and around Auburn!
Check out the many road cycling and gravel grinding options described below, followed by a section of links for more information.
Road Cycling within the Auburn City Limits
Within the city limits is a bike trail created by Brad Kearns, elite triathlete & cyclist, author, youth fitness advocate, event management professional, founder of the Auburn Triathlon, speed golfer, and more! He and his family moved to Auburn in the early 2000s, and he was an Endurance Capital Committee member representing cycling. He felt it important to provide our locals and our visitors a safe, but beautiful route through the city. To that end he worked with local businesses and the City of Auburn to make this route a reality. CLICK HERE for a map of the route and enjoy! The signs all have the original Endurance Capital logo as pictured below:
Road Cycling around Auburn
The roads around Auburn are perfect for cycling. They are often two lanes, with beautiful country-side scenes including small farms, ranches, and views of Folsom Lake, the Sacramento Valley and the Sierras. Less hilly routes are easily found in nearby areas such as the Loomis Basin or the Rocklin/Roseville area. For those who prefer more climbing, the roads around Meadow Vista and further North to Colfax and beyond should be considered. The local road-biking club The Sierra Foothills Cycling Club, has both weekend and weekday organized rides year-round. They welcome guests, and are a very active club in general.
Gravel Grinding
Gravel grinding bikes differ from classic road bikes in a few ways: they have wider tires, stouter wheels and frames, often have disc brakes, and occasionally will have front suspension.
Gravel grinding involves riding on gravel roads (such as Yankee Jim Road, shown above, courtesy of CaliforniaThroughMyLens.com), between Colfax and Foresthill, view Strava Route) and the many canal trails that parallel the irrigation canal system originally developed to support agriculture in the area (such as the many fruit tree orchards that were once common). There are irrigation canal paths (usually consisting of hard-packed clay surfaces), for example, at the ASRA Park Ranger booth on Maidu Road in Auburn; there is also an irrigation path that passes behind Placer High School in downtown Auburn; longer canal rides can be found in the Meadow Vista area. More advanced gravel grinders may appreciate Hidden Falls Regional Park in Auburn, which is due for a major trail expansion in 2019. The Sierra Foothills Cycling Club occasionally sponsors gravel grinding rides in the Auburn area.
Links to Street Biking & Gravel Grinding Opportunities
Be sure to check out this page of many local road cycling routes, courtesy of Sierra Foothills Cycling Club. A few of these routes are included below.
CLICK HERE for an extensive list of Auburn road cycling businesses and organizations.
