If you didn't hear about the Sierra Trail Chaser bikes we built for Sierra Nevada to take to Sea Otter this year, well, click on the hyperlink, and feast your eyes on two of the dopest custom Surlys you'll ever see.

   One of the benefits of making everything ourselves is that we're able to adjust our production schedule on the fly, depending on what we have on order. Also, it's pretty nice not having to worry about our parts sitting on a container ship somewhere that can't get into port.
   The good news is, in the last year and a half we've made some major strides in streamlining our manufacturing and assembly process, and we've added a couple fancy new machines to our quiver (watch the video below for a tour of our latest amazing machine by our own Patrick).

1. Should we just dive right into the heavy stuff? Most of us were watching the Dixie Fire maps spread across Plumas National Forest and the areas SBTS have built and maintained so many trails on and around, including Lost and Found Gravel Adventure and Grinduro Quincy event areas, as well as Mount Hough where Yuba Expeditions usually run shuttles. Now that it’s rained and you’ve been up to survey the damage, how bad is it really? 

It’s pretty bad in some spots and really bad in others. The trails were affected not only by the fires, but by giant bulldozers that cleared fuel breaks along ridgelines and through drainages, completely removing trees and brush for 200-300 hundred yards across and several miles in length, in order to slow or stop the spread of the fire. And because the Dixie Fire was such a big angry fire, it jumped bulldozer line after bulldozer line, forcing fire crews to repeat the process across 960,000+ acres of National Forest land.

Now that the forest is reopening we’ve been getting after it with paid trail crews and volunteers. 

Our pro trail crews have been focused on dropping and removing hazard trees within the trail corridor, which can be several hundred feet on both sides of the trail, depending on how tall the trees are. Basically if the tree is nuked and can fall on the trail, it needs to come down either by mother nature or by saw. With high-use trails like Mount Hough, we’d rather drop the tree in a controlled setting, rather than have the tree fall on it’s own at an inopportune time and injure someone. It’s a shit ton of work and as you would expect none of this additional restoration work was planned for in our budget.
The Dixie Fire burned more than 200 miles of trail on the Plumas and Lassen National Forests and over 70% of Plumas County has burned in the past two years between the Dixie, Beckwourth, Walker and North Complex fires. Despite the destruction, there’s still hundreds of miles of great trails that are open and in great condition in the Lost Sierra region. And even the Mount Hough Trail is open again this month thanks to the work of USFS and our crews and volunteers.

2. How does this change what SBTS will be doing in 2022? 

These past two years have been extremely difficult with the pandemic, event cancellations and catastrophic wildfires. And while the Dixie Fire didn’t necessarily change what we’ll be doing in 2022, it did add a whole lot to the list of shit to get done. Community recovery will be a big focus for our organization moving forward, and likely for generations. People are very motivated to come help us restore and build new trails and that’s keeping our team in high spirits as well.    

3. The three events SBTS have been famous for throwing (Downieville Classic, Lost & Found, and formerly Grinduro Quincy) have been cancelled over the last couple years due to Covid and fires. Any thoughts on your events returning again, and the impact of those events not happening?

Events in 2020 and 2021 were canceled due to Covid. We have some exciting news to share before the holiday break about events in the Lost Sierra. The pandemic and wildfires took a big chunk out of our organization, and to be honest it was uncertain whether we would survive. The good news is that we did survive, but lost key staff and board members over the last two years. We are being thoughtful and strategic about ramping back up, but our communities need support. Look for an announcement from us soon.

4. Many of us have been attending, racing, volunteering, and partying at SBTS events for years, and riding the amazing trails you’ve built and maintained around Downieville, Mills Peak, Lakes Basin, Mount Hough, and more. It truly is some of the best riding in one of the most beautiful locations in the world. What can WE do, as people who want to give back, to help support SBTS in 2022?

Please keep believing in and supporting us, whether it’s by making a donation, joining our Vision Circle of large philanthropic donors, patronizing our Yuba Expeditions bike shop and new guide service we are launching in 2022, riding in the Lost & Found Gravel Adventure or digging dirt. It all keeps the Dirt Magic happening.

5. The Connected Communities Project is about bringing awesome trails and recreation economy to other small mountain towns in the Sierra, then connecting all those communities with long trails that would be amazing for bike camping trips. One of those areas is about an hour and a half north of Chico around Jonesville/Butte Meadows and is being dubbed the Colby Mountain Project. Can you tell us more about what’s going on there?

There’s two parts to this project and we’re excited to partner with Butte County, Chico Velo and Sierra Nevada Conservancy. The Colby Mountain project is an approximate 40- mile non-motorized multiple use trail system that has been in the planning stages for several years and is currently in the NEPA (National Environmental Protection Act) phase. Colby Mountain will be shovel ready by 2022 if everything goes smoothly. The Connected Communities portion of the project looks to create a true trans-Sierra crossing by connecting the west shore of Lake Almanor to Jonesville with a motorized multiple use trail as part of the proposed Lost Sierra Route, connecting 15- mountain towns with more than 600 miles of sweet Sierra singletrack.

If it was my last day to ride earth dirt, it would have to be in Downieville enjoying the big mountains, densely forested canyons and some of the best, most ripping trails in the world. The Zorblach alien folks better have cold beer, some barbecue and good times if they want the Dirt Magic to happen. And hopefully their soil isn’t moon dust.  

7. Bigfoot stories abound in the Lost Sierra area… have you ever personally experienced a sighting?

All the time, only he’s pink and goes by the name of Spot. Mostly we hang out together in Downieville, cause he loves the historic trails, the taqueria and refreshing swim holes. It’s surprising how well that pink hairy beast can ride! But that’s what happens when you come to Downieville - even the wildlife become better riders.