[Felt Ryder]

Riding it this weekend.

Question:

Should I park at bottom of Sawtooth and ride the fire road several miles (How is this part?) up and take Big Chief into Sawtooth AND it is there a shuttle-able parking spot up top of Big Chief lower?

 

[etuck]

When I've ridden there I've ridden the single track up and down. It's a nice single track climb, if you like that sort of thing.

 

[Felt Ryder]

When I've ridden there I've ridden the single track up and down. It's a nice single track climb, if you like that sort of thing.

Actually I do in order to scout it out a bit. I did hear it's pretty scary when people are bombing down and I don't want to be "That Guy" in the way.

 

[etuck]

Wasn't an issue for me. I only saw a few others and everyone was mellow. I also saw others climbing.

 

[dhbike8]

I like to park at the sawtooth trailhead, ride out sawtooth, up 06, down big chief, and back out 06 to your car. You can park almost anywhere along 06 so yes it would be easy to shuttle but the dh is kind of spread out and pedaly so its not really the sort of trail thats conducive to it. That said its a very fun trail with lots of high speed sections so yes people will be coming down at a million mph and I wouldn't recommend riding up unless you are ready to hop out of the way, its not a difficult trail you can ride it blind easily, there are a few optional features here and there. Have Fun!

[video]https://streamable.com/we4wk[/video]

 

[Cooter K.]

IMO take Sawtooth up as far as you can and then take the fire road. It's pretty mellow grade and pretty fun.

 

[indiamacbean]

If you want to skip sawtooth and get closer to Big Chief, simply drive up and park at the bottom of big chief on the 06 fire road and climb up the fireroad. This will save you time and some fireroad climbing. but you lose sawtooth. I would recommend not climbing up Big Chief. If you really want to shuttle it is possible to shuttle either lower or upper big chief but at least the three times I've ridden there I didn't see anyone doing it.

also be advised that upper big chief is significantly more challenging. I elected to skip it the second and third time I did it as I decided I would rather do two laps on lower rather than upper and lower.

 

[hurtssogood]

Start somewhere on the North Shore, head up and over Watson, ride upper Big Chief, ride the lower part if you like but it's not nearly as fun, back up 06 and pick your descent back down to where you started.

 

[n3sta]

Lower is a very pedally descent, and can be done as either an out and back or a loop/shuttle with 06 Road.

Upper is a badass descent and one of my favorites, but I don't think it would be safe pedaling up. Those heading down can get pretty dang fast and spend a fair amount of time in the air. But you can take 06 Road to get to the top.

 

[etuck]

I don't think I've ridden upper. How long a climb is it on the fireroad from Sawtooth parking lot?

I'm hoping to get out there for tomorrow but don't want to climb too much cause Downieville coming!

 

[n3sta]

It's like 8 or 10 miles? Steeper towards the top but if you're strong enough to race Downieville then this is a cakewalk. Bring water because there's a lot of sun exposure on the road and the only place to refill that I can think of at this point in the season is Watson Lake (assuming you have a filter).

 

[B1KER]

Lake Tahoe, California MTB Tours, Mountain Bike Guides, & Shuttles, TMG offer a shuttle. They picked us up at the Sawtooth trailhead. On the way back we jumped off of Sawtooth and took a more fun route back to the truck. You can dl the gpx from there or look at the route and compare it to Trailforks. My garmin shut off for a little on Big Chief but you can get the info you need from that run.

The trails are called Powerline Moto to Happy Face on Trailforks. it's a small mellow climb then pretty much all downhill to the parking lot but way more fun then Sawtooth. However after riding Big Chief it will seem pretty boring. LOL

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3865589433

 

[etuck]

Rad, thanks all!

 

[Brah]

Start somewhere on the North Shore, head up and over Watson, ride upper Big Chief, ride the lower part if you like but it's not nearly as fun, back up 06 and pick your descent back down to where you started.

That's how I did it last time.

Bunker Dr > Ocelot > Whoop de do > Lakeridge > Rim Trail

Then you have choice of OTB or Big Chief, or both. We did OTB and Upper BC, before heading down via Rim Trail > Wallternate > Western States

 

[Schril]

If you have time, park at the beginning of Sawtooth, ride out to Big Chief (out and back) and then finish the loop off of Sawtooth. There are many other options to add off of Sawtooth.

 

[zorg]

Climb from bottom of big Chief is almost 8 miles

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[Schril]

Climb from bottom of big Chief is almost 8 miles

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Its a good pedal until the last section up to Watson. If they really felt that the advanced features were needed, there should be a way to pedal around them going uphill. They did that on the lower section, almost like there was a different crew? Still was a good even if there area a handful of section of hikeabike.

 

[zorg]

Its a good pedal until the last section up to Watson. If they really felt that the advanced features were needed, there should be a way to pedal around them going uphill. They did that on the lower section, almost like there was a different crew? Still was a good even if there area a handful of section of hikeabike.

Meant via the 06 which is a really climb

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[mbmtb]

Its a good pedal until the last section up to Watson. If they really felt that the advanced features were needed, there should be a way to pedal around them going uphill. They did that on the lower section, almost like there was a different crew? Still was a good even if there area a handful of section of hikeabike.

There is a way to pedal around them. The 06 road.

This is a good thing. The trail is clearly meant to be used by downhill mountain bikers, minimizes conflicts. You can hike it, you can ride it uphill. But that's unwise and likely to be unwelcome.

I don't remember if there's a 'filter feature' at the bottom to make this obvious. Would be good if there were.

 

[Felt Ryder]

Just rode it today. It’s a perfect mix of rock, chunk, some flow, several 1-1.5’ drops, climbing and downhill. It only gets better when you learn where the jumps and features exist. My first run blind was decent. I felt that this trail had features that are more aligned with a black rating. However there are ride around options if you don’t want some features.

There is a lot of bombing down some chunky rock if that what you like. Go super early because 85 gets a bit hot in august. There’s a mix of sun and shade depending on where you are at, there is a lot of sun exposure. Not a lot of cliff exposure either which is nice too.

It’s not for the weekend warrior. The climb on Sawtooth Road #6 is about 5 miles if you park at the beginning of the fire road and had 8-900 gain between sawtooth area and Big Chief lower. The trail has some climbs to start and there is some up and down but mostly down grades.

I’m going to crank out a video of my run soon.