Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship
Trail Projects
Projects We’ve Done and Projects We Need Help With
What We've Accomplished Since 2003
227
Miles of New Trail Built
3,082
Miles of Trail Maintained to Specification
3
Pro Trail Crews in 2026
140,738
Trail Volunteer Hours
Trails We’ve Built
Mount Hough
Between 2015 and 2025, SBTS built more than 70 miles of multi-use singletrack on Mt. Hough in partnership with Plumas National Forest and Plumas County, transforming the Quincy landmark into a recreation destination for all trail users.
Mills Peak
The Mills Peak trail represents an 11-year labor of love, culminating in a 9-mile non-motorized singletrack trail that flows down 3,000 feet through moss-coated pines. Mills Peak was a community effort that came to life through partnerships with the Beckwourth Ranger District of the Plumas National Forest, the Eastern Plumas Recreation District, Ibis Cycles and many, many volunteers.
Downieville
SBTS’ longest-standing relationship is with the Downieville Trail Network, where founder Greg Williams first started maintaining existing trails in the mid-1990s to support his race, the Downieville Classic. Today, our Pro Trail Crew maintains roughly 120 miles of the system trails annually in partnership with the Tahoe National Forest, and we’ve built multiple new trails including the gold-star Gold Valley Rim trail, the Sunrise trail and new Pauley Creek and Big Boulder connectors to add more singletrack into the network.
Lakes Basin
Our trail crews have been working in this magical corner of the Lost Sierra since 2005, where complicated rock work is the hallmark of the zone’s 72 miles of trail. Over the years, we’ve built rock turnpikes and towering rock staircases throughout the Basin, learning stone masonry and grip-and-hoist rock-hauling methods along the way. In partnership with the Beckwourth Ranger District of the Plumas National Forest, we have dedicated many hundreds of hours to developing new trails and rehabbing and realigned existing trails in order to keep this crown-jewel a top recreation destination in the state.
“Mount Hough has some of the most popular and accessible trails for mountain biking in the Lost Sierra, and the presence of these trails — built by Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship in partnership with Plumas National Forest — has had a big impact on the economy, bringing tourist dollars to the region.”
— SF Gate
Trails We’re Working On
And Need Help
Beckwourth Peak
The highly anticipated Beckwourth Peak Project has been in the works since 2009, and is nearing completion. The trail crew checked off another half-mile of the Beckwourth Peak project in 2025, leaving less than a mile to go to complete the 14-mile lollipop loop from Portola City Park. The volcanic formation has proven to be very challenging to construct trails on—it appears that the remaining section to construct has minimal bedrock to bench through. There are also several scree fields to build through that contain large rock that will have to be split and stacked to construct the tread, and two ravine crossings to build through, which will also require dry stack retaining walls with natural stone on site. We expect to finish this project in 2026. Once finished, the non-motorized trail will wrap around the base of Beckwourth Peak at 6,000 feet, completing a project we started back in 2009 in partnership with the Beckwourth Ranger District of the Plumas National Forest. Its cost around $600,000 has so far been covered through a combination of government grants and SBTS fundraisers.
Boca Reservoir & Verdi Ridge
Alongside contractor Johnson Trails, SBTS is in the midst of a project that will add 50 miles of multi-use singletrack near Truckee. The East Zone Connectivity Project features 10 miles of new trail on Verdi Ridge, constructed since 2023, with Boca and Stampede Reservoirs on one side and the Truckee River Canyon on the other, with about 3.5 miles left to build next year. Then the next phase begins—securing more funding to complete the remaining 25 miles of trail in the East Zone, to eventually link into Peavine in Verdi, Nevada.
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