Some friends and I are looking to ride from Auburn to Truckee in early June as a final training ride for the Death Ride. The route looks pretty straightforward from Auburn to Emigrant Gap, as it is from Cisco Grove to Truckee, then question is, how do you bridge between Emigrant Gap and Cisco Grove without adding 30 miles and going the long way around Black Mountain?

Are there forrest service roads around there that can get you from Old Highway 20 over to Crystal Lake Rd whch looks like you can take to Rainbow?

If anyone has done this ride and can reply with the details, or even better if has a .gpx file you can attach, it would be greatly appreciated!

Mike

try this website. http://www.routeslip.com/discover/USA/CA/

I have tried for an hour this morning to get any of the longer rides to come up in routeslip.com, and they just hang regardless of the browser I use. It looks like routeslip was bought by MapMyRide, and the routes on routeslip don't appear to have made it over to MapMyRide yet...

Can you ride the shoulder? Is it marked as prohibited to bicycles?

Cal Veh. Code
Freeways and Expressways: Use Restrictions
21960. (a) The Department of Transportation and local authorities, by order, ordinance, or resolution, with respect to freeways, expressways, or designated portions thereof under their respective jurisdictions, to which vehicle access is completely or partially controlled, may prohibit or restrict the use of the freeways, expressways, or any portion thereof by pedestrians, bicycles or other nonmotorized traffic or by any person operating a motor-driven cycle, motorized bicycle, or motorized scooter. A prohibition or restriction pertaining to bicycles, motor-driven cycles, or motorized scooters shall be deemed to include motorized bicycles; and no person may operate a motorized bicycle wherever that prohibition or restriction is in force. Notwithstanding any provisions of any order, ordinance, or resolution to the contrary, the driver or passengers of a disabled vehicle stopped on a freeway or expressway may walk to the nearest exit, in either direction, on that side of the freeway or expressway upon which the vehicle is disabled, from which telephone or motor vehicle repair services are available.

(b) The prohibitory regulation authorized by subdivision (a) shall be effective when appropriate signs giving notice thereof are erected upon any freeway or expressway and the approaches thereto. If any portion of a county freeway or expressway is contained within the limits of a city within the county, the county may erect signs on that portion as required under this subdivision if the ordinance has been approved by the city pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 1730 of the Streets and Highways Code.

This is a suggestion based on google maps and I haven't tried it, so please be warned. From Emigrant Gap you can take route 20 until you hit I-80 at junction 161. You could then merge onto I-80 *west* back to junction 160 and exit on Crystal Lake Road. This is just one junction, the interstate looks slightly downhill and if you ride the shoulder you will not have to cross paths with any traffic. You are probably only going to be on I-80 for a couple of minutes this way. If there are no other cycling routes available, and I don't see any, then this might be legal. The only way to tell for sure is whether there is a "bicycles prohibited" sign on the on-ramp at junction 161. It then looks like Crystal Lake Road will go through to junction 166 but these look like unpaved forest roads to me for quite a few miles.

There is a similar situation in the Bay Area getting from Calaveras Road onto Vallecitos Road, and the only way is to ride I-680 north again for one junction, and that appears to be legal.