Northern California Just Got Its Best New Mountain Bike Trail in Years
After nearly a decade of work, the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship (SBTS) has unveiled the final piece of its Mt. Hough trail network: the Tollgate Trail, a 10-mile route that drops more than 3,500 vertical feet from summit to valley floor. The last section, Upper Tollgate, was completed in August, linking Middle and Lower Tollgate into one continuous shuttle run — the third full descent on the mountain.
Unlike many of Mt. Hough’s multi-use trails, Tollgate is designed with mountain bikers in mind. Riders will find playful features like rock rolls and natural contour lines, though the trail remains accessible at an intermediate difficulty level. It sits between the fast, flowy Mt. Hough Trail and the more technical Indian Falls Ridge, offering a mix of speed, rock sections, and rolling terrain.
Funding for Upper Tollgate came from Shimano’s Trail Born Fund, which awarded SBTS $75,000. Additional improvements, including new rock lines and a road-to-trail conversion with berms and rollers, are still underway.
To access the trails, riders can book a shuttle with Yuba Expeditions, which relocated to Quincy in 2022. Shuttle demand has surged this year, with bookings already surpassing 2,100 as of August — a sharp rise from 1,300 during the same period in 2024. Standard drops cost $40, with the option to double up for $80, though most riders find two runs in a day plenty. Private full-day shuttles are also available.
SBTS has now built nearly 80 miles of singletrack on Mt. Hough since 2015, transforming the mountain into a world-class riding destination. With Tollgate’s completion, riders can now experience one of Northern California’s premier shuttle runs — just in time for fall riding season.
