Downieville

At the beginning of the semester, students go around the campus recruiting volunteers for the CAVE program. One in particular caught my attention because he said the word "Tahoe" in his spiel. Sounded like a fun way to get the word "volunteer" on my resume to me.

So I worked my way through the campus bureaucracy and eventually found myself on the road to a town called Downieville to work on some of their mountain bike trails.

Downieville is one of the cutest little towns I've ever seen. The buildings all look like something out of the 1800s, only they are cared for with love by the residents and are in great shape. It was a mountain biker's heaven.

Our host was a good-looking guy named Erik who was also in charge of the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship. He let us crash in their awesome cabin/bachelor pad and then led us out to the trail sites and reminded us what a good day's work with our hands felt like. It was a nice change from studying!

If you're up in Downieville to play, check out Yuba Expeditions. They are nice, cool guys who will take you and your bike to the top of some of these nifty trails in their van, so all you have to do is ride down. Sounds like good times to me. If you're keen on volunteering, you can skip the Chico State red tape and go directly through the trail stewardship. They'll set you up with a job, place to camp, food, and of course beer. Happy trails!