Congratulations to Chris Kuhn, winner of this year’s 5 Bucks a Foot Lakes Basin fundraiser!

Chis has been donating to our 5 Bucks a Foot campaigns since 2018 and finally score the grand prize, which includes five nights of lodging at cabins in the Basin, as well as a host of gift certificates to local businesses. Chris has been coming to Downieville and the Lakes Basin for over a decade, and has explored the area using just about every form of recreation: mountain biking, hiking, fishing, 4x4ing, camping and his daughter has ridden horses on the Basin trails. It’s a special place that pulls him back year after year.

“The combination of the number of trails and the remoteness, the scenery, the beauty of the Sierra Nevada without the overcrowdedness of other portion of the Sierra and some of the little towns and the lakes—we’ve always stopped by Pack Saddle or one of the Gold Lakes, hung out and either fished or swam to cool off after a ride,” he says.

2026 Events Calendar is Live!

2026 is here and it’s time to get planning! Schedule Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship into your calendar this year by joining us at one of our Epic trailbuilding campout weekends, registering for one of three races or volunteering during a festival weekend. Check out our events for a full year of Dirt Magic in the Lost Sierra! Calendar it!

SBTS Trail Crew Finishes the New Acorn Grotto Trail on Mount Hough

The Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship Pro Trail Crew reached a big milestone last week, punching through the new 3.6-mile Acorn Grotto trail on Mt. Hough to connect with the 25N14 doubletrack Quarry Road, about halfway up MT. Hough (See Trail #10 on the map), after several years of work. The crew is now working to finish Trail #8—when that’s opened, it will establish a new top-to-bottom singletrack route from Indian Falls Ridge at the 7,200-foot summit of Mount Hough and a new Yuba Expeditions shuttle option to boot: 17 miles from summit to the swim hole!
You can learn more here.

Watch Our Beautiful Short Film “A Trail for Everyone”

We’re thrilled to launch a short film about Connected Communities, the proposed “Lost Sierra Route” and the positive impact of linking 15 California mountain communities through trails.