Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship Set to Bring the Groundbreaking Gravel Enduro Race Back to Mount Hough
QUINCY, CA—Grinduro is returning to Quincy, California, 10 years after Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship (SBTS) hosted the very first Grinduro race on Mount Hough, helping to bring to life a gravel-enduro concept that spawned a new racing format, a new style of ultra-capable, drop-bar bikes and a whole lot of fun as the Grinduro series expanded nationally, then internationally.
SBTS and Grinduro’s parent company, Northern Consultancy, have signed an agreement to bring the race to the Sierra-Plumas County Fairgrounds in Quincy, September 11 to 14, 2025, for its California stop. The race, which previously took place in Quincy between 2015 and 2019, will be organized by Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship in partnership with Breakaway Promotions, which also helps put on SBTS’ other races, Lost & Found Gravel Festival and the Downieville Classic. Grinduro will be part of SBTS’ new festival Mountains to Meadows, which launches this September 19-22 in Quincy. Folks who purchase a Dirt Magic pass to attend Mountains to Meadows this year and help our Pro Trail Crew dig will be given a guaranteed entry into next year’s Grinduro race, and will also have the chance to preview next year’s courses.
Grinduro’s gravel enduro race, in which finishing times are based on a handful of timed uphill and downhill pavement and off-road segments, will kick off a full weekend of racing, which will continue the following day with a separate Mountains to Meadows MTB enduro with an e-enduro category. Racing will take place on Mount Hough, where in 2015, Grinduro helped debut the eponymous Mount Hough Trail, a 12-mile descent that drops 4,000 feet as it curves down from the mountain’s 7,200-foot summit in flowy, fast singletrack.
Since then, the mileage on Hough has multiplied as the SBTS Trail Crew has continued building out the trail network. Crews are currently working on Phase 2 of the Hough Development project, which will add 38 miles of trails by next year, 10 of which are currently under construction this summer and fall. When it’s completed, there will be two new top-to-bottom routes on Hough and more than 70 miles of trail in the network.
“Bringing back Grinduro to Quincy in its 10th year feels like the perfect pairing at the perfect time”
– Greg Williams, Executive Director of Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship
“Grinduro’s emphasis on celebrating cycling, as much as putting on a race, has always matched that of Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship’s own event ethos, and we can’t wait to bring back the whole party: camping, live music, and good times with good people all around,” Williams said. “The five years we hosted Grinduro in Quincy were integral in our work to develop more trails on Mount Hough, and having the opportunity to once again share the beauty of this part of the Lost Sierra with the Grinduro community is really special.”
Paul Errington, founder of Northern Consultancy, which acquired Grinduro from Giro in 2023, recalls fondly how racing Grinduro in Quincy in 2016 set him on a path to eventually owning the groundbreaking event series.
“I had read about this new event format and after a few years of traveling from the UK to the midwest gravel events and suffering, I wanted a change of pace, maybe even a few beers along the way. The whole weekend was a shift in my outlook of events. Grinduro showed a way that racing and a casual weekend’s riding could seamlessly blend and I was hooked. A year later, we hosted the first Grinduro Scotland,” Errington said. “Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Perfect Party-To-Race ratio in 2025 is a testament to just how good its foundations were. Those foundations were built in Quincy with SBTS and it seems fitting that for the anniversary we return to Mount Hough, embrace the legacy made there and show the world again Grinduro at its best.”
Read more about Grinduro at grinduro.com/california, and follow @sierratrails and @grinduro on social media for updates on registration details as they become available.