Ghosts of the Pioneers
In Shasta County, mentioning the Lemurian is like giving the secret handshake. Outsiders won't know what the hell you're talking about; locals will give you a long, interpretative look, at once impressed and piteous -- a connection between fellow travelers. Either you're in the know, or you're not.
Locally, this grueling cross-country mountain biking race is known. It is a tribal feast, a town meeting, a mountain man rendezvous, pulling hardcore riders from their remote forest training camps and bringing them together for an epic annual gathering.
It's not surprising that an event as passionate as the Lemurian is set against the rough, verdant hills of the Mt. Shasta area. Unlike the urbanized Bay Area, Shasta still retains some of its rural innocence. Sparsely populated, ghosts of its hardscrabble past hang in the persistent mists and heavy silence of the mountains. Rugged individualism and personal freedom provide a wellspring for local color and grit. It's a frontier throwback where eccentricity is still respected as a personal right.
Consider yourself now in the know. This year's equivalent of a mountain bike bare-knuckle brawl happens Saturday on the steep mountain slopes and swampy creekbeds surrounding Whiskeytown Lake National Recreation Area. Racers can pick their pain from among three different courses: 8 miles, 20 miles, or the 26-mile Long Course. Insider tip: if you're going to battle the steep climbs, treacherous stream crossings, and wicked XXX downhill chutes of the Lemurian, you might as well get the whole experience and go with the venerable Long Course. Here's another tip: bring your A game, you're gonna need it.
The great race used to start on the main drag of the historic mining town of French Gulch until a forest fire savaged the town and its surrounding trails in the summer of 2004. This is the race's second year starting from Whiskeytown Lake.
Lemurian organizers, who first grubstaked the Lemurian Shasta Classic Mountain Bike Race in 1987, take pride in offering challenging courses that push riders to their physical and technical limits. This year, you can add mechanical limits to that characterization, because with the heavy winter rains, last year's stream crossings are going to be this year's New Orleans West.
In addition to its punishing courses, the Lemurian is also famous for it's huge post-race schwag raffle. If you go, don't miss it. We're not just talking water bottles and tubes, we're talking Chris King headsets, jerseys, floor pumps, good stuff.
SFist has done a lot of riding and racing around the state of California, and it is our judgment that, pound for pound, the Shasta-Redding-Chico area is the current nexus of California mountain biking. Marin may be the birthplace; Tahoe and Big Bear might have the mountains and the altitude, SoCal might have the year-round weather, but the pioneer spirit of hardcore mountain biking burns fiercest here. This is California's Moab.
It doesn't get a lot of attention or hype in the few media outlets that discuss cross-country mountain biking, but the Shasta area has miles of unbelievable trails and some of the fastest, toughest, and most skilled riders in the state. These are true believers like the East Coast and Rockies cyclists that turn out in such huge numbers for 24-hour events in Moab and Big Bear, WV. Think committed. Think Rocky I committed, think Clubber Lang committed, think living in a singlewide out in the woods, trucking in your water, no central heating, got to shovel the snow off the front steps so you can get your bike out the door for some hill repeats on a frosty February morning committed.
And you know what, they're all going to be there on Saturday, because the Lemurian means something to people in Shasta Country. It is a badge of honor that signifies pain, pride, and persistence, and it is a nod to Old School toughness. This ain't no rolling Sea Otter course, this is some strange dreams inside the gold mine, baby.
You up for it?