There's 65 Miles of Trails in Susanville, CA!

Three nights in Susanville, CA allowed us to do a quick exploration of the area. By the time we left we learned there are 65 miles of trails right from town! We only managed to hike and bike a small fraction of that on this stay, there is definitely more to explore next time around.

First off, a 7.5 mile hike at Susanville Ranch Park. This park has 27 miles of single track trails used by hikers, bikers and horses. Meadows, creeks, mountains, forests of pine and oak, vistas...this park has it all!

Nice views from the North section of Susanville Ranch Park.

Meadows and creeks are features of the South section of the park.
Hans stretches to pick apples that turned out to be very hard and tart.

On our second day in the area we rode the East portion of the Bizz Johnson Trail. We rode the West half of this Rails to Trails trail back in June when we stayed near Lake Almanor (you can read the post here). This time we were even able to ride directly from our RV park for a 20 mile round trip ride.

From Susanville RV Park you can access a paved river trail right behind the Safeway, just two blocks from the RV park. Take the river trail West, then a few blocks of surface streets to the old railroad depot and the start of the Bizz Johnson Trail. Google Maps will show you the way...

East terminus of the Bizz Johnson Trail in Susanville.

We really enjoyed the seven miles we rode of the Bizz Johnson Trail this time around. The Susanville segment has two tunnels, several bridges, lave rock walled canyon and the very pretty Susan River...PLUS we happened to hit the very beginning of fall color change...in a couple of weeks the whole river canyon should be ablaze with vibrant color.

Heading in to the first tunnel.

Hans got this cool shot of me in the tunnel!

Fantastic lava walls towered over us in places.

The Susan River seemed to have about the same amount of water as it did in June.

There is a small museum at the old depot building near the Susanville trailhead. We saw photos of the river flowing high with kayakers and happy fishermen, though looking at the river bed now it seems the river hasn't flowed that high in a very long time. I sure hope they have a wet and snowy winter this year. In fact, the Bizz Johnson Trail is open for cross country skiing in the winter!

Another highlight of our stay in Susanville was reconnecting with Amy and Rod of Go Pet Friendly fame. We hadn't seen these two, and their dogs Buster and Ty, since May 2013 so it was good to catch up over dinner one evening. We look forward to reconnecting in February in Austin, TX.

Our last evening we went into town for a short walk and dinner. In just a few short blocks we saw at least a dozen deer! We got such a kick out of this, but I bet the locals don't love it so much!

There are 5 deer in this photo...Brazen aren't they?!??!!

Downtown Susanville is pretty spread out and has seemed very calm and quiet every time we've driven through. There are quite a few murals on buildings, though we didn't walk around to view them all. Dinner at Lassen Ale Works was delicious!

Susanville RV Park is the only full hookup RV park in town and was a decent place to stay. It's got concrete pads and a little bit of grass between sites and a few trees. It's set far enough off the highway to be nice and quiet, with a clean laundry room and has good 4G Verizon signal.

Site 63.

We'll spend the next couple of nights in Reno taking care of some business, then we're off into the Eastern Sierra along highway 395.