Ride Report: Ash Canyon Trails – Carson City, Nevada

So close to town, but terrain like this makes it feel very remote.

It happens to the best of us.  Sometimes we all run low on t.p. and paper towels.  Laundry detergent, dish soap, and all that stuff.  When you live in Mammoth, that means every once in a while, you make the pilgrimage to Carson City – to hit up Costco and Trader Joes to stock up on supplies and groceries.  Why not go for a bike ride, too?  I never thought much of trying to mountain bike near Carson, until this trip.  I started looking on the interwebs for some mtb opportunities nearby… not expecting much.

View back down to Carson City from the trail.

What a pleasant surprise!  I came across the Bike Carson website, which was chalk full of info on the plethora of local riding.  The site states, “Ash Canyon provides the best riding in Carson City.”  That’s all I needed to hear.  I downloaded the map to my phone, and got the directions to the trailhead by using the Singletracks App on my phone.  Super simps! The trailhead is only about 10 minutes from Costco, and you wind up driving through the quaint historic section of town.  Ash Canyon used to be a heavily used ATV area.  After a spark caused a big fire, they closed the area to ATV’s.  Other than a couple access roads, the area is pretty much limited to the purpose built singletrack mountain biking/hiking trails.  It’s a stacked loop system, which rides well both ways,  with about 10 miles of stellar trails.  Smooth, buff, high-speed cross country riding.

Ash Canyon Trails Map

There are no trail signs or maps, so print this map or download it to your phone – it was the only one I could find online.  It’s no big deal if you get mixed up.  Just stay on singletrack, and you’ll have a blast. The route I did, which I highly recommend, went like this:  Climb up Jack Rabbit, merge right on Vicee and keep climbing.  Vicee ends at Seven Steps, where you go left.  You then connect with Deer Run and go right, to continue climbing up Baldy Green.  Continue climbing up 4 Day and then wrap around to the right on Evidence Trail.  Finally some descending!  Fly down Evidence until it connects with a portion of Baldy Green you haven’t ridden yet.  You can go left here and ride some more of Baldy as an out and back, or just go right and hook back up with 4 Day.  Once on 4 Day, you’ll be riding this portion for the second time.  This time, when you get to the top – go left and connect with the fire road for a short climb and start descending the Creek Trail to your left.  At the bottom of the Creek Trail, go left and hop on the connector.  After a short climb, you connect with Deer Run.  As you descend Deer Run, stay to the right to connect with Postal Route which turns into Jack Rabbit for your final descent back to the car.

Couldn’t get enough of this singletrack.

A nice log feature as an alternate route.

All the trails were wonderful, but the Creek Trail descent was definitely a highlight.  Super fast and flowy, reminded me a lot of Lower Rock Creek near Mammoth, but shorter.  I wish it was longer.  The descent down Postal Route to Jack Rabbit was also a blast. I can’t believe I never hit this trail system before!!  I can’t wait to explore more of the local trails and do this ride in the opposite direction.