We followed the advice from other reviews and road west to east. Recommend parking in Westwood close to Shell station (intersection of 38 and A21) if you are staying in Susanville (recommend - nice small Museum, beautiful murals around town, eat at The White House and Pioneer Lodge/Lassen Ale Works). You can then catch the Lassen Rural bus in the early evening to retrieve your vehicle. (Alternatively, you can take bus to Shell station - they have room for 2 bikes on front of bus and possibly more inside if they don't pick up wheelchair)The path officially starts about 3 miles from this intersection. We drove into Westwood to see Paul Bunyan. The surface is mostly fairly fine gravel and in some places sand but not deep, all very nice surface. The trees are beautiful, and landscape changes along the ways. The most spectacular portion is for the last 7 or so miles, riding right along the Susan river; two short tunnels and several tressels. There is one segment, crossing under the road where we did walk since pretty steep and rocky. We enjoyed the whole trail. There is a great place to lunch about halfway at Gaumez with picnic benches and porta-potty.We road the the 3rd week of October and the towards the end of changing of seasonal leaves. Side note - while in Susanville consider also riding at Ranch Park, a beautiful 27 acre park. Miles of unpaved trails, both fairly flat and mountain biking. We did a loop of Paul Bunyan to Canyon trail, about 6 miles.
The trail is gravel and it is best to bike with a mountain bike. For 20 miles it stays on a 3% grade, which gets tiring after a while. The last 10 miles are a 3% grade downhill, which is much easier. There is a bus which starts at Susanville and goes to the town of Chester, where the trail ends. You can take your bike and start at Chester, go up 10 grueling miles and then go down 20 downhill miles. Hard for children, great exercise, and it will probably take you 6 hours to do the whole thing.
One of the first rails to trails programs in the entire country, and still one of the best. Beautiful scenery along the Susan River Canyon, very light usage, and the 3% grade make this a trail that anyone can enjoy!
best way to relax, very quite and clean trail , It has a susan river running parallel to it, we had a picnic lunch at Hobo Camp which was about 1 mile from the old station ,, we had a great time walking and bicycling there.
Beautiful trail great scenery have been there in the summer/ spring and just again last week there was still lots of snow and parts if the river were frozen over, have even seen children fishing from the rivers banks.
Spend a half hour or an entire day. There's something for everyone along the Bizz. Biking, hiking, fishing, swimming, bird watching, even bear scat. It's all there and it's free. Fresh air, sunshine, no crowds (so don't go and ruin it for the rest of us). Just kidding...sort of.
Awesome rails-to-trails. Smell the pines as you experience two cool tunnels, several bridges, the scenic Susan River, and beautiful mountains. We rode the approx 22 mile stretch from Westwood to Susanville, ending near the old train station. Except for one short, steep downhill and climb (walk it if you must), this is a great trail for families. Skinny tire bikes not recommended - gravel, dirt and some rocks much better suited for mountain bike tires and hybrids.
Bizz Johnson was an elected official for Susanville who used his power and the "Rails to Trails" movement to turn this abandoned stretch of railroad (between Susanville and Westwood) into a stellar recreational trail.The trail follows a small river for most of the way. Heading northwest towards Westwood, the elevation increases gradually and takes you into more densely forested areas, wildflowers, and amazing igneous (volcanic) rock formations.
We were there to help with an annual running event and off and on this trail for a couple of days. It goes through some great scenery and is an easy hike. There is a shuttle available at the old Railroad Depot to take hikers and cyclists to the various trail heads.
Fun or the whole family, my boys loved it. Exploring all sorts of plantlife, bugs, water holes, really fun, especially if you make it a picnic kind of day :-)