The Races Will Go On: No Date Changes in Store for the 2023 Downieville Classic or Lost and Found Gravel

It may still look like winter in the High Sierra, but the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship has summer on the mind and is counting down the days until the Downieville Classic and the Lost and Found Gravel Festival, presented by Cervélo, one of the nonprofit’s biggest fundraisers of the year. Lost and Found will still take place on June 3 in Portola, despite the exceptionally snowy winter and late arrival of spring in the Lost Sierra…

The Lost and Found race permit covers 600 miles of dirt and pavement roads, so there are plenty of alternative route options and the course can quickly be re-routed into the vast lower valleys around Portola if necessary, depending on how the melt-off progresses.

If that happens, each course distance (35, 60 and 100 miles) and total elevation gain will stay nearly the same, and will continue to showcase the beauty of the Lost Sierra backcountry in a rugged adventure befitting of the High Sierra. Wildflowers are going to be poppin’, live music is going to be jammin’ and the festival vibes will be running strong all weekend long so come on up—there are still openings in all categories and plenty of volunteer positions available.

The 25th Anniversary of the legendary Downieville Classic Festival & All Mountain World Championships, presented by Santa Cruz Bicycles, will also remain as scheduled on the weekend of July 13-16. The course is shaping up to look like it did in 2011, when the Stewardship rallied volunteers to dig out sections of trail at the Sierra Crest, where snow lingered well into the summer after another record winter. We will break out the shovels and snowblowers again this year to make sure everyone who signs up will get to line up at this iconic race!

The Classic is returning after a three-year hiatus and is guaranteed to be a weekend full of racing, revelry, live music and all-around good times in the mountains. You can still nab spots in a few of the All-Mountain categories, or sign-up to volunteer. The Downieville Classic is another key fundraiser for SBTS, and helps to support the work done by the SBTS trail crews to maintain the Downieville Trail Network year after year.