Main Artery/Redding, CA in Freehub Magazine

Out now in issue 17.2 of Freehub Magazine (Bellingham, WA) is my article about the rising mountain biking scene in Redding, CA.

Every year, Freehub puts out their annual community issue, which I’ve known about for years. Going back to late 2024/early 2025/following-up, I pitched Redding to Freehub’s editor, Ian.

More back story includes meeting Danny from Redding’s tourism office at a Visit CA event in L.A in October 2024. That was before I sent the pitch to Ian. I had known about Redding as a Northern CA adventure-kind-of-town. Water, rivers, mountains, Shasta and Lassen nor too far away and so I chatted with Danny about some of that and asked about trails, which I knew about from friends who had been there. I knew some things about the riding scene, and he filled me in with what they’ve been up to over the past couple of years.

The pitch was solidified in my brain. This would be perfect for Freehub’s community issue, I thought.

Back to Ian. Pitch sent. Response was, Yes. Green light. Go.

June of 2025 found me in Redding, where I met up with the dynamic couple that leads the Redding Trail Alliance: Nate and Camille. Upon arrival, they showed me all they have to offer in Redding, well not all because I was not able to ride every mile in the time that I was there, starting in nearby Weaverville with the newly cut downhill gem called Sweepstakes.

You can read all about it in the article. Note: The ride ends at Trinity County Brewing Company, pretty much by design.

We rode local trail systems accessible from Redding town, and they hooked me up with John from the RTA board to ride at Swasey, which has old-school xc riding mixed with new school flow and downhill that were built into the existing trail system.

Yeah, that quote pretty much sums up the vibe while I was there. The article highlights these trails, along with local races, the Bigfoot Adventure Challenge (free) and the general positivity coming out of Redding. You can easily plan for a long weekend of riding in and around Redding. Add in what’s going on up in Shasta, and you have another day or two of riding.

You can get issue 17.2 of Freehub here: https://freehub.com/newsroom/issue-172

You can also find it at most Barnes & Noble stores, some bike shops, etc.

Cheers, y’all!